Science and Religion: A Review Essay [4]

With the ongoing discussions about Bruce Waltke’s video at the BioLogos website and his subsequent resignation from RTS, as well as the long comment thread here at Evangel about events in Genesis, I thought I would post some thoughts about the relationship between science and religion that were gathered from a series of helpful lectures from the Teaching Company. Some might find it helpful and others, I’m sure, will not.

The Galileo Affair

After make these philosophical points, Principe switches gears and addresses two of the great examples that are often cited to support the conflict thesis between science and religion: Darwinian evolution and the so-called “Galileo affair.” Starting with Galileo we are introduced to the subject of heliocentrism through Copernicus. Interestingly enough, both Copernicus and Galileo were theists who did not see any conflict between their scientific endeavors and their religious beliefs. Copernicus’s book was published by the urging his fellow clergymen (Copernicus held an administrative role in the Holy Order) though it was not well-received. The prevailing view of the day, that sun went round the earth, simply did not fall by the wayside since it fit with common sense experience (we don’t feel the earth move, we see the sun move, and so on) and traditional readings of the Bible (Joshua’s passage of the God making the sun stand still implied that the sun moved). In other words, it took time for his views of the verified by other scientists.

Galileo is most famous for his conflict with the Catholic Church over espousing and expounding Copernicus’s views, but the story is often characterized in cartoonish metaphors of him being drug off in chains before a nefarious Inquisition. In reality, the affair spanned a great deal of time. The Inquisition was often disinterested in the charges against Galileo by intellectually inferior monks, and deferred to others to evaluate his scientific theories. Unfortunately for Galileo those outside sources are what got him into trouble when they declared his theories to be “foolish and absurd.” Nonetheless, Galileo found himself lightly reprimanded and was counseled to write in more hypothetical language (rather than sounding absolute).

A fact that is often lost in casual citations of the Galileo Affair is that he was friends with Pope and had his blessing in his studies. The Pope wished for a moderated debate between the two theories as there were clergy that were on both sides of the issue. In fact, the famous quote, “The Bible tells us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go” came from a Cardinal sympathetic to Galileo’s cause. Regrettably, through a publishing snafu and the irrepressible nature of Galileo’s scathing wit, his book Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems alienated his old and very powerful friend. Due to the pressure from external events such as the Protestant Reformation and the Thirty Years War the Pope could not deal with the internal strain and personal affront Galileo caused and had him tried and convicted of heresy.

Nevertheless, the judgment was not signed by the Pope’s nephew or the two Cardinals which suggests the trial was more for show than anything else. It is true that the events of the day led to a sad ending for Galileo, but centuries later the papacy lead by John Paul II fully vindicated him.