Two tips

[fpb]

First: an old Italian proverb. "You cannot reason with a German, but you can give orders."
Second: only argue with a liberal when they are in the right. The more they are in the wrong, the more they become obstinate and intractable.

Comments

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Galileo's Catholicism does enter into it. If nothing else, because if he had been born in Scotland, they would probably have burned him alive rather than do nothing worse than stop him publishing. Incidentally, the answer to your question is: "yes, of course the Church was wrong in allowing itself to be stampeded into taking sides in a contention between scientists; and God punished her by letting her take the wrong side."