[Aquinasfan]

If Copernicus had ever insisted that his system was more than a mathematical model, he would have been silenced.

So the cardinals wanted to fund a mathematical model that had no relationship to reality?

Galileo's mistake was in demanding that the Church endorse his theory. At that point, their theories were unprovable scientifically.

Regardless, the finding regarding Galileo was that of a fallible tribunal, so I don't know what purpose it serves for evolutionists except to supposedly prove that the Church has always been opposed to science. This is ridiculous, since it was the Catholic West that gave birth to science, as Stanley Jaki ably attests.

[Antonello]

So are you saying that science owes Christianity free reign simply because it lorded its power over the great thinkers during its medieval heyday?

[CarolinaGuitarman]

" So the cardinals wanted to fund a mathematical model that had no relationship to reality?"

If it helped them to better predict the movements of the planets and stars, absolutely.

"Galileo's mistake was in demanding that the Church endorse his theory. At that point, their theories were unprovable scientifically."

He demanded the Church endorse his theory? When? His *problem* was the Church's initiation of force on anybody who deviated from their positions. He was tried for heresy, not for being a nag.

"This is ridiculous, since it was the Catholic West that gave birth to science, as Stanley Jaki ably attests."

When it wasn't trying scientists for heresy for saying things it didn't like. BTW, it was the pagan Greeks who gave birth to science.