In the beginning, there was light...or maybe not. Perhaps it was darkness only disturbed by a big bang. Maybe the beginning hasn’t even happened yet. Maybe there is nothing and this is all some big illusion. Scientists, philosophers, and humans in general have been asking, wondering these very things since the moment they were able to think for themselves. Galileo, one of the most renowned scientists in history, did not start out asking these questions. He started out asking questions like, “Why must doctors know everything?” This is because way back in the days - before he was anyone even vaguely important, he was studying to become a doctor. Though, considering his potential, it would not have been a total loss for the scientific community if he had become Doctor Galileo. The truth of the matter is that Galileo Galilei was one of the smartest, most important scientists ever to wonder about the paradox that is our universe.
The beginning - the big bang - for Galileo was on February 15th, 1564 in Pisa, Italy. He was a small, stocky baby with tufts of red hair. He was the oldest in an aristocratic family with average wealth. As he grew up, he aspired to joining the Church Order, but his parents hoped for him to become a medical doctor. Honoring his parents wishes, he was sent off to study medicine at Pisa University, but soon found that he had both a talent and passion for mathematics and philosophy. He soon gave up medicine and decided to follow his two passions. However, in 1585 a shortage of money resulted in him having to drop out of the university and tutor students in mathematics for four years. In 1589, he had a stroke of luck and was hired to lecture at Pisa where he stayed happily for three years. In his le...
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...shed his last work, “Dialogue Concerning Two New Sciences,” (a book concerning mechanics) in Germany because he was no longer allowed to publish any of his work in his home country of Italy. In 1638, he went blind, and four years later, on January 8th, 1642, he passed away. He was seventy-seven years old. Though he is dead and gone, his legacy still lives on. His name is one of the most common in the science community. He will never be truly and fully gone. The Big Bang is over, yes. It’s legacy is not gone, though. We are a part of the Big Bang - we were made from the Big Bang. How? Well - matter never disappears. It cannot be created or even destroyed. No - it only transforms.
Works Cited
In 1695 Galileo wrote a Letter to The Grand Duchess Christina. This letter discussed the relationship between the traditional biblical beliefs of the time (the basis on which their society was built), scientific discoveries, and their correlation with one another. The purpose of the letter was to inform that the scientific discoveries being made were not hearsay or contradictory to the Bible, rather they were natural laws, which could coincide with Scriptural based beliefs, not oppose them. In the Letter to The Grand Duchess Christina, Galileo implies that science is the means by which G-d meant for humanity to understand scriptural truths. This belief can be applied to the present day by finding equilibrium, and in turn allowing for a balanced life.
Galileo even as a boy seemed destined to challenge the scientific thought of the day. He has often been characterized as a pioneer of rebellion against authority. If that was true then he was only following in his father’s footsteps. His Father, a revolutionary man in the world of music who spoke out against the music theories of his day, was quoted as saying, "It appears to me that those who try to prove an assertion by relying simply on the weight of authority act very absurdly" (White, 196). Galileo continued in his father’s rebellion against contemporary views with his support of a helio-centric-universe, a view previously argued by Copernicus, but for the most part ignored by scientists for its contradiction with the established, church-endorsed system of Ptolemy.
Galileo Galilei was an Italian scientist, often referred to as “the father of modern physics”. He was one of the inventors of the telescope and a strong proponent of Copernicanism. Galileo used his invention to make astronomical observations which supported Copernicus’ heliocentric model of the universe. These discoveries led to a fierce dispute, because they contradicted the theory which was prevalent at the time – that the universe followed a geocentric model, a theory, which had been accepted by the Catholic Church. To address this dispute, Galileo wrote a letter to Tuscany’s Grand Duchess Christina, in which he presented his position on the relation between science and religion, stating that the Bible does not contradict science.
I think that according to Galileo an individual gains knowledge of nature threw observation. Galileo believed no one really went out into the world as he did and used the senses that God gave us when we where created, to observe the physical world. He was a very persistent individual and was always looking further into what he observed our read. Many people went along with how he gained knowledge of nature but the few who did not tried to find other ways to damage his beliefs and ideas.
