Spinning Around the Universe

In 1543 Copernicus' work, On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, was published shortly before his death. Copernicus' work brought about a relatively peaceable revolution in which there was a paradigm shift from believing the earth was the center of the universe to believing the sun was the actual center.

Prior to Copernicus the world had been under a Ptolemaic understanding of the universe—a geocentric concept that the earth was at the center of the universe and the sun, moon and other planets revolved around the earth. Copernicus, spurred on by astronomic criticisms raised by Averroes, developed a different concept of the universe. In his heliocentric model, the sun was at the center of the universe with the earth and other planets revolving around it.

This new concept, in hindsight, would be a dramatic shift of understanding of my place in the universe. Instead of the universe revolving around my home, the giant blue marble in the sky, the new reality is that my world revolves around a giant ball of gas that lies at the center of the universe.

In a way, this is like the universe of which I'm a part doing an abrupt about face. Instead of the earth being the point of reference for the earth, the new point of reference is the sun.

We all go through similar experiences of holding on tightly to our point of reference for the world in which we live. From the time we are babies when we rely so heavily on our mothers for nourishment. Not surprisingly, babies almost always have an incredible attachment to their mothers. As children begin going to school and gaining an identity in that frame of reference, school becomes increasingly important. You need look no further than the high school cross-town rivalries that can get so fierce. (Everything from defiled school flags, to stolen mascot costumes and even stolen street signs.)

This same sense of rivalry goes on up through college and extends into board rooms around the world. When that point of reference gets shaken—whether it be through the loss of a parent, a high-schooler's cross country move, failing to get into a coveted university, being handed the proverbial pink slip at work, or losing market share due to a competitor's new product—our world and self-identity gets shaken as well.

We often stumble at these junctures in our lives. Not only do we struggle to hold onto our own footings, but we also see opposition escalate. We see teenagers rebel against their parents news about the impending move. We see cross town rivalries extend beyond the ball field. And we see employees suffer severe depression and untimely deaths due to their world being shaken. We even see politician, such as Nixon, go to extremes in order to hold onto their political identity.

Perhaps, it was fortunate for Copernicus that his death so closely coincided with the publication of his theories. Less than a century later, in 1633, Galileo was convicted by the Inquisition of heresy and forced to publicly withdraw his support of Copernicus. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, but because of his advanced age he was allowed to serve his term under house arrest at his villa in Arcetri outside of Florence.

It took contributions from a number of other prominent scientists before Copernicus' theories became widely accepted. Galileo used the newly invented telescope to add knowledge of Jupiter's moons, Venus' phases and the rotation of the sun about a fixed axis. Kepler introduced the idea that planets traveled in elliptical orbits. And Isaac Newton proposed the ideas of universal gravity to explain the elliptical orbits.

Anyone who has seen the ubiquitous styrofoam models constructed by grade school children, knows that the Copernicus model of heliocentrism is widely accepted. But it hasn't always been that way.

What outdated models are we using as reference for our lives? And what evidence do we need to accumulate before we accept a better model?