> if you read the charges against galileo or bruno, specifically what they're accused of is dissent from church dogma, and many of the specific dissenting opini

> if you read the charges against galileo or bruno, specifically what they're accused of is dissent from church dogma, and many of the specific dissenting opinions were in fact scientific truth. in galileo's case, their epistemological grounding was also entirely scientific in the modern sense True, but that was an excuse, rather than the real reason. It might be evidence of corruption, not of being anti-science. Other people who favoured the Copernican model had no problem with the church - including Copernicus. IN Galileo's case much of the issue was that he claimed the Copernican model was a proven truth rather than a useful mode. It is neither true (the sun is not the centre of the universe) now was it well supported by the evidence at the time. > we're not talking about the period until 01758 (at which point heliocentrism officially stopped being heretical) Not accurate. Evidence heliocentrism was regarded as heretical rather thn unproven. By 1758 > and, of course, today there is a sustained scientific enterprise throughout the world, and most scientists in the west are not christian; about half of all scientists are atheist or agnostic, with the numbers being much higher in the west: That is because western culture, and academia in particular, is hostile to Christianity. It is inevitable that a capitalist society cannot live comfortably with Christianity. They are very much drawing on a Christian culture and tradition, and historically most scientists were . The contribution of the Catholic Church to science is enormous: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Catholic_clergy_scientists https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Catholic_clergy_scient... and that is just the clergy of the Catholic church. > other authors in whose writings the church was not interested in finding truth, and in fact in whose writings it prohibited its adherents from seeking truth, include machiavelli, pascal, descartes, francis bacon, diderot, gibbon, erasmus darwin, and kant The index only existed for part of the history of the church, and entirely in modern times. It was an era in which books were widely censored by secular authorities for secular reasons too - just as we have widespread censorship of video today (e.g. all films publicly shown in the UK require approval by a government body). its a remarkably short list given the huge number of books that were printed very several centuries