Galileo Redux

I've been reading "Galileo's Daughter" about the 16th century genius and his encounters with the religious authorities involving his pursuit of the truth. The first part of the books doesn't have as much about the relationship with his daughter but it does have a very good rendering of the historical events dealing with his desire to teach what he felt was confirm-able (if not yet confirmed) truth and the church's dictate that Copernicus's theory went against holy scripture and should not be taught.

I see an interesting parallel between Galileo's story and the current debate between evolution and Intelligent Design. The sides are using very similar arguments and approaches. The only difference I can tell is that the ID proponents are trying to pass it off as an acceptable scientific theory vs the Churches insistence that Copernicus's ideas remain hypothetical.