It Is Through Conflict We Grow

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The experience of conflict can be positive and constructive. It has the ability to propel us to acknowledge and learn from our mistakes. Although we have to live by our actions and choices made during such times the whole process can educate us, helping us to evolve. This can be seen in individuals such as Galileo Galilei, a man of science and fervour for the truth, but very nature ultimately placed him in direct conflict with most powerful institution during Renaissance Italy, the Catholic Church. The heliocentric theory Galileo was promulgating essentially challenged the existence of God, the heavens. It downgraded humanity’s place as a wandering star, disrupting the Aristotelian harmony. As a means to silence Galileo and protect the social order that operated during that time, the Catholic Church showed Galileo the instruments of torture, which occurred with much success. The prospect of being tortured causes Galileo to compromises his moral integrity and fall at the Church’s knees. When Galileo does submit and recants his sound knowledge, under threat of death, he feels it as the defeat of reason by authority. His recantation is highly shocking to his followers and leads them to abandon him. If anyone could withstand the force of authority, Galileo appears the man to do it. He condemns people that lie about the truth but contradicts his own words when he recants. He is in turn heavily criticised for toeing the line, especially by Andrea. His recantation had flow on effects upon the scientific community; it caused a setback as Andrea informs him. Right across Europe research into the nature of the cosmos has stopped almost completely, not a single paper expounding new theories published in Italy upon news of his recantation. Galileo is racked with guilt and self-abasement over his recantation; he sacrificed his personal beliefs, betrayed his profession, not using his knowledge exclusively for mankind’s benefit but rather out of fear of physical pain. The pursuit of science demands a particular courage something Galileo did not live up to. After the inquisition, Galileo is different person. He works, he speaks, but nothing has anymore meaning. He risks whatever remnants of his own comfort by finishing his manuscript of the Discorsi as he views this is the least if could do. How we act when faced with conflict can have lingering effects on our lives even when the conflict ceases serving as a reminder of how we can be educated from such an experience and never repeat the same mistakes.

As history has shown, experiencing conflict can at times be productive and fruitful as it provides an avenue for growth, is the fuel to drive change and presents as an opportunity to learn from our errors and strengthen us.