Wait. There are people who believe Columbus was the first person to establish as common knowledge that the world was round? Is this an American thing again?
I kid you not, it's taught in American elementary schools (at least it was to me, in the early-mid 2000s).
...Yeah. Thankfully my middle school general science textbook mentioned this shit's been known forever and the Greeks even estimated the circumference of the thing.
What stands out in my mind is some educational film (early 90s?) where Columbus sees a butterfly land on an orange, and it reminds him of a ship on a round Earth.
It's a baffling myth that has been lazily propagated for a very long time. Would be interesting to figure out where it came from.
True, but they're definitely in the same realm if you will. Just like Great Britain is part of Europe, and New Zealand is part of Australia. (Continentally-speaking!! Don't flame me, Kiwis).
Madagascar is Africa, Japan is Asia. I don't know what to categorize Iceland as, though.
All continents have shifted in that timescale. Perhaps more relevant is the connection to Austronesia: the first human settlers arrived in Madagascar about 2000-2500 years ago on outrigger canoes from Borneo. Bantu people came later, around 1000 AD, so they are "colonists" somewhat in the same way as Europeans are in America, although they mixed with rather than replaced the Austronesian "first nations".
> Greeks even estimated the circumference of the thing.
That's not a problem, the story was that the Greeks knew but those European barbarians didn't believe them until Columbus claimed that he reached India.
Hmm, looks like we're both wrong although you're less wrong than I am. Copernicus supported a heliocentric view and the Church didn't consider it a problem. Galileo was accused of biblical interpretation, positing that the bible isn't intended to be an authority on science, which then explodes into an anti-heliocentricism position by the Church at that time. Cute.
I'm gonna guess this confusion happens for the same reason as then: politics vs facts. This same thing happens where school boards what simplistic explanations for certain things they want deemphasized and politically biased yet detailed explanations for ones they want emphasized. Its annoying.
I have also read that Galileo was a rather aggressive fellow who made a hobby of antagonizing authority figures, and his persecution was less a matter of rigorous doctrine than of finding an excuse to make him shut up.
I don't have a source handy for that, so take it with a grain of salt, but it's an interesting take on the story.
Well yes. Just like the USA isn't all people always doing evil things despite Abu Graib (sp?), special rendition, Guantanamo, ... Oscar Schindler was a Nazi too and some Allies committed atrocities just as some Nazis did.
Not only. As a kid I don't recall discussing earth shape prior the Colombus chapter. With lots, lots of cute stories on how he believed what no one else did. Only very recently I read that many people; including religious figures did talk and think that the earth was round, with a hint that it wasn't just put to 'good use' before columbus.
Not American. Even in the glorious bastion of everything that is progressive, Scandinavia, this is taught. It is ridiculous, but I didn't know this to be a myth until in my 20s.
The resource aimed at 6-7 year olds confronts the world flat issue head on.
So I think it is certainly some sort of folk myth in USA that people in the middle ages believed the world was flat, but it isn't so dire (it's used to teach reasoning skills!).
