cdude1034 said:
This post was a joke right? There are countless old texts by some of the greatest minds of the past saying they thought the world was flat... |
How about you show me a single one of those old texts, or admit you don't know what you're really talking about? Flat Earth was a common belief in bronze age cultures, and was held by many in early antiquity, but eventually the Greeks figured out the world was a sphere, and it was never actually forgotten. The troubles with Copernicus and Galilei were because they insisted the Earth went around the sun, and Columbus' great radical idea was actually the completely erronous belief that the world's diameter was about a third of it's actual size, and that he could easily sail across the Atlantic ocean to India. The only reason he survived and is remembered as a great explorer is that he got lucky, and there was this tiny patch of Earth now known as America in the way.
The beliefs of the peasantry were too varied to describe here, but the educated were generally aware of the Earth's roundness, and Flat Earth was certainly never a part of official Church doctrine on any notable scale.
Please remember this is coming from a rather militant atheist with extremely negative opinions of organised religion, especially the two biggest ones. However, I insist on disliking them for factual reasons, and spreading the Flat Eary myth is not one in the least.
(yay, one thousand posts)
