Galileo Censorship And Absolute Power

Censorship and Absolute Power
Dubbed him the “father of modern science,” Galileo left an impressive legacy in the physics, astronomy, cosmology, mathematics and philosophy. He championed the controversial theory of heliocentrism, a concept that opposed the Catholic church’s support of geocentrism and as a result he was charged with ‘heresy’ against the church. Galileo’s trial expresses the tension between religious doctrine and scientific discoveries during the Scientific Revolution, forcing us to consider the morality of political censorship and absolute power.
Galileo challenged the power that the Catholic Church had to censor information that challenged their political authority or doctrinal judgement. The theocracy derived it’s political power from the religious faith of the governed. The masses trusted church leaders to interpret the bible and administer

divinely inspired laws and judgments. Galileo’s support of science and humanism challenged the scholasticism and absolutism cherished by the Catholic Church in the 17th century. If the church was wrong about geocentrism, doubt could spread about the divinity of the Church. Galileo’s outspoken support of heliocentrism seemed to assert that the way to find truth was through observation and reasoning instead of through the interpretation of Holy Scripture through the Catholic Church. In the religiously tumultuous atmosphere of the post-Reformation era, the church desperately attempted to destroy the protestantism's idea that people should interpret the Bible for themselves and they did the same to Galileo when he tried to tell them how the Bible should be interpreted. In 1616, the church attempted to censor Galileo’s influence by ordering him to “to abstain completely from teaching or defending this doctrine and opinion or from discussing it... to abandon completely... the opinion that the sun stands still at the center of the world and the earth moves, and henceforth not to hold, teach, or defend it in any way whatever, either orally or in writing.” After violating this order, Galileo was sentenced to a life of house arrest. For hundreds of years, the trial has made people debate what right the Catholic church had in censoring and punishing people who had opposing opinions. It has made people wonder what right any government has in censoring information from the governed. Is political respect threatened by freedom of speech?
The trial of Galileo also makes us question absolute power.

The fairness of the trial was compromised because Church was both the judge and the accuser. At the time of his trial, Galileo did not have an unbiased jury to decide his fate. He was threatened with torture until he confessed and complied with the Church’s demand that he renounce his belief in heliocentrism. There was no third party that checked the power of the judicial system of the church. The church’s interest laid in trying to preserve their authority and not in administering unbiased justice. The trial makes us consider the kind of safeguards should be in place to keep the use of political power just and accountable.
For hundreds of years, Galileo’s trial has caused people to consider the morality of political censorship and absolute power. An example of how censorship and absolute power can cause political problem injustices, Galileo’s trial acts as a cautionary tale. An addition to the list of his major contributions to the world, Galileo’s trial raised questions that influenced how our judicial system evolved to what it is

today.