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Nicholas of Cusa
Facts (6)
Sources
Extraterrestrial Intelligence and the Catholic Faith: A Brief History of ... catholicscientists.org 6 facts
accountDespite his radical break from philosophical tradition, Nicholas of Cusa was respected and embraced by high-level Catholic Church authorities, evidenced by his appointments as Cardinal, papal legate, and papal advisor, and his participation in the Council of Basel.
claimCardinal Nicholas of Cusa was a German theologian, philosopher, and astronomer who rejected the Scholastic tradition of Thomas Aquinas in favor of Platonic thought.
claimNicholas of Cusa anticipated the existence of exoplanets long before astronomers actually discovered them in the last decade of the twentieth century.
claimNicholas of Cusa speculated that Earth is one of innumerable similar planets and that all heavenly bodies, including the sun, moon, and stars, are composed of the same basic elements as Earth.
claimNicholas of Cusa taught that the universe is boundless and lacks a center, contradicting the Aristotelian and Scholastic view that Earth is the immovable center of the universe.
quoteNicholas of Cusa stated: “Life, as it exists here on earth in the form of men, animals, and plants, is to be found, let us suppose, in a higher form in the solar and stellar regions. Rather than think that so many of the stars and parts of the heavens are uninhabited and that this earth of ours alone is peopled — and that with beings, perhaps, of an inferior type — we will suppose that in every region there are inhabitants, differing in nature by rank and all owing their origin to God, who is the center and circumference of all stellar regions.”