vol 2: Synopsis
part II: A brief history of dynamics
Page 13: Galileo Galilei
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... to restore theology to the mainstream of science
Galileo
(1564-1642)
The rise of scientific investigation based on observation of the world led to a linguistic revolution. Students of nature found it necessary to extend natural languages with technical terminology in order to name all the things they found. Galileo saw that the natural philosopher needed to add mathematics to natural language as well. He wrote 'Philosophy is written in this grand book - the universe, which stands continually open before our gaze. But the book cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and to read the alphabet in which it is composed. It is written in the language of mathematics ...'. Galilei, p 238.
Many of the inferences drawn from the Bible by Christian theologians were rather far fetched. The Israelites had to conquer the existing inhabitants, often with Yahweh's help, when they took over their Promised Land:
Joshua spoke to Yahweh, the same day that Yahweh delivered the Amorites to the Israelites. Joshua declaimed:
Sun, stand still over Gibeon
and, moon, you also over the vale of Aijalon.
And the sun stood still, and the moon halted,
till the people had vengeance over their enemies. Joshua 10:12-13
Following the ancient Greeks, the medieval theologians took this as definite evidence that the sun moved round the earth, rather than the earth around the sun.
Galileo was a skilled instrument maker as well as a natural philosopher. He made telescopes that showed him the mountains on the moon and the phases of Venus. The mountains showed that the moon was rather similar to earth, and not of some heavenly composition as many had assumed. The phases of Venus could be interpreted to show that Venus revolved around the Sun in an orbit inside the orbit of the Earth.
More importantly, Galileo and his contemporaries began to use rulers and clocks to measure the behaviour of moving bodies, and so brought us into the era of science based on instrumental measurement. He saw that, at least from a physical and astronomical point of view, the best language to describe the behaviour of the world was mathematics. The mathematical expansion of natural language is a central theme of science and finds its place in scientific theology.
The Church's prosecuted Galileo for his opinions, but the horse had bolted. Theology, once the leading edge of science, showed itself unable to adapt to modern developments. In the Church, faith in Scripture continued to outweigh faith in experience. Theology became an intellectual backwater, and in its place science has come to dominate our interpretation of the world in which we find ourselves.
Here we want sail theology out of its backwater back into the mainstream of science. Scientific theology, by assuming that the universe is divine, assumes that we can observe god. By observing god, we give theology the scientific independence and certainty necessary for it to cut itself free of any institution no matter how venerable.
The gigantic structures which we are able to describe with mathematical language show us the way to constructing models that approach the size of god. Mathematics also places limits on size of things we can talk about, agreeing with ancient theology that the whole (god, the divine) is beyond our ken.
Books
| Drake, Stillman, Galileo at Work: His Scientific Biography, Dover Publications 1995 Jacket: Based entirely on original sources, Professor Drake's scrupulously researched study includes translations of much correspondence and other material previously unpublished in English. The result is a volume of exceptional richness and immediacy that paints a vivid portrait of one of history's greatest minds, leaving the philosophical implications of his work aside and focussing on the enduring scientific achievements that represent Galileo's true legacy to mankind.' Amazon back |
| Drake, Stillman, Essays on Galileo and the History and Philsophy of Science, University of Toronto Press 1999 Amazon from Book News, Inc: 'In this three-volume set, Swerdlow (U. of Toronto) and Levere (U. of Chicago) provide a synopsis of the life and work of the prolific Galileo scholar, Stillman Drake (deceased, U. of Toronto) as an introduction to their selection of about 80 of Drake's essays. The essays are grouped by subject: biographical and textual studies, scientific method and philosophy of science, astronomy, a translation and essays on the Dialogue concerning the two chief world systems, motion and mechanics, instruments, history of science, and philosophy of science and language.' Amazon back |
| Galilei, Galileo, Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences (translated by Henry Crew and Alfonso de Salvio) , Dover 1954 Jacket: 'Despite the fact that this book encompasses thirty years of highly original experimentation and theorizing on the part of this singular man, it is eminently readable. Written as a discussion between a master and two students, it sets forth its hundreds of experiments and summarizes the conclusions Galileo drew from these experiements in a brisk direct style. Using helpful geometric demonstrations, Galileo discusses aspects of fracture of solid bodies, cohesion, leverage, the speed of light, sound, pendulums, falling bodies, projectiles, uniform motion, accelerated motion, and the strengths of wires, rods and beams under different loadings and placements. Not only does the book display the genius of one of the makers of our civilization, but it also presents, for the historian of science, considerable information about Renaissance misapprehensions which Galileo refuted.' Amazon back |
| Galilei, Galileo, and Stillman Drake (translator), Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo: Including the Starry Messenger (1610 Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina) , Doubleday Anchor 1957 Amazon: 'Although the introductory sections are a bit dated, this book contains some of the best translations available of Galileo's works in English. It includes a broad range of his theories (both those we recognize as "correct" and those in which he was "in error"). Both types indicate his creativity. The reproductions of his sketches of the moons of Jupiter (in "The Starry Messenger") are accurate enough to match to modern computer programs which show the positions of the moons for any date in history. The appendix with a chronological summary of Galileo's life is very useful in placing the readings in context.' A Reader. Amazon back |
| Jones, Alexander (ed), The Jerusalem Bible, Darton Longman and Todd 1966 Editor's Foreword: '... The Bible ... is of its nature a written charter guaranteed (as Christians believe) by the Spirit of God, crystallised in antiquity, never to be changed ... . This present volume is the English equivalent of [La Bible de Jerusalem] ... an entirely faithful version of the ancient texts which, in doubntful points, preserves the text established and (for the most part) the interpretation adopted by the French scholars in the light of the most recent researches in the fields of history, archaeology and literary criticism.' (v-vi) Amazon back |
| Jones, Alexander (ed), The Jerusalem Bible, Darton Longman and Todd 1966 Editor's Foreword: '... The Bible ... is of its nature a written charter guaranteed (as Christians believe) by the Spirit of God, crystallised in antiquity, never to be changed ... . This present volume is the English equivalent of [La Bible de Jerusalem] ... an entirely faithful version of the ancient texts which, in doubntful points, preserves the text established and (for the most part) the interpretation adopted by the French scholars in the light of the most recent researches in the fields of history, archaeology and literary criticism.' (v-vi) Amazon back |
| Joshua, and Alexander Jones (editor), The Book of Joshua in The Jerusalem Bible, Darton Longman and Todd 1966 Introduction to Joshua: 'The Book ... falls into three parts: a. the conquest of the Promised Land, ch 1-12; b. the partition of the territory between the tribes, ch 13-21; c. the last days of Joshua ... . ... The Israelite invasion of Canaan may be placed within the last thirty years of the 13th century; (bce) ... .' (268) Amazon back |
| MacHamer, Peter (Editor), The Cambridge Companion to Galileo, Cambridge University Press 1998 Jacket: 'Not only a hero of the scientific revolution, but after his conflict with the Church, a hero of science. Galileo is today rivalled in the popular imagination only be Newton and Einstein. But what did Galileo actually do, and what are the sources of the popular image we have of him? This collection of essays is unparalleled in the depth of its coverage of all aspects of Galileo's work. A particular feature of this volume is the treatment of Galileo's relationship with the Church. It will be of particular interest to philosophers, historians of science, cultural historians and those in religious studies.' Amazon back |
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