To the Holy Office:
I, Galileo Galilei, tried by this court, accused for holding a false doctrine, insist that I am completely innocent. The Church is meant for acceptance and tolerance. I swear by the name of God that I am not a perpetrator, my hypothesis is no heresy but is legitimacy instead. I am here to ask the church to reassess the indictment and logic, and hope that the church can reevaluate my theory, in order for me to pursue my preaching.
I persistently refuse to abandon the truth that the Sun is the center of the universe, and Earth is merely a planet which revolves around it. This has been proved once by the Polish mathematician and astronomer Nicolas Copernicus. His calculations further inspired me to continue to explore with my telescope --the technological development driven by curiosity--and enlighten the society, to unveil the truth to the world. This idea might have contradicted to the Church's belief, but being treated as a criminal of the Holy Office is clearly not what I deserve, not what Jesus our Father asks for. I believe that our Father would always reconsider one's reasoning and if really is a mistake, would fix the error and learn from the mistake, instead inexorably believing in something so irrational. I am also here to critique the Holy Office's actions, and hope it would recapitulate the main purpose of the Church, in which that the Bible is motivation for us to explore and disperse the knowledge, not for forcing someone to believe in the false information.
I wish the court will deeply reconsider my words, in the fact that all I have been trying to do were to let the world have a better life, a life full of decency, legitimacy, and reasons instead of false, and grant me liberty in order for me to create a society with a decent theory of the universe that we yearn to understand.
I, Galileo Galilei, tried by this court, accused for holding a false doctrine, insist that I am completely innocent. The Church is meant for acceptance and tolerance. I swear by the name of God that I am not a perpetrator, my hypothesis is no heresy but is legitimacy instead. I am here to ask the church to reassess the indictment and logic, and hope that the church can reevaluate my theory, in order for me to pursue my preaching.
I persistently refuse to abandon the truth that the Sun is the center of the universe, and Earth is merely a planet which revolves around it. This has been proved once by the Polish mathematician and astronomer Nicolas Copernicus. His calculations further inspired me to continue to explore with my telescope --the technological development driven by curiosity--and enlighten the society, to unveil the truth to the world. This idea might have contradicted to the Church's belief, but being treated as a criminal of the Holy Office is clearly not what I deserve, not what Jesus our Father asks for. I believe that our Father would always reconsider one's reasoning and if really is a mistake, would fix the error and learn from the mistake, instead inexorably believing in something so irrational. I am also here to critique the Holy Office's actions, and hope it would recapitulate the main purpose of the Church, in which that the Bible is motivation for us to explore and disperse the knowledge, not for forcing someone to believe in the false information.
I wish the court will deeply reconsider my words, in the fact that all I have been trying to do were to let the world have a better life, a life full of decency, legitimacy, and reasons instead of false, and grant me liberty in order for me to create a society with a decent theory of the universe that we yearn to understand.
Galileo Galilei is justly known for many contributions to science, as well as for his persecution and confinement under the Inquisition. But among his most memorable achievements is his adaptation of a novel instrument, the telescope, with which he observed the Moon, discovered four satellites of Jupiter, resolved nebular patches into stars, observed the phases of Venus, and most importantly, proved the Earth to be geocentric.