 You've heard about the whole Galileo affair, how the church snatched Galileo, slammed him into a dark dungeon, tortured him for days on end so that, worn out by pain and humiliation, he finally was forced into saying that the earth was stationary and flat. The first thing to remember about the whole Galileo thing is that, and you'll soon find this out in more detail, it's not true. In fact, it's a myth. If it's not an outright lie, as is the whole popular notion that the Catholic Church is even at war with science, the truth is, if I may put it in a single word, that the church is the greatest friend to science, not a flatterer, but a friend.