The Inquisition

Galileo's State of the Union

I watched the State of the Union last night in some disbelief. On some issues I think the President is right as rain and on others, I'm not so sure they are in my list of priorities.  That's the trouble with speeches that are written like little mini-book chapters; you can't tell what is a hot button issue and what isn't. What I found alarming (most alarming) was that a sizable chunk of these Congressional Nitwits checked their brains at the door when anything scientific was brought up. This denial of science - be it preventative health to global warming - is something I just can't grasp.

Take this morning's "This Date in History" that just hit my inbox. Today, some 380 years ago, about when Southold, NY (just up the road) was being stolen outright from the local native Americans, Galileo had his own State of the Union. He thought Copernicus was right and that the earth revolved around the sun. Aha! Enter Congress.

Galileo's belief in the Copernican System eventually got him into trouble with the Catholic Church. The Inquisition was a permanent institution in the Catholic Church charged with the eradication of heresies. A committee of consultants declared to the Inquisition that the Copernican proposition that the Sun is the center of the universe was a heresy. Because Galileo supported the Copernican system, he was warned by Cardinal Bellarmine, under order of Pope Paul V, that he should not discuss or defend Copernican theories. In 1624, Galileo was assured by Pope Urban VII that he could write about Copernican theory as long as he treated it as a mathematical proposition. However, with the printing of Galileo's book, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Galileo was called to Rome in 1633 to face the Inquisition again. Galileo was found guilty of heresy for his Dialogue, and was sent to his home near Florence where he was to be under house arrest for the remainder of his life.

Who says history doesn't repeat?