Using calculations based on the sun’s rise and fall, shadows and other physical properties of the planet, Greek scholars like Pythagoras and Aristotle determined that the planet is actually a sphere.ĭuring Columbus’ time, educated people carefully studied knowledge passed down by the ancient Greeks. That was thanks to scientists, philosophers and mathematicians who, as early as around 600 B.C., made observations that Earth was round. onward believed that the Earth was flat.” According to historian Jeffrey Burton Russell, “no educated person in the history of Western Civilization from the third century B.C. There’s just one problem: It’s almost certain that in the 1490s, nobody thought the earth was flat. (Credit: julio donoso/Sygma/Getty Images) While we may get back to Wallace and his theory, for the most part we're going to focus on cases where the motivation for the controversy is a bit less obvious.Detail of Portrait of Christopher Columbus. This is our first try of a new video format where we look at controversies that, well, really shouldn't be controversial. That was Alfred Russell Wallace, one of the two co-developers of the theory of evolution. But when it comes to the idea that the Earth is flat, centuries of:thu accumulating evidence don't make much of a difference-its adherents have centuries of history of ignoring it, along with at least one not-nearly-as-famous-as-it-should-be instance of threatening a prominent scientist along the way.

But it's truly bizarre to see one from the latter camp have a sudden surge in popularity and attention millennia after we knew it was wrong. There's no shortage of strange beliefs out there, and not all of them involve having a firm grip on reality. Or people just really like plumbing the depths of absurdity. This video turned out to be one of the more popular ones we ran this year, probably because we're part of the 'Big Globe' conspiracy and we're using our status as bona fide members of the global media illuminati cabal to promote a blatantly pro-sphere agenda. We're re-surfacing a few videos from days past over the Christmas 2018 break to give folks a chance to see them anew.

Why do people believe the earth is flat