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# The distance from the Earth to the sun is small compared to the distance to the stars.

# The distance from the Earth to the sun is small compared to the distance to the stars.

However, the reaction was negative among some Christians who felt it conflicted with some literal interpretations of the Bible, such as the account of how Joshua benefited from the sun standing still as it passed over the earth.  "And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher?  So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day."  Joshua 10:13.  But there were few Protestants in Poland then (or now), and Copernicus died without much controversy.  

The reception to his work was initially positive within the Catholic Church (contrary to popular belief, [[Galileo]] was not persecuted for supporting the Copernican theory, but because he was disrespectful to the [[Pope]]). However, the reaction was negative among Protestants who felt it conflicted with some literal interpretations of the Bible, such as the account of how Joshua benefited from the sun standing still as it passed over the earth.  "And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher?  So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day."  Joshua 10:13.  But there were few Protestants in Poland then (or now), and Copernicus died without much controversy.  

[[Image:Copernicus_system.gif|thumb|right|300px|The Copernican System]]

[[Image:Copernicus_system.gif|thumb|right|300px|The Copernican System]]

Copernicus's book title used the word "revolution" in the sense of planets revolving around the Sun, not in the sense of an intellectual revolt. In the late 20th century, the term Copernican Revolution has come to mean the prototypical [[paradigm shift]], where scientists suddenly became enlightened by rejecting the prejudices of their predecessors.

Copernicus's book title used the word "revolution" in the sense of planets revolving around the Sun, not in the sense of an intellectual revolt. In the late 20th century, the term Copernican Revolution has come to mean the prototypical [[paradigm shift]], where scientists suddenly became enlightened by rejecting the prejudices of their predecessors.

In fact the Copernican theory was no more accurate than the Ptolemaic model. It had no compelling physical arguments for its superiority, and it proposed no experiments for testing its novel features. Some people claim that it was aesthetically superior because it eliminated epicycles, but it actually had about the same number of epicycles as the Ptolemaic model.  Many of the ancient Greek arguments for and against [[heliocentrism]] remained unresolved. <ref>Ancient greeks objected to Aristarchus's heliocentrim because

In fact the Copernican theory was no more accurate than the Ptolemaic model. It had no compelling physical arguments for its superiority, and it proposed no experiments for testing its novel features. Some people claim that it was aesthetically superior because it eliminated epicycles, but it actually had about the same number of epicycles as the Ptolemaic model.  Some of the ancient Greek arguments for and against [[heliocentrism]] remained unresolved for some time, but have been solved by modern science, and by the efforts of previous astronomers such as [[Johannes Kepler]] (he showed that planetary orbits were elliptical and not circular, as presented in Copernicus's original model). <ref>Ancient greeks objected to Aristarchus's heliocentrim because

(1) we don't feel the Earth's motion, (2) unattached objects don't fly off, and (3) no annual stellar parallax. [http://physics.gmu.edu/~jevans/astr103/CourseNotes/history_greekGeocentricHeliocentric.html] Stellar parallax was not measured until 1838.</ref>

(1) we don't feel the Earth's motion, (2) unattached objects don't fly off, and (3) no annual stellar parallax. [http://physics.gmu.edu/~jevans/astr103/CourseNotes/history_greekGeocentricHeliocentric.html] Stellar parallax was not measured until 1838.</ref>