I agree with Jonah’s reader that the Galileo column was brilliant. That

reader is right, though, that there were excellent reasons for opposition to

the Copernican system. This illustrates a general truth, I think: that

science needs to be conservative. Scientific truths are hard-won, and

upstart revolutionary theories should be regarded with utmost suspicion

until they have proved themselves by force of argument and evidence.

Hindsight is wonderful, and we all have fun scoffing at the fuddy-duddies

who refused to believe in Continental Drift, Natural Selection or Action at

a Distance. The only thing that counts in the long run in science is the

weight of evidence. Hypotheses non fingo.