June 22, 1633

Posted on June 22, 2020 by Joel Byers

On June 22, 1633, Pope Urban VIII forced Galileo Galilei to recant his view that the Earth orbits the Sun. Why did Galileo recant? Because he didn’t want to die. At that time the Church had their own courts, and police, and most importantly, executioners. Don’t get mad at Galileo, he did what he had to do to draw another breath. The Church did eventually admit it was wrong about the Copernican Earth/Sun model and apologized about what it did to Galileo, 359 years later! Pope John Paul II had to clean up Urban VIII mess. I guess a late apology is better than no apology at all.

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About Joel Byers

Born in North Georgia and educated at some very fine public institutions. Real education started after graduating from college and then getting married and raising two boys. Has the ability to see the funny and absurd in most things and will always remark on it, even if it means getting the stink-eye from his victims.
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