The "bandwagon" logical fallacy above, unfortunately uses the modern misconception of the "Myth of the Flat Earth", as refutation.
In prehistory the earths curve was obvious to anyone who lived in coastal areas. After the 5th century BC, no Western no scholar thought the world was anything but round, and Eratosthenes accurately calculated the earth's circumference around 240 BC. To quote Stephen Jay Gould, "there never was a period of 'flat earth darkness' among scholars. Greek knowledge of sphericity never faded, and all major medieval scholars accepted the Earth's roundness as an established fact of cosmology"
The modern idea that people once believed the Earth was flat, was started by Protestants slagging Catholics as uneducated idiots. It was then adopted by 19th century Atheists and agnostics who used it as part of their conflict thesis, and from there the myth became common wisdom.
The "bandwagon" logical fallacy above, unfortunately uses the modern misconception of the "Myth of the Flat Earth", as refutation.
ReplyDeleteIn prehistory the earths curve was obvious to anyone who lived in coastal areas. After the 5th century BC, no Western no scholar thought the world was anything but round, and Eratosthenes accurately calculated the earth's circumference around 240 BC.
To quote Stephen Jay Gould, "there never was a period of 'flat earth darkness' among scholars. Greek knowledge of sphericity never faded, and all major medieval scholars accepted the Earth's roundness as an established fact of cosmology"
The modern idea that people once believed the Earth was flat, was started by Protestants slagging Catholics as uneducated idiots. It was then adopted by 19th century Atheists and agnostics who used it as part of their conflict thesis, and from there the myth became common wisdom.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_the_Flat_Earth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_Earth#Antiquity