Chrstianity is based on the bible,
It's based on the belief that Jesus is the Messiah. The Bible is the recording of the His teachings and life.
the bible is a book, the book is around 1700 years old, some of the stories within that book are much older.
The New Testament has been pretty much established as beginning in the mid-First Century -- with the range of the books being between 1,950 and 1900 years old.
The Old Testament, which is most of the Bible, is much older.
In the dark ages, which I blame squarely on the shoulders of the church were a time of extreme nothing.
Do you known when the "dark ages" were? How long they lasted and what caused them?
The church had power and therefore what it said went.
Actually, it's authority was very iffy in the dark ages. It was a time of struggle, many of the powers involved -- notably in England -- were anti-Christian
The church believed that the earth was the center of the universe, anyone that disagreed with them was excommunicated. If the church said that something was the way it was, then that is the way it was, end of story. Threat of eternal damnation will pretty much kill anything that would disagree.
Copernicus was likley a priest and certainly a church administrator. He was well respected and a consultant to Pope Leo X. His heliocentric theory was encouraged by Cardinal Schonberg, then Archbishop of Capua. In fact, it appears that he only published at the insistance of church leaders. He was in good standing with the Catholic church when he died.
The most stident opposition came from Protestents -- note the era in which Copernicus live. The "Church" was not speaking as one voice.
Galileo Galilei is generally the one cited as evidence of the Church's anti-science tilt. But while Galileo was told to shut up -- perhaps like Dembski and Behe today -- he was not beaten, blinded tortured or burned at the stake -- as is often alleged -- and his imprisonment consisted of 22 days in a luxury apartment. He was generally also well-respected by church authorities. Many agreed with his views. He was blessed by the Pope at his death and buried in a church.
Twenty-two days? Yeah, right. Galileo and the Inquisition.
In 1633 Galileo was formally interrogated for 18 days and on April 30 Galileo confesses that he may have made the Copernican case in the Dialogue too strong and offers to refute it in his next book. Unmoved, the Pope decides that Galileo should be imprisoned indefinitely. Soon after, with a formal threat of torture, Galileo is examined by the Inquisition and sentenced to prison and religious penances, the sentence is signed by 6 of the 10 inquisitors. In a formal ceremony at a the church of Santa Maria Sofia Minerva, Galileo abjures his errors. He is then put in house arrest in Sienna.Galileo remained under house arrest, despite many medical problems and a deteriorating state of health, until his death in 1642.
This may be the source of your misunderstanding: HERE.
After two weeks in quarantine, Galilei was detained at the comfortable residence of the Tuscan ambassador, as a favor to the influential Grand Duke Ferdinand II de' Medici. In April 1633 he was formally interrogated by the Inquisition. He was not imprisoned in a dungeon cell, but detained in a room in the offices of the Inquisition for 22 days. On June 22, 1633, the Roman Inquisition started its trial against Galilei, who was then 69 years old and pleaded for mercy, pointing to his "regrettable state of physical unwellness". Threatening him with torture, imprisonment and death on the stake, the show trial forced Galileo to "abjure, curse and detest" his work and to promise to denounce others who held his prior viewpoint.But that was pre-trial confinement only.
Galileo was put under life-long house arrest, for the most part (1634-1642) in his own villas in Arcetri and Florence. Because of a painful hernia, he requested permission to consult physicians in Florence, which was denied by Rome, warning that further such requests would lead to imprisonment. Under arrest, he was forced to recite penitentiary psalms regularly, and his social contacts were highly restricted, but he was allowed to continue his less controversial research and publish under strict rules of censorship. He went totally blind in 1638 (his petition to the Inquisition to be released was rejected, but he was allowed to move to his house in Florence where he was closer to his physicians). His Dialogue was put on the Index librorum prohibitorum, a black list of banned books, until 1822. [