Danes feel Obama is greater than Jesus

[kandrathe]

Failure to suppress information does not exonerate the Church - they tried to suppress Galileo's science, and part of the judgment against him was a ban on publishing any of his works. If they didn't succeed, then good for humanity and bully for the Church, but it doesn't change what they tried to do, or make it more attractive.

The idea that this has nothing to do with Christianity is simply ludicrous. This was the Pope, the head of the Church. Galileo was tried, and convicted, on grounds of heresy, of being contrary to Christian scripture. His offence, practically speaking, was to offend both the leader and the dogma of the Church. How could this not be about Christianity?

That the church let him publish the book, then imprisoned him for heresy for having published it, is evidence of remarkable capriciousness and hypocrisy, but hardly any kind of exoneration. They expected a whitewash - a discussion of 'hypotheses' that paid their scriptures reverence. What they got was a strong case for his scientific theory and evidence that trashed their preferred dogma, and Galileo was imprisoned accordingly.

As for the argument that the Church was politically powerful and the Pope was like a king, I don't see how that helps your case one whit.

Well, not only trashed their dogma, but made it look ridiculous. It was insulting. Unintentional or not, it was more like lèse majesté. One man is not representative of Christianity, even the Pope. I'm not a Catholic, nor do I subscribe to the notion of papal obedience, or the notion of a hierarchy between the commoners and God. Hypocrisy? In the papacy? Never! :) To the chagrin of most Catholics, the behavior of the medieval papacy is far below even modern standards for scandal. No, the men in the Vatican have displayed almost every negative human trait. I wouldn't hold up many politicians in the US as representative of Americans, and you would never hold up the political manipulators with titles of bishop, or cardinal as very representative of Christians either. No, from what I read about the topic, even during his trial and afterward Galileo was popular with church leadership.

The Ayatollahs in Iran are politically powerful - does that mean we shouldn't consider it anti-scientific if they imprison or censor scientists whose views they find offensive?

That would depend on whether the reason for their imprisonment had to do with defamation of the Clergy, versus writing a scientific paper that garnered a fatwa. The Roman Catholic church was hugely powerful and wielded monarchs against their own people, which coupled the power of government with a dominant religion, and forced people to comply. But, in the worst abuses of Vatican power, they were controlling and domineering on all parts of human life, not only science. I don't believe it was a good situation, but was more indicative of the excesses of monarchy.

I believe that Christians follow the teachings and example of Christ, not the rules and dogma of the Roman Catholic Church. Imagine Christ's position on Pope Innocent IV's proclamation of Ad exstirpanda.