TED Talk Topic

For my TED talk, I plan to discuss the implications that the acceptance of the heliocentric theory has had on religious beliefs. To accomplish this, I’ll talk about religious attitudes before and after the acceptance of Copernicus’ theory. In the before category, there are a lot of topic that I can address. When people still believed in the geocentric theory, they thought that this reinforced religious belief because God had placed them directly in the center of creation on a stationary Earth. This led to the assumption that humanity was very special. When Ptolemy provided a mathematical model to “prove” the geocentric theory, it solidified this belief, which went unchallenged for over 1500 years. The acceptance of religion also led to intolerance for people who offered alternatives to geocentrism. One of these people was Galileo. Galileo supported Copernicus’ heliocentric theory and was subsequently threatened with torture by the Church if he didn’t recant his belief. This shows an outgrowth of how religious belief affected people’s general attitude at that time.

After the acceptance of the heliocentric theory, the floodgates of scientific thought opened and ushered in the modern era. There was greater inquiry into the origins of humanity and the universe, with much less being accepted on faith and superstition than before. Scientists like Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and Newton changed our conception of how the world works. There has been a steady decline in the prevalence of religious belief which continues to this day. Humanity has now realized that we are off in a corner in a huge ever-expanding universe. We are not as special as we once thought. This has led to a reconsideration of our origin and place in the universe. And while this might have drastically changed our perspective, it has not made life in the least bit boring since then. I contest that it has led to a fuller, truer, and more diverse perspective on the human experience.