Spirituality,
Religion, Nature
Repercussions of the
Scientific Revolution
Background for this
Reflection. The previous
commentary titled Religion and
Spirituality is the background for this reflection, and what follows is a
complement of that subject. We saw there how primitive men-women came to the
conclusion—since there was not then a better explanation—that there should be a
supernatural God, creator and governor of the universe. When the discoveries of
the scientific revolution came to light in the XVI century, it would be
expected that the Church and theologians would change their teachings regarding
humankind, the world, and God; however, they didn’t, and they are teaching
today the same dogmas of past centuries, ignoring the repercussions of the
physical reality in religion.
Events That Changed
the Face of the World. The discoveries of the XVI and XIX centuries
of the heliocentric view of the world, and of the origin of species by natural
selection set the foundation for a different view of God and humanity, and
thereby of religion; I’ll present here a short account of the development of
these stories. An impartial consideration will show that change in religion
should have been logical and necessary. Thus this commentary is an invitation
for open people to reconsider their beliefs, and to examine their religious
habits; perhaps what they are believing and practicing
is baseless, or simply a mistake. It is up to the reader to make a judgment.
Collapse of a
Perception of the World. The discoveries I
just mentioned were like “cataclysms” for humanity; what happened then was a
plunge for humanity, and the downfall of a whole culture, and the collapse of
the religious structure. These discoveries represented a radical change in the
mentality of the epoch; not so for us who were born with the awareness of these
cosmological and biological facts. It is difficult to imagine what it meant for
a generation that always thought that humankind and the Earth were the center
of the universe, to realize that such presumption was false; to learn that the
whole humanity was less than a particle of the whole universe, and that the
Earth was less than a dot on a map of the universe. We were born more or less
familiarized with a normal view of nature, but we cannot imagine the shock of
those who had viewed themselves as the center of the universe.
Sufficient Motive for
Change. On one hand, the
geocentric view of the world postulated an anthropomorphic God, where humanity
was viewed as the purpose of a supposed design of creation, and the center of
the universe; that is why the theistic theology was founded on the principle
that Earth-humanity was the center of the world and the purpose of creation. On
the other hand, the theory of evolution shifted the origin of biological
species from the “hands” of God, and transferred it to the power of nature; God
ceases being the creator of animal species. The awareness of the real place of
humanity in the universe and of the creative power of nature,
should have been sufficient for a change.
These scientific events should have been sufficient motive to
determine a change in the interpretation of God and in the practice of
religion. However, it didn’t happen; the Church and its theology didn’t change
even when the foundation of their beliefs was radically changed; the practice
of religion continues the same; God, humanity, and the world are still viewed
as in ancient generations, and the God of theism is still the God of millions
of people.
Geocentric Cosmology. For 1500 years the Church held the doctrine of a geocentric universe, in
which the Earth was the center of the world. This model had a kind of apparent
and logical “evidence,” since what we saw was that the Sun was moving around
the Earth, which seemed to stay at rest; and if it would be otherwise—they
thought—people on Earth would feel a strong wind in the direction of movement.
The
geocentric model is a fundamentally religious stance, since it conforms to a
design of God placing humans at the center of the world. Human nature wants to
feel special; that was the doctrine held by theologians and philosophers, and
mandated by the Church, even after the Copernican Revolution. Whoever didn’t
believe was subjected to punishment.
Copernicus
Heliocentric
Cosmology and the Copernican Revolution. Polish astronomer Nicholas
Copernicus (1473-1543) never liked the Earth-based view of the universe. He was the first astronomer to formulate a comprehensive
heliocentric cosmology. His discovery displaced the Earth at rest, and as the
center of the universe.
Copernicus formulated the heliocentric model against the
geocentric view, and demonstrated—by the observation of the motions of
celestial objects—that the Sun is at the center of the world. His work is a
landmark in the history of science, and it is considered the beginning of the Scientific Revolution. This discovery
gave a stimulus to further investigations, and established the principle that proofs and observation are the basis of scientific knowledge. His work is often
referred to as the “Copernican Revolution.”
