Just about everyone knows the story of Galileo’s struggle against the intellectuals and clergy of his time, particularly with Pope Urban VIII, his onetime friend. Hal Hallman points out in his Great Feuds in Science another way Galileo’s contemporaries fought his science in their attempt to preserve the intellectual status quo. He writes,
“Others simply refused to look. One of the scientists who boycotted the telescope was Professor Giulo Libri. Upon this good man’s death…Galileo suggested that although Libri would not look at the celestial objects while on Earth, perhaps he would take a view of them on his way to heaven” (10).*
All of us are like Professor Libri when we close our minds to new ways of looking. His refusal to look through the telescope to see, for example, that the moon was not a perfect celestial body, but was rather a small planet-like object with valleys and mountains, is much like the refusal of anyone to consider someone else’s political, economic, social, or family point of view.
There are “telescopes” out there that all of us at times refuse to use. What are we afraid of seeing?
*Hellman, Hal, Great Feuds in Science. New York. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1998.
“Others simply refused to look. One of the scientists who boycotted the telescope was Professor Giulo Libri. Upon this good man’s death…Galileo suggested that although Libri would not look at the celestial objects while on Earth, perhaps he would take a view of them on his way to heaven” (10).*
All of us are like Professor Libri when we close our minds to new ways of looking. His refusal to look through the telescope to see, for example, that the moon was not a perfect celestial body, but was rather a small planet-like object with valleys and mountains, is much like the refusal of anyone to consider someone else’s political, economic, social, or family point of view.
There are “telescopes” out there that all of us at times refuse to use. What are we afraid of seeing?
*Hellman, Hal, Great Feuds in Science. New York. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1998.
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