You Mean Galileo was Wrong?

I've just come across a group called Catholic Apologetics International, a very, very conservative Catholic organization founded by Robert Sungenis. How conservative? How about so conservative that they think Pope John Paul was wrong to apologize to Galileo and admit that the earth revolves around the sun? Yes, they are genuine geocentrists. Needless to say, they are also young earth creationists. I'm a little stunned to see this sort of thing from Catholics. The creationist/geocentrist movement in the US has been almost exclusively Protestant in makeup, with the geocentrists being primarily Calvinists. The Catholic Church long ago reconciled with evolutionary theory, long before Pope John Paul II wrote his famous letter testifying to the validity of evolution in 1996. I would venture to say, in fact, that you will find that most Catholic schools do a better job of teaching about evolution than most public schools in America.

The webpage declares:

CAI is totally dependent on support from our generous Catholic supporters. Our Apostolate is directed at supporting the work of Catholic Apologist, Robert Sungenis, to propagate and defend the Catholic faith. There are no paid staff here at CAI and all funds are pumped into supporting Robert, his family, and the apostolate.

Yet, a small portion of those funds appears to have been set aside for yet another monetary challenge:

CAI will write a check for $1,000 to the first person who can prove that the earth revolves around the sun. (If you lose, then we ask that you make a donation to the apostolate of CAI). Obviously, we at CAI don't think anyone CAN prove it, and thus we can offer such a generous reward. In fact, we may up the ante in the near future.

This challenge is quite similar to the challenges offered by JoMo and Kent Hovind that I discussed a few weeks ago. But I particularly like the last part:

You can submit your "proofs" to our e-mail address cairomeo@aol.com. We will then offer a response. Both your "proof" and our response will be posted on the CAI science page at our website. If you do not want your actual name listed, we will change your name, but your contents will be posted. If you do not want either your name or your contents posted, then you are not eligible for a reply from CAI nor the $1,000 reward. CAI will be the sole judge of whether you have successfully proven your case. But since CAI is built on its reputation of honesty and truthfulness, rest assured that if you do indeed prove your case, you will be rewarded the money.

I couldn't have said it better myself if I was a used car salesman.

As might be expected from a geocentrist, Robert Sungenis' arguments against evolution are pretty much the standard claptrap of out of context quotations and false statements. Heck, he even pulls out the old D.M.S. Watson "quote" and the old "Karl Marx dedicated Das Kapital to Darwin" chestnut. On the young earth creationist stupidity scale, I'll give it about 800 millihovinds.