Jack Havig and Robert Anderson discuss time travel which, according to scientific theory, is impossible because, among other things, it violates conservation of energy. Anderson quotes:
"'E pur si muove.'" (p. 46)
See:
Havig echoes Everard that Galileo did not say it and adds that he did not drop weights from the Tower of Pisa either. Time travel fiction can impart historical information, particularly the Time Patrol series.
3 comments:
Nevertheless, it -does- move... 8-).
I think the Inquisitors were moved by a subconscious realization that religion was common sense when a motionless earth was the center of a tiny universe and only 6000 years old.
When you know the uniuverse is 13.7 billion years old and that we are a moving flyspeck on the fringe of one of hundreds of millions of galaxies, things become different...
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Different and more awesome. But first I would argue that as long ago as the author of Psalm 8 believers in God had some intimation of the splendor and vastness of the universe. And that Psalm also teaches that, despite our insignificance, the Creator of the stars care enough about men to make them littles less than the angels. A point Christ reiterated by declaring we are worth more than many sparrows.
And the Church has never been opposed to science as such, as the literally hundreds or even thousands of Catholic scientists shows (many of the clergy). Galileo's problems began when he mixed theology into his astronomical speculations and made bitter enemies among other astronomers.
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment