“Was Galileo a Unitarian?”
Service for the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of
Fredericksburg, Virginia
December 6, 2009
the Rev. Jennie Barrington, Interim Minister
Opening Words [Albert Einstein quotes]:
“The cosmic religious experience is the strongest force and the noblest driving force
behind scientific research” and
“Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind.”
The morning reading: Galileo’s Letter to Benedetto Castelli, a mathematics
professor at the University of Pisa, offering his ideas concerning the
relationship of science and Scripture (excerpt) December 21, 1613:
....As therefore, the Holy Scriptures in many places not only admit but actually
require a different explanation for what seems to be the literal one, it seems to me
that they ought to be reserved for the last place in mathematical discussions…..[I]t
was necessary, [] in Holy Scripture, in order to accommodate itself to the
understanding of the majority, to say many things which apparently differ from the
precise meaning. Nature, on the contrary, is inexorable and unchangeable, and
cares not whether her hidden causes and modes of working are intelligible to the
human understanding or not, and never deviates on that account from her
prescribed laws…..Who will set bounds to man's understanding? Who can assure us
that everything that can be known in the world is already known? …..I am inclined
to think that the authority of Holy Scripture is intended to convince men of those
truths which are necessary for their salvation, and which being far above man's
understanding cannot be made credible by any learning, or any other means than
revelation by the Holy Spirit. But that the same God has endowed us with senses,
reason, and understanding, does not permit us to use them.....that it seems to me I
am not bound to believe, especially concerning those sciences about which the Holy
Scriptures contain only small fragments and varying conclusions; and this is precisely
the case with astronomy, of which there is so little that the planet[s] are not even all
enumerated....
Galileo Galilei; [Source: Karl Von Gebler, Galileo Galilei, p. 46-48 (1879)]
1
the Morning Sermon:
We are not the center of the universe– The sun is.
We are not the most important thing in all of creation– We are marginal.
The seers of old were not right about everything– And neither are we.
We have much to learn.
The earth is not fixed, as upon a firm foundation– It moves around the sun, and it
rotates, as well. The universe is in motion, planets pass by each other with no
regard for us and our world. Times change, humanity progresses, seasons end, life
is in flux, truth is relative. We have much to learn.
That’s what Copernicus said, though he dared not publish it in his lifetime.
Kepler agreed, and he wrote to Galileo about it all. Galileo heard about a new toy
called a spyglass which, weak and fuzzy though it was, could magnify images and
lessen distances. Galileo made one for himself, a thousand times better than the
toy spyglasses of that time. Then he turned his telescope to the sky. Thank God he
did. Of what Galileo saw, through his telescope, he wrote, in his book, The Starry
Messenger:
“I have seen stars in myriads, which have never been seen before, and which
surpass the old, previously known, stars in number more than ten times. But that
which will excite the greatest astonishment by far, and which indeed especially
moved me to call the attention of all astronomers and philosophers is this, namely,
that I have discovered four planets, neither known nor observed by any one of the
astronomers before my time.”
This is the beginning of the winter holidays season-- with their accompanying
icons, lights, and other symbols. Those symbols are being fought over in many
towns and cities in the nation-- some citizens wanting precious symbols to be
displayed in front of courthouses, or on town commons, or in other public areas-some citizens vigorously objecting to such displays. Yet what I always think we can
all agree on at this time of year is the wonder, awe, and delight that comes from
looking up at the stars. There’s nothing else quite like looking up at a blanket of
twinkling stars on a December night. We should remember to do that this winter.
And when we remember to do that, the man we have to thank is Galileo.
Four hundred years ago, Galileo began pushing the envelope in the fields of
science and religion. He raised questions people are still debating and struggling
with today. Looking at the ways he was both a scientist and a person of faith
simultaneously can inform our search for truth today, helping us to make up our
own minds about the sources of religious authority we put our faith in.
2
Galileo believed that science and religion did not have to be in conflict with
each other, and I agree. I have been inspired by Galileo since I was a small child.
The scientific experiments he did back then can be repeated by any of us today,
even by children. There is a sense of play about them which has not faded with the
ages. But, as well, there are two modern folk songs about Galileo– one by “the
Indigo Girls,” [words and music by Emily Saliers], the other by a singer-songwriter
named Ellis Paul. In the first, the Indigo Girls sing, “Galileo’s head was on the block;
his crime was looking up at the truth.” They then ask:
“How long till my soul gets it right?
Can any human being ever reach that kind of light?
