GALILEO AND THE CHURCH

— To Mr. Arnold Lunn's fine letter I would request you to add my quota. In answer to the sceptic Einstein's claims, perhaps Huxley's findings on the condemnation of Galileo may be of interest. They are : I. What precisely is thought to be the importance for man's life on this earth dependent upon whether the earth goes round the sun or vice versa ? 2. What Gospel of hope about the past or for the future is supposed to lie in the doctrine of evolution by natural selection that makes its advocates so passionate for its acceptance ? Is it because they think it dispenses with God, or that it guarantees human progress by a law of automatic necessity ? 3. Whereas the enemies of the Catholic Church can be told on the contrary, that it was a Catholic priest named Copernicus who put forward, earlier than Galileo, and uncoildernned, the supposed revolutionary astronomical theory called after him. And instead of confining himself to science, Galileo wanted to pose as an interpreter of the Scriptures—here he conflicted with the Church—busides Galileo never succeeded in proving his ideas. It must also be remembered that in an age when heresies on the Bible were swarming, the attitude of Galileo aroused the suspicions of Catholic theologians. His friends, Cardinal Bellarrnine and the great astronomer Fr. Grienberger, advised him several times to find scientific proofs for his theories and leave the Bible alone. H. P. O'SHAUGHNESSY, B.Sc. Askeaton, Bromley, near Guildford, Surrey.