Although a movement called the Renaissance had started in Italy in the middle of the fifteenth century AD and people started thinking in a new way, the Roman Church considered itself so mature and unchangeable that it was based on new ideas, philosophical epistemology and scientific experiments. There was no acceptability of the disclosed facts, questions and arguments.
Christianity not only searched and destroyed the texts, statues, temples, symbols, preachers, philosophers and saints of ancient Roman religion and Greek religion, but also locked itself in an iron cage in which new air could enter. No holes were available.
The Church not only looked at science and philosophical ideas with skepticism at all times and every time, but also declared them anti-religious. This led to a conflict between religion and science not only in Rome or Italy but throughout Europe after the fifteenth century.
Soon this conflict turned into a bloody war. Unfortunately this battle lasted a long time. Science and philosophy were often defeated in this battle and its exponents were caught by the church and burnt alive.
According to the Bible, the creation took place exactly 4004 years before Christ, each tree and animal was created separately and at last man was created. The Christian confederacy believed that the Flood had occurred and that Noah's boat had pairs of all the animals so that no species would be lost.
Many Biblical Thoughts, 'appeared' in various places around the world and 'appearing' Did not match the knowledge.
'Tsone Tse' in China about 600 years before Christ There was a philosopher named He told that all beings have originated from the organisms of the same species. The organisms of this single species underwent constant changes over time, which led to the formation of different types of animals. These changes took thousands and millions of years. This did not match the doctrine of Christianity, so if a person in Europe spoke such things, he was declared a heretic.
The Church believed that all human beings must suffer sin and suffering. Through this concept, an attempt was made to provide a permanent respect to the poverty and distress in the world. Almost all the religions of the world appear to support and confirm Christianity in this matter.
In the Mahabharata, Queen Kunti asks Lord Krishna for her calamities and sorrows in the form of a boon so that she remembers God in distress and she never forgets God. In any religion of the world, including Christianity, this idea is negligible to think about the permanent removal of poverty, misery and distress from human civilization, but science has consistently shown the courage to think so. However, in Ram Rajya, all human beings and creatures have been imagined to be happy.
Nicolaus Copernicus
In AD 1543, a Catholic old man from Poland was taking his last breath lying on his cot and was trying to read some papers with great difficulty. These papers were written by him and were now ready for printing. At this time this old man was seventy years old and the world to come was going to know him as the great astronomer Copernicus.
On his deathbed, Copernicus probably did not anticipate that his book was going to bring about a great change in the human view of the universe. This would also spark a vigorous debate in the Christian world of Europe.
The name of the book of Nicolaus Copernicus is- 'The metamorphosis of the view of the sky.' In this book the theory was propounded that- 'The center of the solar system is not the Earth but the Sun.'
This doctrine would lead to such a great war in the Christian world, that no one had anticipated at first. Although the Catholic Church considered the Earth to be the center of the solar system, Copernicus' theory could not be easily denied because Copernicus had a reputation of his own. The Christian Union raised many objections to this theory, but by the time this book came into their hands, Copernicus had left this mortal world forever.
When the book was published, the terrified editor wrote in its preface - 'The theory of the Sun-center does not mean that it is really so in the universe, it is just a mathematical result. '
Church's painful death sentence to philosopher Bruno
As humanity was progressing, knowledge and science wanted to appear in Europe like Asia, but the religious system of Rome considered the manifestation of knowledge and science to be extremely dangerous for humanity.
Only five years after the death of Copernicus, in AD 1548, a world-famous philosopher named Giordano Bruno was born in the Kingdom of Naples, Italy. He said that - 'The stars are the only distant suns that have their own planets. The universe is infinite and has no center.'
These words of Bruno were contrary to the religious beliefs of the Catholic Church. So Bruno was captured and imprisoned in Rome's Tower of Nona and was tried for anti-religious things. This trial lasted for seven years.
Bruno was accused of having his ideas based on Arab philosophers. He has spoken against Catholic beliefs, expressed views against the divinity of Jesus Christ, His incarnation and the holiness of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and against government ministers and spread them to the public.
He claimed the existence and eternity of many brahmands, whereas the world is one and it is mortal. Bruno was accused of misrepresenting the Christian doctrine that- 'Animals do not have souls.
Bruno defends himself that he has accepted the teachings of the Church in Venice and is merely trying to make a philosophical point. He firmly believes that- 'The universe is many.'
The Catholic Church of Rome condemned Bruno for his views and asked him to completely abandon his views and apologize. Bruno refused to do so. An Ancient Book 'Jasper Shoop of Breslau' According to Bruno, it was alleged that he threatened the judge of his trial by saying- 'You probably fear me speaking this sentence against me more than the fear with which I hear him. ' That is, you are more scared than me!
On 20 January 1600, Pope Clement (VIII) declared Bruno an anti-religion and sentenced him to death. The square in the main market of Rome to Bruno on 17 February 1600 'Campo de Fiori' I was naked and hanged upside down on the cross. At that time his tongue was tied because he had uttered satanic words against religion. In the same condition, Bruno was burnt alive. His ashes were thrown into the Tiber River.
The panel that decided the case against Bruno included many eminent cardinals of the time, who were bishops of prominent churches in various European countries. Of these, Cardinal Camilo Borges later became the Pope of Rome and was known as Pope Paul (V).
Galileo Galilei
Shortly after Bruno's crucifixion by the church, another young scientist taking part in the bloody war of religion and science appears. He was Galileo Galilei, an Italian astronomer, mathematician and physicist. This great thinker was born on 15 February 1564 in a family of musicians in a city called Pisa, Italy. He was a Catholic Christian and a scientist of religious inclination.
