Tim O’Neill, blogger at History for Atheists, offers a compendium of the Great Myths, including the warfare thesis myths on science and religion, a sure seller among the half-educated. Consider, for example, The Great Myths 6: Copernicus’ Deathbed Publication [on Earth as orbiting the Sun]:
In a 2014 blog post full of typical historical howlers, new atheist grumpy uncle PZ Myers sneered at a mention of Copernicus as a “Catholic astronomer”, snarling “[Copernicus] delayed publication out of fear; only saw his ideas in print on his deathbed [and his] book was prohibited by the Catholic Church in 1616”. And just a few weeks ago in an error-filled article rehearsing the hoary myth of Giordano Bruno as a martyr for reason, the atheist blogger Rick Snedeker also repeated the deathbed publication story…
Now, just a smidgen of the reality:
To begin with Copernicus definitely did not keep his ideas secret at all. He not only discussed them widely with his continent-wide circle of friends and compatriots, but around 1512 he also wrote an eight chapter summary of his theory – the so-called Commentariolus – which then circulated in unpublished form among interested astronomers and mathematicians. He seems to have sent a copy to the Cracow cartographer and historian Bernard Wapowski and it is this copy that probably found its way into the library of Matthew of Miechów, where its appearance in that library’s catalogue in 1514 is the first recorded mention of Copernicus’ theory. Copernicus’ friend and supporter, Bishop Tiedemann Giese of Culm, was almost certainly one of those who circulated the Commentariolus and he seems to have either sent a copy or at least written about the theory to the great Humanist scholar, Erasmus of Rotterdam – though another mathematician in Cracow, Johannes Broscius, later described Erasmus’ reception of the thesis as “temperate”.
Audiences in Rome, on the other hand, were rather more enthusiastic. In 1533 the German scholar and theologian Johann Albrecht Widmanstadt (or Widmannstetter) was serving as a secretary to Pope Clement VII and was invited by the pope to give a lecture on Copernicus’ theory. Widmanstadt gave at least one lecture (or it may have been a series) in the Vatican gardens for the pope and leading members of the Curia and Papal court, including Cardinal Franciotto Orsini, Cardinal Giovanni Salviati, the Bishop of Viterbo Giampietro Grassi and the papal physician Matteo Corte. The pope was fascinated by the theory and rewarded Widmanstadt, who was a famous orientalist and Grecophile, with a precious manuscript of Alexander of Aphrodisias’s De sensu et sensibili, with Widmanstadt proudly inscribing the circumstances in which he received this gift in its front pages… Tim O’Neill, “The Great Myths 6: Copernicus’ Deathbed Publication” at History for Atheists
O’Neill plans to update the series every two or three months. So far:
The Great Myths 1: The Medieval Flat Earth
The Great Myths 2: Christmas, Mithras and Paganism
The Great Myths 3: Giordano Bruno was a Martyr for Science
The Great Myths 4: Constantine, Nicea and the Bible
The Great Myths 5: The Destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria
The Great Myths 6: Copernicus’ Deathbed Publication
Should be very handy. At one time, it would take time to sort through all the rubbish to get actual facts on these topics. Today, there is little excuse for retailing the myths, unless the purpose is just to tell an inert audience what it too easily believes.
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See also: What Copernicus really thought. Not your usual lecture-room platitude
Copernicus was a canon. Roughly speaking, he was a similar to a monk, required to pray and sing the Psalms daily.
Liberal myths are never wrong; they’re incredibly wrong. This is one of them.
A more widely believed, and deeply entrenched, myth than the myth that Copernicus did not openly discuss his theory out of fear of the Catholic Church, is the myth that the Copernican model, and/or heliocentric model, is undeniably true.
Specifically, contrary to the popularly held belief that the Copernican principle has rendered any belief in the special status of the earth in this universe, and for humanity in particular, null and void,,,
,,contrary to that popularly held belief, the fact of the matter is that the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR), General Relativity, and Quantum Mechanics have all now overturned the Copernican principle and/or the principle of mediocrity as being a valid principle in science.
First off, there are now found to be anomalies in the CMBR that strangely line up with our own solar system and earth.
At the 13:55 minute mark of this following video, Max Tegmark, an atheist who specializes in this area of study, finally admits, post Planck 2013, that the CMBR anomalies do indeed line up with the earth and solar system
Max Tegmark is not the only expert in this area to change his mind concerning the “Axis of Evil”. Here are some pre and post Planck comments that reflect this change in attitude among experts concerning the “Axis of Evil”
And here is an animated video clip that explains these CMBR “anomalies” very clearly:
Of related note:
In regards to General Relativity, in the 4 dimensional spacetime of Einstein’s General Relativity, we find that each 3-Dimensional point in the universe is central to the expansion of the universe,,,
,,, and since any 3-Dimensional point can be considered central in the 4-Dimensional space time of General Relativity, then, as the following articles make clear, it is now left completely open to whomever is making a model of the universe to decide for themselves what is to be considered central in the universe,,,
Einstein himself stated, The two sentences: “the sun is at rest and the earth moves” or “the sun moves and the earth is at rest” would simply mean two different conventions concerning two different CS [coordinate systems].”
