Q&A: Copernicus's Church of Science
Copernicus's Church of Science
Question
The Rabbi writes in the first book of the trilogy that Copernicus's view is merely a paradigm and not a scientific finding. The Rabbi doesn't stop there, but attacks those who mock believers for holding the opposite view. The Rabbi's claim is that both these and those are the words of the living God.
I didn't understand why Copernicus changed nothing, since the earth and the sun are not the only things in our universe, and therefore the question of who moves and who stands still has meaning relative to the other stars. You can still look at it as if the whole universe moves relative to the earth, but it seems to me quite clear that this is not what Copernicus's opponents were claiming. It's quite clear that what they meant was that the sun revolves around the earth even if we relate to the other stars as the reference point. And that is exactly what the ridicule is about.
Answer
You are mistaken. Even when there are many more stars, one can always place the origin of the coordinate system at the sun or at the earth. These two positions are completely equivalent, and there is no truth or falsehood here. At most, you would say that the sun revolves around the earth and the other stars follow a complex and complicated path.
Discussion on Answer
I explained.
You absolutely can say that, but it's quite clear that this was not the Church's intention when it rejected Copernicus's theory. It's also quite clear that if the plain meaning of the Hebrew Bible really was that the sun is the one that moves, that still isn't what was meant. So I didn't understand what exactly the ridicule is about.