Today I went to Santa Maria Deglia Angeli (Mary of the Angels), which is a church built by Michelangelo on the site of where the Emperor Diocletian martyred a number of Christians in his persecution during the 3rd century. As you can see it is truely beautiful.
The church currently houses an exhibition about Galileo Galile (1564-1642) who is widely regarded as the father of modern science. Galileo contary to popular belief was not an athiest. He believed the world to have been made by a creative hand who could be understood and known through science. He believed that God had given us two books, the book of scripture and the book of nature and believed that the two did not conflict against each other. The period he lived in though was far from enlightened. Superstitions abounded and the Church had just had the so called controversys surrounding the theorys of Copernicus, who said that the world orbited the sun. Sadly the work of Saint Augustine was used to squash both these men. Augustine had believed that nothing should contradict scripture, indeed that nothing could. He also believed that Mathematicians were in league with the Devil if their opinions ever conflicted the Bible. Augustine lived in a time when not much scientifically was known and astrology and astronomy were pretty much the same thing. The church believing that astrology was evil as it was preoccupied with trying to predict the future.
Sadly this prejuidice opinion coloured and clouded anyones view of Galileo's work for hundreds of years. It took at least 250 years for his theorys about the Sun's movements to be proved correct. Now at long last he can take his rightful place as advancing Mans knowledge of how God operates in the universe, as can Science, not as something that opposes the Church and scripture , but as avenues of knowledge complimenting and illuminating each other. Inded the world benefited from the work of both Galileo and Saint Augustine of Hippo.
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