Fred Hoyle and George Ellis add their considerable weight here in these following two quotes:
As Einstein himself noted, there simply is no test that can be performed that can prove the earth is not the center of the universe:
Here are a few more references that drives this point home:
Even Stephen Hawking himself, who once claimed that we are just chemical scum on an insignificant planet, stated that it is not true that Copernicus proved Ptolemy wrong,,, the real advantage of the Copernican system is simply that the equations of motion are much simpler in the frame of reference in which the sun is at rest.”
Even individual people, as the following article makes clear, can be considered to be central in the universe according to the four-dimensional space-time of General Relativity,,,
,,, In fact, when Einstein first formulated both Special and General relativity, he gave a hypothetical observer a privileged frame of reference in which to make measurements in the universe.
Whereas, on the other hand, in Quantum Mechanics it is the measurement itself that gives each observer a privileged frame of reference in the universe. As the following article states, “It proves that measurement is everything. At the quantum level, reality does not exist if you are not looking at it,”,,,
Moreover, Steven Weinberg himself, an atheist, noted that in quantum mechanics, in what is termed ‘the instrumentalist approach’, humans are brought into the laws of physics at the most fundamental level instead of humans being a result of the laws of physics as Darwinists had falsely imagined us to be.
Needless to say, Atheists, (including Weinberg himself), don’t like the “instrumentalist approach” of quantum mechanics since it, by letting free will into the laws of nature at the most fundamental level., directly undermines the Darwinian worldview from within. Yet, the “instrumentalist approach”, in spite of how atheists may personally feel about it, is experimentally confirmed to be true by contextuality and/or by the Kochen-Speckter Theorem.
As Anton Zeilinger states in the following video, “what we perceive as reality now depends on our earlier decision what to measure. Which is a very, very, deep message about the nature of reality and our part in the whole universe. We are not just passive observers.”
Because of such evidence as this in quantum mechanics, Richard Conn Henry, who is Professor of Physics at John Hopkins University, states “It is more than 80 years since the discovery of quantum mechanics gave us the most fundamental insight ever into our nature: the overturning of the Copernican Revolution, and the restoration of us human beings to centrality in the Universe.”
Thus, contrary to popular, and deeply entrenched, belief, humans and the earth beneath their feet are not nearly as insignificant in this universe as many people, including many Christians, have been falsely led to believe by the Copernican principle.
Moreover, on top of the overturning of the Copernican principle by both General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, in the following video physicist Neil Turok states that we live in the middle, or at the geometric mean, between the largest scale in physics and the smallest scale in physics:
And here is a picture that gets his point across very clearly:
Thus, besides the CMBR, Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity overturning of the Copernican principle, the centrality of life in the universe is also established by yet another fairly impressive angle in physics in which life is found to be at ‘the geometric mean’ or quote unquote ‘the middle’ of the universe.
There is also evidence that can be brought to bear from Chemistry, via Michael Denton, and from the fine-tuning of light for humans, via Robin Collins, that adds even more weight to overturning the Copernican principle.
Bottom line, and to sum it up, the evidence from out best theories in science directly overturn the Copernican model and restore the Earth and humanity back to their rightful place in the universe as to having very deep, and intrinsic, meaning, purpose and value.
Verse:
O’Neill is a smart guy. I used to read him on Quora.
Tim O’Neill who I discovered back in 2009 or 2010 is an honest, open minded atheist. A breed that is hard to come by these days– especially here at UD. Here is some excerpts from a review he wrote about the 2009 movie Agora, which is “based” on the historical account of the female philosopher-“scientist” Hypatia of Alexandria who lived the 4th and 5th centuries AD.
Carl Sagan is someone who popularized the Hypatia story in his TV series and book, Cosmos.
O’Neill then goes on to debunk this myth, which even though he perpetrates it Sagan didn’t create it. (It’s a “free thinker’s” myth that goes back quite a ways.)
O’Neill then goes on to quote several historical sources that discuss the political conflict at the time in more detail. He then notes:
In conclusion he remarks,
http://armariummagnus.blogspot.....rikes.html
Those are his words not mine. However, I think he is spot on. Nothing promotes good will and constructive dialogue more than intellectual honesty.
He may be an atheist, but he’s doing the Lord’s work. (Although he prefers to think of it as the muse’s work.)