Copernican Revolution

The revolutionary changes in human understanding which occurred during the 16th century that followed the introduction of the heliocentric model of the solar system by the German-Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) in which the Sun (and not the Earth) is at the centre of our solar system.

"The Earth rotates on its own axis, thus creating the illusion that the heavens move. It is not the Sun that follows an oblique orbit around the Earth but rather the Earth's axis that is tilted as it follows its path around the Sun. The Earth is only one of several planets orbiting the Sun." This is the central message in Copernicus' work "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) which was published in the year of his death. Copernicus' work not only physically moved the Earth from the centre of the solar system but created a new level of awareness that no longer placed humanity at the centre of the cosmos. Although Copernicus had dedicated his book to Pope Paul III, who happened to have a keen interest in astrology, the Church initially rejected the new ideas because they were thought to endanger the religious conviction that humanity represents the crowning achievement of God's creation. In 1616, both Copernicus' book and those of Galileo Galilei were put on the index of forbidden books. It was not until 1757 that Copernicus was rehabilitated.

In some of the more devout branches of Christianity and Islam there are still those who reject the Copernican model on the grounds that it is incompatible with religious teaching.