We live in a technological society powered by science, undergirded by the scientific method. Its benefits are obvious and everywhere ... except when it bumps up against one cherished belief or the other, then science is a big scam. Funny how that works.
Well, although the Church was blamed for Galileo’s treatment, the fact is that the Churchmen were moved more by their scientific biases than by their dogmatic ones. All were Aristoteleans, who simply could not accept Galileo’s view that mathematical models provide a true as opposed to a hypothetical description of reality. It took a hundred years before the Church came around to the right view, by which time, by which time, however, many scientists, and more publicists, had come around to the claim that only mathematics provided a true description of reality. If there is anyone who is more vain and inclined to bigotry than a theologian, it is probably a philosopher with this view of science.