By Vexen Crabtree 2006 Dec 03
Copernicus (1473-1543) enraged the Church by writing that the Earth might orbit the Sun. Christian theology holds that the great scheme of God revolves around Humankind; God's only son is a human, God created the Earth and all other animals for Mankind (Genesis 1:28 etc), and the destruction of creation centres around events occurring on planet Earth, to Humans. It was deeply challenging to Christians to face the facts that the Earth wasn't the centre of the universe. Also challenging were other basic facts of astrology; that the universe is massive, the Earth only one of many planets, and the likely fact that there is life elsewhere in the universe too. This page examines the history of the battle of astronomers to revive the ancient, sun-worshipping notion that the Sun was at the center, not the Earth.
Contents:
Two thousand five hundred years ago, from as long ago as 600 BCE, the Ionians discovered a new way of thinking. They devote their time to rational study backed up by physical experimentation and logical critical thinking based on known facts. Now we call their ways the scientific method. They believed that the Earth was a planet that orbitted the sun, and that the stars were very far away.
“Ionians forged ahead in many arenas of knowledge. "Eratosthenes accurately calculated the size of the Earth [...], Hipparchus anticipated that the stars come into being, slowly move during the course of centuries, and eventually perish, it was he who first catalogued the positions and magnitudes of the stars to detect such changes. Euclid produced a textbook on geometry from which humans learned for twenty-three centuries" [Sagan (1995)1]. Such astounding wisdom backed up by studious thinking and experimentation could have lauched the world into the modern era. But it didn't.Rising superstition, the taking of slaves and the growth of monotheistic religion led to the demise of scientific enterprise. The culture changed. The last great scientist of Alexandria, Hypatia, was born in 370CE at a time when the "growing Christian Church was consolidating its power and attempting to eradicate pagan influence and culture". Cyril, the Archbishop of Alexandria, considered Hypatia to be a symbol of the learning and science which he considered to be pagan. "In the year 415, on her way to work she was set upon by a fanatical mob of Cyril's parishioners. They dragged her from her chariot, tore off her clothes, and, armed with abalone shells, flayed her flesh from her bones. Her remains were burned, her works obliterated, her name forgotten. Cyril was made a saint"1.
The last remains of the Alexandrian Library were destroyed not long after Hypatia's death. Nearly all the books and documents were completely destroyed. The Western Dark Ages had begun, and all knowledge and science was forgotten in the West for over a thousand years.”
And quoting directly and respectfully from the astronomer Carl Sagan (RIP) on the history of the correct knowledge about the cosmos:
“The Platonists and their Christian successors held the peculiar notion that the Earth was tainted and somehow nasty, while the heavens were perfect and divine. The fundamental idea that the Earth is a planet, that we are citizens of the Universe, was rejected and forgotten. [...] Aristarchus was once of the last of the Ionian scientists. [He] was the first person to hold that the Sun rather than the Earth is at the center of the planetary system, that all the planets go around the Sun rather than the Earth. [...] From the size of the Earth's shadow on the Moon during a lunar eclipse, he deduced that the Sun had to be much larger than the Earth, as well as very far away. [...] It is the same idea we associate with the name of Copernicus, whom Galileo described as 'the restorer and confirmer', not the inventor, of the heliocentric hypothesis. For most of the 1,800 years between Aristarchus and Copernicus nobody knew the correct disposition of the planets, even though it had been laid out perfectly clearly around 280 B.C..”
Thankfully four scientists endeavoured to once again place human affairs in their proper place in the universe.
“The first pitched battle between theology and science, and in some ways the most notable, was the astronomical dispute as to whether the earth or the sun was the centre of what we now call the solar system. The orthodox theory was [that] the earth is at rest in the centre of the universe, while the sun, moon, planets, and system of fixed stars revolve around it [...]. According to the new theory, the Copernican, the earth, so far from being at rest, has a twofold motion: it rotates on its axis once a day, and it revolves round the sun once a year. [It] had in fact been invented by the Greeks, whose competence in astronomy was very great. It was advocated by the Pythagorean school [...]. The first astronomer who is known definitely to have taught that the earth moves was Aristarchus of Samos, who lived in the third century B.C.. [...] Ptolemy, about the year A.D. 130, rejected the view of Aristarchus, and restored the earth to its privileged position at the center of the universe. Throughout later antiquity and the Middle Ages, his view remained unquestioned."”
"Religion and Science" by Bertrand Russell (1935)3
The Church forbade, and forcefully prevented, the teaching of Copernicus' astronomical theory4. Yet three of the most prominent and insightful scientists followed and through a mixture of clever politics, careful phrasing and evasion, they continued to advance science. After Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) and Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) championed Copernicus' decentralization of the Earth, his idea was much more well known despite continual battles against the Church and the Inquisition. The inquisition was in the game of capturing, imprisoning, torturing and silencing scientists who challenged orthodox opinions5, and the theory that the earth moved, and that the Sun was the center of the solar system, was a serious challenge. The biblical basis of their ignorance is examined later on this page.
“At first, the Protestants were almost more bitter against [Copernicus] than the Catholics. Luther said that "People give ear to an upstart astrologer who strove show that the earth revolves [...]. This fool wishes to reverse the entire science of astronomy; but sacred Scripture tells us that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and not the earth." Melanchthon was equally emphatic; so was Calvin, who, after quoting the text: "The world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved" (Ps. xciii, I), triumphantly concluded: "Who will venture to place the authority of Copernicus above that of the Holy Spirit?" Even Wesley, so late as the eighteenth century, while not daring to be quite so emphatic, nevertheless stated that the new doctrines in astronomy "tend toward infidelity".”"Religion and Science" by Bertrand Russell (1935)3
Once Newton had worked out his laws of gravitation; the most accurate and comprehensive laws so far on the subject, and confirmed the orbits of the planets (and predicted others, that were later found), Pierre Simon de Laplace (1749-1827) could publish his five-volume book, Celestial Mechanics (finished in 1825).
