Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei discussed the problem of interpreting biblical passages with regard to scientific discoveries In a Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina. What motivated him to write this letter was the issue of science against physical proof in the Bible. Galileo’s opposers valued opinions and past beliefs more than truth, because of this view he believed arguments against him were focused on incompatibility with the Bible rather than oppositions to the validity of his science.

In the letter he writes “I think in the first place that it is very pious to say and prudent to affirm that the holy Bible can never speak untruth- whenever it’s true meaning is understood. But I believe nobody will deny that it is often very abstruse, and may say things which are quite different from what it’s bare words signify” (p77). This is saying that he isn’t saying that the Bible is wrong in anyway, but it would be foolish to say that its interpretations should be exact from the basic words used in the Bible. Galileo