Galileo for Kids: His Life and Ideas, 25 Activities

Galileo for Kids: His Life and Ideas, 25 Activities — page 7
INTRODUCTION G ALILEO WAS A TRUE GENIUS Though we think of him mainly as an astronomer he was a man of many interests He enjoyed science mathematics music and art and made great discoveries that revolution ized the world Not simply a scientific philosopher he also applied his ideas to practical inventions This is the story of a thinker who was truly ahead of his time Galileo sought the truth and argued that there was no substitution for observation and experimentation He believed that whatever nature was whatever we observed must be what God made Whether or not the Bible or the theologians who studied it said as much the truth was present all around us waiting to be discovered Though his theories contradicted what the Church taught Galileo was a deeply religious man He knew the risks of writing that the earth revolves around the sun but he did not let the threat of punishment stop him He did not feel that his dis coveries should threaten the Church and did not see why religion had to overlap with science Galileo's life story is incredibly relevant today The struggle between science and religion has come up time and again in the years since Galileo lived not only in Charles Darwin's theory of evolution in the