Galileo Galilei’s views on religion and science were that the Bible should not be used as a source of knowledge for physical phenomena. Galileo emphasized that the scriptures were written to prevent confusion among common people about physical realities. At the time, the church-based philosophies on Aristotelian science stated that the Earth was the center of the universe. Galileo’s conflict with the church emanated from his defense of the Heliocentric model of the solar system, a philosophy proposed by Nicolaus Copernicus. The undermining of Aristotelian science signified the church’s dogma regarding the universe was wrong and would cause unrest in the theological doctrines.
Galileo had dsicoevered the changing positions of sunspot markings on the sun through his powerful telescope, confirming the monthly rotation of the sun, mountains on the moon, Jupiter satellites, and phases of Venus (McKay, Hill, Buckler, Ebrey, Beck, Crowston, & Dávila, 2014). All these inventions undermined the church’s interpretation of the Bible. To show that science and religion can coexist peacefully, Galileo wrote a letter to Duchess Christine of Lorraine arguing his philosophy to the church. Galileo shows that the skepticism of Copernicus theory is driven by the belief in the literal interpretation of the Bible. Galileo views science as an extension of the scriptures since two truths cannot contradict each other.
Galileo states that previous religious knowledge must acknowledge the new findings in the presence of scientific evidence and show they do not contradict the Bible. The philosophies that lack experiments to assert scientific truth, which also contradicts the scriptures, should be declared false, such as in the case of Aristotelian philosophy. Galileo was against the literal interpretation of the Bible as it limited the advancement of scientific knowledge. He believed that the Bible’s reference to physical realities should not be interpreted literally since the scriptures had simplified the descriptions for easy understanding. He believed reason and faith should be used concurrently in the process of discovering knowledge of the truth.
Reference
McKay, J. P., Hill, B. D., Buckler, J., Ebrey, P. B., Beck, R. B., Crowston, C. H., … & Dávila, J. (2014). A History of World Societies Volume A: To 1500. Macmillan Higher Education.