The Christian Bible states that God created the Earth and everything on it in six days and on the seventh day he rested. He gave rights to mankind to rule over the animals and to use the plants as food.

The Christian Catholic Church believed that God had placed the Earth at the centre of the universe.

How does what Galileo found out affect this? Is it possible to accept both ideas?

The Judge in the programme wanted to make sure he was doing the right thing

 What do you think he was afraid of?

Galileo made a public declaration that he was wrong about the organisation of the universe.

 Why do you think he did that? What would you have done?

Science is discovering new things all the time.

 Do we listen to scientists more now? Should we?

 Is progress always good? What about nuclear power or cloning?

 Do people like change?

 Have we swapped one kind of blind faith for another? (God for Science)

Scientists still don’t understand how the universe began and works and are still trying to explain it.

What if someone discovered we had been wrong about what we thought (Galileo was wrong about some things)? Would we treat them differently to the way Galileo was treated?

What discoveries might change the way we think about ourselves? Finding other life in space? Or discovering that God exists?

Can you think of other people in history who have been punished for saying what they thought? Does it still happen?