Copernicus, of course, scandalized the world - and more important, the Catholic Church - with his theory of heliocentric cosmology. That was his assertion that the sun was the center of the universe and that other planets, including Earth, revolved around it. The church considered his claim a contradiction of the Bible and therefore heretical.
The church ordered Copernicus to correct his story, as reflected in the library's copy. Inked above his "Demonstration of the Triple Motion of the Earth" is the word "Hypothesis." A century later, Galileo was found guilty of heresy for supporting Copernicus' "hypothesis" and was sentenced to house arrest for the remainder of his life.
The conflict of religion and science sounds all too familiar. Darwin still has trouble getting past creationist gatekeepers in some school districts.
It is striking how much we've learned and yet how little we've changed as we continue to ask the same questions. As Ogilvie puts it: "What we learn from the history of science is that people do not want to throw out their pet theories."
The geocentric "Earth-centered" theory that Copernicus challenged went all the way back to the 6th century B.C. It was a radical idea - and probably frightening to consider - that Earth was not the center of the universe. We humans have a hard time with the narcissistic injury of our own insignificance.
It was a coincidence of geography that took me home from Norman through Oklahoma City via the empty space that used to be the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, where Timothy McVeigh murdered 168 people, including 19 children, on April 19, 1995.
The distance between Norman and Oklahoma City is short as the crow flies. The distance between the ignorance that led to charges of heresy against Galileo - and that which nourished the self-righteous narcissism of McVeigh - is shorter still.