ZZ, thank you for your replies and the three websites you directed me to.
I set out below three sentences, one from each site:
"The episode became symbolic of many things, all negative -- religious closed-mindedness, intolerance, antiscientific attitudes, etc."
My Comment on above. That is very true but in fact the emphasis on it arose from a bigoted view of the Church because it is the ONLY fault that can be laid at the feet of the Catholic Church when it comes to Science. What I said about Protestants and Evolution still stands. I heard it from an ex-Anglican priest, and I have posted a story on this site in the last week or so where the Church said it has never condemned Evolution but it is always blamed whereas it should be Protestants who are blamed. Further, history shows that it was Protestants that condemned Copernicus, not the Catholic Church.
"In 1615 the Church, through the Spanish Inquisition, forced Galileo to denounce his findings and forced him never to teach what he had discovered."
My comment on the above. I consider this site completely unreliable. Historically the above comment is a joke. The Spanish Inquisition did not operate in Italy. Besides it was not what he discovered that was the problem but what he made of it.
"Paolo Galluzzi, head of the Florence museum, said that “even if Galileo had been wrong, you cannot judge scientific errors in an ecclesisatical court”."
My comment. This piece backs up completely what I said. Galileo made a mistake, scientifically he was wrong in the complete detail. It is fair to say he should not have been judged in an ecclesiastical court but it was very early days in Science.
Read critically and carefully and check sources. My comments are based on a recent history out of the US on the role of the Catholic Church in the development of Western Society, including Science.
