wanderer33 said:
Mythbusters: If you read the charges against Galileo, you will probably agree that he was 'murdered', not for his 'scientific utterances', but for his criticism of church scriptures and doctrines. This is one of the great myths of science. The chief inquisitor, Cardinal Bellarmine, had no problem with his 'science' or rather neo-Platonism.
According to wikipedia,
Cardinal Bellarmine forbade Galileo in 1616 to defend the Copernican theory of heliocentrism on the Pope's orders. Bellarmine himself is said to have been ambiguous about heliocentrism and noted that more research was needed to prove or disprove it. He died in 1621.
Galileo faced another inquisition in 1633 where he was condemned to house arrest for allegedly continuing to defend heliocentrism. However according to wikipedia's
Galileo affair , there is an alternative theory.
[quote author=wikipedia]
According to a controversial alternative theory, proposed by Pietro Redondi in 1983,[27] the main reason for Galileo's condemnation in 1633 was his attack on the Aristotelian doctrine of matter rather than his defence of Copernicanism. An anonymous document discovered by Redondi in the Vatican archives had argued that the atomism espoused by Galileo in his previous work, The Assayer, of 1623 was incompatible with the doctrine of transubstantiation of the Eucharist.[28] At the time, investigation of this complaint was apparently trusted to a Father Giovanni di Guevara, who was well-disposed towards Galileo, and who cleared The Assayer from any taint of unorthodoxy.[29] However, according to Redondi:
* The Jesuits, who had been deeply offended by The Assayer, regarded
the ideas about matter expressed by Galileo in The Dialogue as further evidence that his atomism was heretically inconsistent with the doctrine of the Eucharist, and strongly protested against it on these grounds.[30]
* Pope Urban VIII, who had been under attack by Spanish cardinals for being too tolerant of heretics, but who had also encouraged Galileo to publish The Dialogue, would have been severely compromised if his enemies among the Cardinal Inquisitors had found out that he had been guilty of supporting a publication containing Eucharistic heresies.
* Urban, after banning the book's sale, established a commission to examine The Dialogue,[23] ostensibly for the purpose of determining whether it would be possible to avoid referring the matter to the Inquisition at all, and as a special favor to Galileo's patron, the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Urban's real purpose, though, was to avoid having the accusations of Eucharistic heresy referred to the Inquisition, and he stacked the commission with friendly commissioners who could be relied upon not to mention them in their report.[citation needed] The commission reported against Galileo.[23]
Redondi's theory has been severely criticized, and almost universally rejected, by other Galileo scholars.[31] However, it has been supported recently by musician, science writer, author and novelist Michael White,[32] who gives a view, including Redondi's, and further evidence.
[/quote]
Based on this alternative theory, it seems that Galileo was penalized for his scientific views (ideas about matter) which were seen to be in opposition to Church doctrines.
So when you write
[quote author=wanderer33]
If you read the charges against Galileo, you will probably agree that he was 'murdered', not for his 'scientific utterances', but for his criticism of church scriptures and doctrines.
[/quote]
what sources are you referring to?
