Hard to recover the atmosphere in which Galileo found himself. He was convinced of the rightness of his worldview and his vanity brought him down. The great majority of all scholars were Aristotelans of some sort, and they hated him for his unorthodoxy. Rebels live a hard life, especially intellectual rebels, because scholars more than ordinary people, never change their minds.
That's the truth.
I once saw a presentation by a scientist who was a believer and also a proponent of sound evolutionary theory. He started his presentation by quoting a Gallup poll that stated that 82% of all scientists surveyed believed in some kind of supreme being. He thought it was ironic because a few weeks later he saw a similar poll by Pew (or some other pollster) that stated that 79% of all clergy, pastors, ministers, etc., believed in a supreme being. People are people, eh?