It must first be reiterated that with extraordinary few exceptions noeducated person in the history of Western Civilization from the third centuryB.C. It is thenotion that people used to believe that the earth was flat-especially medievalChristians.

The worst examples of such contortions are the Nazi and Communisthistories of the early- and mid-twentieth century.Ĭontortions that are common today, if not widely recognized, are producedby the incessant attacks on Christianity and religion in general by secularwriters during the past century and a half, attacks that are largely responsiblefor the academic and journalistic sneers at Christianity today.Ī curious example of this mistreatment of the past for the purpose ofslandering Christians is a widespread historical error, an error that theHistorical Society of Britain some years back listed as number one in itsshort compendium of the ten most common historical illusions. History is precarious for three reasons:the good reason that it is extraordinarily difficult to determine 'whatreally happened' in any series of events the bad reason that historicalscholarship is often sloppy and the appalling reason that far too muchhistorical scholarship consists of contorting the evidence to fit ideologicalmodels. How does investigating the myth of the flat earth help teachersof the history of science?įirst, as a historian, I have to admit that it tells us something aboutthe precariousness of history.

Myth of the Flat Earth The Myth of the Flat Earthįor the American Scientific Affiliation Conference

Christian flat earth