Galileo (1564-1642) was an Italian astronomer,
mathematician, physicist, philosopher and professor. Now regarded as the Father
of Modern Physics, he was one of the great scientific experts of his day. Even
though he was a college dropout (due to lack of money for tuition), he was
still given a post at the University of Padua, where his classes attracted
hundreds of followers, who drank in his every word.
In a famous experiment, he dropped two spheres of
different weight from the Tower of Pisa to demonstrate that the time of descent
was independent of their mass. Though a contradiction of Aristotle, this did
not create much controversy because the ruling factions in Italy really did not
care much about the laws of motion.
Galileo’s problems began when he constructed his own
telescope, pointed it towards the skies, and found proof that the Earth moved
around the Sun. His observations were powerful evidence in favor of a
sun-centered solar system.
Unfortunately, his heliocentric claims contradicted
the Bible (“God fixed the Earth upon its foundation, not to be moved forever").
At the time, the Catholic Church was firmly entrenched in the belief that the
Sun revolved around the Earth, a truth as creditworthy as the annihilation of
the coronavirus by the Wind of God.
However, back then, the Church was the ultimate
authority on just about everything. If Pope Urban VIII said that the Earth was
stuck on a stick like a lollipop, then it was. This was an indisputable fact
because Urban was the Pope, not to mention the most powerful man in Italy. Case
closed.
However, Galileo would not keep quiet. He kept on
defending the uncomfortable truth, a truth that was in direct opposition to the
theories defended by the powers that be. An increasing number of people began
to listen to what Galileo said, and Urban VIII became upset at Galileo’s growing
popularity and prestige. The most powerful institution in the world (in the 1600s)
felt threatened by a truth defended by one scientist. Drastic measures had to
be taken.
In 1616, Galileo was ordered not to hold, teach or
defend his ideas. However, Galileo still kept on teaching and writing. Accused of heresy and threatened with torture
by the Inquisition, Galileo was forced to publicly recant his claims. Because
of his age, he was permitted to remain in house arrest until his death.
This was neither the first nor the last historical
context in which government and science have been at odds. It is quite frequent
for all-powerful rulers to believe that they are also all-knowing, even in
areas where their expertise is questionable. In Times of Coronavirus, a
repetition of this scenario is now occurring in the United States of America.
President Trump is currently trying to sideline and
even discredit Dr. Fauci, who has been the director of the National Institute
of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984. It is fortunate that
there is no Inquisition in the USA or Dr. Fauci would be in deep trouble. He
would doubtlessly be accused of heresy.
Paradoxically, the White House is now criticizing Dr,
Fauci for statements that he made in January and February. These same
statements were based on the best available data at the time and were widely
echoed by President Trump, other members of the task force, and senior White
House officials.
Now, four months later, given the available data, Dr.
Fauci has had the audacity to contradict the president's claims that the coronavirus
pandemic is improving. An even greater sin is the fact that his
popularity rating is higher than the president’s. In a recent poll by the
University of Siena, 76% of the respondents said that they trusted Dr. Fauci
for accurate information, compared with 26%, who said that they trusted
President Trump.
Back in the 1600s, there were no surveys, of course.
However, if there had been polls, Galileo’s believability rating would probably
have been higher than that of Pope Urban VIII. This is not surprising because the
expertise of Pope Urban VIII in physics and astronomy is comparable to that of
President Trump in public health and virology.
Just as the Pope firmly believed that the Sun revolved
around the Earth, the president recommended killing the virus by ingesting
bleach and internally applying ultraviolet light. In evident contradiction to
data published by John Hopkins University, his most recent claims include the
following:
(1)
17 June: The pandemic is fading away. It’s going to fade away. [Daily cases
were at 20,000, and a second spike was beginning.]
(2)
2 July: The pandemic is getting under control. [Daily cases had doubled
to 50,000, a higher daily case count than at the beginning of the pandemic.]
(3)
4 July: 99% of Covid-10 cases are totally harmless. [Evidence shows that
15% of Covid-19 cases are severe with 5% being critical.]
(4)
6 July: The USA now has the lowest mortality rate in the world. [As of 13
July, the ratio of deaths per confirmed COVID-19 cases was 4.1 percent, which means
that the USA has the world’s ninth-worst mortality rate, with 41.33 deaths per
100,000 people, according to Johns Hopkins University.]
Since the President’s capacity of self-criticism is microscopic
at best, no mention is made of his own recent false statements. Given this
track record, it is logical that more people have more faith in Dr. Fauci. The
fact is that like Pope Urban VIII, President Trump is entrenched in his
particular theory of the universe, which is neither geocentric nor heliocentric,
but rather Trumpcentric. President Trump’s world revolves around him and his
re-election prospects. In his view, the virus is an enemy, not because
it is making thousands of people seriously ill. It is an enemy because it is
making him look bad. Nothing else matters.
And so President Trump and Pope Urban VIII have turned
out to be unlikely birds of a feather. Both of them gave lip service to science
until science clashed with their own beliefs. Both men became upset when a
scientist pointed out uncomfortable facts that disagreed with their vision of how
things should be in the universe.
But, as one discovered (and the other is still in the
process), no amount of power or bluster can change the truth of scientific
fact, however disagreeable or uncomfortable that truth may be.
In the case of Galileo, the Catholic Church formally
apologized for their error in 1992. It is impossible to know
whether this mattered to Galileo who had been dead for 350 years. Ironically, Galileo’s
third finger is currently displayed in the Galileo Museum in Florence, where it
is kept in a shrine as though it were a saintly relic. Could this be a sign?
