Wednesday, 17 February 2010

Heliocentrism vs. Geocentrism

Nowadays, when we hear of religious intolerance, most folk tend to think of Islam, forgetting that Christianity and Judaism among others have not had a terribly glorious past (or present) in their acceptance of heterodoxy.

On this day in 1600, the astronomer Giordano Bruno, was burned at the stake by the Inquisition after being found guilty of heresy.

Inspired by Copernicus, he argued for an infinite universe, with our sun as merely one of an infinite number of independent heavenly bodies. Something that we now take for granted.

Science offers us as much awe and wonderment as any religion ever can, as the espousal of the heliocentric cosmology shows.

It is the lot of humankind to forever be seeking answers to “unknowable” questions, which is why immutable dogma and superstition will always lose out to science and enlightenment.

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