How did Johannes Kepler challenge the church?

Answer 1

Kepler said that the Earth wasn't the center of the universe. The church, who believed they (humans) were the most important said that the Earth was in fact the most important planet in the universe. By saying something different than the church, Kepler challenged the church. He was lucky he didn't get killed.

Answer 2

He challenged the catholic church but going against what they believe ( in their religion) as they didn't believe the sun was in the center of the solar system so they said that they would ex-communicate him (which means stopping him from talking to god) which was a very awful to have happen to you back then.

Answer 3

Galileo took up the Copernican view of the solar system, that the Sun is at the centre, and the Catholic Church said it was OK for him to teach it as a useful model for predicting positions of planets, but he went further and asserted it as the compete truth. At the time it was contrary to the church's teaching, and he was asked for proof, but he had no proof.

Proof came later when it was discovered that the solar system is governed by the laws of planetary motion and gravity, and the Sun is by far the most massive item in the Solar System. After that everyone including the Catholic Church agreed that having the Sun at the centre was the best idea.

Answer 4

Copernicus's model did not challenge the church's authority, in fact Copernicus was a senior priest and was very worried that his theory might be ridiculed.

It was Galileo who took the theory up and proclaimed it as the absolute truth, which the church objected to. They also objected to his Propaganda methods which sought to ridicule anyone who questioned his arguments, even including the Pope.

But long after Galileo's lifetime the heliocentric idea was incorporated, with newer scientific discoveries, into the model that is generally accepted today.

Answer 5

The geocentric theory, with the Earth at the centre, was the theory accepted by the Catholic Church. They had read Copernicus's new heliocentric theory that had the Sun at the center and said that Galileo was free to teach it as a theory but that he could not state that it was the absolute truth.

The church said that without adequate proof they would not allow accepted facts to be altered. However this was not good enough for Galileo who took the church on, saying that he was celeverer than the cardinals. He wrote a book in which the Pope was portrayed as a simpleton. Later he was put on trial and although he had said that he had proof, he could not convince the court. He retracted rather than undergo torture.

The Copernican theory had the Sun at the center but in other respects it was similar to the ancient theory. At about the same time as Galileo's dispute with the church authorities, Johannes Kepler in Germany put forward the modern theory of the planets with the Sun at the centre and the planets in elliptical orbits, which is the model accepted now after many more important scientific discoveries.

Answer 6

Galileo did not have a theory, he supported Copernicus's theory which was heliocentric, while the Church supported the geocentric theory of Ptolemy and said they would not change without enough evidence.

The theory that was eventually found to be right was by Johannes Kepler (published 1609), which had the Sun at the centre and the planets in elliptical orbits, a novel idea.

All these theories explained the positions of the planets reasonably well. Kepler's was the most accurate. That was all that could be said at the time.

But Kepler's model was eventually shown to be correct after Isaac newton's theoretical discoveries, published in 1687 a long time after Galileo's lifetime. Newton's theories showed that a planet must move in an elliptical orbit under the Sun's gravity, so Kepler's theory has lasted until modern times, with very slight modifications from Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.

Answer 7

He said that the Earth orbited the Sun.

The Church held that Rome was the centre of everything.