Galileo's Religious Beliefs

In the early 17th Century, there had already been many opposing views on the Heavens and the Earth. For example, for centuries, the Earth had been considered flat and although there were some early scholars that suggested the Earth may be round or spherical, it wasn’t until about the time that Aristotle provided empirical evidence, such as the gradual disappearance of ships on the horizon with the tops of the sails disappearing last, or the curvature of the shadow of the Earth during an eclipse that the idea of a flat earth began to diminish. The Catholic Church ultimately came to believe in the spherical Earth. The Catholic church had established the Council of Trent by this time and had relied on the holy Fathers to discern the Scriptures and look for the answers and disseminate the final word on such matters. The Catholic Church’s position on the Heavens was that the Earth was stable and in the center of the universe and the sun and moon rotated around it and this viewpoint was

Galileo was trying to convince her that his position was not contrary to Scripture. In his letter, Galileo attempts to explain he does not oppose the bible or feel the bible is incorrect, but rather the interpretation of the bible is where the error lies. He states, “With regard to this argument, I think in the first place that it is very pious to say and prudent to affirm that the holy Bible can never speak untruth —whenever its true meaning is understood”. He goes on to give examples of other Scriptural references that are not interpreted literally and if they were, then those very things would be considered heresy as