Galileo, Copernicus and How It Happened

Steve Kellmeyer offers very interesting commentary on the whole Galileo affair. Contrary to what we keep getting told, history appears to record that Galileo's nemesis was not the Church but the academic community who had nothing but contempt for mathematicians such as Galileo. They fooled a dominican priest to fire up a sermon condemning Galileo's heliocentric theories and to get the charges of heresy and such rolling. This was much to the chagrin of the astronomers in Rome, who supported Galileo. The proof seems to be Copernicus himself, a priest and mathematician, who delayed the publication of his book for such a long time precisely because he knew what the academic community of philosophers and theologians (not the Church) would do to him. The twist in Kellmeyer's commentary is that roles are now reversed: today, the scientists and mathematicians prevail over the academic community and are lynching those who are so brazen as to suggest that (gasp) the universe bears the hallmarks of design, even when they use scientific methods and measurements to draw such conclusions. Contrary to what is repeatedly said these days, intelligent design proponents number a great number of much published scientists among them. Have a read of "Galileo Redux" yourself. Very interesting.