“Napoleon commented to Laplace that he had noticed that there was no mention of God in the book [on celestial mechanics and planetary motions]. Laplace replied, 'I have no need of that hypothesis'”"In Search of the Edge of Time" by John Gribbin (1995)6
Although the Church eventually retreated, after many scientists fled and published works from safer shores (i.e., Denmark), this was only the first of a series of battles with the basic facts of science. Having seen the science progress, we should examine what it is that made Christians so adamantly oppose free thought! Many answers are to be found in the text of the bible.
"Homocentricity: Everything Revolves Around Us!" by Vexen Crabtree 2003
M. Luther, the founder of Protestant Christianity, commented on Copernicus' theory that the Earth orbits the sun:
“'This fool wishes to reverse the entire science of astronomy; but sacred Scripture tells us that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and not the earth' (Psa xciii. I), and exclaimed: 'Who will venture to place the authority of Copernicus above that of the Holy Spirit?'”"History of Western Philosophy" by Bertrand Russell (1935)7
Psalm 93 states that "the world is firmly established; it cannot be moved", and this was much quoted by anti-science Christians
The authors of the Bible frequently asked for, and got, God's help in war against their numerous neighbours and enemies. They tell us how their God then struck down their enemies in various ways, and in Joshua 10:12-13 we see God making 'the sun stand still'. Confusion abounds: we now know that it is the Earth's movement that creates the cycle of day and night, not the sun's. The Christians, however, couldn't accept this because if the Earth orbited the sun, how could Jehovah have granted the request to make the sun stand still? Rather than look into a telescope or into Greek astronomy, some Christians decided that instead, the Bible had the real answers!
2 Kings 20:11 provides another example of scientific nonsense, when Isaiah called on the obedient Jehovah to move the sun backwards. This would have upset all the sundials and timekeepers of the world; yet no-one else notices apart from Hezekiah! The writer of Kings clearly didn't understand astronomy; and I rather suspect that if the story is at all true, it was Hezekiah who was tricked rather than that the whole world didn't notice such a miraculous event as the direction of the Earth's spin changing and the passage of the day reversing itself for a while! Isaiah 38:8 tells a strangely familiar tale with slightly different details.
Isaiah 30:26 tells us that one day the light of the moon shall 'be as' the light of the sun. But we now know that the moon reflects the sun's light, so it has always been the same!
Some modern Christian groups continue to argue that the Earth is the center of the Universe. The Skeptical Inquirer (2007)8, mentions three of them - there are doubtless many more just in the English-speaking world alone:
The violent assertions of Christians that the Earth is the centre of the universe was partially a result of pride.
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- Which indicates more pride: to believe that the vast and ancient universe has no purpose, or to believe that a universe of 100 billion galaxies was created 14 billion years ago just so that one could grace it with one's presence?
- Which indicates more pride: to believe that no higher power cares about humanity, or to believe that the Creator of 100 billion galaxies came to Earth and suffered just for the benefit of its human inhabitants?
- Which indicates more pride: to believe the universe rigidly follows natural laws, or to believe that the laws governing 100 billion galaxies are sometimes suspended because the Creator listens to one's prayers?
Comparisons of Atheist/Theist Pride
The Ionians discovered the truth about the Sun, the Earth and the stars. But their era ended when their last great scientist, Hypatia, was attacked by a mob of Christians and burnt in 415CE. The center of science, the Alexandrian Library, was also burnt and destroyed. Scientists had to suffer torture, silencing, imprisonment and death at the hands of Christians who didn't agree with newly discovered facts about the world. Christianity lost the first battle with astronomers who realized that, contrary to what Christians asserted, the Sun did not orbit the Earth, and that the Universe doesn't seem to be designed specifically for humankind. Copernicus (1473-1543), Kepler (1571-1630), Galileo (1564-1642), Newton (1643-1727) and Laplace (1749-1827) all fought battles against the Church when they published scientific papers challenging religious orthodoxy. Bible verses were all the theories Christians needed; and Joshua 10:12-13, 2 Kings 20:11, Isaiah 38:8 and Isaiah 30:26 all contradicted astronomers. But through intelligence and clever politics, truth gradually won out over dogma, and the Church retreated... only to go on to fight similar ignorant battles, and violently impose dogmatic errors, in the arenas of physics, biology and philosophy.
Without such interference from theists, science would have been more than a thousand years more advanced! Kepler in the 17th century only revived Greek astronomical knowledge that was condemned and hidden by Christians (Ptolemy et al) in the second century.
Crabtree, Vexen. "Homocentricity of Religions" (2003). Accessed 2008 Feb 18.
"The Scientific Method: Ionia, 6th century BCE" (2006). Accessed 2008 Feb 18.
Gribbin, John. "In Search of the Edge of Time" (1995). Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, UK. First published 1992 by Bantam Press.
Russell, Bertrand. "Religion and Science" (1935). 1997 edition with introduction by Michael Ruse. Published by Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
"History of Western Philosophy" (1946). Quotes from 2000 edition published by Routledge, London, UK.
Sagan, Carl. "Cosmos" (1995). Originally published 1981 by McDonald & Co. This edition published by Abacus.
Skeptical Inquirer. Pro-science magazine published bimonthly by the Committee for Scientific Inquiry, New York, USA.
By Vexen Crabtree 2006 Dec 03
