Challenging The Center Of The Universal Thought

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What do you do when you find out you are right? Do you go around shouting to the world about it? Your family, your friends, your co-workers? And what if they think you are wrong? Would you stake your livelihood on it? How about the very safety of your person? How far would you, or can you, actually go to prove it? Most of us are not gifted in the science of astronomy, math or physics. This is a valid question though, what do you do with the truth?

History is a graveyard of notions and truths offered, yet those who often write it are unable to question the conviction of the hearts for the very persons they are writing about. Will Galileo be in heaven? He was a devout Roman Catholic but he questioned the facts as offered at the time by those who would believe in Greek logic. The ruling papacy of the age was threatened by his “scientific” approach, leaving the man in a defensive pose for his family, his livelihood, his line in the sand for the truth.

Most of us think this man questioned whether the earth was flat vs. round, when in fact he merely wanted to scientifically question and prove the earth orbited the sun, whereas others taught the sun and planets orbited the earth. I think my notice of this today is also a lesson of humility. The religious church leaders of the time felt so threatened by scientific knowledge they went out of their way to persecute Galileo’s very character and more.

My intention is not to point fingers at historical religious leaders but rather to learn from our past mistakes. If we truly seek the truth then let’s embrace it, however it comes. The history lesson in this man’s life was that he suffered so we may not have to. While his fellow astronomers, mathematicians and philosophers were looking into windows of past knowledge; they stopped looking forward or even upwards.

Galileo challenged the notion that we were the center of the universe. Today, we must continue to challenge the same notion.