NATURE IS WORSHIPED: OLD AND NEW

Long before we human beings knew anything about science, our senses and everyday experience meant that we were aware of living in a world of wondrous rich variety and complexity. Most important of all, our interaction with this world was a matter of life and death. We were immediately vulnerable to disease; to hostile weather; to crop failures; or to not being able to successfully hunt or fish for food. This life and death relationship with our surroundings led to various forms of pagan religion. The importance of benign weather and many other factors outside human control, brought a belief that 'something out there' in our environment had power over our very existence. This 'something' was conceived as a god, goddess, or set of gods, that had to be seduced and satisfied so that their power could be directed to our benefit: as in Worshipping the Golden Calf in the picture left. One particular favourite conception of this 'something' was 'Mother Earth', who turned up with many different names

As time passed, humanity began to believe that these old gods didn't seem to work very well. Instead of fertility rites and human sacrifice, health came from soap and sewerage; with the need for food being satisfied by good farming and fertilizer. We couldn't control the weather, but we could build insulated homes with heating and air conditioning. As for Mother Earth, she turned out to be just one of many planets circulating the sun. Science and rationalism appeared to have disproved the old system of pagan religion with its gods and an Earth-centred universe. According to popular history, Galileo's clash with the Medieval Church was a particular turning point in this move away from Medieval superstition. But notice that phrase 'appeared to have'. Although science and rationalism are considered as a move to enlightenment and freedom from superstition, yet Science itself became unconsciously but a new form of nature worship under a new name. Let's look at a famous example:

 A Lesson from History: Galileo and the Church

This is not an attack on Galileo; after all, if you read his story, he had enough hassle from the Church of his time and I don't want to add to it. His story began around 1610 and ended with his trial and condemnation by the Roman Catholic Inquisition in 1633. He was prosecuted for his support of 'heliocentrism', i.e. that the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun; rather than the Earth being the centre of the Universe.

Galileo's study of the observations of the movements of the planets, using a new telescope, led to him supporting the heliocentric theory of Copernicus; who had also published support of the same theory over 50 years before. Galileo's discoveries were opposed by the Catholic Church and were deemed to be heretical. He was ordered to abstain from holding, teaching or defending heliocentric ideas. In 1633 Galileo was found to be a possible heretic and was sentenced to house arrest that continued until his death in 1642. Ever since that time Galileo has been portrayed, particularly by atheist scientists, as some kind of martyr for science, rationalism and enlightenment. And note the religious allusion of that word 'martyr'. Was the dispute between Galileo and the Roman Catholic Church just a new form of religion in dispute with an older one?

So in what way was Galileo's story a 'Lesson from History? Read more . . .