The Three Stages of Truth
“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”
- Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher
Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa in 1564. His father wanted him to become a doctor and sent him to study medicine at the University of Pisa. While there he discovered a natural talent for math, and eventually left medical school to pursue mathematics. In 1609, Galileo learned about the spyglass, a new invention helping people see distant objects by making them appear closer. This fascinated Galileo and led him engage his mathematics and engineering talents in a quest to build a more advanced spyglass. He ended up inventing the first telescope. Using the new device, Galileo became the first person to observe the Moon up close. He discovered that its surface wasn’t smooth, but actually mountainous and pitted like Earth! Continuing his astronomical research, he would use his telescope to establish that small moons circled Jupiter, and he closely observed the rings of Saturn and the phases of Venus.
Galileo’s experiments reinforced his confidence in the Copernican theory stating that all the planets, including Earth, revolve around the Sun. This view put Galileo very much in the minority. The Catholic Church strongly endorsed the “geocentric” idea that the Earth — God’s Earth…
