Bones in the Mountains - The Rocks Don't Lie - page 38

the Heavenly Spheres to Pope Paul III in 1543. Unbeknownst to him, his publisher added a
groveling preface that apologized for ideas intended as hypothetical speculation rather than
fact. An anguished Copernicus only learned of this duplicity on his deathbed when he first
glimpsed his just-published topic.
Copernicus was not the only one disappointed with his topic. Ever the literalist, Luther
was appalled by the suggestion that our world was not the center of the universe. His plain-
sense understanding of scripture led him to denounce such egregious heresy. “This fool
wishes to reverse the entire science of astronomy; but sacred Scripture tells us that Joshua
commanded the sun to stand still, and not the earth.” 7 The ideas that Jerusalem was the
center of the world and that Earth was the center of the universe were solidly enshrined in
Christian doctrine. Besides, the classical theory that the Sun circled Earth seemed to ac-
count for the movement of heavenly bodies. How else could Joshua have commanded the
Sun to stand still (Joshua 10:12-13)? Over the next several centuries, Calvin's attitude of
greater flexibility in how to interpret natural phenomena helped generations of Protestants
accept scientific revelations.
Half a century later, Galileo Galilei inadvertently supported Copernicus and tested an-
other Pope's patience by pointing his newly invented telescope at Jupiter in 1610. His dis-
covery that moons circled another planet took Copernicus's hypothesis out of the realm of
speculation. If moons orbited other planets, then might not Earth itself orbit the Sun? Al-
though he prudently named Jupiter's moons after his Medici patrons, Galileo was still de-
nounced as an enemy of Christian faith.
Scholars eager to defend the Bible agreed that Galileo's findings were absurd. When he
offered doubters a chance look through his telescope, many either proclaimed it impious to
look or denounced Jupiter's tiny satellites as devilish illusions.
Turning his telescope toward the Moon, Galileo made another heretical discov-
ery—plainly visible mountains. This was a problem, for mountains were not supposed to
be there. If Earth's topography resulted from Noah's Flood or Adam's Fall, then why would
similar features scar the surface of the Moon? It made no sense for man's curse to extend
to worlds where no sinners lived.