On this date, February 26, in the year of our Lord 1616, Galileo
Galilei was formerly banned by the Roman Catholic Church from teaching or defending
the view that the earth orbits the sun.
Now, I am not anti-Catholic (emphatically not) or anti-religious.
The church had its reasons, with worry that challenging this dogma would lead
to questioning all dogmas, an unstoppable process. Indeed, history showed this
fear to be justified, and the loss of dogmatic faith that had already begun then,
continues to this day. The church had reasons to fear that the baby will be
thrown out with the bathwater, an expression so vivid I’m using it despite it
being a cliché.
The thing is, four centuries later and a formal reversal of
this ban by the church itself, we still ban thinking that we fear will lead to
abuses of the social fabric and result in hurtful conduct. Only now, it is
happening in the name of freethinking.
We haven’t changed. We’re still terrified of our own species
propensity to abuse one another, and in the name of protecting us from
ourselves we fire/take-down/ban/shun uncomfortable ideas.
I know real tolerance and considered debate when I see it.
We’re not there yet.
Saluting the brave Galileos out there. You give humanity
some hope.
2 comments:
You are so right that our fears is what makes us vulnerable to making the wrong decisions.
I agree, we're not there yet. But tolerance--when I think of what it means--to endure, put up with something--I remember that we should never tolerate evil.
I think challenging beliefs is healthy. No organization should be so arrogant as to think their way of thinking is the only way and the correct way and that all other ways of thinking should be banned.
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