I tend to use Microsoft’s “Edge” web browser, and it often promotes its own stuff, especially if I log into a public wireless network that uses Microsoft products to connect. Upon receiving another blast about new AI-enhanced search abilities in the Microsoft “Bing” search engine (why did they name that thing after the guy who sang “White Christmas” anyway?), I was moved to just type “What was the Church’s problem with Galileo?” into it. It’s the classic faith-and-science history question, right?
Uh-oh…
“Bing” came back with this:
Galileo’s contributions to science contradicted scientific and philosophical ideas based on those of Aristotle and Ptolemy and closely associated with the Catholic Church. Galileo was ordered to turn himself in to the Holy Office to begin trial for holding the belief that the Earth revolves around the sun, which was deemed heretical by the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church stated that Galileo could not be a devoted Catholic and a scientist at the same time. Galileo’s conflict with the Church has been described as a clash of ideas between scientific claims and opposing theological doctrines supported by centuries of church tradition.
What stood out to me here was “The Catholic Church stated that Galileo could not be a devoted Catholic and a scientist at the same time.” How strange. How bogus. How would “Bing” explain other devoted Catholic scientists of Galileo’s time, like Fr. Christoph Scheiner, S.J. for example? He “wrote the book” on solar astronomy during Galileo’s lifetime — click here for a look at it.
Happily, “Bing” provides footnotes for its statements, and the note for that sentence pointed to a web page with the title “Galileo and his Relationship with the Church” (highlighted in orange in the image above). It read, in part (sic),
The Catholic Church in the seventeenth century was an important aspect of European life. It had the ability to prevent anything that threatened it to never do so again. The Protestant Reformation had caused the Church to become especially fragile in the views that people promoted that may have a negative effect against them. This prompted them to set up the Holy Office, more commonly know as the Inquisition. The Holy Office had a branch in all catholic dominated countries to investigate potentially dangerous teaching. Another reason for the Church’s venerability [sic — that’s “vulnerability” I am sure] was its struggle with its European budget and influence. Galileo was not only committing blasphemy but irritating the Church by repeating an idea that had already been put forward by another scientist called Copernicus. The Catholic Church stated that Galileo could not be a devoted Catholic and a scientist at the same time.
There it is: “Galileo could not be a devoted Catholic and a scientist at the same time.” No further references provided. A few more clicks revealed that this web page was part of “Galileo @ Roedean”:
These pages describe a project based at Roedean School from October to December 1999. The aim of the project was to involve students from several Sussex schools in investigating aspects of the life and work of Galileo. Students were involved in the production of a play, carrying out scientific experiments, filming, making masks, composing music, producing a booklet and starting the development of this web site.
A little more searching led to “Roedean, a wonderful independent day and boarding school for girls aged 11-18 in Sussex, England.”
“Galileo and his Relationship with the Church” was a middle school or maybe high school student web page, constructed a quarter of a century ago. “Bing” brought in bogus information written by some kids who had to do a project back when the web was new and cool. They got some things right, some things wrong. They could have worked a bit on their spelling. I would have given them a “B”.
Questions come to mind:
One question is, do the (former) girls who wrote this know that “Bing” has dug their work up and put it forth in the year 2024 as AI-endorsed information on Galileo and the Church? The names of students are on the “Galileo @ Roedean” web page. I can imagine some now-early-middle age woman being utterly baffled to find someone saying to her in a conversation, “hey, I saw your work on Galileo! … nice stuff!” Or alternatively, “… what a bunch of junk! Hope your parents did not pay a lot of tuition for that school!” Or, alternatively, “… I would have given you a ‘B’ for that work.” Or even, “… some dude from the Vatican’s observatory said he would have given you a ‘B’ for that work.”
Second, why in the world did the AI bring this up? I want to know not just what caused the AI to dig up this bit of student-generated bogus history, but what caused the AI to put anything like this in its answer to “What was the Church’s problem with Galileo?” in the first place. Clearly, there is something in the statistics of the AI’s data pile that drives it to include something like “The Catholic Church stated that Galileo could not be a devoted Catholic and a scientist at the same time,” even though this statement makes no sense, and “Bing” had to raid the work of some turn-of-the-century middle school kid to get it.
Perhaps “Bing” is a statistical reflection of modern culture, and thus reflects this urge we see all the time in people to claim that a person cannot be religious and a scientist (despite, say, Isaac Newton being both). Those who hold this idea just know what they know — The Church Rejected Galileo’s Discoveries! — or — Anyone With A Telescope Could See That Earth Moves! — and, given that reality does not support such notions, they are faced with just using bogus information, with using what they saw on TV when they were in middle school. “Bing” is reflecting this.
Note that not everything “Bing” said was bogus. To that point, if you look at the image above, you will see something highlighted in yellow. That is taken from something Br. Guy and I wrote! But the “can’t be a devoted Catholic and a scientist” business certainly is bogus. Bing needs some improvement — and needs to leave those kids alone.
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