Rehashing History: Galileo
...or What's science got to do with it?
Galileo looked through a lens one day
And, boy, was he astounded.
The Earth wasn't flat as he'd been told,
It was, in fact, quite rounded.
Pope Urban VIII then came along
And said, "No, that's absolutely wrong,
For, I, the Church, do not agree, and I'm the Wise One.
It's just as plain as plain can be why my pontifical decree's
The Earth is flat and ends right there at the horizon.
And for infallibility, you know, I am renownded."
So Galileo relented and recanted his boast
So he wouldn't be tortured or turned into toast.
A few centuries passed,
A new Pope said he guessed
That his theory might have been misjudged,
Since back then science was begrudged,
And the Church owed him a pardon,
Or a posthumous papal "perhaps", at the most.
Copyright ©
Jim Slaughter
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