After centuries of debate over Earth’s place in the cosmos, Galileo Galilei pointed a telescope at the night sky — and saw a universe that no longer fit the old order.

In Part 2 of Religion in the Courts: Galileo, Scopes and Dover, Judge Stephen J. Sfekas follows Galileo from respected mathematician to scientific celebrity. With his telescope, Galileo discovered mountains and valleys on the moon, countless stars invisible to the naked eye, and moons orbiting Jupiter. Those observations did not prove Copernicus right, but they made the old Aristotelian and Ptolemaic cosmos much harder to defend.

But Galileo’s brilliance came with a talent for making enemies. As he challenged old ideas, clashed with scholars, alienated former supporters, and pushed the limits of what Church authorities would permit, his scientific discoveries became ent ...