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About this quote

What does it mean?
Dawkins sarcastically notes that the Vatican quickly accepted Darwinism after historically opposing Galileo, highlighting hypocrisy or delayed acceptance of scientific truth.
In plain terms
The Vatican recognized Darwinism quickly after previously punishing Galileo, showing a shift in stance.
What can you take from it?
Institutions may resist science until evidence becomes overwhelming.

Where it applies

  • debates on evolution
  • religious institutions
  • scientific history

Putting it to work

  • analyze institutional responses to science
  • critique historical bias

Questions to consider

  • How do institutions balance tradition and evidence?

Another view

The quote simplifies complex historical timelines and motivations.

More from Richard Dawkins

  1. It is grindingly, creakingly, crashingly obvious that if Darwinism was really a theory of chance, it could not work.

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  2. Science offers us an explanation of how complexity (the difficult) arose out of simplicity (the easy). The hypothesis of God offers no worthwhile explanation f…

    Permalink to quote #141
  3. Life results from the non-random survival of randomly varying replicators.

    Permalink to quote #138

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