What is truth and how can we know it? This is the question that lies at the heart of the momentous conflict between Galileo Galilei and the Roman Catholic Church. In his provocative reexamination of one of the turning points in the history of science and thought, Wade Rowland demonstrates that Galileo's mistake was to insist that science -- and only science -- provides the truth about reality. In asserting the primacy of science in the territory of truth, Galileo strayed from purely scientific inquiry into the theological realm, an act that put him squarely on the warpath with the Church. The outcome would change the world. - Back cover.