WHO SAID THE EARTH WAS FLAT?

I was glad when they said unto me,
Let us go into the house of the Lord.

Things Mothers Might Have Said

Thomas Edison’s Mother – “Of course I’m proud you invented the electric light bulb. Now, turn it off and get to bed.”…
Abraham Lincoln’s Mother – “Again, with the stovepipe hat? Can’t you wear a baseball cap like other kids?”…
Albert Einstein’s Mother – “But it’s your senior picture. Can’t you do something about your hair?” …
Michelangelo’s Mother – “Can’t you paint on the wall like other children? Do you have any idea how hard it is to get that stuff off the ceiling?”…
Isaac Newton’s Mother – Did you wash that apple before eating it?”…
Paul Revere’s Mother – “I don’t care where you think you have to go, midnight is past your curfew.”…
Mona Lisa’s Mother – “After all that money we spend on your braces, that’s the biggest smile you can give us?”…
Humpty Dumpty’s Mother – “If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a hundred times not to sit on that wall. But would you listen to me? No!”…
Christopher Columbus’s Mother – “I don’t care what you’ve discovered. You still could have taken time to write me.”

We were all taught the following (including me) back in elementary school. – When Christopher Columbus tried to raise funds to sail to the Far East he was refused because everybody back then believed the earth was flat and he would fall off the edge. But finally the explorer was able to convince the Spanish monarchs (King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella) to finance him in return for any riches (gold, spices, etc.) he might find. And so in 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail with three ships to prove to the world that the earth was round and not flat.

The True – However, a little simple research shows the story falls flat. According to historians, “No educated person in Western Civilization from the third century B.C. onward believed that the earth was flat.” This was because of the works of scientists, mathematicians and philosophers who, as early as 600 B.C., had already established that the earth was round. Using calculations based on the sun’s rise and fall, shadows and other physical properties of the planet, Greek scholars like Pythagoras, Eratosthenes and Aristotle, etc. early determined that the planet is actually a sphere. For instance: They wrote back then that the earth was 25,000 miles in diameter (and were off by only 200 miles). They said the distance between the earth and moon was 240,000 miles (and were only 100 miles off). As well, during Columbus’ time, educated people carefully studied knowledge passed down by the ancient Greeks. So it’s nearly implausible that these rich, educated Spaniards of the late 15th century thought Columbus would fall off the edge of the map. No, the argument Christopher was making was the globe was smaller in size than believed and that by ship he could get to the Far East faster than by foot.

The False – So how then did the myth of Christopher Columbus and the flat earth come into being? It was not invented in 1492, but in 1828, by one of America’s greatest authors, Washington Irving. (The writer who gave us famous tales like “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow”.) Irving had been invited by his friend, Alexander Hill Everett, the U.S. Ambassador to Spain, to come to Madrid for a visit. And while there, Washington became intrigued by the life of Christopher Columbus and was given unprecedented access to the archives of and on the explorer. But like in Van Winkle and Sleepy Hollow, Irving needed a literary “hook” to hold the reader’s attention. So it was Washington who came up with the idea of a flat earth and the belief back then that if you sailed too far you would fall off the earth. This in turn made Christopher Columbus a brave, courageous hero and Washington Irving’s book a real page-turner resulting in a runaway best-seller. And over time this fiction eventually became accepted as fact and generally continues to be so even unto this very day.

The bottom line? In our day there is The Flat Earth Society. And “flat-earthers” are passionate in their beliefs. But like “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow”, the modern flat-earth idea was simply the product of a very imaginative literary mind.

Job 26:7 – He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.

Isaiah 40:22 – It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.