The church was the government.
Now, our government rules. But this time, the church is right. You don't kill babies. You don't promote perversion. You don't tell God he's doing a rotten job in the climate category...
Man is sooooo arrogant. It is and always will be his downfall.
Did you know that Copernicus, a contemporary of Galileo, whose work on heliocentrism was financed by a cardinal, dedicated his book, "On the Heavens," to the pope?
Did you know that Galileo's "proof" of heliocentrism was scientifically wrong? That he came to the right conclusion without valid scientific evidence?
No, the Church was not opposed to the theory in principle, nor was the Church opposed to research into the theory. What angered the pope was his being openly ridiculed by Galileo, that Galileo demanded that the Church promote heliocentrism despite Galileo's flawed scientific evidence (as noted by Cardinal Belarmine), and Galileo's demand that the Church declare that biblical passages which seemed to contradict heliocentrism were wrong.