Episode 100.
Nicholas Copernicus's most famous book is
"On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres", published in 1543.
It's worth noting that heliocentricity was
rarely taught openly by the end of the 16th century,
and if so, it was presented as a hypothesis and not as a description of physical reality.
Copernicus's book was an academic book written in Latin,
and therefore there was no negative reaction from the common people.
In contrast, Galileo wrote in Italian,
and the common people were drawn into the controversy.
Quote Three comes from Copernicus's famed book on astronomy.
And you can see that his religious faith was intertwined with his science.
He writes, "The machinery of the world has been built for
us by the best and most orderly workman of all.
And although I realize that the conceptions of a philosopher,
that is a natural philosopher or a scientist,
are placed beyond the judgment of the crowd,
that is the common people,
it is his loving duty to seek truth in all things,
in so far, as God has granted that to human reason."
A few comments.
Copernicus clearly believed that the world was designed by God.
He also believed that reason and science were rooted in God.
Or stated another way,
human epistemology has a divine foundation.
This passage also recognises the emergence of
a scientific knowledge gap between the academics and the common people,
to use the words of Copernicus between the conceptions of
a philosopher and that of the crowd.
It is interesting that Copernicus anticipated
theological criticism regarding his heliocentric astronomy.
In Quote Four he writes, "But, if perchance there are
certain idle talkers who take it upon themselves to pronounce judgment,
although wholly ignorant of mathematics and if by
shamelessly distorting the sense of some passage of Holy Writ to suit their purpose,
they dare to reprehend and to attack my work,
they worry me so little that I shall ever scorn their judgments as foolhardy.
Mathematics is written for mathematicians,
and among them, if I'm not mistaken,
my labors will be seen to contribute something to the ecclesiastical Commonwealth,
that is the church, the principe of which your holiness,
that is Pope Paul the third, now holds."
Again, we see this growing scientific knowledge gap
between the academics and the common people.
In particular, between the mathematicians and those wholly ignorant of mathematics.
There were also hermeneutical debates over the new science, and Copernicus noted,
that there was eisegesis by the critics who were
distorting the sense of some passage of holy writ.
Finally, Copernicus believed that
his heliocentric science was a contribution to the church.
In fact, he dedicated revolutions to Pope Paul the third.
Clearly for Copernicus, there was no hint of
conflict between his science and his religion.
An example of a critic of Copernicus is Protestant theologian, Martin Luther.
In Quote Five he writes,
"The new astronomer, that is Copernicus,
wants to prove that the earth goes around the sun and not the heavens,
the sun, and the moon around the earth."
Please turn to page 13 in the handouts,
where previously, we examined Luther's geocentric view of the structure of the universe.
According to Luther, the earth was immovable and it was the heavenly sphere of
the firmament with the sun and moon in it that moved.
Continuing with Quote Five,
Luther states, "The fool,
that is Copernicus, will turn the whole science of astronomy upside down."
And indeed, that's what Copernicus did do.
Now here is Luther's argument against Copernicus's astronomy.
But, as Holy Writ declares,
it was the sun and not the earth,
which Joshua commanded to stand still.
In this passage, Luther is appealing to
Joshua 10 and the miracle of the sun stopping in the sky.
Here's part of the verse in Quote Six,
"Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel, 'O Sun,
stand still.', and then the sun stopped in the middle of
the sky and delayed going down about a full day."
You can find the full passage in supplementary quote number one.
End of episode.
