GALILEO AS THE GUARDIAN OF TURKISH SECULARISM

ALPER BILGILI

ABSTRACT

This article aims to show how modern Turkish discussions on science are used to achieve
certain social and political goals. Since the Young Turks, the conflict hypothesis −the view
that science and religion are necessarily and inevitably in conflict− was embraced by the
secularist elites and used to legitimise certain policies. The Galileo Affair ranks at the top
of the list of historical incidents that cause people to believe that the conflict hypothesis is
a plausible model for understanding the relationship between science and religion. This
article will not only refer to historical data to test the validity of this hypothesis, it will
also try to reveal the Western context that gave rise to conflict hypothesis’ emergence
and acceptance by science popularisers. Last but not least, Turkish myths concerning
Galileo and the way these myths were exploited in Turkish discussions on secularism
will be analysed.