Recent Restoration. On May 22, 2010, almost 500 years after his
death, Polish priests buried Copernicus again, now with honors, placed his
remnants in a black granite tomb, decorated with the Solar System: a golden
Sun, surrounded by the six Solar Planets. The Catholic Church didn’t officially
accept Copernican theory until 1922.
Galileo
Galileo completed Copernicus’
Work. Galileo
Galilei (1564-1642) was the Italian physicist,
mathematician, astronomer and philosopher who completed Copernicus’ work. When
still the majority of philosophers and astronomers of his time supported the
geocentric view of the world (the Earth as the center of the universe), he
stood firm for the heliocentric view of Copernicus (the Sun as the center of
the Solar System). Galileo, open supporter of Copernicus view, published
Copernicus’ book Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On
the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres); it hadn’t been published to avoid persecution and
prosecution by the Church. Later the Church considered
the book important enough to be placed on the Index
of Prohibited Books.
Galileo’s Denunciation and Condemnation. Galileo was denounced to the Holy Office in 1615. Consulting theologians of
the Inquisition (among whom there was not even one astronomer) found Copernicus
wrong, and the heliocentric view of the world as
"false and contrary to Scripture.” On February 24, 1616, the Congregation of the Holly Office warned Galileo. Under the order of Pope Paul V, Cardinal Bellarmino, Galileo’s
principal accuser, asked him to stop his support for the interpretation that the Earth moved. As Galileo defended his views, he was tried by
the Tribunal of the Supreme
Inquisition of the Catholic Church. In June 22 of 1633 the
Inquisition reaffirmed
the immobility of the Earth, and found Galileo
"vehemently suspect of heresy," and condemned him to spend the rest
of his life under house arrest. Galileo, knowing that his resistance was
futile, recanted his view. [1]
Galileo became blind in 1638 and finally died in 1642.
Retraction of the Church. In
1984, a papal commission acknowledged that the Church was wrong about Galileo,
but it did not reverse its condemnation of the genius of astronomy until 1992,
or 350 years after his death. And recently, in 2009—the International Year of
Astronomy, and the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s telescope, his
invention,—the Vatican reconsidered its actions against the most famous victim of
the Inquisition, Galileo. Pope Benedict XVI, paid tribute to the astronomer
saying that he and other scientists have helped to understand the world better.
Darwin
Darwin and the Origin of the
Species. What Copernicus and
Galileo were for the cosmological world, Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882) was
for the biological world. This English naturalist established that the species
of life were not the fruit of a direct creation of God, but they have descended
over time from a common ancestry, through evolution. He called natural
selection the principle and the process through which new species are
created.
Natural Selection. Before Darwin there was no other explanation for the
existence of so many species of animals on Earth than creation, as it is
written in the Bible; but Darwin made the great discovery that the origin of
this huge variety of species was due to the long process of natural selection, the basic mechanism
of evolution. As the words suggest, natural selection is a natural process through which the
organisms best adapted to an environment survive.
Darwin, in his book On the Origin of
Species, gives compelling
evidence for his theory. The book was published in 1859.
Natural selection alone does not explain its own existence or the
existence of the universe, but it tells us that nature does have a power and
wisdom that men overlooked before. This fact creates some questions about the
origin of the universe, and is telling us that we should not jump to
conclusions with an interpretation that cannot be proved; it might not be
certain. The undeniable fact of evolution, although it does not prove that the
cosmological world came from evolution, sets the precedent that evolution of
nature is a possible origin of the universe.
When there was no other explanation for the origin of the species
than creation, it was justified to look for a Creator to explain their
existence and variety; but now, when we know what nature did, and that nature
has a wisdom and power that was thought belonged directly and exclusively to
God, we must adjust accordingly our beliefs regarding the universe and God; we
must modify our perception of God and the universe.
With these scientific changes philosophers and theologians should
have changed their minds; they should have recognized that it is was not rational to continue believing in the
interpretation given to human destiny by Augustine and Aquinas (whose writings
were based in an Aristotelian philosophy and interpretation of the world). It
didn’t happen. The place of humanity and of human destiny made a turnaround;
theologians should have done the same.
Go to Content
HTM NATURE / REPORCUSSIONS 03-03-11
[1]
You
may see the whole document of the Inquisition at: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1630galileo.html