Atheist Memes

Like evolution, the age of the earth, heck a few years ago even a heliocentric solar system.

I think the thing about the "age of the world being roughly 6000 years" is that it isn't actually about the age of the Earth (planet), but instead about the age of humanity. Which, if you consider the earliest cultures, could be said to be roughly 6000 years. I think this is a bit like calling your girlfriend "your entire world" (idk if y'all do this). It's a figure of speech to say "you're so important to me, nothing else in the world matters". And saying that "humanity is the entire world" means "humanity is so important, we don't care about anything else that might have happened prior". It's just that some people take "world is 6000 years old" too literally and that causes a misunderstanding.

heliocentric solar system

That's a funny one because i've been reading up on the early modern age (about 1500) quite a bit recently (after a friend sent me a youtube video starting my journey down a rabbit hole). And the church in Rome initially was very interested in the findings of Galilei and his proposal that the sun was the center of movement, not the Earth, even considering it a "great finding if only there was definite proof for it", because at that time, there was insignificant proof for it, it was mostly a guess. Source: german Wikipedia, translation below

Trotz der turbulenten Zeit, in der es der Kirche mithilfe der Dominikaner- und Jesuitenorden gerade erst gelungen war, ihren Einfluss in Italien im Kampf gegen die Reformation wieder zu festigen, gab es in der Kirche bedeutende Personen, die den neuen Erkenntnissen der Wissenschaften sehr offen gegenüberstanden und sie sogar förderten. Für Galileo war insbesondere Kardinal Maffeo Barberini wichtig, der Galileos Leistungen in einem Gedicht pries und als späterer Papst Urban VIII. seinen Freund mit Privataudienzen, Renten und Orden ehrte. Galileo selbst bezog sich als frommer Katholik auf das Urteil wichtiger Kirchenväter wie Origenes, Basilius und Augustinus, die der Bibel keine Autorität in „Streitfragen über Naturelemente“ zubilligten.[55] Dies wurde auch von mächtigen kirchlichen Stimmen, die eine wörtliche Auslegung der Heiligen Schrift ablehnten mit der Argumentation, dass Glauben und Wissenschaft getrennte Sphären seien, offensiv vertreten. So schrieb Kardinal Bellarmin, dass man, läge ein wirklicher Beweis für das heliozentrische System vor, bei der Auslegung der heiligen Schrift in der Tat vorsichtig vorgehen müsse.[56] Ausdruck des zunächst vorhandenen kirchlichen Wohlwollens ihm gegenüber ist die recht milde Ermahnung von 1616, Galilei sei im „Irrtum des Glaubens“ und möge darum „von einer Verbreitung des kopernikanischen Weltbildes absehen“.

Erst nachdem Galilei 1632 mit dem Dialogo, für den er von Papst Urban VIII. persönlich grünes Licht bekommen hatte unter der Bedingung, die damals noch nicht beweisbare Theorie (es existierten andere konkurrierende Theorien wie das tychonische Weltmodell) als solche zu bezeichnen, sich dieser Weisung (nach Meinung der Einflüsterer des Papstes) vermeintlich widersetzt hatte und wieder für das kopernikanische Weltbild als gesichertes Faktum eingetreten war (und die ersten Exemplare provokant an seine erklärten Gegner wie z. B. den Inquisitor Serristori geschickt hatte), wurde ein formales Verfahren gegen ihn eröffnet. Auch jetzt noch war das Klima, verglichen mit anderen Häresieprozessen, freundlich und das Urteil milde. Nachdem Galilei geschworen hatte, „stets geglaubt zu haben, gegenwärtig zu glauben und in Zukunft mit Gottes Hilfe glauben zu wollen alles das, was die katholische und apostolische Kirche für wahr hält, predigt und lehret“, erhielt er lediglich Kerkerhaft, die bereits am nächsten Tag in Hausarrest umgewandelt wurde. In einem Kerker hat Galilei nie eingesessen.

Translation:

Despite the turbulent time in which the Church—having only just succeeded, with the help of the Dominican and Jesuit orders, in restoring its influence in Italy in the struggle against the Reformation—there were significant figures within it who were very open to the new findings of the sciences and even promoted them. For Galileo, Cardinal Maffeo Barberini was particularly important; he praised Galileo’s achievements in a poem and, as the later Pope Urban VIII, honored his friend with private audiences, pensions, and orders. Galileo himself, as a devout Catholic, referred to the judgment of important Church Fathers such as Origen, Basil, and Augustine, who did not grant the Bible authority in “disputes about the elements of nature.” This view was also strongly advocated by powerful church voices who rejected a literal interpretation of Holy Scripture, arguing that faith and science were separate spheres. Thus Cardinal Bellarmine wrote that if genuine proof of the heliocentric system were to be found, one would indeed have to proceed cautiously in interpreting Holy Scripture.

An expression of the initially benevolent attitude of the Church toward him is the rather mild admonition of 1616, stating that Galileo was “in error regarding the faith” and should therefore “refrain from disseminating the Copernican worldview.”

Only after Galileo, in 1632, with the Dialogo—for which he had personally received the green light from Pope Urban VIII on the condition that he present the then unproven theory (since other competing theories, such as Tycho Brahe’s world model, still existed) explicitly as such—had (in the view of the pope’s advisors) allegedly disobeyed this instruction and once again advocated the Copernican worldview as established fact (and had provocatively sent the first copies to his declared opponents, such as the inquisitor Serristori), was a formal trial opened against him. Even then, compared to other heresy trials, the climate remained friendly and the verdict mild. After Galileo swore that he had “always believed, believes now, and with God’s help wishes to believe in the future all that the Catholic and Apostolic Church holds as true, preaches, and teaches,” he received only imprisonment, which was converted to house arrest the very next day. Galileo never actually spent time in a prison cell.

I'm not actually sure why the church was later perceived as being anti-science. It'd be great if somebody could shed some light on this question?