A Book That Is Misrepresented

In the winter of 1609/10, Galileo Galilei turned his newly developed telescope toward the heavens and discovered four moons circling the planet Jupiter. What he saw shattered the prevailing notion that all heavenly bodies must orbit the earth. Earlier, in 1543, the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus had theorized that the planets revolve around the sun. Galileo verified that this was scientific truth.

To Catholic theologians, however, this was heresy. The church had long held that the earth was the center of the universe. This view was based on a literal interpretation of scriptures that pictured the earth as being fixed "on its foundations, unshakable for ever and ever." (Psalm 104:5, The Jerusalem Bible) Summoned to Rome, Galileo appeared before the inquisition. Subjected to rigorous examination, he was forced to recant his findings, and he spent the rest of his life under house arrest.

In 1992, some 350 years after Galileo's death, The Catholic Church finally acknowledged that he was right after all. But if Galileo was right, then was the Bible wrong?

Next time: Finding The True Sense Of Biblical Passages

A Book For All People, 1997