Quotes from Wade Rowland

Here, In concise form, is what I have characterized as "Galileo's mistake." It is an error that has been understood by philosophers from the eighteenth century onward, from David Hume to Imman-uel Kant to Thomas Kuhn, with Increasing clarity. The mistake is In the belief that nature is Its own interpreter. It is not.

The message to Galileo from the highest theological authority could not have been plainer: unless and until you are in a position to clearly and definitively demonstrate the motion of the Earth and the stability of the Sun, keep your own counsel.