Galileo - Seeking Truth
Galileo Galilei was a great man of science. He believed in the truth and logic of scientific theory to the point that he would challenge and even disprove theories of even the greatest philosophers like Aristotle. We use this strength of Galileo in creating the character of Adam.
Galileo’s father always encouraged him to question everything – and that is exactly what he did throughout his life. Galileo would not accept anything as fact unless he had deconstructed and studied it himself. His tenacity to find and confirm the truth would lead him on a journey through life – at times being celebrated while at other times earning the staunchest of enemies. His inquisitive nature led to several inventions – a harmonic oscillator to measure human pulse, a horse-powered water pump, and the pendulum clock to name a few.
Growing up in an intellectually stimulating home with a highly educated father, Galileo was from a young age interested in learning. At the age of 17 he passed the Bachelor’s exam which gained him entry into the University of Pisa. He initially began to study medicine, but after hearing a geometry lecture by a professor friend of his father, he was immediately interested in the beauty and logic of math. He later left university due to financial constraints, but continued to study and publish his findings.
After analyzing the works of Archimedes, and producing related inventions, his work gained attention from the Italian mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher the Marquis del Monte, an Italian mathematician, philosopher, and astronomer. Through this connection Galileo eventually came to the attention of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who invited him to become a math professor at the University of Pisa – his dream position.
During this tenure, Galileo conducted an experiment on the speed of falling objects, believing that one of Aristotle’s theories on the topic was incorrect. He climbed to the top of the Tower of Pisa and dropped two different sized balls. When they hit the ground at exactly the same time, Galileo had successfully disproved Aristotle’s theories.
Galileo had, until this point in his life, enjoyed success. But his new position exposed him to some unforeseen trials. When someone from a well known family invented something, Galileo knew he had to make a choice – hold on to the truth of science and math, and expose the man’s mistake – or go against everything Galleo knew as fact, or support the invention he knew would fail. Galileo stuck to what he knew as truth and exposed the man’s failures. This ensured that he had earned an enemy.
The next scientific phenomenon to consume his life was the debate between the Ptolemaic and Copernican theories. He knew that those who converted to the Copernican theory must have done so on sound evidence, and he devoted the rest of his life in search of such. This led him to one of his most influential breakthroughs of all time. Galileo built his own version of Lippershey’s telescope and then used it to look at and study the night sky.
Since that time, the telescope has been advanced and used to study the universe. The newest, the James Webb Space Telescope, is rewriting what we thought we knew about the Universe. Scientific fact is fact only until we prove it wrong. Heck, we once were convinced that the earth is flat. Wink wink – there are still some out there who still believe that.
The more we discover with modern telescopes, like what we're getting from the James Webb, the more we realize that what we call “The Universe” is likely just one of a number of ‘universes’ – one so massive it could consume our ‘universe’ in a single bite! Humbling, yes?
As we look into the night sky today, let us dream new dreams about what is out there – and the existence of the Creator of it all. Did it all begin with a Big Bang of a grain of sand? Well if so, where did that compressed ball come from, and when, and by what means. Did God, by whatever name we choose, create the “universes?” Or did it just happen? We suggest it takes far greater faith to believe the latter.
Without Galileo turning his telescope onto the night sky, we wouldn’t be able to look back billions of years ago in time to see the images of other planets, stars, and galaxies that we marvel at today
From the inventions of past inspirational figures like Galileo, we have adapted and developed imaginative dreams to fill the pages of our novels. In Adam in Taoland, our hero Adam is rescued from his planet Novana to adventure to a rogue planet with three moons, a fantasy land of possibilities and magic. Dream with us – it’s really fun.
