In Defence of Science

In 1633, Galileo was convicted by an Inquisitional Tribunal of the religious crime of heresy. He was sentenced to house arrest for the remainder of his life for having argued (correctly) that the Sun was the center of the solar system and not the earth. He was forced as part of his sentence to:

"Galileo was required to recant his heliocentric ideas; the idea that the Sun is stationary was condemned as "formally heretical." However, while there is no doubt that Pope Urban VIII and the vast majority of Church officials did not believe in heliocentrism, heliocentrism was never formally or officially condemned by the Catholic Church, except insofar as it held (for instance, in the formal condemnation of Galileo) that "The proposition that the sun is in the center of the world and immovable from its place is absurd, philosophically false, and formally heretical; because it is expressly contrary to Holy Scriptures", and the converse as to the Sun's not revolving around the Earth."

You might be forgiven if you think that we would have progressed since that time to where science is no longer on trial by religious idiots and bigots... you would be wrong. Witness as proof of my contention the Dover 'Intelligent Design' trial as diligently shown by the PBS science series NOVA:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/id/program.html

Note: you must have Quicktime installed to watch the program. Also, it is a two hour program which comes in 12 parts but I implore you to watch all the segments to get the full story before you think you can make any judgements as the the veracity of the program. Here is a preview of the program:



Here is some information from BBC Video about the Intelligent Design controversy:

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4


Part 5