1. Who should try and give the answer to…
How planets move ?
What the bible is saying ?
How the universe was made?
To describe what Galileo discovered
To explain why Galileo was silenced by the Church
To evaluate if the story of Galileo suggests that the Church is against science

2. Galileo, showed them that they couldn’t.
Usually , science and religion do not argue, because they deal with totally different topics – the physical, vs. the spiritual.
But there have been times when they did clash, because each thought the topic belonged to them…
1. Why do you think science and religion sometimes clash?
2. Give an example.
**Are they right to clash, or are they just not understanding that some things can’t be explained by science, and some things can’t be explained by religion?
In the 16th century, the Church thought it could answer scientific questions from the Bible.
Galileo, showed them that they couldn’t.

3. Galileo Galilei was a Catholic 1560’s -1650
Galileo Galilei was a Catholic 1560’s He received a very good education in a Catholic monastery, by monks, and then went to University. He became a great scientist.
One of his daughters became a nun. But he was never afraid to disagree – either with the Church, or with other scientists.
Watch the video to find out what was Galileo’s revolutionary new idea.

4. People in those days thought that the earth was at the centre of the universe, and all the other planets, including the sun, went around it.
Galileo disagreed. He said the SUN was at the centre. But he did not really have any correct proof for his theory (powerful telescopes had not yet been invented).
In Galileo’s day, everyone also followed the science of Aristotle, from Ancient Greece. Aristotle taught that the earth was the centre of the universe. Many famous philosophers and most astronomers of the time also believed this.
What would you have believed if you were living at the time of Galileo?

5. The Bible also seems to say that the earth is fixed at the centre of the universe:
“The LORD fixed the earth firmly in its place, it can never be moved”. Ps 104
“Joshua said to the sun “Sun, stand still”. And the sun stood still.” Josh 10:12
The Church was upset that Galileo seemed to go out of his way to contradict the Bible. This was a dangerous thing to do in those days, as you could get arrested and tortured as a heretic (someone who spreads false teaching about how to be saved).
The Pope told him to take back his ideas, to speak no more about them, and put him under house arrest, for the rest of his life.
Why did Galileo get in trouble with the Church? What was his theory?
Give an example of what the Bible said on this matter & how this quote would be understood to support earth-at-centre theory.
What happened to Galileo in the end?
**Why was the Church wrong, in the way that it understood the bible? What do you think?

6. Was it right to treat Galileo as a heretic?
Arrange the information on two sides, to show why
It was right to consider Galileo a rebel, and arrest him
It was wrong to consider Galileo a rebel, and he should have been believed
What is your conclusion – how should the Church have treated him? Discuss, referring to the information you have arranged. (2 for each side)

7. Draw the 2 kinds of theory – Galileo’s and Aristotles’.

8. Back in 350AD, 1000 years ago, a great Saint of the Church, St
Back in 350AD, 1000 years ago, a great Saint of the Church, St. Augustine, had taught.. “The Gospel does not say that the Lord will send you the Holy Spirit to teach you about the course of the sun and moon.’ For the Lord willed to make them Christians, not mathematicians.“ The Church should have known better than to try and insist that the Bible was good science and reliable astronomy. So why did the Church react in such a defensive way? At the time, a group of Christians called Protestants, led by Martin Luther, were breaking away from the Church, saying they had the right to interpret the Bible anyhow they liked, without listening to Church teaching. The Church felt this would lead people to believe the wrong things, and end up in hell. So they were very much against anybody who said they had their own views on the Bible. They arrested, tortured and killed such people. Galileo could have been seen as one of these “heretics”… He was lucky to only receive house arrest…
So - was the Church really anti-science?
Or was it only reacting to the Protestant threat of the time?
Draw a table with reasons to show if the Church was or was not anti-science in this situation.
Explain your view.