The conclusions obtained from his experiments challenged many old beliefs of Christianity anew and supported on the basis of scientific experiments the things told by his predecessors thinkers, philosophers and scientists. It is called the father of modern science because he invented the method of repeating the frequency of experiments done with physical machines and analyzing the successes and failures of the results obtained from them to get the final conclusion.
The language of God is mathematics!
Galileo realized that the laws of nature are influenced by various factors and that the relationship between the increase and decrease of any one is similar to that of mathematical equations. That's why he said- 'Mathematics is the language of God.
Measurement of speed of light
This great mathematician and scientist dared to measure the speed of light. For this, Galileo and one of his assistants sat on two different peaks of a mountain located several miles apart in the dark night.
Galileo held a lantern with him, after receiving the signal of his assistant, he was to signal the light through the lantern and its bell. His assistant on the second hill, seeing the light of the lantern, had to remove the knob of the other lantern kept near him and signal again.
Thus Galileo had to estimate the speed of light by seeing the light shining on the top of the second mountain. In this way, the result that Galileo found was not real to a great extent, but the frequency of experiments and the series of success-failure that he started to get the desired result was unique. The great scientist Albert Einstein, who solved the complex mystery of the relationship between the speed of light and energy over time, has called Galileo 'Father of modern science' addressed by saying.
The sun changes too
Galileo made an instrument called 'telescope' using a lens invented shortly before. Galileo was the first man to observe space so minutely through a telescope. He was convinced that the words of Copernicus were true. Galileo also observed dark spots in the sun, which are now called sun-spots. In this way he attacked another key belief of 'Dharma' that 'the sun never changes nor does it lose its brightness.
The Earth revolves around the Sun
In AD 1609, Galileo discovered a telescope that was invented in Holland. With the help of this telescope, distant celestial bodies could be observed and their motion could be studied. Galileo, after hearing its description, built such a telescope himself, which was much more powerful than the telescope invented in Holland.
Through experiments based on this, Galileo found that contrary to the earlier beliefs, All the planets in the universe, including the Earth, revolve around the Sun. Earlier Copernicus had also said that 'all the planets including the earth revolve around the sun ' For which he had to become the wrath of the church.
Even about five and a half hundred years before Christ, Pythagoras himself had said 'that the earth and other celestial bodies revolve around a fire. '
However, Pythagoras could not identify this fire as the Sun. Pythagoras had divine power on the basis of which Pythagoras said this while Copernicus was saying this by studying the motion of the constellations and seeing it through Galileo's telescope.
Church's blasphemy
Galileo's nature was completely different from that of Copernicus. He expressed his views with enthusiasm and fearlessness. Unfortunately the religious environment of this era was not friendly. The Catholic Church was strongly opposed to the ideas of Copernicus. So when Galileo claimed that the heliocentric theory was not only scientifically correct, but also compatible with the Bible, the church smelled of heresy in his words.
When the Galilean tried to prove that the heliocentric theory was biblical, he pretended to have a great knowledge of religion. This angered the church officials even more. Galileo came to Rome from Pisa to explain his theory but to no avail. In AD 1616 the Church ordered him to stop spreading the ideas of Copernicus.
For some time Galileo sat silently, but in AD 1632 he published another book, justifying the views of Copernicus. Exactly a year later, a Roman Catholic court sentenced him to life, but later on Galileo's apologetics, given his old age, changed his sentence to 'detention' so that he could not continue scientific experiments against religion.
Many believe that Galileo's struggle against the Church was actually a battle between science and religion in which science won. Because over time people assumed that whatever Galileo was saying was true. Galileo died in AD 1642.
Correction by the Church
In 1992, exactly three and a half hundred years after Galileo's death, the Catholic Church in Vatican City admitted that he had made a mistake in deciding Galileo's case. This was probably the first time the Church had otherwise claimed that it was capable of accurately interpreting the truth.
Freedom to Science
यूरोप में रोम के कैथोनिक चर्च के नेतृत्व में धर्म और विज्ञान की इस खूनी-जंग में प्राण गंवाने वाले वैज्ञानिकों की सूची अभी पूरी नहीं हुई है किंतु चूंकि हमारा केन्द्र-बिंदु रोम तथा इटली है, इसलिए हमें इस विषय को यहीं विराम देना पड़ेगा। अठारहवीं शताब्दी आते-आते यूरोप में ईसाई संघ की कट्टरता कम होने लगी तथा यूरोप में बुद्धिवाद का प्रचार हुआ जिससे विज्ञान को खुलकर सोचने की शक्ति मिल गई।
अठारहवीं शताब्दी के प्रारम्भ में अंग्रेज विज्ञानी आइजक न्यूटन (ई.1642-1727) ने गुरुत्वाकर्षण के नियमों की व्याख्या की तथा बताया कि चीजें पृथ्वी पर क्यों गिरती हैं। उसने सूर्य एवं ग्रहों की चालों के भेद को भी समझाया। इस वैज्ञानिक को पूरे संसार में बहुत आदर मिला।
इसी प्रकार उन्नीसवीं सदी के मध्य में ई.1859 के आसपास चार्ल्स डार्विन की पुस्तक ‘ओरिजिन ऑफ स्पीसीज’ प्रकाशित हुई। उसने बताया कि पृथ्वी पर विभिन्न प्रजातियों के प्राणियों का उद्भव एवं विकास कैसे हुआ है!
इस प्रकार चीनी दार्शनिक ‘त्सोन त्से’ की बात को स्वीकार करने में यूरोप ने चार हजार साल लगा दिए। डार्विन ने सम्पूर्ण मानव जाति का सोचने का तरीका बदल दिया तथा अब धर्म नामक संस्था, अपनी मनमर्जी से विज्ञान को धर्म-विरोधी कहकर विज्ञान के उपासकों को आग या जेल में नहीं झौंक सकती थी।