Galileo's letter to Grand Duchess Christina?!!?

Question

What does this letter mean?!!

I know it is basically about how Galileo thinks the bible is legitimate and he thinks that the Duchess shouldn't tell people it's not true or whatever..but is that it?!

I tried to find like a new age version of this but I can't find any and the way its written is confusing! Isn't it basically just all evidence of why the Duchess should believe in the bible?!

Answer 1

Whoa -- that's a heck of a letter to interpret.....

You might have more success in obtaining multiple Yahoo Answers by re-posting under History.

I don't agree with your conclusion per se.  I believe that Galileo is defending his theories against those who say he is heretical and anti-Bible.  Galileo says Yes, the Bible is infallible.  However, the people who are trying to defame him are wrong and are using biblical passages out of context.  

This sounds stupid but it works -- read each sentence aloud.  Slowly.  Substitute simpler verbs or adjectives if you come across ones that seems too complex.  When the language gets archaic - stop your "sentence" there and then pick up in a new sentence.  But, you MUST be very careful when splitting up a sentence -- do not alter the meaning.  Work slowly one paragraph at a time.

I'll try to give an example here.  

"These men would perhaps not have fallen into such error had they but paid attention to a most useful doctrine of St. Augustine's, relative to our making positive statements about things which are obscure and hard to understand by means of reason alone.  Speaking of a certain physical conclusion about the heavenly bodies, he wrote: "Now keeping always our respect for moderation in grave piety, we ought not to believe anything inadvisedly on a dubious point, lest in favor to our error we conceive a prejudice against something that truth hereafter may reveal to be not contrary in any way to the sacred books of either the Old or the New Testament."

  

My version - These men would not have fallen into error IF they had paid attention to the useful doctrine of St. Augustine.  Which relates to our (Galileo's) statements (theories) about things which are hard to understand by means of Reason alone (the unsaid portion here is -- what about Faith?).  

In discussing physical (read scientific) conclusions about the heavenly bodies, he (Augustine) wrote: "While we hope our views are expressed with piety and moderation --  we should not believe just anything on incomplete or poor evidence.  Because, if we do believe something falsely (such as allowing extreme piety to overcome our sense of Reason) -- we may find out that this "Something" is actually proven to be true and not contrary in any way to the Bible.   (Galileo is referring to the actions of his accusers here)

Hope you have success on your project!!