"And the people who have been the leaders of this war between superstitions and science are the popes.

"In the first place, the popes down these twenty centuries have been declaring one thing: that they are infallible – which is an absurdity. But their logic is: they represent Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is the only son of God. So, in an indirect way, they are the vehicles of God – how can they be fallible?

"But life is not logic. Your God itself is a fiction; Jesus Christ being the only begotten son is another fiction. And the infallibility of the pope is just ridiculous.

"When Galileo discovered for the first time that it is not the sun that goes around the earth, but the earth that goes around the sun – he was very old, seventy-five or eighty, almost on his deathbed – he was dragged to the court of the pope. And the pope said, 'Before you die, change that statement, because it goes against the Bible. And anything that goes against the Bible is automatically wrong, because the Bible is the word of God.'

"Galileo was a great scientist, and I have immense respect for a man who, even at the age of eighty, when he was dying, had such a beautiful sense of humor.

"He said, 'There is no problem. I will change it; I will write in my book exactly what God has written in the Bible – that the sun goes around the earth. But one thing I must make clear to you: neither the sun reads my book nor the earth reads my book. As far as reality is concerned, the earth will continue going around the sun.'

"'And why should you insist? Because I have every proof; I have devoted my whole life to the search, and all those who have a scientific mind are in absolute agreement with me. Sooner or later you will have to agree because one cannot remain against truth for long.'

"The pope said, 'We cannot allow even a single statement to go against the Bible for the simple reason that if one statement becomes false, God's infallibility disappears. And if God himself is fallible, what about Jesus Christ? And what about the pope? And if God can write one thing wrong, who knows? – he may have written many things wrong."