It's pretty obvious, by displacing the earth Copernicus displaced humans.
Who was bothered that the earth was moving. The only "reference" I know of
is that of calvin, which he never said or wrote.
Michael Roberts
----- Original Message -----
From: "Moorad Alexanian" <alexanian@uncwil.edu>
To: "americanscientificaffiliation" <asa@calvin.edu>; <tdavis@messiah.edu>
Sent: Monday, August 06, 2001 3:08 PM
Subject: Fw: Copernicus was wrong?
> The discovery of Copernicus was a scientific discovery about the solar
> system and has nothing to do with humans. He may have displaced the earth,
> but we know nothing about displacing humans. Moorad
>
>
>
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: Ted Davis <tdavis@messiah.edu>
> >To: asa@calvin.edu <asa@calvin.edu>
> >Date: Sunday, August 05, 2001 10:39 PM
> >Subject: Copernicus was wrong?
> >
> >
> >>Glenn Morton writes (correctly) that Copernicus is usually credited with
> >>moving humans out of the center. However, as I have noted in other
forums
> >>several times, this very common notion is very wrong. In short,
> Copernicus
> >>did not move humanity from the center--because we were never there!
> >Ptolemy
> >>and others since antiquity were well aware of the earth's approximate
size
> >>and shape, and medieval intellectuals were fully aware that we are a
very
> >>significant 4000 miles from the "center" of the universe. Furthermore,
it
> >>was not desireable to be in the center at all, for that's where hell was
> >>thought to be. This feature of Copernicanism--moving humanity away from
> >the
> >>center--did not bother people at the time; what bothered them was the
> >>ridiculous claim that the earth is moving.
> >>
> >>The myth that Copernicus assaulted human dignity may have been invented
by
> >>Freud, as part of a selve-serving idea that Copernicus moved us out of
the
> >>center, Darwin reduced our uniqueness, and he (Freud) had assaulted our
> >>rationality. I say "may have been," b/c I am not confident this part
of
> >>the story is right. But I'm confident the first paragraph is right.
> >>
> >>Ted Davis
> >>
> >>
> >>Edward B. Davis
> >>Professor of the History of Science
> >>Messiah College
> >>Grantham, PA 17027
> >>717-766-2511 (voice)
> >>717-691-6002 (fax)
> >>
> >
>
>
>
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