"Galileo's Daughter" by Dava Sobel.

Galileo's Battle for the Heavens is primarily a movie showing the science and religion clash of Galileo's quarter century struggle to convince the Roman Catholic Church of his astonishing discoveries. This drama was based on Dava Sobel's novel, "Galileo's Daughter." Galileo Galilei had discovered that the Earth turned on its axis and that it, along with the planets, revolved around the sun. Many scholars thought this view was absurd, since it contradicted certain passages in …

…Messenger and the Dialogue, opened many doors in astronomy. Galileo's trial by the Inquisition had cast him as a renegade astronomer who scoffed at the Bible and drew fire from a Church blind to reason. But Galileo, had never tortured or excommunicated, but remained as a loyal Catholic throughout his life. As Dava Sobel stated in her book, "Galileo's lifelong struggle to free scientific inquiry from restriction by philosophical and theological interference stands beyond science."