If you read some of the more recent studies of the Galileo controversy, you will find several points admitted. First, the Pope was a friend and supporter of Galileo, and had no objection to his work until Galileo insisted that his contention that the sun was at the center of the solar system was not just a scientific theory but a proven fact.
After a group of Aristotelian scientists complained, the Pope said, it's fine to call it a theory, just don't call it a fact. But Galileo refused to back down. So he was put under comfortable house arrest, as a protective measure by his friend the Pope, who didn't want to see anything worse happen to him.
As it happens, it is a fact that the sun is at the center of the solar system. But knowledgeable historians of science are careful to point out that Galileo was scientifically unable to prove it to be factual. The clinching proof didn't come until more than a century later.
The simple-minded idea that Christianity is closed-minded and discourages scientific advances simply does not hold up to careful historical reading. Science and technology took off in the West precisely because of Christianty, as Alfred North Whitehead persuasively argued many years ago. It was Christianity which taught that the universe is rational and comprehensible and that God does not act arbitrarily. Also that humans have free will and the ability to search into nature.
The contrary argument, that religion was an impediment to science, is the work of anti-Catholic bigots and anti-Christian atheists. The vast majority of western scientists, however, were Christians.
But heliocentric theory is still just a theory even now
It appears that ID is not attracting Christians, either. ID does not support Trinity theory and does not support the Bible.
from an interview:
Church of the Nazarene
Rev. Ron Moeller, Pastor
"There isn't very much interest here in intelligent design, because we think the most important thing is saving souls for our Lord Jesus. It doesn't matter if people believe in evolution as a way of understanding the flowers and meadows and animals of God's creation. People come to Christ sometimes by the Bible, but just as often by personal experiences of the Holy Spirit and are born again, sometimes by family or friends, sometimes, I hope, by their pastor. Intelligent design doesn't help at all, because it has no foundation in the Bible.
"It has come up a few times in our Adult Study classes, but the 'specified complexity' and stuff didn't attract much interest. Someone asked, "What does this have to do with the Bible?"
The Presiding Bishop said that "ID opens the door to pantheism and every kind of New Age cults. And it does not mention Christ or the soul, so it is not Christian, and doesn't seem to be good science."
"It [Intelligent design] is probably like one of these cults that come along every few years, like New Age. Maybe it will become its own church, like Scientology or Christian Science. I think in two or three years we will hear very little from them."
This is remarkably bizarre spin on the actual events.
As it happens, it is a fact that the sun is at the center of the solar system. But knowledgeable historians of science are careful to point out that Galileo was scientifically unable to prove it to be factual.
To date no one can *still* "prove it to be factual". There's no such thing as ironclad "proof" in this reality. Nor does science deal in "proofs".
Your handwaving utterly fails to excuse the Church's behavior in that debacle.
The simple-minded idea that Christianity is closed-minded and discourages scientific advances simply does not hold up to careful historical reading.
Have you *read* some of the replies on this thread?
The contrary argument, that religion was an impediment to science, is the work of anti-Catholic bigots and anti-Christian atheists.
I repeat the question.
There is, even today, a great deal of religiously-motivated resistance and often outright hostility to science, and to science education.
People gave ear to an upstart astrologer who strove to show that the earth revolves, not the heavens or the firmament, the sun and the moon.... This fool wishes to reverse the entire science of astronomy; but sacred scripture tells us that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and not the earth. -- Martin Luther
[It was Christianity which taught that the universe is rational and comprehensible and that God does not act arbitrarily.]
Doesn't that go back to the ancient Greeks?