With respect Don, I also think we have to acquit the Catholic Church of Flat Earthism at the time of Gallileo. By the time Gallileo was writing, that sort of argument was pretty tricky to maintain - not least of all due to the fact that both Magellan and Sir Francis Drake had circumnavigated the world. What we can put on the charge sheet is that the church refused to accept that the Earth revolves around the sun. Copernicus had already discovered this and Gallileo demonstrated it beyond any reasonable doubt. To be fair to the church though, under John Paul II they did concede that Gallileo had a point... I would hesitate to accuse them of being unreasonable. It is just that they are not always at the cutting edge of science...