[Brian S. Fitzgerald]

“Our faith becomes a matter of ridicule if any Christian, not blessed with the necessary scientific learning, presents as dogma that which scientific scrutiny has shown to be false” Thomas Aquinas.

It would be good to review the scientific controversies of those days. Unfortunately, Galileo, 300 years later, was not saved by these words.

[allmendream]

No, Galileo was not saved by the words of Thomas Aquinas, but he should have been.

In the Soviet Union Lysenko declared that there were no genes or chromosomes. Some of the people working under him set up a microscope display of cells undergoing mitosis where you could clearly see the chromosomes. They told him it was a display for students and to take a look. He blankly refused to look through the microscope.

Similarly the Catholic Church in the days of Galileo was disinclined to actually look through the telescope to see the moons of Jupiter circling Jupiter.

Just as with Evolution, there is nothing Salvational or Biblical in the assumption of the centrality of the Earth, although some biblical passages can be interpreted that way, so there is no reason for objection to scientific data that contradicts an obviously incorrect interpretation.