[hellbender]

Going to the New World was also believed not viable since one would fall off the edge of the Earth, but because the government of Spain was farsighted —— no one can say what until we as a country and a species get there.

That's another fallacy I can't leave alone. Columbus knew perfectly well that the world was round. Heck, the ancient Greeks knew that. The Spanish also knew there were great riches to be had in India and SE Asia. The Portuguese and others were already accessing that wealth for trade; they just got there by sailing eastward around Africa instead of westward across the Atlantic. The idea that the Spanish were sailing for adventure or science (a la NASA) is a crock. They knew what was in Asia and what it was worth. They didn't know the dimensions of the New World, but they may have know a little about America, because the Vikings had settled there and Basques and others were fishing off Newfoundland.

[MHGinTN]

Situation kind of similar to today ... two realities running side-by-side. Earth is flat was a popular belief not founded in the actual evidence; man is causing global waqrming, a myth popular today but not supported by the known facts.