Levere. The. Essays on Galileo and the History and Philosophy of Science. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999. Print. The.
Have you ever wondered who discovered that the sun is the center of our universe? If so, the answer is Nicolai Copernicus. This man was a well-respected as well as well educated man. He explored many different subjects including mathematics, medicine, canon law, and his favorite astronomy. The Earth-centered universe of Aristotle and Ptolemy were Western thinking for almost 2000 years until the 16th century when Copernicus proposed his theory.
Galileo Galilei was an Italian philosopher born in 1564. As an adult, he didn’t believe the universal geocentric theory of the planets and heavens which was established by the Catholic Church. The church taught that the Earth was the center of the universe and everything revolved around our planet. Another theory that the Church supported was that the Earth stood still while the sun rose and set every day. Society in the 1500’s believed that the Pope spoke for God through a divine connection and to against the church was to go against God. To speak out against the church in this time was strictly taboo. If one was to speak against the church was considered to be heresy, which is exactly what happened to Galileo. Galileo invented the telescope and began studying the heavens above and noticed that changes within the stars and planets. He noticed that the “stars” that surrounded Jupiter moved. He came to the conclusion through rational thinking, that the Copernicus’ heliocentric theory was correct. Copernicus was a scientist and philosopher whose theory proposed that the sun was stationary and the heavens orbit around the sun. Galileo tried to convince the church not to aboli...
... 1609, when Galileo destroyed Aristotle's mechanical model of the universe, was his authority on scientific theory truly undermined. So strong was Aristotle's grip on the science of the time, that Galileo was subsequently tried by the church as a heretic for disagreeing with his theories.
Galileo is one of the greatest scientists in the world, especially at that moment. At that
Galileo was the first of six children born to Vincenzo Galilei, who was musician and music theorist. In 1583, Galileo entered the University of Pisa to study medicine.
...t science is not merely a group of 'inventive dwarfs'. Instead, science is a way of life. The book of discourses (dealing with the laws of motion), that was published after Galileo's recantation, represents a way in which Galileo can contemplate for his unethical and immoral acts by generating knowledge to the public. Although Galileo reassures the making of science by making the book of discourses, nothing can ever bring compensation to the harm which he brought on humanity and the way in which he destroyed the meaning of sacrifice.
13.8 Billion years ago, long before the creation of the popular television show, The Big Bang Theory occurred and is now the most widely recognized cosmological model for the universe. The Big Bang theory is an attempt to explain how the universe we know today began. Over the years, numerous discoveries and research have revealed that our universe did have a beginning, and that there was nothing before the Big Bang occurred. Throughout history there have been other theories as to how our universe began, though the Big Bang still prevails. One of the most exciting parts about the universe is a vast and fascinating place and there are even new discoveries still being made today. The Big Bang theory is widely regarded as the most likely scenario
Much to the dismay of the Church, two astronomers Galileo and Kepler had the audacity to challenge the authorities by suggesting that the sun-not the earth-was at the center of the universe. The church had a stronghold on the way the spiritual and physical world worked, so these discoveries only added to the Church’s resistance to their aims. Their discoveries came only after Kepler and Galileo began to question ancient theories about how the world functioned. These ancient truths were widely held but were inconsistent with the new observations that they had made. Kepler had discovered the laws of planetary motion which suggested that the planet would move in elliptical orbits, while Galileo followed with his discovery of the principle of inertia. Galileo concluded his finding b...
Galileo was born in Pisa, Italy on February 15th, 1564. His father, Vincenzo was a music teacher and musician. After his family moved to Florence, Galilei was sent to a monastery to be educated. He was so happy there that he decided to become a monk, but his father wanted him to be a medical doctor and brought him home to Florence. He was never really interested in medicine and studied mathematics at the University of Pisa. He was especially interested in famous mathematicians like Euclid (geometry) and Archimedes. In fact in 1586 he wrote his first book about one of Archimedes theories. He eventually became head of mathematics at the University of Pisa where he first wrote about a very important idea that he developed. It was about using experiments to test theories. He wrote about falling bodies in motion using inclined planes to test his theories.