An aside for Romajc (A flat earth)

Hi I notice that you are trying to start a topic called "Who is to say evolution is fact?"I am not going to get into the evolution/bible aspects of that - that is why we have a PNT systemHowever I would just like to point something out to you:

quote:

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It used to be taught that that the Earth was flat

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This in fact is not true - It was known from @ the 1st Century (Ptolemy) that the earth was curved.This idea that people in the middle ages believed the earth was flat and that they could fall over the edges was one that was introduced in a work of fiction in the late 19th century. For some reason it caught on as a fact in america after this.(it's like the "ancient" Chinese curse - "May you live in interesting times" - it's first appearance was during the 1950s in america!)

That's very interesting. I'll have to do a little research and confirm that for myself. It does lead to another question, though... what did they believe BEFORE they thought the earth was curved? Is it your assertion that it was NEVER taught that the earth was flat? I wonder... It seems such a logical conclusion for a primitive culture to make. If they knew it was round from the beginning... how did they know?Still, it's really irrelavent isn't it. The main point is that science has been convinced about issues when it was actually wrong. Science is fallable. In some cases science has even been incredibly resistant to "proof" that it was wrong. If the "flat earth" is not a valid example then go find one. There are plenty out there. It's even possible to be wrong despite massive amounts of evidence.And I have to agree with this point in general. There's a lot of misinformation out there. Some of it is even touted as being backed by scientific fact. In general, it pays to be a skeptic.Of course, on the other hand, even though the race doesn't always go to the swift... you should probably bet that way unless you have very good reason not to.

I posted it purely as a point of information and therefore will not enter into any debate about science, truth etc here. If you want to discuss those issues - propose a thread and we can talk about there.However to this:

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Is it your assertion that it was NEVER taught that the earth was flat?

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No it is not. - Generally when people talk about the earth being flat they mean the middle ages - I can quite understand how primitive people thought the earth was flat (would they even have a concept of "the earth"?)

In future, please do not open a new thread to comment on a PNT.There is already a thread for comments on PNTs.Closing this thread.

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