3 ms·

The ironic part of that ad is that Microsoft needs to correct their own "facts" Essentially no one during the the time of Columbus (and even centuries before)

by ks 18y ago

The ironic part of that ad is that Microsoft needs to correct their own "facts" Essentially no one during the the time of Columbus (and even centuries before) believed the world was flat. That's just a myth that people like to believe.

lbrandy 18y ago
I think you are being a bit pedantic. First, the statement is true. At one time people did believe the Earth was flat. And it could be argued that the roundness of the earth wasn't conclusively proven until Magellan circumnavigated it.
- imp 18y ago
  I don't think so. You have to go back a really long time to find when people thought the earth was flat. In the time of the ancient greeks they estimated the circumference of the earth. And even in the heliocentric theory of astronomy they at least assumed the earth was a sphere.
  - mattmaroon 18y ago
    You have to go back a really long time to find when everyone thought the earth was flat, but even though it was no longer consensus, flat earth was still a well-represented belief in the middle ages.
    - boredguy8 18y ago
      I'm interested in knowing those sources to which you refer and also interested in what constitutes "well-represented". The largest and best representation of generally accepted cosmology of the middle ages, Dante's Comedy, _requires_ the earth be round (an 'echo' of the heavenly spheres). And he's basically synthesizing all available knowledge (theological, philosophical, political, and scientific) in his text, so where the text is silent to a conflict (that is, where it's making an _assumption_ as opposed to an _argument_), it ought be trusted as generally accepted. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth_mythology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth_mythology has more on the myth. And assuming the truth of the citation in the wiki article, having Gould say, "all major medieval scholars accepted the earth’s roundness as an established fact of cosmology" is, I think, fairly damaging to your position. When one of the biggest critics of religious interactions with science says 'hey, they got it right here', they probably got it right.
      - mattmaroon 18y ago
        I meant well-represented in the same way that creationism is today. Not as in believed to be true by most scientists.
- ks 18y ago
  There have been scientific proof that the Earth is round for at least 2500 years. The ancient greeks even calculated the circumference of the Earth based on the position of the sun. (http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Distances.htm http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Distances.htm). We didn't have to circumnavigate the Earth to prove it. The church also accepted that the Earth was round, despite what many have been told by their teachers. Even sailors knew that the earth was round, since they could see the curvature of Earth from daily observations I found a more detailed article about this on the net: http://www.bede.org.uk/flatearth.htm http://www.bede.org.uk/flatearth.htm I could go on about how the "dark ages" wasn't so "dark", but that would probably be even more off topic :-)

by ks 18y ago

lbrandy 18y ago

I think you are being a bit pedantic. First, the statement is true. At one time people did believe the Earth was flat. And it could be argued that the roundness of the earth wasn't conclusively proven until Magellan circumnavigated it.

imp 18y ago
I don't think so. You have to go back a really long time to find when people thought the earth was flat. In the time of the ancient greeks they estimated the circumference of the earth. And even in the heliocentric theory of astronomy they at least assumed the earth was a sphere.
- mattmaroon 18y ago
  You have to go back a really long time to find when everyone thought the earth was flat, but even though it was no longer consensus, flat earth was still a well-represented belief in the middle ages.
  - boredguy8 18y ago
    I'm interested in knowing those sources to which you refer and also interested in what constitutes "well-represented". The largest and best representation of generally accepted cosmology of the middle ages, Dante's Comedy, _requires_ the earth be round (an 'echo' of the heavenly spheres). And he's basically synthesizing all available knowledge (theological, philosophical, political, and scientific) in his text, so where the text is silent to a conflict (that is, where it's making an _assumption_ as opposed to an _argument_), it ought be trusted as generally accepted. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth_mythology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth_mythology has more on the myth. And assuming the truth of the citation in the wiki article, having Gould say, "all major medieval scholars accepted the earth’s roundness as an established fact of cosmology" is, I think, fairly damaging to your position. When one of the biggest critics of religious interactions with science says 'hey, they got it right here', they probably got it right.
    - mattmaroon 18y ago
      I meant well-represented in the same way that creationism is today. Not as in believed to be true by most scientists.
ks 18y ago
There have been scientific proof that the Earth is round for at least 2500 years. The ancient greeks even calculated the circumference of the Earth based on the position of the sun. (http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Distances.htm http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Distances.htm). We didn't have to circumnavigate the Earth to prove it. The church also accepted that the Earth was round, despite what many have been told by their teachers. Even sailors knew that the earth was round, since they could see the curvature of Earth from daily observations I found a more detailed article about this on the net: http://www.bede.org.uk/flatearth.htm http://www.bede.org.uk/flatearth.htm I could go on about how the "dark ages" wasn't so "dark", but that would probably be even more off topic :-)