The Current Evolution of Ancient Religious Institutions

[Istvan]

Myth of the Flat Earth

The myth of the flat Earth, or the flat-Earth error, is a modern historical misconception that European scholars and educated people during the Middle Ages believed the Earth to be flat.

It's still extremely popular in the atheist blogosphere. A few years back, Neil DeGrasse Tyson (playing master of the obvious comme d'habitude) took some rapper to task over comments about the flat Earth, pointing out that "people haven't believed that for hundreds of years."

I'm not claiming every mud farmer in medieval Europe understood the spherical shape of planet Earth, but if even sailors and mountaineers were in on it, it's not like the knowledge was some sort of academic secret.