The Round World's Imagined Corners

[Aeternitas]

Interesting article by Julia Bolton Holloway:

http://www.the-orb.net/non_spec/missteps/ch7.html

[Phlegethon]

I seem to live on the downside of a flat earth.

[Milesian]

Also a study of comparative pagan religions reveals a common link. Roman navigators knew the earth is round, not flat. The circumference of the Earth was measured two hundred years before the birth of Christ by Erastothenes. The Bible teaches that the Earth is a sphere. The British Celtic church taught that the Earth was round as the did the Catholic Church. So where did the idea of a flat Earth come from? The first author to promote a flat earth scenario in detail was Washington Irving. Irving, who died in 1859 wrote considerably on Christopher Columbus, to whom the glory is given for discovering the Americas. Several editions of his work was produced, the first in 1828. Some were single volume, others 2, 3 or 4 volume sets.

Sailors know the Earth is round, for when land disappears or another boat approaches it is the highest point that is seen first because the Earth's circumference hides the lower parts.

The legend of Columbus' sailors living in fear of falling of a flat Earth at the very end of the sea grew from Irving's history. The religious world, particularly the Anglican faith in England, with their high church liberal theology eagerly accepted such stories, along in 1859 with Darwin's published theory of evolution 'The Origin of Species'. Two English atheists in the 1800s (John Draper d.1882 and Andrew D White d.1918) promoted even further the story of Columbus and a flat Earth. Yes, the idea that the early pre-reformation church taught that the Earth was flat is an fabrication by anti-Christian Humanists living in the nineteenth century! The work of Irving has been countered by Samuel Eliot Morison, an expert on Columbus who has opposed the 'flat Earth' story as "misleading and mischievous non-sense,...one of the most popular Colombian myths." Morison's book, Admiral of the ocean sea, a life of Christopher Columbus, came out in 1942.

http://homepages.enterprise.net/sisman/flat.html


Sorry, I couldn't resist

[Aeternitas]

Actually, thanks for that Milesian, it was an interesting read Especially these parts:

The legend of Columbus' sailors living in fear of falling of a flat Earth at the very end of the sea grew from Irving's history. The religious world, particularly the Anglican faith in England, with their high church liberal theology eagerly accepted such stories

Two English atheists in the 1800s (John Draper d.1882 and Andrew D White d.1918) promoted even further the story of Columbus and a flat Earth. Yes, the idea that the early pre-reformation church taught that the Earth was flat is an fabrication by anti-Christian Humanists living in the nineteenth century!

The reason I posted this article is the fact that the Middle Age usually comes across as a period of decadence, ignorance, illiteracy, corruption etc.
Reformists for example condemned the Midde Age because of the Catholic corruption which was said to have caused the loss of the authentic Christian spirit (always disliked these 'my religion is better than yours' disputes, me )
This negative perception of the period was carried on to be portrayed by Illuminists like Voltaire or Ed. Gibon. - but also starting with the XVIIIth century there is a more rational image of the Middle Age - e.g. the 'positive' value of historical events like the Crusades which stopped Islamic expansion into Europe. I've actually read somewhere that one of the first ideas of Europe during this time had Christianity as its basis.

[Milesian]

True. So much of history is propoganda that it really is best to take it all with a pinch of salt. As Henry Ford wisely commented - "History is bunk".

Much like the rest of the stuff in that link I posted with the exception of the relevant extract

[Aeternitas]

By the way it's true that the round world issue is quite older. It is known that the ancient mathematician Eratostenes measured the circumference of the Earth by using geometry. His work "On the measurement of the Earth" is now lost but references appear in Strabo's work as well, so his theroies remained preserved.

And sure, it's also right concerning history. Unbiased history or history written without hidden purposes is hard to find, although a lot of historiographers preached objectivity.

[Milesian]

Yes, hence the passage above:

The circumference of the Earth was measured two hundred years before the birth of Christ by Erastothenes.

[Faísca]

Originally Posted by Milesian

True. So much of history is propoganda that it really is best to take it all with a pinch of salt.

To write history one must be more than a man, since the author who holds the pen of this great justiciary must be free from all preoccupation of interest or vanity.

~ Napoleon Bonaparte