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The New Heliocentrism of the Human Mind
Modern psychology is having its “Galileo moment,” and most of us are acting like the Catholic Church.
From the days of Aristotle to the 1500s, the Sun revolved around the Earth — at least, as far as Europeans knew. “Geocentrism” was the truth; everyone knew that. All you had to do was stand outside and watch, and it was plain as day: you were standing still, here on Earth, and the Sun moved across the sky around you. In 1543, a wingnut in Prussia named Nicolaus Copernicus published a theory that the Earth, in fact, revolves around the Sun, called “heliocentrism.” By 1610, the telescope had been invented, and upon more refined observation, an astronomer named Galileo Galilei could prove heliocentrism to be correct. Then, all hell broke loose.
The conflict between Galileo and the Catholic Church over heliocentrism has become legendary in the history of scientific discoveries really, really upsetting people. In the case of heliocentrism, the objections were threefold. First, heliocentrism contradicted what anyone could observe — the Sun moving across the sky — invalidating a basic human experience of reality. Second, it contradicted certain passages in the Bible about the Earth being static, refuting a belief many held dear. Third, that contradiction threatened the power of a dominant…
