Die Galileo-saak was werklik, maar die oorlog is ‘n mite
Kort antwoord: Die kerk was verkeerd om Galileo te veroordeel, en ons hoef dit nie weg te praat nie. Maar een saak uit 1633 bewys nie ‘n oorlog nie, en die storie van ‘n eeue lange stryd tussen geloof en wetenskap is eers in die 1870’s gewild gemaak.
Jy het die prent gesien. ‘n Ou man met ‘n grys baard staan voor ‘n ry somber kerkmanne in donker klere. Iemand het daaronder geskryf: Die kerk was nog altyd bang vir die wetenskap.
En jy weet nie mooi wat om te sê nie, want jy weet die verhaal is nie heeltemal vals nie.
Wat waar is
Dit is nie vals nie. In 1633 het die Inkwisisie in Rome Galileo Galilei verhoor. Hy moes sy siening dat die aarde om die son draai, in die openbaar herroep. Sy boek is verbied. Hy het die laaste nege jaar van sy lewe onder huisarres deurgebring. In 1992 het die Rooms-Katolieke Kerk formeel erken dat dit verkeerd was.
Dit was ‘n ongeregtigheid. ‘n Christen hoef dit nie te verdedig nie. Die waarheid het niks om van bang te wees nie, ook nie die waarheid oor die kerk nie.
Wat die prent nie wys nie
Maar die prent laat baie uit. Galileo was nie ‘n ateïs wat teen die geloof geveg het nie. Hy was ‘n gelowige Katoliek, en albei sy dogters was nonne. Hy het geglo die Bybel en die natuur kom albei van God en kan dus nie werklik bots nie. In ‘n brief van 1615 haal hy ‘n kardinaal aan: die Bybel leer ons hoe om hemel toe te gaan, nie hoe die hemel gaan nie.
Sy felste teenstanders was boonop nie net teoloë nie. Hulle was die professore van sy tyd, wat die ou sterrekunde van Aristoteles geleer het. Galileo het ook nie al die bewyse gehad nie. Sy verklaring vir die getye was verkeerd, en die verskuiwing van die sterre wat die aarde se beweging sou bewys, is eers in 1838 gemeet. En baie, ook die pous, ‘n ou vriend en beskermer, het gemeen Galileo spot met hom in sy boek. Dit was wetenskap, politiek en trots deurmekaar.
Die draai
Hier is die eintlike verrassing. Die idee dat geloof en wetenskap nog altyd in oorlog was, is self jonk. Dit kom grootliks uit twee boeke: John William Draper s’n in 1874 en Andrew Dickson White s’n in 1896. Albei het ‘n saak gehad om uit te maak, en historici van die wetenskap, gelowig en ongelowig, beskou hulle vandag as polemiek eerder as geskiedenis.
En kyk wie het die moderne wetenskap gebou: Kepler, Boyle, Newton, en die Belgiese priester Georges Lemaître wat die oerknal voorgestel het. Hulle het nie ten spyte van hulle geloof na die heelal gekyk nie. Hulle het verwag om orde te vind, omdat ‘n verstandige God dit gemaak het.
As daar regtig ‘n oorlog was, sou almal nie altyd na dieselfde een saak van vierhonderd jaar gelede gryp nie.
Volgende keer
As iemand Galileo noem, begin by die waarheid: “Ja, die kerk was verkeerd. Wil jy die res van die storie hoor?”
Die meeste mense het nog net die prent gesien.
Gaan dieper
The Galileo affair was real, but the war is a myth
Short answer: The church was wrong to condemn Galileo, and we need not explain that away. But one case from 1633 does not prove a war, and the story of a centuries-long struggle between faith and science was only made popular in the 1870s.
You have seen the picture. An old man with a grey beard stands before a row of grim churchmen in dark robes. Someone has written underneath: The church has always been afraid of science.
And you are not sure what to say, because you know the story is not entirely false.
What is true
It is not false. In 1633 the Inquisition in Rome put Galileo Galilei on trial. He had to recant in public his view that the earth moves around the sun. His book was banned. He spent the last nine years of his life under house arrest. In 1992 the Roman Catholic Church formally acknowledged that this was wrong.
It was an injustice. A Christian need not defend it. The truth has nothing to fear, including the truth about the church.
What the picture leaves out
But the picture leaves a lot out. Galileo was not an atheist fighting against faith. He was a believing Catholic, and both his daughters were nuns. He believed the Bible and nature both come from God and so cannot truly clash. In a letter of 1615 he quotes a cardinal: the Bible teaches us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go.
His fiercest opponents, besides, were not only theologians. They were the professors of his day, who taught the old astronomy of Aristotle. Galileo also did not have all the evidence. His explanation of the tides was wrong, and the shift of the stars that would prove the earth’s motion was only measured in 1838. And many, the pope included, an old friend and patron, believed Galileo mocked him in his book. It was science, politics and pride all tangled together.
The turn
Here is the real surprise. The idea that faith and science have always been at war is itself young. It comes largely from two books: John William Draper’s in 1874 and Andrew Dickson White’s in 1896. Both had a case to make, and historians of science, believing and unbelieving, now regard them as polemic rather than history.
And look at who built modern science: Kepler, Boyle, Newton, and the Belgian priest Georges Lemaître, who proposed the Big Bang. They did not look at the universe in spite of their faith. They expected to find order, because a rational God had made it.
If there really had been a war, people would not always reach for the same single case from four hundred years ago.
Next time
When someone brings up Galileo, start with the truth: “Yes, the church was wrong. Do you want to hear the rest of the story?”
Most people have only ever seen the picture.