Common Ground? or Down on Science?

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Audio Transcript

Dave: Do Science and Religion conflict? Has the Church been down on science?

Jeff: One author,Bruce Jakosky, wrote (in book Search for Life on Other Planets, p299), “Copernicus’ views were not embraced by the Church: the history of his persecution is well known.”

Dave: But here’s a reality Check! Archbishop Nicholas Schonberg write to Copernicus in 1536 and said:

Jeff: ” I began to have a very high regard for you… For I had learned that you had not merely mastered the discoveries of the ancient astronomers uncommonly well but had also formulated a new cosmology. In it you maintain that the earth moves; that the sun occupies the lowest, and thus the central, place in the universe… Therefore with the utmost earnestness I entreat you, most learned sir, unless I inconvenience you, to communicate this discovery of yours to scholars, and at the earliest possible moment…”

Dave: The Church’s actual stance on Copernicus’ discovery: publish that stuff!!!!!

Jeff: Copernicus even dedicated his book to the Pope.

Dave: Now, Galileo, he was persecuted.

Jeff: But note that many scientists were not only approved of by the Church, but encouraged.