Did Copernicus and Galileo really come up with the Heliocentric theory?
I like xaptatio’s answer. There is evidence of other civilization (you mention the Mayans) having this knowledge. Without a doubt they knew it. Other hypothesis also surrounds information obviously known by that civilization. Mayan civilization is often sited as evidence of extraterrestrial influence in our present civilization and others we don’t know enough about. I’ll accept Copernicus and his discovery as a way to teach children allegorically. When you are teaching elementary or even high school its important to get the idea of learning, teaching, knowledge and the way they have progressed throughout history. If they learn to think correctly (i wonder about that today) they will be able to make their own assessment later. You can’t change the entire text book every time a new discovery happens.
Aristarchus of Samos in the third century BC wrote a book arguing that the Sun was the center of the universe. No copies of the book have survived. When Copernicus was a young man, studying at university, the idea of the heliocentric universe was part of the intellectual ferment of the time. It seems likely that Copernicus was aware of this debate, and that he knew about Aristarchus’s book. Just as Darwin was not the first person to have an inkling that life had evolved, Copernicus was not the first person who had an inkling that the Earth revolved around the Sun. But the person who gets credit for an idea is not the first person who has an inkling. It’s the first person who writes a book about the subject which catalyzes debate. So Copernicus is justifiably given credit for bringing the idea to the attention of the world.
