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To: silvermace
The literate have known the Earth was a sphere since a few centuries before Christ. A rather enterprising Greek researcher not only worked out the shape of the Earth, but it's approximate size, too. The whole "Earth is flat" concept was pushed by the Christian Church because that is what they read into Scripture.

So, no, science never said the Earth was flat. That was a popular (as in held by most of the population) concept -- much like intelligent design today...

46 posted on 02/15/2006 3:39:09 AM PST by Junior (Identical fecal matter, alternate diurnal period)
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To: Junior
The whole "Earth is flat" concept was pushed by the Christian Church because that is what they read into Scripture.

What bogus crap!

The myth that Christians in the Middle Ages thought the world was flat was given a massive boost by Andrew Dickson White's weighty tome The Warfare of Science with Theology. This book has become something of a running joke among historians of science and it is dutifully mentioned as a prime example of misinformation in the preface of most modern works on science and religion. The flat Earth is discussed in chapter 2 and one can almost sense White's confusion that hardly any of the sources support his hypothesis that Christians widely believed in it. He finds himself grudgingly admitting that Clement, Origen, Ambrose, Augustine, Isodore, Albertus Magnus and Aquinas all accepted the Earth was a globe - in other words none of the great doctors of the church had considered the matter in doubt. Although an analysis of what White actually says suggests he was aware that the flat Earth was largely a myth, he certainly gives an impression of ignorant Christians suppressing rational knowledge of its real shape.

49 posted on 02/15/2006 3:46:22 AM PST by AmericaUnited
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To: Junior
The whole "Earth is flat" concept was pushed by the Christian Church because that is what they read into Scripture

You are the modern version of a illiterate flat earth mind set, spreading/repeating nonsense, that truly literate people know is false.

52 posted on 02/15/2006 3:50:53 AM PST by AmericaUnited
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