Facts don't change minds, structure does
In 1633, Galileo Galilei stood before the Inquisition, not for inventing a radical new theory, but for proposing a straightforward idea: that the Earth moves around the Sun. This wasn’t even a new suggestion—Greek astronomers like Aristarchus had floated the heliocentric model centuries earlier. But in Galileo’s time, the idea ran into an insurmountable obstacle. We often chalk up the Church’s resistance to superstition or ignorance. While that played a role, there was something deeper at work.