Those people were religious because they were raised in it. They were drowning it every second of their lives.

There are numerous legitimate ways in which Galileo did well by humanity - not one of them includes his faith, which was essentially a no-op.

You put on an artificial criteria of success. He was plenty successful by real criteria without adding on the lame and irrelevant stuff.

Galileo humanized science. He wrote in the Italian vernacular. He worked tirelessly. He did his homework. He *UNDERSTOOD* what he was trying to refute. His religion saved his life - had he not been catholic he would likely have been put to death by the close-minded, religionist thugs.