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Galileo's Sentencing to Prison

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Galileo's Sentencing to Prison
Galileo Galilei was born in 1564 in Pisa, Italy. At a young age his family moved to Florence where he grew up. At about the age of 33, Galileo begins to believe in the Copernican or heliocentric model of the universe as opposed to the Ptolemaic or geocentric model. Galileo then used magnifying glasses to create telescopes to see the stars better. He realizes that the Copernican model offers better explanations for what he discovered in the sky and for what happens here on earth than the Ptolemaic. He then publishes the work Letters on Sunspots. After this is done the clergy of the Catholic Church begins to attack the Copernican view. An argument ensues between the Catholic Church and Galileo which eventually leads to him being arrested and sentenced to house arrest for heresy. This sentencing of Galileo was a vast overreaction. I definitely disagree with this sentence.
Galileo was sentenced to house arrest for his entire life. His crime did not deserve this harsh punishment. Galileo was only guilty of disagreeing with the Catholic Church. He didn't do anything to hurt nor corrupt anyone. The Catholic Church was trying to retain the power they had over the people by not allowing anyone to disprove their theory. They didn't want to look wrong so they charged Galileo of heresy and locked him up. To me, this is a poor excuse to lock someone up. There were people in that world that deserved to be locked up more than Galileo just for reporting things he had discovered. If this happened today, the prisons would be way to full of people. Everyone speaks out against the government nowadays and the government has to deal with it. Galileo was merely trying to inform people rather than start trouble. He also gave evidence to his theory which still didn't help his case. It seems as though the Catholic Church held a grudge against Galileo and gave him a harsh punishment.
It is hard to say that we agree or disagree with this punishment simply because of
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