[ QUOTE ]

And again from the Link:
"But Galileo was intent on ramming Copernicus down the
throat of Christendom. The irony is that when he
started his campaign, he enjoyed almost universal good
will among the Catholic hierarchy. But he managed to
alienate almost everybody with his caustic manner and
aggressive tactics. His position gave the Church
authorities no room to maneuver: they either had to
accept Copernicanism as a fact (even though it had not
been proved) and reinterpret Scripture accordingly; or
they had to condemn it. He refused the reasonable third
position which the Church offered him: that
Copernicanism might be considered a hypothesis, one
even superior to the Ptolemiaic system, until further
proof could be adduced."

The problem was that Galileo did not have Proof of his theory. The Church was willing to leave it open to further Scientific investigation but Galileo insisted the Church change the traditional interpretation of the scripture in question Right Now to suit him and before a rigorous proof had been produced.


PairTheBoard

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im new to 2+2 here so in case its not clear the quote is from pairtheboard quoting one of his links.

i never meant to imply that everyone knew galileo was right or that everyone knew his position or whatever. im sorry but i write prety slopy. but reading your link there it looks like he had a specific position that he "was intent on ramming down the throat of christendom." im not completly sure of all that his position did entail but for the purposes of this discussion ill stipulate that it was whatever the hell u say it was or whatever the church at the time said it was. his exact position is pretty irrelevant, but it must not have been too crazy because u stated it probably would have been accepted by the church if galileo werent such a prickly fellow.

science "in the christian west" was in its darkest days when the catholic church was running things as compared to any other period of "in the christian west"....except maybe today in kansas and georgia.