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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 3 page overview of the book by Jerome J. Langford. This paper points out that it was actually Galileo’s peers and the universities themselves that were initially the most taken aback by Galileo’s astronomical findings. Bibliography lists 2 sources.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: AM2_PPgalileochurch.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
accounts of the conflict that occurred between Galileo and the status quo when Galileo announced his astronomical findings largely repudiated what had been taught for generations. Interestingly, most that
consider this conflict point the finger of blame at the Catholic Church for being the primary persecutor of Galileo. Langford (1998), however, contends that the Church was, at least
initially, more receptive to Galileos findings than was Galileos own peers and the universities themselves! Astronomy, after all, was a controversial topic in Galileos time, a topic where academics
argued endlessly about such things as the nature of the moon and its and the earths relationship to the sun. Many in Galileos day, in fact, were more resentful
on his input on this topic than they were receptive to it. Interestingly, Galileo was actually a relative newcomer to astronomy and the
debates surrounding it. He had worked tirelessly to perfect the newly-invented telescope not because he intended to use it to refute what the world thought about their universe but
rather because he recognized that the commercial success of the telescope would rest with its utilization with merchant and military men and that this success could mean tremendous wealth and
prestige for Galileo (Maran and Marschall, 2009). Galileo was, after all, a mathematics professor, not an astronomer. He turned his
telescope to the heavens largely only by chance but what he found there was astounding not just to him but to society as a whole. The heavenly bodies were
not "perfect, changeless orbs of divine substance" like Aristotle had taught (Maran and Marschall, 2009, p. 29). The moon had surface features that were, in fact, very similar to
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