Aryabhatt (Elder)

[george9252]

The geocentric theory was never official RC doctrine  (i.e., dogma). It was just something (mistakenly) supported by the leadership of the RC Church at a certain time in history (in response to what that leadership -- again mistakenly -- perceived as a dire threat to the Catholic faith). I'm not sure that the RC Church has "caught up with science" even now, but its doctrine is not (and never has been) tied to any particular scientific cosmology. There is a distinction between what leaders in the Church say from time to time and what the official doctrine (dogma) of the Church is.

The RC Church made its rapprochement with modern science long before its official reconsideration of the Galileo affair in the 1980s and 1990s. For example, Pierre Duhem -- the great theoretical physicist and philosopher and historian of science -- did his very modern work in science with the complete imprimatur of the Church, and he lived from 1861 to 1916.  See his Aim and Structure of Physical Theory (1914).

But that's enough from me. This is not an Indological subject. I just don't think that we should be unfair to the RC Church (or any other person or institution).

But I have already taken this too far. My apologies.

GC



----- Original Message ----- 
From: Vidyasankar Sundaresan <vsundaresan at HOTMAIL.COM>
To: <INDOLOGY at LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK>
Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 1999 6:54 PM
Subject: Re: Aryabhatt (Elder)


> george9252 <george9252 at EMAIL.MSN.COM> wrote:
> 
> >Do you really mean that, Richard? You can't mean that the RC Church
> >"adopted" Ptolemy's theory of epicycles as official RC doctrine. If it had,
> >then, even today, the RC Church would insist that its adherents accept the
> >Ptolemaic theory. It doesn't.
> 
> The Ptolemaic theory was certainly upheld by the Roman Catholic church,
> mainly because of its geocentric nature. Heliocentric theories were
> associated with the pagan worship of the sun. That was the reason why
> Galileo was arrested and asked to recant his "heresy" in championing the
> Copernican theory. The church finally caught up with science only as late as
> 1992, when it officially accepted that it was wrong for condemning Galileo.
> Official Catholic doctrine is subject to change, but in its own sweet time.
> 
> Vidyasankar


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