Week+3+Thursday

Everyone knows Galileo as the foremost advocate to the heliocentric theory of the solar system. He is the hero of in the movement which pits science against religion, challenging the ideas set forth by the church. Yet after having read his abjuration, I seem to be hesitant in calling him any sort of champion of science. Why after years of battling and remaining true to his beliefs would Galileo recant at the last possible moment? Would it not be nobler to die still standing for truth and personal integrity? I imagined him as John Proctor from __The Crucible__, angry with his public confession, and finally retracting his false declaration of guilt. But Galileo doesn’t do this and fades away from the public eye living in recluse. His ideas leave with him as the Church buries any achievements he had made and the population acknowledges his confession. To die at the stake would have possibly been a stronger blow at the Church. The Church on the other hand had wrongly made it a huge deal to suppress one man’s views. Had Galileo died supporting his scientific views, the church would have suffered. This would stir up the masses as to why the Church would kill a man for an opposing belief and it would follow to uncover truth in this theory that the sun stood at the center of the planets. But in the end, when Galileo could have chosen to die for truth, he isn’t so lofty and chooses to live with a lie.