Heliocentrism in ancient America

Image by Laura Generosa

“It appeareth unto man that the sun standeth still; yea, and behold, this is so; for surely it is the earth that moveth and not the sun.”

Helaman 12:15

This verse was written in 7 B.C..  It shows that some ancient Americans believed in a heliocentric Solar System long before western civilizations did.

As far as we know, Aristarchus was the first person to create a model with the sun at the center of the Solar System.  While Aristarchus’  created his heliocentric model in the 3rd century B.C., it took nearly two thousand years for his model to be widely accepted.

In 1543 a polish mathematician, Nicolaus Copernicus, wrote a treatise about the planets revolving around the Sun.  The Catholic Church rejected Copernicus’s ideas based on some biblical passages.  For example:

• Chronicles 16:30 says “the world also shall be stable, that it be not moved.”
• Psalm 104:5 says “[the Lord] laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.”
• Ecclesiastes 1:5 says “the sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.”

Eventually in 1758 the Catholic Church stopped listing heliocentric books in their Index of Forbidden Books.  By 1822 Pope Pius VII allowed printing heliocentric books in Rome.

“At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes–an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive they may be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense.”  

- Carl Sagan

Personal Notes:  I think we sometimes underestimate our ancestors’s knowledge of the world.  In some disciplines, modern civilizations may lag behind ancient civilizations.  For example, God may have revealed truths to ancient civilizations (such as City of Enoch) that we may not be ready to receive yet.