1. For many years, most people believed that Aristotle was correct when he asserted that the heavier the object, the faster it falls to the ground. Maybe you still believe this; perhaps you might need to do an experiment to test this when I tell you that 2000 years later, Galileo proved this wrong. In 1589, he conducted an experiment where he pushed two weights, one weighing 10 pounds and the other weighing 1 pound off of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. At the bottom were several educated professors who were there to witness the result of the experiment. Sure enough, both the weights landed at the same time. In spite of this proof, however, the professors denied what they had seen andcontinued to say Aristotle was correct in his initial assertion. (Go ahead—do your experiment!!)
2. Galileo later proved the theory of Copernicus, that the earth was not the center of the universe—that the earth and planets revolve around the sun. But, when he tried to convince others of this and thereby change their beliefs, he was thrown into prison and spent the rest of his life under house arrest.
3. To use a Biblical example, the Apostle Paul, after he was converted on the road to Damascus, began preaching something new: the concept of grace and open reconciliation with God despite race and ethnicity as opposed to thelegalism that had been recognized by the religious scholars of that day. For Paul’s new “ideas,” he was alienated, tortured, thrown in prison, and eventually killed.