It turns darker, faster.

[Anima Aeterna]

Lil_Knowledge_Seeker when did you grow up like that? Great post.

 

That's very flattering! Thank you, michel123456.

[Ophiolite]

Remember that, iirc, Giordano Bruno was burned to death for supporting the idea the Earth was round.

You don't recall correctly. Bruno was burnt at the stake for bucking the status quo and challenging the authority of the church. There was no issue as to the roundness of the Earth, which had been broadly accepted for many centuries. He did hold to the Copernican view of the Earth revolving around the sun, but this was likely a minor ingredient in his supposed heresies.

[swansont]

!

Moderator Note

Moon landing question moved http://www.scienceforums.net/topic/61507-did-apollo-really-travel-to-the-moon/page__pid__639157#entry639157

[Anima Aeterna]

You don't recall correctly. Bruno was burnt at the stake for bucking the status quo and challenging the authority of the church. There was no issue as to the roundness of the Earth, which had been broadly accepted for many centuries. He did hold to the Copernican view of the Earth revolving around the sun, but this was likely a minor ingredient in his supposed heresies.

 

Thank you, Ophiolite. So basically there was much more behind the reason of his death, rather than the sole fact he supported the idea Earth was spherical. I only vaguely remembered one of my History teachers explaining Giordano's cause and reason of death, a few years ago. I was likely not paying enough attention back then! Or maybe I'm confusing Bruno with someone else who's theories were his/her cause of death. Hypatia perhaps? That's unlikely since their stories are very distinct.

 

Well, regardless of whether is the case, Hypatia isn't such a bad example to replace the Bruno one, in my post.

 

I'm sure the idea got through anyway, despite anything.

[Ophiolite]

I want to repeat, so there is no doubt, the spherical nature of the Earth was fully understood when Bruno was alive, accepted by the Church and standard thinking for centuries. You almost certainly were taught that Bruno was burned at the stake for his support of Copernican theory. That's the simplified version that makes science look good and the Church look bad. It's part of the popular idiom. However, things are rarely that simple.