SUMMARY: Christians in general never believed in a flat earth, and no evidence exists that scientists were ever persecuted for advocating that the earth is a sphere. So says creationist biologist Jerry Bergman who believes these stories were invented to promote the idea that Christians have been anti-science due to their religious beliefs. An effort to replace the biblical worldview with Darwinism was a major motivating factor.In order to ridicule creationists, evolutionists often compare them to flat-earthers. A Google search confirmed this link. One evolutionist has written, "flat-earthism is as well supported scripturally and scientifically as creationism."
Bergman's research has led him to believe there never has been any sizable group in the West supporting the idea of a flat earth, and of those people who may have accepted the theory, most died decades ago. The Flat Earth Society of America founded by one Charles K. Johnson became irrelevant in 2001 when Johnson died. Johnson once claimed as many as 3,000 members, but he probably had no more than 100 at any time, and there was no one to carry on his work following his death. The media gave him much exposure despite his strange beliefs, which included the teaching that the stars are about as far from earth as San Francisco is from Boston.
Allegedly the Church has taught the flat-earth theory for most of its history, and Christians have accepted it for theological reasons. When scientists demonstrated the earth is really a sphere, these brave scientists were said to have been persecuted by authorities in the Church. Even though Aristotle and Ptolemy taught that the earth is a sphere, it has been asserted that the Western church for a thousand years replaced this truth with "imaginary constructions based on the supposed teachings of Holy Writ." Textbooks have often mentioned the fictitious idea that the medieval Church accepted the flat earth theory and that Columbus set sale because he wanted to prove the world was round. Actually, educated Europeans, especially those engaged in maritime activity, already knew the earth was a sphere.
Bergman believes that the myth of Christians believing in a flat earth up until Columbus set sail was made into a “fact” by 19th century Darwinists in order to ridicule Christians. The truth is that even the ancient Greeks knew the true shape of the earth, including Eratosthenes who rather accurately calculated its diameter. Only two Christian writers are known to have advocated a flat earth--Lactantius in the 4th century and Cosmas Indicopleustes in the 6th century. Otherwise, the Church as a whole has believed in a spherical earth. It may have been a 19th century writer, Washington Irving, who was the first major promulgator of the flat-earth myth in his unreliable biography, History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus.
For much more on this topic, you can read Dr. Bergman’s essay by clicking on this CREATION MINISTRIES INTERNATIONAL link.
COMMENT: One can go back farther than the Greeks to discover that educated people have always known the true shape of our planet. How about going back to the Bible? Isaiah knew the shape of the earth when he wrote, “He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.” (Isaiah 40:22 NIV)
Sometimes ancient believers have been characterized as believing that the earth literally rests on pillars. In truth, the Bible in places does use this picture language in describing the foundations of earth and even heaven (for example, Job 9:6, Job 26:11, Psalm 75:3). However, the ancient people realized the true nature of the earth’s foundations. In Job we read, “He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing.” (Job 26:7 NIV).
Ancient man and medieval men may not have had all the tools and discoveries to work with that modern scientists have at their disposal. But they had their own ways of discovering the truth about nature and were as intellectual as we are, if not more so. May modern searchers for the truth turn to the source that has withstood the test of time throughout all the ages, namely the Holy Bible. May they not consider themselves too sophisticated to believe what this Book of Books teaches about who we are, where we came from, and where we are going. May they turn to the Lord for forgiveness and place their faith in the Savior and accept his gift of eternal salvation.
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QUESTION OF THE DAY
What is the deepest known place in the ocean?The Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean south of Japan near the Mariana Islands has a depth of 36,298 feet (6.9 miles).
Source: www.livescience.com
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