Please bear with me... the end justifies the means.

Galileo Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) is a central figure in the transition from natural philosophy to modern science and in the transformation of the scientific Renaissance into a scientific revolution.

Galileo studied speed and velocity, gravity and free fall, the principle of relativity, inertia, projectile motion and also worked in applied science and technology, describing the properties of pendulums and "hydrostatic balances", inventing the thermoscope and various military compasses, and using the telescope for scientific observations of celestial objects. His contributions to observational astronomy include the telescopic confirmation of the phases of Venus, the discovery of the four largest satellites of Jupiter, the observation of Saturn's rings (though he could not see them well enough to discern their true nature) and the analysis of sunspots.

However... In the early 1600's, the Catholic ... well, "church"... thought that the Bible declared Earth to be the center of the Universe. Anything or anyone who contradicted that was obviously in league with the Devil. Or some such.

Galileo's championing of heliocentrism and Copernicanism was investigated by the Roman Inquisition in 1615, which concluded that heliocentrism (see following paragraph) was "foolish and absurd in philosophy, and formally heretical since it explicitly contradicts in many places the sense of Holy Scripture. He was tried by the Inquisition, found "vehemently suspect of heresy", and forced to recant. He spent the rest of his life under house arrest.

E pur si muove is a phrase attributed to Galilei in 1633 after being forced to recant his claims that the Earth moves around the immovable Sun rather than the converse. It translates to, "Yet, it moves." In this context, the implication of the phrase is: despite his recantation, the Church's proclamations to the contrary, or any other conviction or doctrine of men, the Earth does, in fact, move (around the Sun, and not vice versa). It doesn't matter what you believe; these are the facts.


The Inquisition's ban on reprinting Galileo's works was lifted in 1718, about 80 years later.

It doesn't matter how "right" you are. What matters is how powerful your enemies are.

For the record, believe it or not, there are some actual remnants of Galileo: the middle finger from Galileo's right hand, is currently on exhibition at the Museo Galileo in Florence, Italy. If you think really hard about it...

nln is born! Go to Wikipedia because there's an actual photograph of this very remnant.

So there!