http://www.bloggernews.net/110805 High-quality English language analysis and editorial writing on the news. Wed, 23 May 2012 03:57:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 http://www.bloggernews.net/110805#comment-343389 The_Called Tue, 20 May 2008 01:45:36 +0000 http://www.bloggernews.net/110805#comment-343389 This contains false information. "Contrary to popular belief," there was no doubt by the time of Columbus that the earth was indeed round. The myth that Columbus was a pioneer of the round earth concept was begun by Washington Irving, the author of tall tales such as "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle." He spun a fictitious history about Columbus called *The Life and Voyages of Christoper Columbus" in 1828. This story gave rise to the idea that science was in the dark and furthermore, that the church was keeping it there. As a matter of fact, the church was actually in support of the idea. In schools run by clergymen, people knew that the world was round. As far back as Aristotle, at least some people knew that the world was a sphere. Unfortunately, people have been taught in schools the falsehood of this flat earth idea for a long time and people accept it as valid history. It is not. It may be true that some people believed that the earth was flat in Columbus' time, but he was no pioneer and his ideas were not challenged because people thought the earth was flat. His ideas were challenged because people didn't think he would make it. It was too risky. This contains false information. “Contrary to popular belief,” there was no doubt by the time of Columbus that the earth was indeed round. The myth that Columbus was a pioneer of the round earth concept was begun by Washington Irving, the author of tall tales such as “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle.” He spun a fictitious history about Columbus called *The Life and Voyages of Christoper Columbus” in 1828. This story gave rise to the idea that science was in the dark and furthermore, that the church was keeping it there. As a matter of fact, the church was actually in support of the idea. In schools run by clergymen, people knew that the world was round. As far back as Aristotle, at least some people knew that the world was a sphere. Unfortunately, people have been taught in schools the falsehood of this flat earth idea for a long time and people accept it as valid history. It is not. It may be true that some people believed that the earth was flat in Columbus’ time, but he was no pioneer and his ideas were not challenged because people thought the earth was flat. His ideas were challenged because people didn’t think he would make it. It was too risky.

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