A friend studying for his doctorate at the University of Warwick recently sent me a poster advertising a talk on campus, decrying “The Worst Censorship of Research Since the Catholic Church Banned the Telescope!” It’s obviously not enough to point out that the Church never banned the telescope. I’ve also learned how hard it is to convince anyone that the Church’s mistakes with Galileo, very serious as they were, had nothing to do with it being against science.

The science-versus-religion myth has been pushed, for political purposes, for more than 100 years; a recent British popular science book can still insist that after Galileo went on trial, all science ceased in the Catholic world! (Except, apparently, for Descartes, Riccioli, Cassini, Galvani, Volta, Ampère, Boskovich, Mendel, Secchi …).

I know nothing about the scientist giving that talk (except that he’s ignorant of history, bigoted against Catholics, and arrogant enough to compare himself to Galileo). I might well agree with what he has to say. But it’s hard for me to listen when I hear a title like his.