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The fact that a man had to fear for his life for having an opinion doesn't bare mentioning? All Galileo had to do was follow the rules as set out by the Inquisi

• mcv 9y ago
  Is it a fact that he had to fear for his life? We're not talking about the Spanish Inquisition or an accusation of witchcraft here. He was questioned and got house arrest. Of course it's still not good to get punished for dissing the pope according to our modern freedom of speech, but in those days, insulting rulers was still frowned upon. And Galileo went well beyond simply having an opinion; he insulted the pope. Not merely by ignoring the pope's instruction to present both alternatives in a balanced way, but by putting arguments from the pope (a good friend before this) in the mouth of a character called "Fool" (Simplico).
  • Luc 9y ago
    No. Galileo feared for his life more than once during decades of persecution. He was lucky to avoid torture. Read Heilbron's biography, or even just Wikipedia. This notion that Galileo insulting the pope was some sort of rhyme and reason for his persecution is wrong. It's commonly accepted that Galileo had no intention of insulting the pope, and the pope didn't take it as an insult (Heilbron goes into much detail) . There is some minor evidence involving the rumour that someone suggested to the pope that it looked bad, but this is not at all the central reason for his persecution. Did you get this from the Dava Sobel book? It's takes an awful license with history. Her Longitude book is the same, it's just wrong in so many aspects while presenting itself as accurate.