It all started with the seemingly innocuous announcement by a Polish professor: It is now believed that they have found the remains of Copernicus in the crypt of a Warsaw cathedral. The initial characteristics all match, and now they’re hot on the trail of DNA to completely verify that this is the great man himself.

Now, you may remember that some 500 years ago, Copernicus theorized that the Earth rotated on its axis one time each day and that all the planets revolved around the sun. It’s amazing that he did all this without benefit of a telescope, so it’s little wonder why he’s regarded as the founder of modern astronomy.

Copernicus did not publish his theory beyond a few scientific colleagues until the last days of his life, and we really don’t know why. Since he was a canon in the Roman Catholic church, and church and state were not separate in those times, you might surmise that he knew the reception his theories would receive.

Some fifty years later Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for espousing these same Copernican theories, and thirty years after that, Galileo was forced to denounce them while being threatened with torture and death. Capitulation only gave Galileo the opportunity to spend the rest of his life in prison – all for the notion of espousing a scientific theory in conflict with the Catholic church.

I learned of all this years ago in a good old-fashioned catholic grammar school. I don’t recall precisely what the good sisters said about it, but I was left with the impression that this was an unfortunate misunderstanding that has all been ironed out.

(These were the very same nuns who managed to avoid explaining the commandment “Thou shall not commit adultery,” while requiring us to write it down on Religion tests. You could say they were “Spin Sisters” in the very best sense of the term.)

It is this kind of coping sensibility that helped me weather the recent decision by the Kansas state school board to leave it up to local schools as to whether to teach evolution or intelligent design. The same goes for the nonsensical argument that science can’t study evolution, because you can’t repeat the experiment.

I put it all into the category of that time the Indiana legislature considered shortening the value of pi to a couple of decimal places – making it so much easier to use. No reason to get excited. It’s just like insisting it’s the sun that rotates around the earth. Truth doesn’t go away. It’s only gets truer, as more and more data reveals itself.

I have no doubt that the scientific theory of evolution will ultimately be accepted by everyone, and that even the most religious will see how it fits into God’s plan.

But then the reports came in that Pope Benedict XVI declared that “the universe was made as an ‘intelligent project’ and (criticized) those who say its creation was without direction.” That’s when my equanimity evaporated.

Why is it so hard to imagine that evolution might be a part of God’s plan?

I learned the theory of evolution in high school from a nun with two advanced degrees in science. She didn’t have a problem with evolution from a religious point of view; she saw it as a glorious example that the Lord worked in mysterious ways.

(And just for record, you wanna know how the nuns got around talking about the seventh commandment? They said, “Adultery is for adults. It doesn’t concern you.”)

I'm Moira Gunn. This is Five Minutes.