Query: Skeptics who oppose scientific findings that threaten their world view are far closer to Galileo's belief-based critics in the Catholic Church.

Relevant passages:
Creation–evolution controversy <=SEP=> The creation -- evolution controversy ( also termed the creation vs. evolution debate or the origins debate ) involves an ongoing , recurring cultural , political , and theological dispute about the origins of the Earth , of humanity , and of other life . Within the Christian world creationism was once widely believed to be true , but since the mid-19th century evolution by natural selection has been established as an empirical scientific fact . Efforts to sustain the traditional view are widely regarded in the scientific community as pseudoscience . While the controversy has a long history , today it has retreated to be mainly over what constitutes good science education , with the politics of creationism primarily focusing on the teaching of creation and evolution in public education . Among majority-Christian countries , the debate is most prominent in the United States , and to a lesser extent in Europe and elsewhere , and is often portrayed as part of a culture war . Parallel controversies also exist in some other religious communities , such as the more fundamentalist branches of Judaism and Islam .   Christian fundamentalists dispute the evidence of common descent of humans and other animals as demonstrated in modern paleontology , genetics , histology and cladistics and those other sub-disciplines which are based upon the conclusions of modern evolutionary biology , geology , cosmology , and other related fields . They argue for the Abrahamic accounts of creation , framing them as reputable science ( `` creation science '' ) .   The Catholic Church now recognizes the existence of evolution ( see Catholic Church and evolution ) . Pope Francis has stated : `` God is not a divine being or a magician , but the Creator who brought everything to life ... Evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation , because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve . '' The rules of genetic evolutionary inheritance were first discovered by a Catholic priest , the Augustinian monk Gregor Mendel , who is known today as the founder of modern genetics .   According to a 2014 Gallup survey , `` More than four in 10 Americans continue to believe that God created humans in their present form 10,000 years ago , a view that has changed little over the past three decades . Half of Americans believe humans evolved , with the majority of these saying God guided the evolutionary process . However , the percentage who say God was not involved is rising . ''   The debate is sometimes portrayed as being between science and religion , and the United States National Academy of Sciences states :

Galileo affair <=SEP=> The Galileo affair was a sequence of events , beginning around 1610 , culminating with the trial and condemnation of Galileo Galilei by the Roman Catholic Inquisition in 1633 for his support of heliocentrism ( il processo a Galileo Galilei ) .   In 1610 , Galileo published his Sidereus Nuncius ( Starry Messenger ) , describing the surprising observations that he had made with the new telescope , namely the phases of Venus and the Galilean moons of Jupiter . With these observations he promoted the heliocentric theory of Nicolaus Copernicus ( published in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium in 1543 ) . Galileo 's initial discoveries were met with opposition within the Catholic Church , and in 1616 the Inquisition declared heliocentrism to be formally heretical . Heliocentric books were banned and Galileo was ordered to refrain from holding , teaching or defending heliocentric ideas .   Galileo went on to propose a theory of tides in 1616 , and of comets in 1619 ; he argued that the tides were evidence for the motion of the Earth . In 1632 Galileo , now an old man , published his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems , which implicitly defended heliocentrism , and was immensely popular . Responding to mounting controversy over theology , astronomy and philosophy , the Roman Inquisition tried Galileo in 1633 and found him `` vehemently suspect of heresy '' , sentencing him to indefinite imprisonment . Galileo was kept under house arrest until his death in 1642 .

