Galileo was the Roman Catholic Christian who had to straighten out the scientists of his day and age, who actually believed the Sun revolved around the Earth! The Christian Galileo pointed out their stupidity and their ignorance. Once again, it was a Christian who triumphed over the gross ignorance of the scientists of the day.
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Being Christian does NOT mean being anti-science (well, at least it does not HAVE to mean that), and being a scientist does not mean being anti-Christian (though the fundies are doing their darnedest to tempt them in this direction).
So! This is the fundies' new tactic - if they can't defeat science, they'll try to claim it for themselves. Nice try, NA... and what an ironic name for a Christian, considering all the fun stuff that was done to them in the name of the Church.
David D.G. Have I told you lately how much I fucking love you?
"In this situation, Christianity can claim no credit or glory whatsoever. Galileo was undeniably the hero, and the Christian church was the villain. Don't ever forget that."
He got one thing right, Galileo was a Christian. But he was the only Christian who didn't believe in the Geocentric theory. And because of that he was discredited and placed under house arrest by the Church, and it wasn't until 1996 that the Pope finally admitted Galileo was right.
As Adrian pointed out, if "good Christian" Galileo was there to straighten out the stupid heathens it seems to have backfired incredibly, scientists had overwhelmingly switched to heliocentric models before Galileo's enforced recantation in 1633 (Kepler's influential work on Copernican systems, invoking elliptical orbits and explaining his planetary laws for the first time, had been circulating for about 15 years by then). Newton's gravitational explanation of Kepler's laws, published less than 50 years after Galileo's death, in 1687, shut the door on geocentrism for good.
Yet it was another 309 years before the Christian church of which Galileo was a member would formally admit that he was right. In the gross ignorance stakes, the RCC wins hands down over the most stubborn renaissance scientist.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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