Gaileo Galilei : A Herestic ???

Gaileo Galilei (1564 - 1642) was one of the influential scientists of this millenium, however he live during a time when the protestants reformed was gaining momentum and Europe was in turmoil. The Catholic Church was losing its hold on the northern Europe and the Thirty Years' raged. Chinese Proverb quote : " A hero live in wrong time ." Gaileo resided on the Italian peninsula , where the Church maintained a strong hold, and he could not rely on the protection of the reformers in other part of Europe. None-the-less, even though "pagan" belief associated wit frequency and resonance-related phenomena had been banned by the Church for centuries, Gaileo performed research on natural resonant frequencies in a pendulum system. In 1632, Gaileo published his "Dialogue" and a daring move described the mechanics of the natural resonant frequencies writing, " "The Pendulum make its vibrations with one and the same frequency and "every Pendulum hath the Time of its Vibrations...pre-fixed...{and} and it is impossible to make it move under any other Period, than that is natural unto it ." He desribed the resonant accelerating forces produced by precise time puffs of his breath stating, "by blowing upon {the Pendulum one may} confer a Motion, and a Motion considerably great by reiterating the blasts, but only under the Time properly belonging to Vibrations.". Gaileo thus provided one of the first documented description s of resonance, namely the increase in amplitude and energy of a system of vibrations when an applied vibration , motion or energy matched the natural frequency of the system. Unfortunately, the Church was less accommodating than Gaileo had anticipated. He was convicted of heresy and placed under house arrest for the rest of life. Sigh!!!

What is Democracy ?

What is democracy ? Pure democracy is simply the rule of the majority. That may sound great and even practical-unless you are in the minority and the issues concern your well-being and perhaps even your ife.
Benjamin Franklin said : "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have lunch." Majority rule is, in essence, the tyranny of the majority, wherein dissenters are oppressed. At its worst, it can devolve into mob rule, a fearful circumstance that can break down into anarchy and calls for authoritian by a single leader.
American Founding Father John Adams said : "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhauts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monorchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appear in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked produce the same effect of fraud, violence, and cruetly.
Yet even a true democratic republic does not neccessarily promote freedom. The forces of democracy are still at work in selecting representation. A takeoff on the humorous quote up front notes that is a republic,the flock gets to vote for which wolves vote on lunch.Of course, some countries refer to themselves as democratic republics even if truly free election are absent. Communist regimes are notorious

Here's a clear case, then, where democracy does not equate to freedom.

City of God

St. Thomas Aquinas agreed with St. Augustine that Church is necessary to secure eternal good but at the same time, like Aristotle, he believed that the state is necessary to provide the condition for a good life. Thus, Aquinas combine both reason and faith in his ideas which are called scholasticism. He try to integrate revelation with reason. Aquinas believed that the function of a state was to enable humans to lead virtous lives for eternal salvation. However, people cannot achieve salvation without the guidance of church. It is true that man is a social animal and, therefore, state is natural to man but is the church alone which has the universal spiritual authority. According to Aquinas, human beings are guided by four kinds of laws: a)univesal law; b)eternal law; c)natural law; d)human law. Universal law are divine law and, therefore, perfect. In human law, there is a possibility of errors. Therefore, he argued that a secula rule could fuction best only if he rules under the guidance of the Church. The Church being the controlling guide of the state, the Papal authority is superior to temporal authority.