Pope to Hawking: The Earth Is Flat

Methinks Pope John Paul II had a clue that science might find something far more dangerous to the Church than anything Dan Brown might write. From The Seattle Times:

Famed physicist Stephen Hawking said Thursday that Pope John Paul II tried to discourage him and other scientists attending a cosmology conference at the Vatican from trying to figure out how the universe began.

The British scientist joked he was lucky the pope didn't realize he had already presented a paper at the gathering suggesting how the universe was created.

"I didn't fancy the thought of being handed over to the Inquisition like Galileo," Hawking said in a lecture to a sold-out audience at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. John Paul died in 2005; Hawking did not say when the Vatican meeting was held.

For the record, William Donahue, president of the Catholic League, says Hawking got it wrong. But then, Donahue is the guy who once described Hollywood as a den of sin eager to promote anal sex.