The capacity for discerning the essential truth, in fact, is as rare among men as it is common among crows, bullfrogs and mackerel. The man who shows it is a man of quite extraordinary quality— perhaps even, a man downright diseased. Exhibit a new truth of any natural plausibility before the great masses of men, and not one in ten thousand will suspect its existence, and not one in a hundred thousand will embrace it without a ferocious resistance. All the durable truths that have come into the world within historic times have been opposed as bitterly as if they were so many waves of smallpox, and every individual who has welcomed and advocated them, absolutely without exception, has been denounced and punished as an enemy of the race. Perhaps "absolutely without exception" goes too far. I substitute "with five or six exceptions." But who were the five or six exceptions? I leave you to think of them; myself, I can’t.
H.L.Mencken
Meditation on Meditation
A good example of this:
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was an Italian scientist and mathematician who made profound contributions to the scientific revolution that was occurring before, during, and after his lifetime. Galileo's work advanced knowledge in astronomy and physics. In fact, Galileo is often called the founder of modern experimental science.
Galileo's foremost interest was astronomy. He made many important contributions in this field. Galileo's spectacular findings thoroughly convinced him of the truth of the Copernican theory about the solar system. This theory, which had first been published by Nicolaus Copernicus in 1543, proposed that the earth and all the other planets revolve around the sun, which is at the center of our solar system. Though this idea seems unremarkable to modern minds, it was at first regarded as extremely radical. For about 1,400 years, astronomers had accepted the model of the universe that Ptolemy, an ancient Roman astronomer, had developed. That model, called the Ptolemaic system, put the earth at the center of the entire universe. It held that the sun and all the other planets revolve around the earth. An elaborate system of thought had developed around the Ptolemaic system. It touched on physics, philosophy, and other areas of thought and study. Clearly, a rejection of the Ptolemaic system would bring about a revolution in scientific thought and in other areas of thought as well.
In Galileo's time, the Copernican theory was still highly controversial. In the Roman Catholic Church, many officials connected the new scientific thinking with the spread of Protestant ideas. These fears made many church officials generally suspicious of new ideas. All of these factors led Galileo into trouble. The fame he enjoyed as teacher, lecturer, and scientific experimenter only made matters worse.
In 1616 the Roman Catholic Church decreed that church members–which included nearly everyone in Catholic countries–could not think of the Copernican theory as an idea that might be proved true. They could discuss the theory only by treating it as completely hypothetical, that is, imaginary. Galileo received a personal warning on this issue.
Galileo made every reasonable attempt to comply with church restrictions. On the other hand, he continued to write and think about astronomy. In 1632, Galileo published a book comparing the Ptolemaic and Copernican systems. The book, which championed the Copernican theory, became a great popular success in Europe. In the meantime, the Inquisition reopened Galileo's case. The Inquisition was an institution of the Roman Catholic Church that sought out and tried heretics, people who defy church teaching. In 1633 Galileo was called to Rome to stand trial before the Inquisition. On pain of execution, Galileo was forced to recant, that is, publicly reject, his views about the Copernican theory. He was sentenced to house arrest, which lasted for the remainder of his life. Despite this turn of events, the Copernican theory gained complete acceptance within a generation or two.
And about 350 years later, in 1979, Pope John Paul II declared that the church may have been mistaken in condemning Galileo.
"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."---Galileo Galilei
