Re: The root of all evil? - Dawkins Documentary

"On 19 Apr 2006 07:23:18 -0700, in article
<1145456598.743251.72350@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, GreenRobe22@xxxxxxxxx
stated..."

Once upon a time a man was nearly burned at the stake for
saying the Earth was round,

I doubt this.

doubt that a man was nearly burned at the stake for saying the Earth
was round? well, it is not for you to doubt, it is an historical fact;
the man's name was Galileo, and he was brought to trial by the
inquisition, which as you may know practiced burning people at the
stake (or hanging them, or any other number of ways of killing people,
but it seems nitpicky to argue that any one form is more morally
acceptable than another)


I doubt that Galileo was nearly burned at the stake.

I do not doubt that Galileo was threatened with torture
and forced to recant and placed under house arrest. And I
most assuredly am not arguing that any of these were morally
acceptable.

But none of this had anything to do with statements about
the shape of the earth.

Some rather famous Christians of the previous centuries
quite openly and uncontroversially said that the earth was
a sphere. Just to mention three: Thomas Aquinas, Dante, and
Pope Alexander VI. None of them got in trouble for saying
that, and I am unaware of anyone who got in trouble for
saying that the earth was round.


--
---Tom S. <http://talkreason.org/articles/chickegg.cfm>
"It is not too much to say that every indication of Design in the Kosmos is so
much evidence against the Omnipotence of the Designer. ... The evidences ... of
Natural Theology distinctly imply that the author of the Kosmos worked under
limitations..." John Stuart Mill, "Theism", Part II

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: The root of all evil? - Dawkins Documentary
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    (talk.origins)
  • Re: The root of all evil? - Dawkins Documentary
    ... saying the Earth was round, ... doubt that a man was nearly burned at the stake for saying the Earth ... stake (or hanging them, or any other number of ways of killing people, ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: The root of all evil? - Dawkins Documentary
    ... saying the Earth was round, ... doubt that a man was nearly burned at the stake for saying the Earth ... stake (or hanging them, or any other number of ways of killing people, ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: The root of all evil? - Dawkins Documentary
    ... saying the Earth was round, ... doubt that a man was nearly burned at the stake for saying the Earth ... Pope Alexander VI, however, was accused in his lifetime ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: The root of all evil? - Dawkins Documentary
    ... saying the Earth was round, ... doubt that a man was nearly burned at the stake for saying the Earth ... I doubt that Galileo was nearly burned at the stake. ...
    (talk.origins)