separation of church and science

so for some reason people believed there had to be a separation between religion and science. during the time of galileo the people could not accept his scientific observations because they believed the ideas clashed with their faith in god. i can see how a lot of scientific theories like evolution would directly go against the bible, but for a lot of the things galileo was teaching, there seems to be a certain amount of room for interpretation. the idea that the sun is the center of the earth could be explained by saying that god created the universe the way it is and didnt put the earth in the center, we just got it wrong until copernicus came along. i dont think there is anything in the bible about god making the earth the center of the galaxy. i suppose the real reason people rejected these ideas was not because of the ideas themselves but because of what the ideas represented. they would show that the church was wrong. this would hurt the church because they operated with the assumption that they were all knowing and always right. with this doubt in the minds of the people they may have begun doubting other aspects of the church and this would lead to its downfall.