Photo of a “round” earth

@moonbus said
No, not everyone did. Eratosthenes knew it was a globe and even estimated it's size, to within a fair tolerance, given the technology available to him at the time.

https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018EGUGA..20.5417K/abstract

I watch a documentary on this guy a while ago; absolutely astonishing insight, ingenuity and mathematics to prove his point.

@ghost-of-a-duke said
The writers of the bible believed the Earth was flat. Most contemporary Christians do not. This is a problem if they are to assert the bible is divinely inspired, as surely the writers would have been inspired to reference the Earth's spherical nature. The bible is also riddled with other scientific inaccuracies.

I suspect some here would firmly disagree with you on that.

@divegeester said
I suspect some here would firmly disagree with you on that.

Sonship certainly did. I seem to recall, in a previous thread where examples were given, he said he would given it some thought and come back to it. - Am still waiting.

@ghost-of-a-duke said
Sonship certainly did. I seem to recall, in a previous thread where examples were given, he said he would given it some thought and come back to it. - Am still waiting.

I’m waiting for KellyJay to show his hand.

Well not waiting as such, just observing his lack of courage to engage.

@moonbus said
Because when you fall off, you don't survive to tell the story. DUH!


😆

I know you're joking, but someone would have witnessed other people falling off.

There could also be some good stories about almost falling off.

@moonbus said
If your wife delivers them personally, yes.

Cheeky!

@bigdogg said
I know you're joking, but someone would have witnessed other people falling off.

There could also be some good stories about almost falling off.

I do not know whether the people who claim to believe the Earth is flat really do believe it , or whether they are just trolls. They have a response to every argument, though, of course, the responses are all bunk. To the objection, 'why don't people/ships fall off the edge?', they say there is a wall around the circumference. That is what keeps the oceans from flowing off the edge too, so they say. But the wall would not keep the atmosphere from flowing away over the top of the wall, because the wall isn't high enough. A wall would also not keep a plane from flying over the top of the wall. Moreover, there is no reason why someone could not climb down the 'outside' of such a wall with pitons and ropes. To these sorts of objections, their standard reply is 'CONSPIRACY!' -- pilots who did fly along the edge and returned were silenced. Mountaineers who did climb over the edge and returned were silenced! And the lack of evidence is 'proof' how big the conspiracy is!

Their reply to why a ship's mast slowly appears to sink down as the ship recedes from a stationary viewer, is 'parallax' -- but they don't actually know what the word 'parallax' means, it does not mean what they think it means, and it does not in fact explain the phenomenon of ships disappearing below the horizon as they sail away from a stationary viewer.

There are so many bloody obvious arguments why the flat Earth hypothesis is incoherent, it beggars credibility. A flat Earth would be entirely illuminated by the sun, there would be no diurnal cycle on a flat Earth. One would see all the same constellations everywhere on a flat Earth. The distance between the southern tip of So. America and the southern tip of Africa would have to be vastly greater than that actually measured; ships and planes crossing the southern ocean would need vastly more time and fuel to make the crossing than they actually do. Etc. etc.

@moonbus said
I do not know whether the people who claim to believe the Earth is flat really do believe it , or whether they are just trolls. They have a response to every argument, though, of course, the responses are all bunk. To the objection, 'why don't people/ships fall off the edge?', they say there is a wall around the circumference. That is what keeps the oceans from flowing off th ...[text shortened]... ern ocean would need vastly more time and fuel to make the crossing than they actually do. Etc. etc.

Ghost of a Duke has already demonstrated, using Biblical scripture, that the earth was indeed created flat with four corners. Any biblical literalist, such as KellyJay, would tie you in knots!

@divegeester said
Ghost of a Duke has already demonstrated, using Biblical scripture, that the earth was indeed created flat with four corners. Any biblical literalist, such as KellyJay, would tie you in knots!

It's kind of understandable why humans, hundreds or thousands of years ago, naturally assumed the Earth was flat. Flat Earthers however have no place in a modern world where it is blindingly obvious (and observable) what shape the Earth actually is.

@ghost-of-a-duke said
It's kind of understandable why humans, hundreds or thousands of years ago, naturally assumed the Earth was flat. Flat Earthers however have no place in a modern world where it is blindingly obvious (and observable) what shape the Earth actually is.

It would be genuinely interesting to hear KellyJay’s take on it.

I do wonder if he’s a closet flat-earther due to his biblical literalism.

@moonbus said
I do not know whether the people who claim to believe the Earth is flat really do believe it , or whether they are just trolls. They have a response to every argument, though, of course, the responses are all bunk. To the objection, 'why don't people/ships fall off the edge?', they say there is a wall around the circumference. That is what keeps the oceans from flowing off th ...[text shortened]... ern ocean would need vastly more time and fuel to make the crossing than they actually do. Etc. etc.

No amount of evidence will convince a person who has decided in advance not to be convinced.

Who do they think built the wall? God? An ancient civilization who was tired of losing tribe members?

@bigdogg said
No amount of evidence will convince a person who has decided in advance not to be convinced.

Who do they think built the wall? God? An ancient civilization who was tired of losing tribe members?

Oh, it's a wall of ice. Everybody knows the antarctic is frozen.



😆

@divegeester said
It would be genuinely interesting to hear KellyJay’s take on it.

I do wonder if he’s a closet flat-earther due to his biblical literalism.

There is no call to bait him.

@ghost-of-a-duke said
It's kind of understandable why humans, hundreds or thousands of years ago, naturally assumed the Earth was flat. Flat Earthers however have no place in a modern world where it is blindingly obvious (and observable) what shape the Earth actually is.

I'm not convinced that whoever compiled the OT had any firm opinions about it either way, and anyway, the stories (plural) in Genesis were lifted from pre-hebraic myths common in the ME at that time from other religions. I am firmly convinced that all of these creation stories (Genesis, Gilgamesh, Hesiod, Theognis, etc.) were never intended to be literal explanations of how the universe came to be; they are one and all allegories about the human condition. So it doesn't matter that bits of these myths are translated as 'the four corners of the earth' -- for the same reason that it doesn't matter that we still talk about the four points of the compass even today, north, south, east and west. It's nothing but an arbitrary coordinate system which serves us, it doesn't mean we still think the world is flat, or that they did either.

I suspect that ancient mariners knew the world is a globe, because the constellations are different in the northern and southern hemispheres. Magellan was only very recently responsible for 'enlightening' the tardy Europeans, but there were others long before him who successfully navigated the oceans and populated all of the habitable Pacific islands thousands of yrs ago.

@moonbus said
Well, let's just say that some people's mental horizon is broader than others'. It is probable that other ancient people(s) than Eratosthenes realised that the Earth is a globe. Wouldn't surprise me if some Babylonians knew it as well, as they were dedicated observers of the stars.

Worth noting the Babylonians viewed the universe itself like a modern domed stadium with the Earth essentially flat (with a continental mass surrounded by ocean.) - The Egyptians too had a flat earth cosmology.