[Serious] Criticism of Aquinas' First Way or of the Proof of God from Motion.

[polymath257]

it was impossible to move away from it without serious questioning of the faith.

Have you heard of the Oxford Calculators? They were a group of theologians at Oxford University in the 14th century.

Through a combination of physical experiment and mathematics, they proved that much of what Aristotle said about acceleration was wrong.

Of course they were burned at the stake for doing so.

Ha, no they weren't. They had long careers in the church and university, and one of them became Archbishop of Canterbury.

It was never impossible to question what Aristotle said. Universities like Oxford and Paris debated his writings for centuries. 

Galileo's case is far different from the simple religion vs. science parable that it has become for ideologues. 

https://www.amazon.com/Galileo-Rome-Rise...oks&sr=1-1

https://www.quora.com/Why-did-the-Cathol...m-ONeill-1

Yes, Thomas Bradwardine. I am not familiar with any actual observations he made. From what I had read, he noted contradictions in the works of Aristotle in regards to forces and velocity. He also studied uniformly accelerated motion, which is usually attributed to Galileo (although Nicole Oresme also made some of the same observations over in France). It isn't clear to me whether he ever claimed that falling objects undergo constant acceleration, but rather that he studied constant acceleration as an intellectual exercise. The relation between force and velocity he proposed was complicated (it was an exponential relation), but it was important as a way to resolve the contradictions in the Aristotelian corpus.

It is important to note, though, that by the time Galileo came around, the Protestant revolution had caused a lot more concern about doctrine in the Catholic church.