First, no, there wasn't many "thinkers" of renown caliber who thought that the world was flat at that time, and Christopher Columbus did not "prove that it was round."
And to the point, historically, when scientific ideas have been overthrown they have done so by scientists, not religous organizations/schools of thought.
Back to my point, numbers do not = TRUTH/fact. At least you better hope not, there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 2.1 billion Christians worldwide.
Yes, and today we see that nearly every scientist worldwide has accepted the theory of evolution as fact, even though it can not be proven by scientific method. Who then is left to question it and possibly prove evolution to be flawed? Certainly not those scientists, they aren't willing to risk ridicule from their peers for even questioning the validity of evolution. It doesn't take a PhD to be able to make a great discovery, just an inquisitive mind and a willingness to explore, which is something you won't find many "scientists" willing to do when it comes to evolution.