One of the side effects of using Flipboard on my iPad is that I have been exposed to Redstate.com, the site run by Erick Erickson, a CNN commentator most famous for calling Supreme Court Justice David Souter a "goat fucking child molester" because he unexpectedly voted to affirm Roe v. Wade.
Redstate.com includes a daily diary entitled "Daily Links," and yesterday's began,
"Today is April 26th. On this date in 1514, Copernicus recorded his first observations of Saturn. He concluded that God must have liked it, because “he puteth a ring upon it.” "
This quote assumes its readers are ignorant of both science and history.
Copernicus's theory that the earth revolved around the sun was the very theory that later got Galileo in trouble with the Christians for contradicting the Bible. So it is humorous that Redstate fabricates a quote implying God's approval of Copernicus, since Copernicus's refutation of the Bible is now widely accepted, even by most Redstaters.
But how do we know this is a conservative fabrication? First, Copernicus did not speak English. Therefore, he would never have used the word "puteth." Someone else, presumably a Christian who spoke English, would have to be the source for such a quote.
But, Redstate might argue, this was an ancient translation of a quote from one of the languages Copernicus did speak. The problem with this theory is that Copernicus never saw Saturn's rings. We know this because no human can see the rings on Saturn with the naked eye. Even when Galileo first viewed Saturn with a telescope some 70 years after Copernicus died, he could not see rings. In fact, he thought Saturn's oblong appearance was caused by orbiting moons. http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/...
The interesting question is whether Redstate found this quote somewhere, and due to the author's ignorance, believe it to be reliable, or did Redstate just make it up. I cannot find another source using Google or Bing.