Based on the abundance of historical evidence and its availability on the Internet, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the liberal media to perpetuate the myth that the Catholic Church is and always has been “anti-science.” The most frequently cited myth is that the church prosecuted Galileo after he “proved” that the earth was not the center of the universe. Of course, Galileo’s telescopes proved that OTHER planets moved, but it was only by implication that he insisted the Earth moved. It wasn’t until Leon Foucault noticed the movements of a pendulum swinging that the heliocentric “theory” was finally proved, 200 years after Galileo had died. The Vatican continues to support extensive observatories (as it has since the time of Copernicus) and sees science as complementary to theology, not opposed to it.

For centuries, scientists appealed to the Church to arbitrate disputes because priests and religious were often the only educuted AND unbiased people for hundreds of miles. These disputes were primarily civil in nature, but because the Catholic Church was the primary investor supporting arts and sciences (no, you didn’t read about that in public school, but it’s true) they often found themselves embroiled in resolving scientific disputes. In the case of Galileo, he was never able to present convincing SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE that the earth was NOT the center of the universe, in spite the many amazing things he did prove in his lifetime.

It is grossly unfair and unjust that so many Americans have never heard of Foucault, who also invented the gyroscope and pioneered the precise measurement of the speed of light. He was never formally educated in science, but like Einstein, his quirky tinkering changed the world, much like today’s unsuspecting Internet inventors.

Given the milage the media and secular schools get by trundling out the anti-Catholic ‘Galileo Myth,’ we suspect that the liberal media and secular educational establishment will ignore Foucault for years to come. Besides, Foucault was a Roman Catholic, and another example of individual achievement that doesn’t fit the collectivist agenda of secular liberals.