Free Response Practice #1

Why are the trials and tribulations of Galileo often considered both predicative of the future of Western Civilization as well as a perfect encapsulation of the context of his own time?

Galileo was a man who was born and worked during the Scientific Revolution is Europe in the 16th century.  He made many advancements in astronomy, mathematics, and physics, but was also held back by the Catholic Church.  Galileo's trials and tribulations throughout his life demonstrate the condition of Europe at that time because it showed how big a role the Church had -- in not only religion but also science and society in general -- and showed how close-minded Europeans could be to new things, but he looked towards the future of Europe and the world because, despite the Church and the naysayers, his findings influenced many other scientists of the Revolution and much of his discoveries are still used today.

Throughout Galileo's life and his research, his findings were not widely accepted by the European community, Jesuit priests in particular.  Father Grassi had published a treatise of comets and their origins.  Galileo had later published The Assayer, which contradicted Grassi's views on comets.  Grassi, instead of considering the possibility that he was wrong, instead turned people against Galileo and his ideas.  Father Christoph Schiender's views on astronomy also differed from Galileo's; they both had different ideas about sunspots and where they came from.  Scheinder had also accused Galileo of plagiarizing from the former's book of mathematics.  Like Grassi, Scheinder was not willing to accept Galileo's different ideas, and even went so far as to accuse him of stealing ideas, which may or may not have been true.  These people represented the mindset of many people in Europe at that time, showing how hard it must have been for Galileo to teach others what he had learned.

In his time, Galileo also showed how powerful the Catholic Church was, and how much control it had over many things other than religion.  One of the most religiously controversial things that Galileo believed in was the Copernican idea of heliocentricism.  The Church had biblical reason to believe that the Earth was the center of the universe, whereas Galileo had scientific reason to believe it was not.  Even when Cardinal Bellarmino gave Galileo an order to stop preaching such blasphemy, he still continued with his current works and findings.  Galileo was one of the earliest people that the Vatican punished in the Roman Inquisition.  An order was given to stop printing Galileo's findings, and he was put under house arrest for the last years of his life.  This part of Galileo's life shows that it is not a particularly good idea to get on the Church's bad side.  Though now, in 2010, the Pope seems to be exclusively the head of the Church, Galileo shows that, at that present time in Europe, the Pope and his bishops were in charge of much more than religion.

Despite the Church's bad feelings towards Galileo, he was still able to be a spearhead in the Scientific Revolution.  He worked with Johannes Kepler to help develop his laws of planetary motion.  Galileo had done some work on the laws of motion that had previously been established, and this work helped Sir Isaac Newton develop his laws of motion that are still accepted today.  By improving the design of a compass and  a Dutch telescope, Galileo was able to give others the resources to further astronomical discoveries and the study of the stars.  Though he was persecuted by the Church which highly discouraged his work, he was still able to pass it on to later generations of scientists who got much use out of it.  Galileo, living and working at the beginning of the Scientific Revolution, was able to be one of the men who really began the whole thing, and his work was a foreshadowing of the entire era that was about to occur in Europe.  Even today, the four moons of Jupiter that he had discovered with his telescope are still widely accepted, and the Gal is a unit of measurement of acceleration named after him.  Galileo's findings pointed toward much of what would be found during the future of the Scientific Revolution, and even many discoveries today.

Galileo was limited by the mindset of both the Church and the general public at the time of the Scientific Revolution, but he was still able to pass his findings on to the future of European scientists.  He was persecuted up until his very last days, but he still lives on in his research.  Galileo sacrificed much for his science, and showed how hard it can be to go against the Church and even Europe, but he succeeded.  He succeeded in changing the world of science forever, and though there were troubles, Galileo was able to overcome them proudly, always looking to the future.