When? From about a couple of hundred years BC, the learned knew the world was spherical. One of them there pagan dudes worked it out and also figured out the Earth's actual size to within a few decimal places. And, he did this all without benefit of divine revelation. Go figure.
That ain't what science believed on the whole though, was it.
In fact it was so pervasive that even the church accepted it.
And when they took the position against Galileo, everyone got to wear egg - save for Galileo. Truth is unpopular and usually held in a very small minority - sometimes of one or two. It is usually persecuted and rarely is accepted without a big fight. Who you kiddin.
ok, we'll try this again - post seems to have been eaten.
Science and the whole world for that matter largely believed the planet to be flat. It was so pervasive a belief that the Catholics accepted it despite evidence to the contrary in scripture (normal). They persecuted Galileo for arguing contrary to prevailing wisdom. At the time, there was one other on his side because Galileo had come to be on his side.
They were a minority opinion. And as with any truth that paints "wise" men as idiots, it was reviled till it was proven beyond a doubt. Now Galileo is no longer a heretic; but, a learned man. Funny how them things work. He was also not imprisoned for his teaching now, he was imprisoned by revisionism for daring to defy a pope. Care to polish your rhetoric some more. Popular opinion of scientists has a long history of error. I note that you took issue with the one that is most controversial of my examples. Guess we're supposed to ignore all the other times by proxy and assume your one failed rebutt is supposed to redeam the community and your case?
</p>