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Politics : View from the Center and Left
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To: thames_sider who wrote (23284)7/10/2006 12:01:52 PM
From: TimF  Read Replies (1) of 541390
 
Back before Columbus, flat was the standard 'educated' view in Western Europe. Nothing unreasonable about it.

No it was more the standard uneducated view, of course "uneducated" described the vast majority of people at the time.

Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle thought the earth was a sphere. Aristotle even provided evidence/argument for it.

* Ships receding over the horizon disappear hull-first;
* Travelers going south see southern constellations rise higher above the horizon; and
* The shadow of Earth on the Moon during a lunar eclipse is round.

Eratosthenes made a measurement of the earth that was accurate within 2%, over 1600 years before Columbus was born.

en.wikipedia.org

Of course you could just change your statement from "Back before Columbus" to "back before the early astronomers", or "back before Aristotle and Eratosthenes" and the argument would be the same. And that argument was right that it was relatively reasonable and normal to believe the earth was flat in ancient times. However when you call people who have a certain belief "flat earthers" you imply not that they are like the people who believe the world was flat in 500 BC, or even 1492, but that they are like the people who believe the world is flat now.
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