On January 7, 1610, Galileo turned the first telescope to the sky. He modeled it after a toy, a spyglass made by a Dutch optician. The spyglass magnified the world by three; Galileo’s telescope magnified the world by 30. The device was so crude that it seemed the most normal and childlike of actions. After all, where better to turn a telescope?
What did he see? He saw the dark age-spotted moon. He saw that the Milky Way was a tight, clustered collection of stars, too innumerable to count. He saw Jupiter had four moons. And he saw that the sun had many imperfections. His most important revelation, however, was his discovery that humans were not the center of the universe. It turned out that both the Church and Aristotle were wrong. The planets revolved around the sun.
That was a difficult, radical revelation for the human ego. So much a challenge for the egos of the time that Galileo was thrown in jail. His radical revelation cost him his freedom. He could not speak or write about what he knew. He lost his vision. And in spite of a myriad of requests for clemency, Galileo spent the last eight years of his life confined to his home. He wrote to a friend, "The universe which I with my astonishing observations and clear demonstrations had enlarged a hundred, nay, a thousandfold beyond the limits commonly seen by wise men of all centuries past, is now for me so diminished and reduced, it has shrunk to the meager confines of my body." Blind and imprisoned, he still believed in the magic that he had seen.
My son keeps asking me questions about Santa. He figured out the fallacy of flying reindeers, of space and time and the improbability of delivering presents to so many in so short of a time. At 7 though, just today he looked at me and said, "you know what mama, if it's not true, I don't want you to tell me. I still want to believe." He craves the magic of it. We all crave the magic of the flower floating on the water, of Aurora Borealis, the feeling of love, the way a song or book moves us. Once again, I think what Galileo taught us is as much a spiritual lesson as a scientific one. It a metaphor for love.
In Greek, the word “planet” means wanderer.
"The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do."
-Galileo
What did he see? He saw the dark age-spotted moon. He saw that the Milky Way was a tight, clustered collection of stars, too innumerable to count. He saw Jupiter had four moons. And he saw that the sun had many imperfections. His most important revelation, however, was his discovery that humans were not the center of the universe. It turned out that both the Church and Aristotle were wrong. The planets revolved around the sun.
That was a difficult, radical revelation for the human ego. So much a challenge for the egos of the time that Galileo was thrown in jail. His radical revelation cost him his freedom. He could not speak or write about what he knew. He lost his vision. And in spite of a myriad of requests for clemency, Galileo spent the last eight years of his life confined to his home. He wrote to a friend, "The universe which I with my astonishing observations and clear demonstrations had enlarged a hundred, nay, a thousandfold beyond the limits commonly seen by wise men of all centuries past, is now for me so diminished and reduced, it has shrunk to the meager confines of my body." Blind and imprisoned, he still believed in the magic that he had seen.
My son keeps asking me questions about Santa. He figured out the fallacy of flying reindeers, of space and time and the improbability of delivering presents to so many in so short of a time. At 7 though, just today he looked at me and said, "you know what mama, if it's not true, I don't want you to tell me. I still want to believe." He craves the magic of it. We all crave the magic of the flower floating on the water, of Aurora Borealis, the feeling of love, the way a song or book moves us. Once again, I think what Galileo taught us is as much a spiritual lesson as a scientific one. It a metaphor for love.
In Greek, the word “planet” means wanderer.
"The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do."
-Galileo
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