For a far more detailed account, it is worth exploring Flat Earth: History of an Infamous Idea (2007) by Christine Garwood.
Here is an attempt at a very brief history of the concept of the flat Earth in its more modern incarnation. There is more to the recent proselytizing of the flat Earth, in all its variations (there are many), but that is for another time. The general message: the government is lying to you, NASA is a scam, and all of the scientific community is involved in an international conspiracy to get easy payouts through fabricated research grants. Many are a melting pot of 9/11-inspired anti-government conspiracy theories, religious fundamentalism, new-age pseudoscience concepts, and far-right ideologies. Type ‘flat earth’ into YouTube, however, and you will find a whole wealth of videos attempting to prove that the Earth is flat. For the most part you really need to go back to 8 th-century BCE and sections of early Egyptian and Mesopotamian thought to find the concept of a flat Earth being widely accepted. Parts of rural China held belief in the Earth being a flat square (with four distinct corners), until modern astronomy began influencing common knowledge there in the 17 th century. The discovery that Earth is in fact orbiting around the Sun may be a more recent revelation traced back to the Middle Ages, but the general shape of the planet was not really in question. Such ideas seem to have seeped somewhat into the popular consciousness, suggesting that the understanding of Earth as a globe is a far more recent idea. The birth of the Modern Age was popular amongst many writers, even if such concepts were not always accurate. American national myth-making was highly active during the first half of the 19 th century, and a trend to suggest that the founding of the New World represented not only new opportunities, but also a break from outdated ideas. The other source is the 1919 edition of Boy’s and Girl’s Reader, which began with the line: ‘When Columbus lived, people thought the Earth was flat’. Irving claimed Columbus’s incentive to navigate the globe was to prove that it was in fact a globe, and not flat as many at the time allegedly believed. One is the 1828 work A History of The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus by Washington Irving, an early example of historical fiction, aimed at retelling the adventures of the famous explorer. Much of the belief that those 500 years ago believed in a flat Earth comes from two sources. However the idea that many during the Middle Ages believed that the Earth was flat is a myth that seems common even today. The understanding that Earth is a large, roughly round-shaped object can be dated back to the 6 th Century BCE.
Generally speaking, very few people, and certainly not many with a decent education, have considered the concept of the Earth being a flat plane (rather than a spherical ball), for a very long time.
0 kommentar(er)
