A Flat Earth

[Cogidubnus]

Elementary Astrozoology

What are you lot on about?

Everybody knows the world is a disc borne through the heavens on the backs of four elephants, (Berilia, Tubul, Great T'Phon and Jerakeen), in turn resting upon the shell of a giant turtle, (Great A'Tuin)...good grief...

Dave

[Robert]

Every now and then the earth wobbles on its axis. That's when one of the elephants goes off to look for buns.

[TomTomKent]

To the best of my knowledge there was no suggestion whatsoever that anyone particularly thought the earth was flat or that Columbus set out to disprove that until Washington Irving said so in one of his essays. One of his fictional essays. I guess it stuck.

Columbus facing off against the pope to argue this was one of the big dramatic scenes in the book. It was also an entire fabrication for dramatic purposes.

A brief history of the theory:

http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4338

[mklhawley]

I thought "sola scriptura" was Martin Luther. Calvin may have been the one to say that "sola" somehow meant "literal," I guess. The popes had been interpreting scripture for the people for a long time, and I guess the idea was to toss it all out and start over.

It amazes me what some Christians insist on taking literally, that Jews have never, ever taken literally, even in view of some of the things that Orthodox Jews take literally-- or at least go to weird lengths to try to follow.

Hi RivkahChaya,

If there was no John Calvin, Lutheranism would merely have been a German experience. John Calvin, with his published works and his universities, promoted Sola scriptura AND Sola fide throughout Europe and into England and eventually across the oceans.

Promoting a flat earth was a reality, even today. They're products of Robotham and his Zetetic Astronomy:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/earth/za/

It's all about how to take Genesis literally. The flat earthers ignore all evidence outside the Bible and they claim Geocentrists (round earthers) are duped by science. Geocentrists claim young earth creationists (universe is 6,000 or 10,000 years old) are duped by too much science. Young earthers claim old earthers (believe in an ancient earth but do not believe in evolution) are duped by science. Old earthers claim theistic evolutionists are duped by science. This is a huge generalization, since there are variations of each, but it's basically true. Variations are also a product of what to take literally and what to take metaphorically.

As I stated earlier, taking the Old Testement literally can be traced back to John Calvin, since Calvin realized Sola scriptura would cause a huge splintering of Christian believers. With over 30,000 Protestant denominations, his fears came true.

I apologize for not supporting some of my claims with the appropriate evidence, but I'm limited on the computer at the moment.

Sincerely,
Mike