I call on the resting soul of Galileo;
king of night vision, king of insight.”
Then they sing:
“I'm not making a joke; you know me
I take everything so seriously.
Shall we wait for the time till all souls get it right?
In my lifetime I'm still not right...”
They close with:
“I offer thanks to those before me
[but] how long till my soul gets it right?
Can any human being ever reach the highest light?
--except for Galileo --God rest his soul–
How long till we reach the highest light?
How long, how long, how long?”
Ellis Paul’s folk song is called, “Did Galileo Pray?” He repeats the phrase over
and over, but does not necessarily answer the question. So I think he is urging us to
ask it for ourselves– In what ways was Galileo religious? What was good and noble
in Galileo’s beliefs and faiths, which could serve as guidance for us, today? Ellis Paul
sings:
When he looked into a starry sky upon Jupiter
with its cold moons making their weary rounds...
3
He found the truth when a lie was what was demanded–
And when the judges asked him pointedly
He said, “Don’t tell me, tell Copernicus–
The sun is at the core of us–
The Church, the Pope can’t deny the Milky Way.”
And every flower that’s followed a sun
has known all along what god has done.
They whisper truth as the seasons each give way.
And [Galileo] said, “Don’t shoot the messenger– Believe.”
The story of Galileo’s search for truth, and persecution for speaking and
writing it, inspired those folk singers, and their songs have inspired me. But my
initial inspiration for this sermon came from something my world religions professor
at seminary used to say about Galileo. My teacher used to say, if I may use plain
language here, that what really blew Galileo’s mind was not how vast the universe
was, but how small we and our planet are by comparison. Galileo was in awe of
that, and it humbled him. When a person’s source of spiritual inspiration humbles
them, it can cause them to be more kind, respectful, honest, and joyful in their
interactions with all people, all life forms, all the earth. Galileo’s sense of awe and
wonder helped him to develop all those things in his relationship and his life
choices. Through his telescope, Galileo learned of mountains on our moon, of
spots on the sun, and he discovered four of the moons around Jupiter. He also
proved that Copernicus and Kepler were right: we are not the center of the
universe, the sun is. We are marginal, we are in motion, and we have much to
learn. This view, that everything in the universe does not revolve around the earth
and the human race, was a complete reversal of conventional wisdom and
traditional Christian beliefs. By believing that the sun is central, and not us, by
stating that and teaching it and publishing it, Galileo turned the world inside out.
This truth meant that Aristotle was wrong, and that the Bible could not be taken
literally. The Catholic Church, having the most to lose, declared this view a heresy.
Anyone professing to believe it could be tried by the Inquisition, tortured, and
killed. When it came to developing one’s one beliefs by discussing them openly and
testing them out, the stakes really were that high.
Many people have since thought, then, that Galileo would have wanted math
and science to be separate from religion and the Church– Many people have since
thought that Galileo must have believed that the two could not exist harmoniously
in the same person. But when I looked at what the man Galileo was like, I found
4
that that was not the case. He was a scientist and mathematician, arguably the
greatest of his day. And he was also deeply inspired religiously. He considered
himself a good and devote Catholic. To Galileo, there was no conflict between
science and religion– One could practice science and gain inspiration in church–
The two could feed each other’s development and growth.
As Unitarian Universalists, we strive to honor and incorporate the best of all
religious thought in the great religions and philosophies of the world. Yet how are
we to discern which of the many various religious belief systems are worth of our
honor? One of the best ways to judge is to look at whether those religious beliefs
humble their followers, causing them to develop into kinder, more respectful,
honest, and joyful people. Consider these contemporary quotes about the stars by
Carl Sagan, which incorporate both science and a spiritual sense of humility and
awe:
“The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations
of the Cosmos stir us– there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint
sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height. We know we are
approaching the greatest of mysteries.”
“We embarked on our cosmic voyage with a question first framed in the childhood
of our species, and in each generation asked anew with undiminished wonder:
What are the stars? Exploration is in our nature. We began as wanderers, and we
are wanderers still. We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic
ocean. We are ready at last to set sail for the stars.”
“We are made of star stuff. For the most part, atoms heavier than hydrogen were
created in the interiors of stars and then expelled into space to be incorporated into
later stars. The Sun is probably a third-generation star.”
“We are star stuff which has taken its destiny into its own hands. The loom of time
and space works the most astonishing transformations of matter.”
“We are a way for the universe to know itself.”
