"Flat-Earthers" Still Exist !

I must admit that I am amazed at this. It seems there are still people in this enlightened age that believe the Earth is flat! Somehow these people are able to ignore centuries of scientific research and teaching to accept what most of us consider to be an ancient myth.

The most popular of the flat-earth beliefs is that the Earth is a disc (like that pictured above). The North Pole is at the center of the disc, and Antarctica covers the entire circumference of the disc. The disc would be about 24,900 miles in diameter, and circumnavigation is nothing more than traveling around the disc in a very broad circle.

How do they explain all the pictures from space showing a spherical Earth? This is where they get even weirder. They dismiss those pictures as part of a world-wide conspiracy by space agencies, governments and scientists. The purpose of this international conspiracy is to dupe the public for "vast profit".

But perhaps even more interesting is another fallacy believed by most people today. That is that belief in a spherical Earth is a fairly modern phenomenon. This belief says people thought the Earth was flat until Columbus proved them wrong by sailing to the Americas in 1492. But that is not actually true.

As early as 330 BC, Aristotle provided evidence of a spherical Earth, and in 240 BC, Eratosthenes of Cyrene accurately calculated it's circumference. The writings of the famous English monk Bedes in the 8th century AD shows the spherical Earth idea was already accepted even in Europe.

Of course, this doesn't diminish the courage shown by Columbus and his sailors. The Atlantic Ocean was still an unknown and very dangerous place for the ships of that time. It took immense bravery for them to sail to America.

I guess no matter how far science progresses, there will always be some people who refuse to accept the truth.