Question

Imagine that you are a contemporary of Galileo. Would you offer your scientific insights that might threaten establishment views? How would you make scientific reasoning about the position of the earth and the sun palatable to the powers in place?

Answer 1

If I was a contemporary of Galileo I would definitely offer my scientific insights(if I am confident about their veracity) that might threaten established views because I think science is something which should adjust its views based on what is observed(or found to be true)

I would make scientific reasoning about the positions of earth and mass based on observations and facts which can be easily proved(or verified) to the people at that time.

For example, to show that earth is not the center of the solar system and it revolves around the sun I would consider the phases of Venus if we observe Venus carefully(telescopes were available at that time) we would be able to see that Venus shows the same kind of phase that we see with the moon. What does this mean? It means two things. First, We can see Venus because it reflects light from the Sun. Second, as the phases change, Venus is sometimes closer to us than the Sun and sometimes farther away. We would see a "full phase" Venus when it is on the other side of the Sun. How can both Venus and the Sun orbit the Earth but also have Venus move farther away? This is something which can't be understood if we take the earth as the center of the solar system.

If people still didn't believe me, I would make a similar argument about the moons of the Jupiter.