Maybe you should try reading the entire book . Instead of mocking it read it and prove it wrong.
If you read it you would be surprised at what they did know .
Things you wouldn’t even begin to think about like the concept of phi.
Gee, I’ve read the book numerous times, and have no intention of “proving it wrong”...why would I attempt to prove wrong a book?
YOU made the claim, gave the passage.....and the passage didn’t say what you claimed it did. That’s it....period.
“They” didn’t know squat concerning the scope of the world. “They” knew their pathetic little slice of it, nothing more.