Chapter Three:
The third chapter talks about the "Great Demotions", which are kind of like reality checks to humans. Galileo revealed one of these when he used his telescope to look into space. The Earth was not the only planet, it was of many planets. The next demotion was that the sun was in fact not at the center of the universe and it isn't "our" sun. this sun is just a star in a vast expanse of the universe and is shared by the other planets in our galaxy. Along the lines of the Milky Way is the next demotion. It was thought that our galaxy was the only one in existence, but like the other assumptions, this was proven wrong to. The Milky Way is just one of billions of insignificant galaxies in this universe. Another blow to our pride is that the Milky Way wasn't even the center of the universe. Technically speaking, there is no center of universe expansion. Humans didn't even arrive to the universe and Earth for a very long time.
Chapter Four:
It is common to comment of the beauty of a sunset. But if you really think about it, is it really a sunset? The answer is no, the sun doesn't set, but the Earth rotates enough daily to make it seem that way. Galileo is a great historic figure. He was the one to help prove the heliocentric theory right and the geocentric theory wrong. At the time, most people went by whatever the church said, and the church supported the geocentric theory. You can guess that when Galileo mad his discovery, they were not to happy. Galileo was condemned and his books forbidden to read by Christians for a long time. His discovery proposes a great religious question however, if the Bible was wrong about something, which parts of it are "divinely inspired" and which parts are "merely fallible and human" ( Pale Blue Dot, pg.42). The Bible is supposed to be a guide, but does this mean that followers could choose only some sections to follow?
The Catholic church back in the day was pretty messed up. It was amazing how they had more power than even the government. It was a shame that whenever something came along to challenge their doctrine, they tried to stamp it out rather than understand it. What's ironic is that they didn't follow their doctrine as well as they thought they were. The church leaders didn't behave like Christians at all. I'm grateful that things have changed in my religion since then.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to think of all the times humanity was so sure something was absolutely right, but we were completely wrong.
ReplyDeleteThese chapters seemed interesting, especially chapter three. I enjoyed the idea of the "reality checks". In general we humans often think the world revolves around us and we are the most important beings ever. These "checks" make it evident that we are simply lucky to exist.
ReplyDeleteWait, what there is no center of the universe, well there goes some book ideas. I find it interesting that Galileo was so ahead of his time, and that he was not afraid of risking the wrath of the authorities of the era. It is good that there is a chapter on reality checks for humans, we definitely need them!
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