[extropy-chat] Religion: A discussion

[Amara Graps]

There are two anniversaries next week:

February 15, 1564 Galileo's birthday
February 17, 1600 Giordano Bruno burned at the stake

from http://www.amara.com/astro100/HistoricalAstronomy.pdf

(more links to these two men, down the page here:
http://www.amara.com/astro100/astro100syllabus.html)


Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) - He might have been the most influential
Italian Renaissance philosopher. He is best remembered for his grand
vision of an infinite Universe containing an infinity of worlds, and
for being burned at the stake for his heretical views (on 17
February 1600 in the spot marked in Roma's Campo di Fiori). He was
not mathematical or scientific, but contained a fertile mind, and,
in his writings, there is a tenuous thread that joins Bruno's
thoughts to those of Galileo, Newton, Einstein and to those of
today's physicists.
http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Bruno_Giordano.html



Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
He pioneered the modern scientific concepts of observation,
experimentation, and the testing of hypotheses through careful
quantitative measurements. His greatest contributions were in the
field of mechanics. He held the correct view of motion that separate
motions can be added together (ballistics), and that bodies
accelerate uniformly. He stated that an object in motion tends to
remain in motion (inertia). He was the first to point the telescope
towards the heavens, and soon after, he wrote the Starry Messenger
to describe his findings. He discovered that the heavens are not
'perfect' - he saw the phases of Venus, craters on the moon,
sunspots, and Saturn with bulges (rings). He discovered the four
largest moons of Jupiter (now denoted as the 'Galilean satellites,
in tribute to him). He published The Dialogue Concerning the Two
Chief World Systems (1632), where he supported the Copernican
heliocentric view, and for that, he was house-imprisoned until his
death.
http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Galileo.html


I suggested to google (suggestions at google.com) that they make a
holiday logo for Galileo's birthday (*), but you know, it is so close
to Valentine's Day and all, it seems unlikely. I considered telling
them about Bruno's anniversary too, but commemorating a guy who was
nailed to a stake through his tongue, then stripped and burned is
not a pleasant thought. In any case, if you are passing through Roma's
Campo di Fiori next Tuesday, you might want to leave a flower in
memory of the man.



(*)
Dear Google,

On February 15, 1564, Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy.

May I suggest Galileo's birthday as a holiday logo for Google?

Sincerely,
Amara

-- 

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Amara Graps, PhD             email: amara at amara.com
Computational Physics        vita:  ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt
Multiplex Answers            URL:   http://www.amara.com/
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"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."
       --Anais Nin