...and Giordano Bruno is the most famous martyr in the history of science.
Bruno, the Dominican, the philosopher, the most famous martyr in the history of science? I didn't know that!
He defended science, it is true. But he wasn't all that knowledgable on whatever science subjects he wrote.
Best known perhaps for his (at the time) heretical view that the universe was infinite, Bruno not only outraged the Church, but invariably alienated his benefactors with a mouth that never seemed to have learned the fine art of knowing when to shut up.
A smart man, possessed of a rather extraordinary memory, Bruno authored about 20 books, and thus could rightly claim to be an important part of the Italian Rennaisance. As one who was constantly excited by new ideas, he actively embraced many, if not most, of the new ideas in science of his day, even if he didn't fully understand them.
Although his passing, and the events leading up to it, are noteworthy examples of the intellectual ferment and questing for new ideas that was the Rennaisance, calling him the scientific equivalent of Moses is a real stretch, one I've never heard before.
It's worth noting, too, that his contemporaries (who really were scientists), Kepler and Galileo, didn't think all that much of him.
Those who have a distaste for all things religious will doubtless have a Romantic view of this "most famous martyr in the history of science", but viewed a little less dispassionately, one is forced to conclude...Moses he ain't.
CA....
There are FReepers who seem to think that the thought of evolution or the ideology of science leads to murder -- and have presented comparative body counts to prove that athiests are -- because of their beliefs -- morally superior to theists.I am not impressed by comparative body counts. I am deeply disturbed by people who want me to believe in the absense of evidence, even in the presence of counterevidence. The notion that belief in itself is good is a steppingstone for tyrants.