Chicago Coalition of Library Friends Meetup

On December 6, 2025, five of us started our conversation on Mario Livio’s Galileo and the Science Deniers. Livio, a working astrophysicist, undertook the task of examining the life of Galileo and his critics to compare and contrast with today’s science denialism. He compiled keywords associated with the pictures captured by the Hubble Telescope: images, discoveries, drama, ingenuity, courage, longevity, and dissemination, and notes that these same words could be used to describe Galileo. An interesting turn of events occurred around the same time when the pictures from the Hubble Telescope were released. In 1992, after a 13-year investigation, Pope John Paul II addressed the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, stating that the theologians, who condemned Galileo, made a mistake by failing to recognize the formal distinction between the Bible and scientific inquiry, formally acknowledged the Church’s error, and apologized for the condemnation of Galileo. It is never too late to say you are sorry, but it may be too late when the impact of today’s science deniers has a more dire consequence in their denial of the efficacy of vaccines and the need to combat climate change.

In December 1613, Benedetto Castelli, a student of Galileo, conversed with Christina of Lorraine, who pointed out the contradiction between Scripture and the Copernican model of the solar system. She pointed out that Joshua commanded the sun to stop, and not the earth. Castelli wrote to Galileo about this conversation, touting his theological victory in this debate. However, Galileo chastised Castelli for using science to justify the Scriptures, which put him in league with theologians who based salvation only on the Scriptures. “Would God, who has given us our senses, reason, and intelligence, wish us to abandon their use?” Also, Pope John Paul II, in his 1996 address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, said, "Truth cannot contradict truth," and further noted that scientific findings and religious revelation ultimately align, even if they initially conflict. Faith and reason are complementary in understanding reality.

Livio also introduces Galileo as someone who embraced the spirit of the Renaissance, posing questions and finding answers on many topics. Using his discovery that projectiles move in parabolic trajectories, Artemisia Gentileschi, in her “Judith Slaying Holofernes,” painted the spurting blood traveling in an arc, and she joined many other Renaissance artists in painting more realistic biblical scenes.

Galileo also lived in the time when the printing press made more books available. It was the Internet of its time when more information was available to a larger audience. Perhaps, we have lost the time to deliberate after putting a book down, since the contents of the Encyclopedia Britannica can be transmitted in seconds. Are we like rats whose nucleus accumbens, part of the reward pathway where dopamine is released, are wired to be electrically stimulated by pressing a switch, addicted to clicking on conspiracies without serious reservations about what we read? Have we become more enlightened by information or more addicted to misinformation?

One of us also took issue with two other descriptions that Livio used for Galileo, that his genetics and individualism are inescapable. After all, Marilyn Brookwood, in her book, The Orphans of Davenport, criticized the system that abandoned low-IQ children to a bleak orphanage. However, when these children were given a stimulating environment, their IQs soared. If we had his father, Vincenzo Galilei, an accomplished musician and composer, and his demanding mother, Giulia degli Ammannati, could we become a Galileo? Is the individualism of Livio the rugged individualism that believes that everyone can pull themselves up with their own bootstraps, or is he referring to the individualism of David Thoreau, who said, “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer?” After all, his parents and his schooling in mathematics gave him the bootstraps that allowed him to think differently. Can we bootstrap ourselves to think scientifically?

We invite you to find out more about the denial of Galileo’s science in our discussion of Mario Livio’s Galileo and the Science Deniers, QB36.G2L658 2020, on December 20, 2025, from 2 PM to 4 PM.

From the Origami Class at the Rogers Park Library, December 13, 2025.
Robert Smith, the origami instructor, said, “When I last checked for the number of patrons who registered, it was 17. About 14 people showed up on the very cold day yesterday. One of the families pushed their dinner appointment back for an hour so that they could fold the "Santa's Boots" and the Santa Claus (we ran a little bit over the hour!) Four patrons stayed a little over because they wanted to fold a paper crane.”
You have another chance to register for:
Christmas Origami with Robert Smith
Saturday, December 20, 2025
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Rogers Park Library
Have a tree-mendously fun time creating festive Christmas-themed origami. Join Robert Smith to learn how to fold jolly ornaments for your tree. Robert Smith is an origami master who folded 1000 cranes for the Hiroshima Peace Memorial and helped with other origami projects for our library.
How to Attend
For ages 6 and up, registration is required. There are seven remaining slots.
Register by the start of the event at this link:
https://chipublib.bibliocommons.com/events/691df19dc313c23700e2e230
Due to space limitations, please include the total number of children and adults as attendees when you register.