Genius Quotes of Galileo Galilei

Genius Quotes of Galileo Galilei Italian inventor and astronomer, Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy on February 15, 1564, and died on January 8, 1642. Galileo has been called the Father of the Scientific Revolution. The scientific revolution refers to a period of time (roughly from 1500 to 1700) of great advancement in the sciences that challenged the traditional beliefs about mankinds place and relationship with the universe held by religious orders. On God Scriptures To understand the quotes of Galileo Galilei concerning God and religion we have to understand the times Galileo lived in, an age of transition between religious belief and scientific reason. Galileo received his higher education at a Jesuit monastery beginning at the age of eleven, religious orders provided one of the few sources of advanced education at that time. The Jesuits priests made a great impression on the young Galileo, so much so that at the age of seventeen he announced to his father that he wanted to become a Jesuit. His father immediately removed Galileo from the monastery, not wanting his son to pursue the unprofitable career of becoming a monk. Religion and science were both intertwined and at odds during Galileos lifetime, the late 16th century and early 17th century. For example, a serious discussion among academics at that time, was about the size and shape of hell as depicted in the poem Dantes Inferno. Galileo gave a well-received lecture on the topic, including his scientific opinion about how tall Lucifer was. As a result, Galileo was given a position at the University of Pisa based on favorable reviews of his talk. Galileo Galilei remained a profoundly religious man through his lifetime, he found no conflict with his spiritual beliefs and his studies of science. However, the church did find conflict and Galileo had to answer to charges of heresy in church court more than once. At the age of sixty-eight, Galileo Galilei was tried for heresy for supporting the science that the earth rotated around the sun, the Copernican model of the solar system. The Catholic church supported the geocentric model of the solar system, where the sun and the rest of the planets all rotate around a central non-moving earth. Fearing torture at the hands of the church inquisitors, Galileo made a public confession that he had been wrong to have said that the Earth moves around the Sun. After making his false confession, Galileo quietly mumbled the truth: And yet, it moves. With the battle between science and church that occurred during Galileos lifetime in mind, consider the following quotes from Galileo Galilei about God and the scriptures The Bible shows the way to go to heaven, not the way the heavens go.I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.It is surely harmful to souls to make it a heresy to believe what is proved.It vexes me when they would constrain science by the authority of the Scriptures, and yet do not consider themselves bound to answer reason and experiment.I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the Scriptures, but with experiments, and demonstrations.By denying scientific principles, one may maintain any paradox.Mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe.What ever the course of our lives, we should receive them as the highest gift from the hand of God, in which equally reposed the power to do nothing whatever for us. Indeed, we should accept misfortune not only in thanks but in infinite gratitude to Providence, which by such means detaches us from an excessive love for Earthly things and elevates our minds to the celestial and divine. On Astronomy Galileo Galileis contributions to the science of astronomy included; supporting Copernicuss view that the Sun was the center of the solar system, not the Earth, and advancing the use of the newly-invented telescope by observing sun spots, proving that the Moon had mountains and craters, discovering the four moons of Jupiter, and proving that Venus goes through phases. The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.The Milky Way is nothing else but a mass of innumerable stars planted together in clusters. The Study of Science Galileos scientific achievements include inventing: an improved telescope, a horse-powered pump to raise water, and a water thermometer. Facts which at first seem improbable will, even on scant explanation, drop the cloak which has hidden them and stand  forth in naked and simple beauty.In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.Where the senses fail us, reason must step in.Nature is relentless and unchangeable, and it is indifferent as to whether its hidden reasons and actions are understandable to man or not. With Regards to Philosophy I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldnt learn something from him.We cannot teach people anything; we can only help them discover it within themselves.Passion is the genesis of genius.There are those who reason well, but they are greatly outnumbered by those who reason badly.

Overview of the Chinese Yangshao Culture

Overview of the Chinese Yangshao Culture The Yangshao culture is the term for an ancient civilization that existed in what is now central China (Henan, Shanxi, and Shaanxi provinces primarily) between the years 5000 and 3000 B.C.E. It was first discovered in 1921 the name â€Å"Yangshao† is taken from the name of the village where it was first discovered but since its initial discovery, thousands of sites have been uncovered. The most important site, Banpo, was found in 1953. Facets of the Yangshao Culture Agriculture was of paramount importance to the Yangshao people, and they produced many crops, although millet was particularly common. They also grew vegetables (mostly root vegetables) and raised livestock including chicken, pigs, and cows. These animals were mostly not generally raised for slaughter, though, as meat was eaten only on special occasions. Understanding of animal husbandry is thought to have increased significantly during this time. Although the Yangshao people had a primitive understanding of agriculture, they also fed themselves in part via hunting, gathering, and fishing. They accomplished this through the use of precisely-crafted stone tools including arrows, knives, and axes. They also used stone tools such as chisels in their farming work. In addition to stone, the Yangshao also cared intricate bone tools. The Yangshao lived together in houses huts, really built in pits with wooden frames holding up mud-plastered walls and thatched millet roofs. These houses were clustered in groups of five, and clusters of houses were arranged around a village’s central square. The perimeter of the village was a furrow, outside which were a communal kiln and cemetery. The kiln was used for the creation of pottery, and it is this pottery that has truly impressed archaeologists. The Yangshao were capable of making a significant variety of pottery shapes, including urns, basins, tripod containers, bottles of various shapes, and jars, many of which came with decorative covers or accessories shaped like animals. They were even capable of making complex, purely ornamental designs, like boat shapes. Yangshao pottery was also often painted with intricate designs, often in earth tones. Unlike more recent pottery cultures, it appears the Yangshao never developed pottery wheels. One of the most famous pieces, for example, is an exquisite basin painted with a fishlike design and a human face, originally used as a burial object and perhaps indicative of a Yangshao belief in animal totems. Yangshao children seem to have been often buried in painted pottery jars. In terms of clothing, the Yangshao people wore mostly hemp, which they wove themselves into simple shapes like loincloths and cloaks. They did also occasionally make silk and it’s possible some Yangshao villages even cultivated silkworms, but silk clothing was rare and mostly the province of the rich. Banpo Civilization Site The Banpo site, first discovered in 1953, is considered typical of the Yangshao culture. It consisted of a village area of about 12 acres, surrounded by a ditch (which may once have been a moat) nearly 20 feet wide. As described above, the houses were mud and wood huts with thatched roofs, and the dead were buried in a communal cemetery. Although it’s not clear to what extent, if at all, the Yangshao people had any sort of written language, Banpo pottery does contain a number of symbols (22 have been found so far) that are found repeatedly on different pieces of pottery. They tend to appear alone, and so almost certainly do not constitute true written language, they may be something akin to makers’ signatures, clan markings, or the marks of owners. There is some debate as to whether the Banpo site  and the Yangshao culture as a whole were matriarchal or patriarchal. The Chinese archaeologists initially investigating it reported it had been a matriarchal society, but newer research suggests that may not be the case, or that it might have been a society in the process of transferring from matriarchy to patriarchy.