Killing Shakespeare
How can a beloved, 400-year-old paradigm that is supported by all universities ever be destroyed?
This is the argument that will finally kill off this centuries-old myth
Ad hoc assumptions are the ventilators and defibrillators of a dying theory
In 1633, Galileo Galilei faced trial for his masterwork, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, which supported a sun-centered solar system. This was heresy on all levels. Not only did the dominant religious leaders of Italy firmly preach that the earth stood motionless at the center of the universe—so did all of Italy’s top professors and astronomers. The Roman Inquisition banned his book, forced him to recant under threat of torture, and sentenced the 70-year-old to house arrest for the rest of his life. After his forced recantation, he allegedly muttered, "E pur si muove"—"And yet it moves” —referring to the Earth’s orbiting of the sun.
How did astronomers manage to maintain the geocentric viewpoint—the hoary model developed by Claudius Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD—for more than 1500 years? They did it the same way all conventional academics have given life support to their non-responsive, clinically-dead theories: They made excuses. And with each new discrepancy or contradiction that astronomers faced, they would invent another ad-hoc rationalization.