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Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei had an inquisitive mind, and the Roman Catholic Church held an Inquisition into such inquisitiveness because Galileo’s facts didn’t care about the Church’s feelings.
--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: June 22, 1633--
It began in 1610 when Galileo published a brief astronomical treatise titled Starry Messenger describing surprising observations made with a new telescope he’d constructed. There is a reason why four moons of Jupiter—Europa, Callisto, Ganymede, and Io—are referred to as “Galilean satellites.” He discovered them, and they were the first moons humans observed that were orbiting a planet other than our own.
Coupled with observations of the phases of Venus, Galileo promoted a heliocentric model that Polish astronomer Nicolas Copernicus formulated the previous century. Heliocentric refers to the sun being the center of the solar system, with the planets revolving around it. And it’s true. That’s the way it works. Really. Not the geocentric model, which is the idea that everything revolves around Earth. I’m spoon-feeding this because a 2012 survey found that 26% of Americans believe in the geocentric model, which calls for a hair-pulling “What the fucking fuck?” I mean, Catholic Church four centuries ago I understand, but Jesus Chocolate Christ on rubber crutches get your head out of Uranus.
Where was I?
So Galileo was spreading heretical ideas and such books were banned and blah blah shut the fuck up Galileo or we’ll Inquisition you and you won’t like that. But he did not shut up, and 23 years of religious fuckery against science followed. In 1632 Galileo published Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, once again promoting heliocentrism. It received great acclaim, but the Church was ever so pissed.
The book was banned by Pope Who Cares There Were a Lot of Them, and Galileo was put on trial for heresy. And although Galileo did have allies within the Catholic Church, the majority believed feelings > facts. The brilliant science guy was found guilty on June 22, 1633.
Galileo was sentenced to imprisonment, but it was commuted to house arrest, where he spent the remainder of his life, which was another nine years, although he did publish another book in 1638 covering much of his life’s work in physics.
The Church finally dropped the ban against books promoting heliocentrism more than a century later, in 1758.
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"Jesus Chocolate Christ on rubber crutches." (Well, that's a new one!). (Takes notes) 😆
...that's because the Catholic church stopped believing that the universe revolves around the Earth. Now they think the universe *should* revolve around the Catholic church.