A simpler example...

500 years ago, a person walking down the street suddenly collapses, starts convulsing, talking gibberish, and foaming at the mouth.

We know now that's a seizure and it's relatively easy to treat. But back then, the church would wield its indisputable authority to diagnose that person with 'devil possession' and subject the person to all kinds of ineffective treatments.

Whatever it took for someone to challenge and eventually debunk the church's diagnosis was surely a longer and more difficult process than it would have been if the church hadn't been so adamant about it's own diagnosis, and rather was open to asking someone besides God for help.