Impact on modern science
Galileo showing the Doge of Venice how to use the telescope (fresco by Giuseppe Bertini, 1858)
According to Stephen Hawking, Galileo probably bears more of the responsibility for the birth of modern science than anybody else,[244] and Albert Einstein called him the father of modern science.[245][246] In a Foreword to Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Einstein wrote: “The leitmotif I recognize in Galileo’s work is the passionate fight against any kind of dogma based on authority. Only experience and careful reflection are accepted by him as criteria of truth.”[247]
Author John G. Simmons notes Galileo's place in the history of science as the embracing of a new outlook on science, stating that:[248]