Science and the Catholic Church <=SEP=> The relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and science is a widely debated subject . Historically , the Church has often been a patron of sciences . It has been prolific in the foundation of schools , universities and hospitals , and many clergy have been active in the sciences . Historians of science such as Pierre Duhem credit medieval Catholic mathematicians and philosophers such as John Buridan , Nicole Oresme , and Roger Bacon as the founders of modern science . Duhem found `` the mechanics and physics , of which modern times are justifiably proud , to proceed by an uninterrupted series of scarcely perceptible improvements from doctrines professed in the heart of the medieval schools . '' Yet , the conflict thesis and other critiques emphasize historical or contemporary conflict between the Catholic Church and science , citing in particular the trial of Galileo as evidence . For its part , the Catholic Church teaches that science and the Christian faith are complementary , as can be seen from the Catechism of the Catholic Church which states in regards to faith and science :  Though faith is above reason , there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason . Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind , God can not deny himself , nor can truth ever contradict truth . ... Consequently , methodical research in all branches of knowledge , provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner and does not override moral laws , can never conflict with the faith , because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from the same God . The humble and persevering investigator of the secrets of nature is being led , as it were , by the hand of God in spite of himself , for it is God , the conserver of all things , who made them what they are .   Catholic scientists , both religious and lay , have led scientific discovery in many fields . From ancient times , Christian emphasis on practical charity gave rise to the development of systematic nursing and hospitals and the Church remains the single greatest private provider of medical care and research facilities in the world . Following the Fall of Rome , monasteries and convents remained bastions of scholarship in Western Europe and clergymen were the leading scholars of the age -- studying nature , mathematics , and the motion of the stars ( largely for religious purposes ) . During the Middle Ages , the Church founded Europe 's first universities , producing scholars like Robert Grosseteste , Albert the Great , Roger Bacon , and Thomas Aquinas , who helped establish the scientific method . During this period , the Church was also a great patron of engineering for the construction of elaborate cathedrals . Since the Renaissance , Catholic scientists have been credited as fathers of a diverse range of scientific fields : Jean-Baptiste Lamarck ( 1744-1829 ) prefigured the theory of evolution with Lamarckism , Friar Gregor Mendel ( 1822-1884 ) pioneered genetics , and Fr Georges Lemaitre ( 1894-1966 ) proposed the Big Bang cosmological model . The Jesuits have been particularly active , notably in astronomy . Church patronage of sciences continues through elite institutions like the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and Vatican Observatory .   This view of the Church as a patron of sciences is contested by some , who speak either of an historically varied relationship which has shifted , from active and even singular support , to bitter clashes ( with accusations of heresy ) -- or of an enduring intellectual conflict between religion and science . Enlightenment philosophers such as Voltaire were famously dismissive of the achievements of the Middle Ages . In the 19th century , the `` conflict thesis '' emerged to propose an intrinsic conflict or conflicts between the Church and science . The original historical usage of the term asserted that the Church has been in perpetual opposition to science . Later uses of the term denote the Church 's epistemological opposition to science . The thesis interprets the relationship between the Church and science as inevitably leading to public hostility , when religion aggressively challenges new scientific ideas as in the Galileo Affair . An alternative criticism is that the Church opposed particular scientific discoveries that it felt challenged its authority and power -- particularly through the Reformation and on through the Enlightenment . This thesis shifts the emphasis away from the perception of the fundamental incompatibility of religion per se and science-in-general to a critique of the structural reasons for the resistance of the Church as a political organisation .   The Church itself rejects the notion of innate conflict . The Vatican Council ( 1869/70 ) declared that `` Faith and reason are of mutual help to each other . '' The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1912 proffers that `` The conflicts between science and the Church are not real , '' and states that belief in such conflicts are predicated on false assumptions . Pope St. John Paul II summarised the Catholic view of the relationship between faith and reason in the encyclical Fides et Ratio , saying that `` faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth ; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth -- in a word , to know himself -- so that , by knowing and loving God , men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves . '' The present Papal astronomer Brother Guy Consolmagno describes science as an `` act of worship '' and as `` a way of getting intimate with the Creator . ''

Creationism <=SEP=> Creationism is the religious belief that the universe and life originated `` from specific acts of divine creation , '' as opposed to the scientific conclusion that they came about through natural processes . The first use of the term `` creationist '' to describe a proponent of creationism is found in an 1856 letter of Charles Darwin describing those who objected on religious grounds to the emerging science of evolution .   Creationists base their beliefs on a fundamentalist reading of religious texts , including the creation myths found in Genesis and the Quran . For young Earth creationists , these beliefs are based on a literalist interpretation of the Genesis creation narrative and rejection of the scientific theory of evolution . Literalist creationists believe that evolution can not adequately account for the history , diversity , and complexity of life on Earth . Pseudoscientific branches of creationism include creation science , flood geology , and intelligent design , as well as subsets of pseudoarchaeology , pseudohistory , and pseudolinguistics .