From: petertrei@gmail.com   
      
   On 10/31/2025 12:24 PM, Paul S Person wrote:   
   > On 21 Oct 2025 10:57:23 GMT, ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram)   
   > wrote:   
   >   
   >> Don  wrote or quoted:   
   >>>     In a world that persistently mischaracterizes Christians as   
   >>>     anti-science, Pope Leo XIV's mathematical background offers   
   >>>     a powerful counternarrative.   
   >>   
   >>   Angela Merkel has a PhD in physics. Honestly, where in her politics   
   >>   did that ever show?   
   >>   
   >>>     We see the unity of faith and reason in the long, robust   
   >>>     history of Catholic contributions to science and mathematics.   
   >>   
   >>   And yeah, that's basically why we ended up killing Giordano Bruno.   
   >>   
   >   
   > An article I read a long time ago in /Skeptical Inquirer/ revealed   
   > that Bruno had been banished by most of Europe by the time the Pope   
   > got him.   
   >   
   > Apparently, he was so annoying a smart-ass that nobody could stand   
   > him, and had the misfortune to fall into the hands of a Pope who had   
   > no tolerance for smart-assery at all.   
   >   
   > I still have no idea whether by "other worlds" he meant planets like   
   > Mars -- or what we would call other universes (which are hypothetical,   
   > no matter what comic books may think).   
      
   The accounts of Bruno I've read make it clear that he figuratively   
   bit the hand of every sponsor who fed him.   
      
   He didn't deserve to be burnt, but he didn't help his case.   
      
   I was quite annoyed by him being treated as a secular saint   
   in Tyson's reboot of 'Cosmos'.   
      
   pt   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)