In response to Lyn Miles's post: the statement that the belief that the
earth moves around the sun is "non-Biblical" is not entirely accurate.
At the time of Galileo's trial, it was the Church's interpretation of
certain passages of the Bible that led to this erroneous belief. It is
fairly clear now that that interpretation was in error; more accurate
methods of interpretation argue that the Bible does not claim the sun
moves around the earth. A more correct statement would be that "Galileo
was convicted of the non-orthodox belief . . . ."

John

On Tuesday, March 1, 2005, at 12:43  PM, Lyn Miles wrote:

> UTC Community,
>
> Galileo was tried and convicted of the non-Biblical teaching that the
> earth
> moved around the sun in 1633. As Galileo, and others before him who
> were
> killed for teaching science, learned, it takes time for people to
> accept new
> scientific discoveries.
>
> Now, several centuries later, all the creationists I know do not
> dispute the
> "heresy" that the earth revolves around the sun, and Pope John Paul II
> has
> even declared, for 1.1 billion Catholics worldwide, that evolution is a
> fact.
>
> Other "believers" will need more proof from science before they accept
> evolution--I count some among them as my friends--but I suspect they
> will
> gradually change also. Human evolution has grown in acceptance over
> the last
> 150 years to about 50% in the U.S., which actually lags behind other
> developed nations which have about 75-80% acceptance.
>
> A factor here is educational level. In the U.S. acceptance of human
> evolution is about 70-80% among those with advanced degrees, in
> contrast to
> 40% or less among those with high school or less education, or who
> live in
> the South. Tennessee is not known as the "Education State," and while
> we
> continue to fall behind Georgia and North Carolina in educational
> level,
> economic development, and jobs, we can always have some more Scopes
> Monkey
> Trials, or legislation purporting to advocate academic freedom, but
> actually
> restricting it, if we want.
>
> Regarding evolution, besides radiocarbon testing, we have several other
> lines of evidence. Life is based on a genetic code of four base
> pairs-individual creation would not require this, but it is consistent
> with
> life forms evolving from earlier forms. Great apes share 99% of our
> genetic
> code: human chromosome 2 is two ape chromosomes end on end.
>
> Why would the second most intelligent life forms on earth share so
> much of
> our DNA, blood types, behaviors, and culture? Their DNA could be based
> on 6
> base codes, entirely different codes-or no codes at all, if we were all
> separately created. Vestigial organs in the human body replicate our
> evolutionary path from earlier life forms-would a creator put them
> there to
> make it "look like" evolution? The human fossils we find in different
> layers
> of the earth make sense-the older ones found in deeper layers look more
> primitive and apelike-if things were just randomly tossed about by one
> Flood
> they would not be distributed that way.
>
> I do not tell my students what to believe; I respect all religious
> beliefs
> that do not violate human rights, and I applaud our diversity on this
> campus. But, I require my students to understand what evidence
> anthropologists have uncovered about human evolution, and how we reason
> about that evidence.
>
> When well-meaning people complain or suggest that "both sides" be
> presented
> in our anthropology and biology classes, a serious point is missed:
> evolution and creationism are two different ways of knowing. Although
> science is based on assumptions that the world is knowable, ordered,
> and has
> some consistent processes over the millennia, evolution is based on
> empirical evidence about how the world works, including atomic
> processes for
> dating materials; similarities in DNA, culture, anatomy, and behavior
> with
> great apes; fossil evidence, etc. When new evidence is discovered, as
> it was
> recently with bipedal apes from Spain 13 million years ago, and a new
> species of humans, 3 ft tall, from Indonesia 12 thousand years ago,
> science
> changes its perspective, and accommodates to the evidence in new
> evolutionary scenarios.
>
> Creationism is based on the received knowledge of religious
> interpretations-the problem is whose version and interpretation of the
> Bible
> from which of several thousand fragments, translations, and Books?
> Whose
> creation myth shall we use? Those from fundamentalist Christians,
> Hindus or
> Muslims, or my own Native American Abenaki creation myth of Ozeehozo?
>
> Nearly each year, a bill is entered into the Tennessee legislature that
> would require teaching creationism, or possibly send professors to
> jail much
> as we did John Scopes in Dayton, TN in the 1920's. So far these bills
> have
> been defeated, as I hope the present one seeking to actually limit
> "academic
> freedom" will be as well.
>
> As the professor on campus who teaches human evolution every semester,
> I
> would be honored to stand with Mr. Scopes, or with Galileo, for the
> right to
> use human reason to understand the world and avoid the tyranny of any
> religious group, not just fundamentalists. Just remember to bring to
> me in
> prison, great Italian food and good Tuscan wine. Galileo, "prende
> qualcosa
> da bere" (would you like to have a drink)? Salute!
>
> Galileo was forced to recant in 1633 (see below), but under his breath
> he
> said "and yet it does move" referring to the earth revolving around
> the sun,
> and the Church's insistence that it didn't. Well, people, . . it does.
>
> Galileo's words:
>
> "I, Galileo Galilei, son of the late Vincenzio Galilei of Florence,
> aged 70
> years, tried personally by this court, and kneeling before You, the
> most
> Eminent and Reverend Lord Cardinals, Inquisitors-General throughout the
> Christian Republic against heretical depravity, having before my eyes
> the
> Most Holy Gospels, and laying on them my own hands; I swear that I have
> always believed, I believe now, and with God's help I will in future
> believe
> all which the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church doth hold, preach, and
> teach...
>
> I abjure with sincere heart and unfeigned faith, I curse and detest
> the said
> errors and heresies, and generally all and every error and sect
> contrary to
> the Holy Catholic Church. And I swear that for the future I will
> neither say
> nor assert in speaking or writing such things as may bring upon me
> similar
> suspicion; and if I know any heretic, or one suspected of heresy, I
> will
> denounce him to this Holy Office, or to the Inquisitor and Ordinary of
> the
> place in which I may be...
>
> In Rome, at the Convent della Minerva, this 22nd day of June, 1633"
>
>
>
> H. Lyn Miles, Ph.D.
> UC Foundation Professor of Anthropology
> University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
> 615 McCallie Avenue
> Chattanooga, TN 37403 USA
> 423-425-4440 Email: [log in to unmask]
>