[__ Science __ ] The Copernican System & the Bible

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Nicolaus Copernicus was born 547 years ago today (AD 1473). Copernicus often is viewed as the father of heliocentrism

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This is a large part of the reason why people are perfectly open to theistic evolution. Because in the past, people had preconceived notions, but didn't realize reality might be something else, yet still be consistent with the Bible.

 

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Remember, the dispute 4–5 centuries ago was more about science than about Scripture. Contrary to what many people believe, the Bible doesn’t teach geocentrism. It’s not that the Bible teaches heliocentrism either.

Biblical literalists like Martin Luther and John Calvin disagreed.

The specific response one of the most important contemporaries of Copernicus, Martin Luther, is telling. The quote below is actually in response to the publication of the brief Commentariolus, which appeared a decade before De Revolutionibus. It comes from Luther's Tablebook (Tischreden), or record of dinner-table conversations:

"There is talk of a new astrologer who wants to prove that the earth moves and goes around instead of the sky, the sun, the moon, just as if somebody were moving in a carriage or ship might hold that he was sitting still and at rest while the earth and the trees walked and moved. But that is how things are nowadays: when a man wishes to be clever he must needs invent something special, and the way he does it must needs be the best! The fool wants to turn the whole art of astronomy upside-down. However, as Holy Scripture tells us, so did Joshua bid the sun to stand still and not the earth."

A quote by Martin Luther

There is talk of a new astrologer [Nicolaus Copernicus] who wants to prove that the earth moves and goes around instead of the sky, the sun, the moon, ju...

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"The scriptural passage to which Luther refers is Joshua 10:10-15. Elsewhere Luther refers to Copernicus as "a fool who went against Holy Writ". It is this latter quote that usually makes it into the textbooks."

Religious Objections to Copernicus

"The Christian is not to compromise so as to obscure the distinction between good and evil, and is to avoid the errors of] those dreamers who have a spirit of bitterness and contradiction, who reprove everything and prevent the order of nature. We will see some who are so deranged, not only in religion but who in all things reveal their monstrous nature, that they will say that the sun does not move, and that it is the earth which shifts and turns. When we see such minds we must indeed confess that the devil posses them, and that God sets them before us as mirrors, in order to keep us in his fear. So it is with all who argue out of pure malice, and who happily make a show of their imprudence."
John Calvin, “Sermon on 1 Corinthians 10:19-24”, Calvini Opera Selecta, Corpus Refomatorum,Vol 49, 677

Their literalism did not allow them to accept anything but a stationary Earth.