In this way, scientific investigations that attempt to explain such things as the movement of the planets and the stars are truly a service to religions; they attempt to provide a clearer understanding of God's wonder through his Creation. With the study of the heavens, in particular, Galileo asserts that he is attempting to learn more about what Bible refers to as the place of man's salvation, and what is assumed in the popular conception of the cosmos to be the place of God's residence at the far reaches of the spheres. Understanding, according to Galileo, is automatically holy, just as real truth is divine.

A Response Letter to the Same Duchess

To the Most Exalted Grand Duchess

I hope this finds you well and most unmoved on the point of Galileo Galilei's new conception of the motions of the heavenly bodies. Though his supposed observations, if indeed they have...
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