"Flat Earth"

Hello Everyone,

Next week is the send off for Brent, and I know many of us will want to be there for that. Thus, we will skip our Friday night Bible Study next week.

I am sending this out early just to finish off something while my mind is fresh. We had a mention of the "flat earth" topic during our Bible Study Friday which many of us were taught in school when we were young, while others heard it informally. I made an assertion that what we were taught in school was wrong. It is not right to make such a statement without providing evidence, so I will include this afterwards for any of you who might be curious. It is a wonderful topic to me, but I know many others aren't so interested. Also, if you want to know what our kids are up against at the universities as they try to stay firm in their faith in Jesus Christ, some patience in comparing the passages below may be of interest.

In Christ,

- Douglas

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The flat earth theory was taught in American schools for years along with many foreign schools. The basic idea is that in the time of Christopher Columbus, Christians believed that the earth was flat because they took a literal view of the Bible. The primary incident cited by professors is a meeting in Salamanca, Spain (1487) where a group was assigned the job of reviewing Columbus's plan to travel westward to Asia. The first and only source for this story is a history written by Ferdinand Columbus, the son of Christopher, in the 1500's.

The quick summary is that Ferdinand made no mention of a flat earth or geographical notions derived from the Bible, but plenty from classical Greek and Roman times. In the 19th century the American novel writer, Washington Irving, lived in Spain a few years and wrote a novel about Columbus (1828), but he did a Da Vinci Code style revision of the story introducing the flat earth idea and slandering the church. Later in the 19th century, the founder and president of Cornell University, Andrew Dickson White, who was also a doctor and professor of history, adapted Irving's novel instead of Ferdinand's version. Professor White gave academic respectability to the fiction, and it is from his work (1896) that American school text books derived their teachings. All three versions along with references follow:

I. History from Ferdinand Columbus: "The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus, by his son, Ferdinand" - available at Amazon.com

"... But since the affair had more to do with basic scientific doctrine than with words or favors, their Highnesses referred it to the Prior del Prado, later the Archbishop of Granada, ordering him to form a council of geographers who should study the proposal in detail and then report to them their opinion.

As there were not so many geographers then as now, the members of this committee were not so well informed as the business required. Nor did the Admiral wish to reveal all the details of his plan, fearing lest it be stolen from him in Castile as it had been in Portugal. For this reason, the replies and reports that the geographers gave their Highnesses were as varied as their grasp of the subject and their opinions. Some argued in this way: In all the thousands of years since God created the world, those lands had remained unknown to innumerable learned men and experts in navigation; and it was most unlikely that the Admiral should know more than all other men, past and present. Others, who based themselves on geography, claimed the world was so large that to reach the end of Asia, whither the Admiral wished to sail, would take more than three years. For support they cited Seneca, who in one of his books debates the question, saying that many learned men were in disagreement on the question whether the ocean was finite and doubted that it could ever be navigated; and even if it could be, they questioned whether habitable lands existed at the other end. To this they added that of this inferior sphere of land and water only a small belt or cap was inhabited, all the rest being sea that could be navigated only near the coasts and shores. And even if learned men admitted that one could reach the end of Asia, they did not say that one could go from the end of Spain to the extreme West. Others argued as some Portuguese had done about the navigation to Guinea, saying that if one were to set out and travel due west, as the Admiral proposed, one would not be able to return to Spain because the world was round. These men were absolutely certain that one who left the hemisphere known to Ptolemy would be going downhill and so could not return; for that would be like sailing a ship to the top of a mountain: a thing that ships would not do even with the aid of the strongest winds."

II. Novel from Washington Irving: "The life and voyages of Christopher Columbus" - available online. Chapter VII

"5. Several of the objections opposed by this learned body will appear glaringly absurd at the present day. Thus the very idea of antipodes, and of the globular form of the earth, was scouted on the authority of one of the ancient fathers of the church.

6. " How absurd," said he, "to believe that there are people with their feet opposite to ours ; who walk with their heels upward and their heads hanging down ; that there is a part of the world in which all things are topsy turvy ; where the trees grow with their branches down ward, and where it rains, hails, and snows upward ! The idea of the roundness of the earth," he adds, " was the cause of inventing this table ; for when philosophers have once erred, they go on in their absurdities, defending one with another."

7. These objections, which may excite a smile in the present enlightened age, were excusable at the time, considering the imperfect state of knowledge. The rotundity of the earth was as yet a mere matter of speculation ; no one could tell whether the ocean was not too vast to be traversed, nor were the laws of specific gravity and of central gravitation ascertained, by which, granting the earth to be a sphere, the possibility of making the circuit of it, and of standing on opposite sides, would be manifest.

8. But beside these and many other scientific objections, others of a graver nature were urged, partaking of the bigotry of the age, and savouring more of the cloister than the college. These went to prove that the theory under discussion was incompatible with the historical foundations of the Christian faith, and in open contradiction to certain specified passages of the Bible.

9. Columbus in the outset of the conference had been daunted by the greatness of his task, and the august nature of his auditory ; but he was sustained by what he considered a divine impulse, and he was of an ardent temperament,that became heated in action by its own generous fire. All scientific objections he cooiy combated by his own knowledge and experience, but at the scriptural objections, his visionary spirit took fire.

10. We are told of his commanding person, his elevated demeanour, his kindling eye, and the persuasive tones of his voice. How must they have given force to his words, as, casting aside his maps and charts, he met his opponents upon their religious ground, pouring forth those magnificent texts of scripture, and those mysterious predictions of the prophets, which he con sidered types and annunciations of the sublime discovery which he proposed !

11. Many of his hearers, in fact, were convinced by his reasoning, and warmed by his eloquence ; the majority, however, with the inert bigotry, and pedantic pride of cloistered life, refused to yield to the demonstrations of an obscure and unlearned foreigner, and, though the board held several subsequent conferences, it came to no decision."

III Text from Andrew Dickson White from "A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendodm. 2 Volumes" - available online.

"The warfare of Columbus [with religion] the world knows well: how the Bishop of Ceuta worsted him in Portugal; how sundry wise men of Spain confronted him with the usual quotations from Psalms, from St. Paul, and from St. Augustine; how, even after he was triumphant, and after his voyage had greatly strengthened the theory of the earth’s sphericity … the Church by its highest authority solemnly stumbled and persisted in going astray … the theological barriers to this geographical truth yielded but slowly. Plain as it had become to scholars, they hesitated to declare it to the world at large … But in 1519 science gains a crushing victory. Magellan makes his famous voyage. He proves the earth to be round, for his expedition circumnavigates it … Yet even this does not end the war. Many conscientious [religious] men oppose the doctrine for two hundred years longer."