Blind Guardian – Age Of False Innocence

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  Song Meaning:It is clearly related to Galileo and its "abiura" (public deny) made in front of the Sanctum Officium to avoid being sentenced to death by them. Its innocence (of being a heretic), obtained dening heliocentrism, is clearly "false".
  
  After a lot of studies, in which he demostrated that Ptolemaic model was wrong, he tried to spread its research foundings, even to church people (card. Bellarmino, "for a moment it seemed / there's space among the spheres", both real and metaphorical), but with no results ("the flame of hope is gone"), apart a charge of heresy. Then to avoid a sure death penalty, he denied its heliocentric theory ("denied the sun"). It must be said that in Italy the legend tells that he said "Eppur si muove!" ("And yet, it moves!", referred to the earth) to the Sanctum Officium, after the public deny.
  
  In fact, the song says that "for a while astronomy has moved the earth and we've turned around the sun", but this belief does not last long ("sanctum officium has made me believe" the opposite theory). The quoted part ("We know for sure you're lying / Would you like to mess with holy science / You know the fear of dying / Would it be worth it to hear you crying") is by the church prosecutors which are threatening him of death. They know for sure he was lying since, according to some interpretations, it is written in a Psalm that the sun is moving, so it is a "holy science", not empirical.
  
  Since in the end he denied its belief, its heart, as a scientist, is shattered by its own cowardy: he feels like Judas after accepting to betray Jesus ("so I feel / Like Judas must have felt before /That Wednesday night near by the tree", i.e. the night before the betrayal, after having sold Christ to the High Priest and the Romans, since he sold the science to religion).
  
  The last part of the song is a Galilei warning for his students and successor scientists: "Don't believe in their eternity", the one promised by the church / "We're still held in blindness", because they are forced to believe in something empirically wrong / "And I've been turned into a liar", since he publicly admitted that the heliocentric theory was a lie / "If there is no heaven There won't be release", if even heaven is a lie, and he was sentenced to house prison for life, there would have been no release for him, not even after death.

  Flag superfranz83on June 06, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:^w-w-whaaaa??¿

  Flag Anilandon December 17, 2006   Link

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  General Comment:It is indeed. While both Copernicus and Galileo both held the same belief about the Crystal Spheres and the geocentric model of the earth, Copernicus had avoided bringing down the wrath of the church. I think the reason, personally is that Gallileo had something more to prove it, whereas Copernicus could've been making an easily dismissed theory, Galileo could show that things turned around other heavenly bodies in a way that is difficult to refute.

  Flag lightcecilon December 19, 2005   Link

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    So typical of humans--to get angry at the one who has the strongest proof against you. The solution to self-doubt for too many is to stand even stronger behind pre-formed convictions.
    
    Anyway, I digress. I agree with the Galileo interpretation, and congratulate Blind Guardian for once again showing how much more mature they are than DragonForce.

    Flag TwilightRealmon March 07, 2009  
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  General Comment:About Galilei or Copernicus...I believe Galilei, as I don't think the Sanctum Officium had been established as the leading body of the Inquisition while Copernicus lived.

  Flag katharoson June 11, 2004   Link

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