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Scientists have been making observations with telescopes for about four hundred years. This is a short time compared with the total lifetime of the universe. Its equivalent to a doctor talking about the birth, growth, and eventual death of a patient on the basis of a three second examination!
The earliest models of the universe were based on everyday impressions, and depicted everything in relationship to the earth. These prescientific geocentric models, placed the earth at the centre of the universe. The universe was thought to be homocentric - i.e. humans at the centre of everything. Putting humans at the centre was given theological justification, and was thought to fit in well with what the Bible taught about the order of nature. The geocentric hypothesis, called the Ptolemaic theory, was developed in detail by Claudius Ptolemeus (in AD 140) who said the planets and stars revolved in circular orbits around the earth, which he said was stationary, and at the centre of the universe. This model accounted for all the then known facts about the solar system. (Remember the Greek philosophers like Socrates, and Plato were far above such mundane approaches as factual proof based on observation. Plato dealt in metaphysics and opposed the works of the scientific thinker Democritus, and talked of the benefits of burning his works!)The Ptolemaic model was held to be true for centuries, until Copernicus in the 16th century (1543) propounded a Copernican theory of the universe, where the stars were fixed, and the earth and other planets orbited the sun. This is called a heliocentric model of the universe. Many rejected this model on theological grounds, because humankind was no longer the focal point of the universe. Later Galileo (1564 -1642 ) in the 17th century using evidence from a telescope obtained new observations which helped decide which of the two theories was true. Using a new astronomical telescope, Galileo observed that Venus, for example, went through all the phases just like the earth's moon. In the Ptolemaic view it shouldn't do this, so he concluded that the Ptolemaic theory was wrong. He was forbidden by the Vatican to speak or write about this model. It was 1992 before the Vatican announced that Galileo had been right all along. Such are the problems of presuppositions in dealing with scientific evidence.
It became clear that earth is one of a collection of planets, all of which are orbiting the sun. The sun's apparent motion across the sky is simply an illusion, the result of the earth's daily rotation on its axis. So early in the development of science we recognised the danger of being deceived by the 'obvious facts' of common sense (such as the sun's motion across the sky) 'proving' that the sun goes around the earth.
Proof of what was really going on came with the work of Johannes Kepler (1571-1630). He finally laid to rest the Ptolemaic theory, which had been believed for some two thousand years. Copernicus thought the planets moved in circular orbits, and developed a very complicated system of epicycles to explain the erratic paths and velocities of the planets. Kepler, trained for the ministry and motivated by a belief that the Creator would make an orderly creation, searched for a simpler explanation. Persecuted, he joined the mathematician Tycho Brahe in Prague. Combining Brahe's records and his astronomical observations, Kepler showed that the planets moved in ellipses, with the sun at one focus. He precisely accounted for the irregular velocities of the planets, and established the basic laws of planetary motion. He finally brought order to astronomy and was the first to suggest a force from the sun acting on the planets and thus laid the foundation for Newton's gravitational theory.
Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was something of a genius, and synthesised the work of Brahe, Kepler and Galileo by providing a mathematical framework for calculating the movements of all bodies in the universe. Newton's contribution was not improved on for two hundred years until Einstein developed the theory of general relativity. (See later). Newton also invented the reflecting telescope, using a mirror to gather light, the type used in modern optical telescopes. Newton always claimed his interest in theology was greater than his interest in science, and spent a lot of his time writing on the chronologies in the Old Testament and on the Book of Revelation. Although others took Newton's laws as evidence for a universe that ran by itself, Newton himself saw them as evidence of a God who governs all things. Another illustration of the way presuppositions influence our interpretation of data!
All these early observations confirming the Copernican theory created unnecessary problems for theologians. (This is a long story and you may know it well, if not, do some reading). We now recognize that the early conflicts between science and religion were only apparent conflicts, and were actually between science and tradition - a tradition taken largely from the Greeks rather than Scripture. The early days of understanding the structure of the universe focussed on only a small portion of it. We can now observe things on a much wider scale, and have found the universe to be bigger than we ever imagined and constantly changing.
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