Galileo said, “The Bible shows the way to go to heaven, not the way the
heavens go.” And he never wanted to break away from the Catholic Church. As
my theologian friend, Derek Michaud, commented to me in an e-mail, he wrote: “I
think that religion and science only conflict because people assume that both are
concerned with the same thing. [They are not.] Science answers ‘how;’ religion
answers ‘why.’ Most people think that one or the other should be adequate for both
questions (assuming that there is only one truth) which is in itself a sort of religious
idea.” [He went on to say that] “I personally have no problem with science until it
5
tries to answer religious questions. It’s just not suited for it, and neither is religion
suited to calculate the atomic weight of hydrogen.” Of Galileo’s beliefs and
convictions, Derek wrote: “I think Galileo was more a true Protestant than a
heathen scientist. I think he believed that the Roman Church didn’t have the final
say in all matters, and that a reasonable person could determine bits of truth
themselves. It’s possible that he didn’t see religion (in the sense of personal
spirituality) as in conflict with science, but rather that the Church was opposed to
science (which it was).” [He closed by saying] “I think maybe this difference
between the church and religion (which didn’t exist much before Galileo’s time)
marks the modern (as in Western and Protestant) approach to both, and that this
separation was probably the only way to save religion from the abuses of the
Church.”
So the way my friend Derek describes Galileo and his beliefs, Galileo could
easily have been a forerunner of early Unitarianism– a devote Christian who
simultaneously believed in the right of all people to engage in their own personal
search for truth, to read and interpret scripture themselves, and to openly debate
the conventional wisdom of the day. I think Derek is right in that regard: Galileo
was more like a true Protestant than an orthodox Catholic. But in Galileo’s time,
everyone was still literally hammering out what it meant to be a Protestant, and
what the costs of being one were. People simply did not have the freedom of
religious affiliation then that we have today. We have Martin Luther, Galileo, and
our Unitarian ancestors to thank for the many choices and freedoms we now have,
to explore a wide array of belief systems.
The book which got Galileo in so much trouble with the Catholic Church was
called, The Dialogue. In it, three fictional characters debate openly about, among
many other things, the two views of the universe, and whether the earth or the sun
is at the center. The Catholic Church found that Galileo’s book did not present
strongly enough that its view was the correct one. So Galileo was dragged before
the Inquisition, cross-examined, and accused of heresy. The word, “heretic,”
however –it is always important to remember– literally means, “to choose.”
Galileo’s intent was to inform people, so that they would have freedom of choice.
He narrowly escaped being tortured and killed, in large part because he had
become so famous, well-liked, and highly-respected. Many of the Cardinals around
the Pope worked tirelessly to save Galileo’s life. In the end, Galileo was forced to
recant his belief in the Copernican view of the universe, and sentenced to house
arrest for the rest of his life. The confession which he was handed and ordered to
recite contained two clauses which he refused to say. One suggested that he had
6
lapsed in his behavior as a good Catholic; the other, that he had acted deceitfully in
getting his book published. Neither were true, he protested, and those clauses
were stricken from what he was required to recite. To his family, friends, and
colleagues, Galileo maintained that he had committed no crime. He wrote:
“I have two sources of perpetual comfort... first, that in my writings there cannot
be found the faintest shadow of irreverence toward the Holy Church; and second,
the testimony of my conscience, which only I and God in Heaven thoroughly know.
And [God] knows that in this cause for which I suffer, though many might have
spoken with more learning, none, not even the ancient Fathers, have spoken with
more piety or with greater zeal for the Church than I.”
We are not the center of the universe, the sun is. And, so, the center of our
Fellowship is not, and should not be, the minister, nor any one member, nor
group– Nor should it be our city, our state, nor the United States, nor even the
human race. At the center of our universe is a larger light. And so must the center
of our Fellowship be the larger light of a higher truth and a greater good than we
know today. We must stretch ourselves to broaden our vision in searching for that
truth and creating that justice. May our “telescopes” be the best words and
insights, art and music, quiet prayers and lively debates, that we can find and
share. And grateful to the innovators who came before us, may we blaze new
trails for future “heretics” like Galileo, who will one day discover new truths which
we cannot now imagine.
Parting Words [from, The Once and Future King, by T.H. White; Merlyn’s words to
young King Arthur]:
“The best thing for being sad, [replied Merlyn] is to learn something. That is the
only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you
may lie awake at night listening to the disorder in your veins, ...you may see the
world around you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honor trampled in the
sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then– to learn. Learn why the
world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never
exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never
dream of regretting. Learning is the thing for you.”
7