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History of science, concept. Nicholas Copernicus author of the heliocentric system of the world,
Image Credit: Ulia Koltyrina - Adobe Stock

Unbelievable: Galileo Proved the Church’s Irrational Opposition to Science

Series
ID the Future
Host
Andrew McDiarmid
Guest
Michael Keas
Duration
00:15:15
Download
Audio File (10.5 mb)

On this ID the Future from the vault, host Andrew McDiarmid interviews science historian and author Michael Keas about Keas’ ISI book Unbelievable: 7 Myths About the History and Future of Science and Religion. The myth they tackle on this episode is the notion that the Catholic Church willfully ignored incontrovertible scientific evidence against geocentrism and tortured the astronomer Galileo for promoting a sun-centered model of the solar system, and that they opposed him on purely religious grounds. As Keas explains, in fact Galileo had found support for heliocentrism but hadn’t proved it scientifically; there were scientists and theologians both against him and for him; and he wasn’t tortured anyway.

Michael Newton Keas

Senior Fellow, Center for Science and Culture
After earning a Ph.D. in the history of science from the University of Oklahoma, Mike Keas won research grants from such organizations as the National Science Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies. He experienced some of the last historic moments behind the Berlin Wall as a Fulbright scholar in East Germany. Keas serves as lecturer in the history and philosophy of science at Biola University. He has written numerous articles, including “Systematizing the Theoretical Virtues” in the top-tier philosophy journal Synthese. This essay analyzes twelve traits of reputable theories, and has generated dialogue across many fields. With a quarter-century of experience teaching science and its history to college students, Keas is qualified to lay out the facts to show how far the conventional wisdom about science and religion departs from reality. He has done so in the ISI book Unbelievable: 7 Myths about the History and Future of Science and Religion.
Tags
Catholic Church
Galileo
geocentrism
Heliocentrism
ptolemy
science and faith
Tycho Brahe