When I think back to how I was first introduced to the concept of a flat earth I can't help but feel that it's one of the bigger epistemic own-goals in history.

When I think back to how I was first introduced to the concept of a flat earth I can't help but feel that it's one of the bigger epistemic own-goals in history. My introduction was in school, where the concept of a flat earth was trotted out as something that everyone believed in the middle ages that we eventually learned was totally wrong. The message was simple: don't be those people, listen to the scientific evidence. At the time I thought it was a compelling story, then I found out the story is a myth. [0] Ancient Greeks knew in the 5th century BC that it was round, by the 600s it was more or less unanimously supported by scholars. I've struggled to find a time in history when there was a serious, organized group that believed the earth was flat. Except for now that is, the uncomfortable truth is that this, right now, in 2020, is the peak of flat earth belief in human history. The lesson, to me, is this: be careful what you lie about in the name of pedagogy, lies have a way of backfiring on you when people realize they're being lied to. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_the_flat_Earth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_the_flat_Earth