As an encore to our popular lecture series A Pact with Reason, Cambridge University Professor Piers Bursill-Hall presents a new lecture in two parts. The Galileo Affair: Science & Religion, History & Politics – Deceitful Bedfellows.

The traditional view holds that Galileo was the “Father of Science” who proved Copernicus’s theory that the planets, including Earth, move in circular orbits around the sun. This traditional view also portrays Galileo as a martyr to the Church’s anti-scientific oppression and non-scientific superstitions. Professor Bursill-Hall will show us that this story is far from true and, in fact, that the real story is both more complicated and more interesting.

Sponsored by Jeff Andersen and Andrew Jeavons