Heliocentric

Heliocentric is the fourth studio album by German progressive metal band The Ocean, released on 9 April 2010. The album marks the recording debut of vocalist Loïc Rossetti. It is the first part of a double album about the critique of Christianity from different philosophical and personal angles, with its companion album, Anthropocentric, which was released on 9 November 2010 in North America. Theme The songs, art and lyrics of this album tell the story of the rise of the heliocentric world view - the idea that the Earth revolves around the Sun, and that the Sun is stationary and at the center of the Solar System. Nicolaus Copernicus and Galileo Galilei were the first popular ambassadors of this idea, although ancient Greek astronomers like Aristarchus had already posited this theory centuries before. The journey starts with the creation of the firmament in Genesis 1:6-20 ("Firmament") and ancient explanations of the movement of celestial bodies in 1 Enoch 72:2-5 ("The First Commandment of the Luminaries"). It continues with Copernicus and Galileo, the first propagators of heliocentrism who were not yet in conflict with the Church ("Ptolemy Was Wrong") and Giordano Bruno, who was burnt at the stake of the Roman Inquisition for being a heretic ("Catharsis of a Heretic"). Arthur Rimbaud's's criticism of moral law in his essay Reasons Not to Believe in God and Nietzsche's rejection of fundamental Christian values has inspired the lyrics to "Metaphysics of the Hangman". The album concludes with the greatest achievement in the history of modern science, Darwin's theory of evolution ("The Origin of Species") and ideas inspired by evolution biologist and passionate atheist Richard Dawkins ("The Origin of God", "Epiphany"). Its companion album, Anthropocentric, challenges the views of creationists and other modern fundamentalists who believe that the Earth is at the center of the universe.