This was certainly not the interest of most people in his day.
这当然不是他那个时代大多数人的兴趣。
At that time, people believed more in religion than in facts and people like Galileo Galilei (1564-1642),
那时，人们相信宗教胜过真理；那些喜欢伽利略·伽利莱（1564－1642）的人们，
who proved scientific ideas such as "the Earth is not the centre of the universe",
(伽利略证明了像“地球不是宇宙的中心”这样的科学观点)，
were often punished by the church with no one coming to their defence.
经常遭受教会的惩罚，而且没有人为他们辩护。
The church and many people tended to ignore the facts
教会和许多人往往都忽略事实，
and were unwilling to challenge what they had always comfortably believed.
而且不愿意向他们长期以来安逸信服的事物挑战。
They preferred to make assumptions about the world based on the experience of others.
他们更喜欢在别人的经验之上对世界进行假想猜测。
In fact, when Galilei proved that the Earth was not the centre of the universe,
实际上，当伽利略证明了地球不是宇宙的核心时，
instead of believing him, people chose to believe views that were almost 2000 years old!
人们不仅没有相信他，反而选择了相信几乎2000年前的旧观点！
It is not surprising that people wanted to believe these ancient views
人们想要相信这些古老的观念是不足为奇的，
as they had been put forward by the great philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC).
因为是伟大的哲学家亚里斯多德（公元前384-322）推动着他们前进。
He said that the Earth must be the centre of the universe
他说地球一定是宇宙的中心，
because it felt like the Earth was standing still. Galilei disagreed.
因为地球好像是静止不动的。伽利略不同意。
At first, people approved of his studies and urged him to continue,
起初，人们认可了他的学说，而且劝他继续，
but later when he proved Aristotle wrong, they grew angry and put him in prison.
但是后来，当他证明亚里斯多德的观点是错误时，他们变得很生气并把他关进监狱。
They didn't want to challenge what they'd always thought was true.
他们不想挑战他们一直以来觉得是正确的事情。