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Article: Flat earth follies
- Article from:
- The Independent Weekly
- Article date:
- March 16, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright Independent Weekly Mar 16, 2005. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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The flat-earth theory had a certain seductive logic in its day. As with any widely held belief, contrarian viewpoints were greeted with skepticism and simply ignored or dismissed. The majority of the world clung to the flat-earth canon for centuries after Greek mathematician Eratosthenes and other ancient intellectuals conclusively demonstrated that our planet was not, in fact, a giant tray. To this day, textbooks contend that the explorers Columbus and Magellan were the first to prove the earth's spherical shape.
When an idea threatens established religious or ideological dogma, skepticism turns to outright hostility. Copernicus was muzzled by the Lutherans when he figured out that the ...