". . . I, Galileo Galilei, . . . aged seventy years, being brought personally to judgement, and kneeling before you Most Reverend Lords Cardinals, General Inquisitors of the universal Christian republic against depravity . . . swear that . . . I held and believed that the sun is the center of the universe and is immovable, and that the earth is not the center and is movable; willing, therefore, to remove from the minds of your Eminences, and of every Catholic Christian, this vehement suspicion [of heresy] rightfully entertained against me . . .
I abjure, curse and detest the said errors and heresies, . . . and I swear that I will never more in future say or assert anything verbally, or in writing, which may give rise to a similar suspicion of me . . .
But if it shall happen that I violate any of my said promises, oaths and protestations (which God avert!), I shall subject myself to all the pain and punishments which have been decreed . . . against delinquents of this description.
(Reference: Lodge, Sir Oliver, "Pioneers of Science", MacMillan &Co, London, 1893. Reprinted by Dover Publications, New York, 1960. This reference obtained from: Beckmann, Petr, "A History of Pi", The Golem Press, Boulder, CO, 1982, p. 81)
Petr Beckmann goes on to comment that Galileo, having signed the above
"confession", was
"Thereupon [. . .] sentenced to life imprisonment in a Roman dungeon. The sentence was later commuted and he died, a blind and broken man, in 1642.
But not even in death did the pious inquisitors leave him in peace. They destroyed many of his manuscripts, disputed his right to burial in consecrated ground, and denied him a monument in the ludicrous hope that this brilliant thinker and his work would be forgotten".
Writes my friend:
"Incidentally, you might also be interested to know that Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) was burned alive in Rome for claiming that the earth moves around the sun."
Does that remind you of our times? In that same box I found a copy of
a Resolution of a Congressional Session (H316) of the 104th Congress
". . . (d)eploring individuals who deny the historical reality of the Holocaust and commending the vital, ongoing work of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, December 20, 1995:
Whereas the Holocaust is a basic fact of history, the denial of which is no less absurd than the denial of the occurrence of the Second World War;
Whereas the Holocaust - the systematic, state-sponsored mass murders by Nazi Germany of 6,000,000 Jews, alongside millions of others, in the name of a perverse racial theory - stands as one of the most ferociously heinous state acts the world has ever known; and
Whereas those who promote the denial of the Holocaust do so out of profound ignorance or for the purpose of furthering anti-Semitism and racism. Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, that the House of Representatives -
(1) deplores the persistent, ongoing and malicious efforts by some persons in this country and abroad to deny the historical reality of the Holocaust; and
(2) commends the vital, ongoing work of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, which memorializes the victims of the Holocaust and teaches all who are willing to learn profoundly compelling and universally resonant moral lessons."
It has been recorded for history that, in 1995, in the United States
of America, the supposedly most "democratic" country in the world,
there was not one dissenting vote by the elected representatives of the
people. Not one.
Ingrid
Thought for the Day:
"Sins become indispensible in any society organized by priests; they are the real handlers of power. The priest lives on sins; it is essential for him that people 'sin'".
(R. A. McConnell)