Comment by pmcginn
The big bang theory isn't just "accepted by them today," it has been since the beginning. The father of the big bang theory was a catholic priest.
The big bang theory isn't just "accepted by them today," it has been since the beginning. The father of the big bang theory was a catholic priest.
> it's possible that the beliefs and propositions of individual members of a greater body don't always align with the official stance
It is, and where they depart from or twist binding doctrine, it would be a matter of heresy.
But FWIW, the Catholic Church didn’t and doesn’t have a stance on the question of heliocentrism. Why would it? It is not a question with any religious importance. Who cares which orb rotates around which? Copernicus wasn’t doing anything forbidden (nor had he vindicated heliocentrism) and had high ranking friends and acquaintances in the clergy (including cardinals like Cardinal Schõnberg and Pope Clement VII) who took an interest in his work. De Revolutionibus was itself dedicated to Pope Paul III. If anything, Copernicus was wary of other academics who held to the Ptolemaic view at the time. Plus ça change…
No doubt, you have in mind the oft-repeated Galileo affair which has become one of those stubborn black legends that seems to stay afloat despite the lack of facts supporting it because of its instrumental value for sticking it to the Church. The Galileo affair was not about heliocentrism. It was about a clash of egos and personalities (Galileo’s being of them, as he liked to pick pointless fights, including some nasty personal attacks on his friend and benefactor Urban VIII) that spanned decades. It isn’t as piquant as the story as typically told would have you believe.
The story of Copernican heliocentrism as commonly told is enough to bounce many out of the rut of thinking as the comment above implied that a large bureaucracy aligns itself with anything an individual thinks.
> The Galileo affair was not about heliocentrism. It was about a clash of egos and personalities
That's pretty much the way I heard it, outside of the Catholic Church, some 50 years ago. Make enough enemies, sooner or later they band together and strike if they can.
> No doubt, you have in mind the oft-repeated Galileo affair
> It isn’t as piquant as the story as typically told would have you believe.
If you enjoy quoting J. Budziszewski you may or may not get a kick out of Graham Priest and Dialetheism.
So you're saying that the Catholic Church also accepted the Copernican Sun centred model of the universe formulated by Nicolaus Copernicus "from the beginning" as Copernicus was also a Catholic cleric?
Perhaps it's possible that the beliefs and propositions of individual members of a greater body don't always align with the official stance of the greater body.