Expert From The Letter Of Galileo To The Grand Duchess Christina Essay Examples

The letter talks about the Bible and how it cannot error if the people interpret and understand its true meaning. In the letter, Galileo urges the Duchess to pursue experience and necessary demonstrations when making conclusions about the nature. It argues that the Bible cannot speak untruth. Although he agrees that, at times, the Bible may give statements that are different from what its words portray, proper interpretation is essential to avoid errors. Galileo goes on to tell the Grand Duchess that is necessary to assign to God’s feet, eyes and hands and forget the past deeds and ignore the future to understand the Bible and avoid misinterpretation. This is the reason why He sent scribes in the same manner so that they could fit with the common individuals, who are unlearned and crude. For this reason, Galileo stresses that it is essential for the expositors to offer true meaning to the passages in the Bible.
Galileo says to the Duchess that when the Bible makes physical conclusions concerning difficult and abstruse topics, the general rule is to avoid confusing people. This is because it will make them even confused on other difficult mysteries. Galileo also argues that when it comes to giving qualities attributing to God, the Bible offers the bare and restricted sense of the words without any deeper meaning. In addition, the Holy book only casually talks about the water, earth, sun and other things created. This is so because these creations are not the primary purpose of the sacred writing, whose significant purpose is to offer service to God and salvation to all souls. Galileo gave his opinion to the Duchess Christina, on how to handle the physical problems. He advised to solve the problems from experiences and necessary demonstrations and not from the passages from the scriptures. This is because the Bible and phenomena of nature are only similar in the divine world.
He further points out to the duchess that nature is immutable and inexorable and does not care if man understands the laws and methods of operation. This shows that the biblical passages should not be used to give demonstrations as the words in the passages may bare different meanings. He supports his statement by saying that man knows God through nature in His work and the doctrine in His word. He clarifies that it does not mean that man should not have extraordinary respect for the Holy Scriptures. This is because the scriptures have given insight and meanings when necessary. Furthermore, most people trust and prefer the scriptures over any other human writings since they are not in a demonstrative way, have probable arguments and bare assertions.
Galileo tells the Christina that God is the giver of sense, intelligent and reason, and since he endowed us with these qualities we should use them to analyze what is before our eyes and minds to make decisions. He gives an example of sciences not well explained in the Bible such as geometry, astronomy, music and medicine. He argues that the books written by several individuals such as Archimedes, Boethius, Ptolemy and Galen clearly explain these subjects. He gives the conclusion that imperial preeminence offers theology a second sense reason being that its miraculous communication and subjects are of divine revelation. This is because men cannot conceive them.
Some questions arise from this letter expert such as should man believe in the surface or inner meaning of the Holy Scriptures? Another question that arises is how can man balance the scriptures and reality without defying God?
I as some point support Galileo’s argument since God is the giver of all. This means that he has given man the gift of reason, sense and intelligence with the intention to make appropriate use of them and not follow blindly the scriptures. Having reason and sense also helps make man able to interpret the scriptures without making errors. God also does not require us to ignore sense and reason in matters that are visible and sensible to us through experience and demonstrations. This also applies to interpretation of the scriptures. Since the two truths cannot be contradictory, it is up to the expositors to the truth by using sense, intellect and reason.
This letter is applicable in all aspects of life such as Christianity, personal life and community. In personal life, the challenge to human beings is to use and utilize sense, reason and intellect given to us to make choices and conclusions on various issues we face. An individual can also refer to the Holy Scriptures for insight and clarification on issues concerning religion and moral standings. Christians can also use the scriptures to solve issues that pose a dilemma in their lives. In addition, Christians can use the scriptures to gain divine knowledge and in their quest for salvation. They can also use the Bible to dictate what is wrong and right in the society.