Galileo failed peer review miserably. So thoroughly did the eminent authorities of his day not agree with his views, that Galileo was given house arrest for the balance of his life. 

Yet it is often said that Galileo is the father of modern science. This is because he deferred to evidence to create his theories of the world, rather than letting his theories determine the views he espoused, and try to conform his observations to them. One example is the reigning Aristotelian view of his time that said heavier objects fell faster. Galileo used balls rolling down inclined planes to show that it was not so. 

This is different than the modern scientific paradigm, where “experts” are the only voices generally allowed to be heard, and whole societies have be denied the intellectual tools to deal first with evidence before reaching conclusions.  

Most modern people defer to publicly endorsed scientific authorities, rather than considering the data itself, and drawing conclusions from that.