LECTIONS

Galileo's Science
And the Trial of 1633
"Nature .. . is inexorable and immutable; she never transgresses the laws imposed upon her." Thus did Galileo argue in 1615 for the authority of science over that of Scripture in the physical world. The Catholic Church's 1633 condemnation of Galileo is popularly seen as the response of theological dogmatism. But the issue debated by scholars today is whether Galileo actually proved that the Earth revolves around the sun. Here, as he a...