Dr Paul Allen

Astronomer Copernicus, conversation with God. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) It's funny that many secularists believe that Christian myths about Jesus evolved over time until they were written down generations later. This is the thesis in Bart Ehrman 's latest book. It's not accurate. It's funny because there are things believed by some of the same secularists that actually are myths that evolved over time to create the impression that Christianity is a science stopper and anti-intellectual. One of these myths is about the scientific revolution that was purportedly initiated by Copernicus and the supposed subsequent opposition from the church to his heliocentric theories. The myth begins with the notion of the "dark ages," a time when the church suppressed education. It's just not true. Scholarship was alive and well prior to Copernicus. In fact, scholars were working on heliocentric theories before Copernicus. He learned these in university and built on

The later of two Bruno portraits often uncritically accepted as genuine. Engraved by C. Meyer in Paris, first quarter of the 19th century (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) In 1591, a restless philosopher named Giordano Bruno traveled to Venice at the invitation of a Venetian nobleman named Giovanni Mocenigo. When Bruno refused to share "magic" secrets with him, Mocenigo denounced him to the Inquisition. The Inquisition was only too happy to arrest Bruno. A former Dominican monk, Bruno had written satirical words against Christian systems in his book  The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast.  For years he had moved from city to city in Europe, falling out with his hosts wherever he went because he found fault and quarreled with every one and every system, especially Aristotalianism. He published heretical books and obscene plays. Bruno was enthusiastic about the Copernican theory that the planets circle the sun and he believed there are many other planets around other stars,