Humanity has been looking for and continues to look for an answer to the question of its origin and the world around it.
Ancient understanding of the universe
In ancient times, the knowledge of civilization was scarce and superficial. Understanding the nature of the surrounding world was based on the opinion that everything was created by a supernatural force or its representatives. All ancient mythology bears the imprint of the intervention of the Gods in the development and life of civilization. Due to the lack of knowledge about the processes in nature, man attributed the creation of all things to God, the Higher Mind, spirits.
Over time, human knowledge "lifted the curtain" of hidden understanding about the nature around us. Thanks to outstanding scientists and philosophers of different eras, the understanding of everything around became more understandable and less erroneous. For many centuries, religion slowed down and stopped dissent. Everything that did not agree with the understanding of "the creation of the world and man" was eradicated, and philosophers and natural scientists were physically eliminated, as a warning to others.
Geocentric system of world order
According to the Catholic Church, the Earth was the center of the world. This is the hypothesis put forward in the second century BC by Aristotle. This system of organization of the world is calledgeocentric (from the ancient Greek word Γῆ, Γαῖα - Earth). According to Aristotle, the Earth was a ball at the center of the universe.
There was another opinion, where the Earth was a cone. Anaximander believed that the Earth has the shape of a low cylinder with a height three times less than the diameter of the base. Anaximenes, Anaxagoras considered the Earth to be flat, resembling a table top.
In an earlier period, it was believed that the planet rests on a huge mythical creature, similar to a turtle.
Pythagoras and the spherical shape of the Earth
In the time of Pythagoras, the main opinion was determined that our planet is still a spherical body. But society, in its mass did not support this idea. It was not clear to the person how he is on the ball and does not slip, and does not fall from it. In addition, it was not clear how the Earth was supported in space. A lot of speculation has been put forward. Some believed that the planet was held together by compressed air, others thought that it rested in the ocean. There was a hypothesis that the Earth, being the center of the world, is stationary and does not require any support.
The Renaissance is rich in events
Centuries later, the system of the world at the beginning of the 16th century underwent a major revision. A large number of philosophers and scientists of that time openly tried to prove the fallacy of people's ideas about their place in the universe and the nature of everything around. Among them were such great minds as: Giordano Bruno, Galileo Galilei, Nicolaus Copernicus, Leonardo yesVinci.
The path of becoming the truth and society's acceptance of the fact that there is a different system of the world turned out to be difficult and thorny. The 16th century became the starting point in the battle for a new worldview of outstanding minds with a universal understanding of the people of that time. The trouble with such a slow change in the understanding of society lay in the imposition by religion of a unified understanding of the nature of everything around, which was purely divine and supernatural.
The Roman Inquisition immediately eliminated dissent in society.
Copernicus - the founder of the first scientific revolution
Even long before the Renaissance, in the third century BC, Aristarchus assumed that there was a different system of world order.
Copernicus in his writings "On the rotation of the celestial spheres" proved that the old understanding that the Earth is the center of the world and the Sun revolves around it is fundamentally wrong.
His book, published in 1543, contained evidence of heliocentrism (the heliocentric system implies the understanding that our Earth revolves around the Sun) of the world. He developed the theory of planetary motion around the Sun at the beginning of the Pythagorean principle of uniform circular motions.
The work of Nicolaus Copernicus was available to philosophers and natural scientists for some time. The Catholic Church realized that the work of a scientist seriously undermines its authority and recognized the work of a scientist as heretical and discrediting the truth. In 1616 his writings were confiscated andburned.
The great genius of his time - Leonardo da Vinci
Forty years before Copernicus, another brilliant mind of the Renaissance - Leonardo da Vinci, in his spare time from other activities, made sketches, where it was clearly shown that the Earth is not the center of the world.
The system of the world of Leonardo da Vinci was reflected in some sketches of drawings that have come down to us. He made notes in the margins of the sketches, from which it follows that the Earth, like the rest of the planets in our solar system, revolves around the Sun. The brilliant philosopher, artist, inventor and scientist understood the deep essence of things, ahead of his time by several centuries.
Leonardo da Vinci, through his work, brought the understanding that there is a different system of the world. The 16th century turned out to be a difficult period of struggle for understanding the universe between great minds and the established opinion of the society of that time.
The struggle of two systems of world order
The world order system at the beginning of the 16th century was considered by scientists of that time in two directions. During this period, a confrontation between two types of worldview was formed - geocentric and heliocentric. And only after almost a hundred years, the heliocentric system of the world began to win. Copernicus became the founder of a new understanding in scientific circles.
His work "On the rotation of the celestial spheres" was unclaimed for almost fifty years. Society at that time was not ready to accept its “new” place in the Universe, to lose its position as the center of the world. And onlyat the end of the 16th century, Bruno's heliocentric system of the world, based on the work of Copernicus, again stirred up the great minds of society.
Giordano Bruno and the true understanding of the universe
Giordano Bruno spoke out against the Aristotle-Ptolemaic system of world order that prevailed in his period, opposing the Copernican system. He expanded it, creating philosophical conclusions, pointed out some facts that are now recognized by science as indisputable. He argued that the stars are distant Suns, and that there are countless cosmic bodies in the Universe similar to our Sun.
In 1592 he was arrested in Venice and handed over to the Roman Inquisition.
Subsequently, after seven years in prison, the Church of Rome demanded that Bruno renounce his "incorrect" beliefs. After the refusal, he was burned at the stake as a heretic. Giordano Bruno paid dearly for his participation in the struggle for the heliocentric system of the world. Future generations appreciated the sacrifice of the great scientist, in 1889 a monument was erected at the place of execution in Rome.
The future of civilization is determined by its intelligence
For thousands of years, the accumulated experience of mankind suggests that the knowledge gained is as close as possible to the current level of understanding. But there is no guarantee that they will be reliable tomorrow.
As practice shows, the expansion of our understanding of the universe suggests the idea that everything is somewhatdifferent than we imagined before.
Another key problem that has been going on through the millennia is the process of deliberate distortion of information (like the Church of Rome in its time) to keep humanity in the "right" direction. Let's hope that the true intelligence of a human being will win, and will enable civilization to follow the right path of development.
