Many stories exist in the annals of Astronomy. They range from being truthful to apocryphal. It also depends on who tells the tale; thus their perspective and analogies. Galileo Galilei was a pious man who tried to guide his church into a new understanding of the Universe. Galileo Galilei was a heretic, philanderer and thus was placed under house arrest for his sins. These two views are vastly different; and the truth is in between these descriptions. But how do we teach this history when different adjectives, emotions become attached to people’s observations? Read this article and judge how we apply scientific methodology to our view of the Universe.
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Professor Howard Astronomy Musings 
Everyone has opinion and their own views on certain takes. Even though we can prove them wrong and show them the facts, it doesn’t necessarily have to make them believe in it. Some people grew up with these beliefs and ideas that are transferred from family members, and it’s not easy to just change away from what you’re taught. Like Galileo who was trying to lead the church in the right direction, but he had to go against his community which made people think he was sinful and put him in house arrest. He also couldn’t publish his book until later on, which slowed down the progress of knowledge. But since he did go against his religion, he created a telescope and went farther in depth about what he saw through it. He also learned about motion, like speed, velocity and motion, which made us where we are today. We only know so little about the universe, and the only way to keep learning about it, is have an open mind, listen, observe and ask questions.
If Newton didn’t go farther into what he saw and had a religious belief, would we be able to do the things we do now? He taught us the three laws of motion, like calculating force, momentum, and circular motion. All he used was a simple apple falling from the tree. If we get tied down to a religious belief we can’t explore and understand the place we are living in. The only way we can teach the history is say it the way it has been done, and help understand people the facts. Sometimes it might go against your religion or belief but that’s the only way we can get out of the old ideas and move on. We have to prove it through experiments and proofs and asking questions just like kids do.
Galileo and Newton were pioneers in their times in the respect that they introduced new theories and beliefs that were not believed by many. They faced many hardships attempting to get their observations accepted by society to be preserved in time. The religious entities such as the pope shot down their research and worked to take away all of their credibility in the eye of the public. Galileo worked more on observing the stars and planets and their effects on each other. Newton worked more on forces close to us such as the effects of gravity on objects depending on their mass. If Galileo and Newton were to lose their credibility completely they might have lost their drive and desire to continue their work. Thankfully time was on their side and while they might have not seen their work become publicly agreed upon within their lifetime they can be assured that their work was not carried out in vain.
Galileo was an Italian astronomer, who supported the theory of heliocentrism which was met with much controversy. During his time most people adhered to the theory of either geocentrism or the tychonic system. He was met with opposition from astronomers that doubted heliocentrism due to the abscence of a stellar parallax based off of the orbital positions of the earth. Heliocentrism was investigated further during the roman inquisition where it was proven to be false and contrary to scripture, which placed the Copernican system on the index of banned books and prohibited Galileo from advocating heliocentrism. Newton discovered three laws of motion and conducted research on the effects of gravity. His work would remove the last doubts about the credibility of the heliocentric model of the cosmos. Newtons work included evaluating the occurrence of phenomena such as comets, tides and the procession of the equinoxes.