I think you may be laboring under the false assumption that the Catholic Church, as the foremost representative of christianity, is hostile to science.
The idea of a flat earth is not from religion, but originally from greek philosophers. By the 1st C the majority of people (including Christian theologians) knew that the earth was a sphere and the understanding spread largely thanks to the greek astronomer Ptolemy (87-150 AD).
Copernicus (heliocentric theory) was at least a canon of the lay order of the Dominicans (some historians say he was a priest), and published his work at the urging of his friends, which included bishops and cardinals, and he dedicated his book to the pope.
Science, which so many profess to admire, but so few actually know, is almost completely the product of the Catholic Church.
Historians of science will tell you that the Scientific Revolution is indebted to the Church. Tons of the brightest scientists of the last several hundred years were Catholic priests. The man who is considered the “father of geology” was a priest. The man considered the father of Egyptology was a priest. The father of atomic theory was a priest. The founder of the Big Bang theory was a priest. Seismology is known as “the Jesuit science”. Most of the best astronomers were priests. Thirty-five craters of the moon are named for Jesuit scientists and mathmeticians. Nobody gave more support and study to the field of Astronomy for hundreds of years than the Catholic Church, which probably beat all support by any and all others combined.
You look at the Church as something science has to overcome. In reality, Jesus Christ, through His Church, has set humans on a course to discover the wonderful truths of the universe.
