Why did they think the earth was flat when it was obvious the moon and sun wrere round or spherical???

Answer 1

Wait - "obvious"? :-) When you were a little kid, did you draw a sphere for the moon and the sun, or did you just draw a big circle in the sky? That's what I thought! It's very difficult for most of us to see the sun - it's not exactly something we can look at for any length of time without some serious eye protection, so saying that it is "obviously" a sphere just isn't - well - obvious.

As to the moon - Not only didn't they know it was a sphere, they weren't even sure it was round some of the time, given the fact that of its changing phases. What's common knowlege today was not necessarily obvious to our ancestors, so give 'em a break ;-)

Answer 2

It looks pretty flat to me. The Earth is a flat disk standing on the backs of four big elephants. These elephants stand on the back of a rather large turtle that swims through the cosmos. What keeps the turtle up?

Actually the old Greeks had worked out that the Earth was spherical (or close to it) by about 200BC. They even knew roughly how big it was.

But then Christianity came along with its early careful ignorance. The Bible said the second coming could be seen by all people. But if the second coming was in Jerusalem, people in Ireland or China could not see it because it would be under the horizon. That idea lasted several hundred years but was quietly dropped before 1000AD when even the Church had to admit the earth was spherical and the second coming would be spriritual rather than geographical.

Answer 3

It is a myth that anyone seriously thought the earth was flat.
From the earliest times people have known the earth is spherical.

It is true that anti-Christians have falsely accused Christians of believing the earth is flat.

http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/936/

The two people that Russell holds most accountable in accomplishing this [belief that Christians taught a flat earth] are John W. Draper and Andrew Dickson White. While not indicating any sympathy with creationists, Russell very convincingly argues that the motivation of these two men and others was to demonstrate how foolish Christian leaders were to oppose evolution. The masterful lie was that earlier church leaders had also opposed the belief in the spherical earth, despite overwhelming evidence for it. By linking the earlier fictional event to the debate of the time, it gave the appearance that science, reason, and logic were on the side of evolution. The truly sad thing is that this totally fabricated history persists even today, as evidenced by the oft-stated comparison of creationists with flat-earthers.
http://www.creationresearch.org/creation_matters/97/cm9711.html

Answer 4

Whilst some people may believe this today, in reality educated Europeans in the middle ages knew the earth was round. The correct circumference of our planet had been calculated by the ancient Greek mathematician Eratosthenes in the 3rd century BC. During the middle ages, this was known and not disputed by the Catholic Church, and more importantly, by Portuguese sailors who traded as far away as East Asia. However, they did not know that the Americas existed, but believed the Atlantic and Pacific to be contiguous, and therefore too great to traverse.

Yet fate had it that Eratosthenes' calculations were disputed. Paolo Toscanelli (1397-1482) thought that earth was only about half as large as in reality, and Columbus, gambling on his miscalculations, sailed West. He believed he had found the East Indies when he had only reached the West Indies. The early explorers were indeed very fortunate they had reached the Americas rather than East Asia - at the time Chinese military technology was at least as advanced as their own, and gold was even more scarce in Asia than it was in Europe.

Answer 5

they thought that the earth was flat when it was obvious the moon and sun wrere round or spherical because the didn't know that earth was one of the sphere and they were not as smart as you are

Answer 6

Look at the moon when you get a chance. Pretend that you know that you know nothing about it. Can you tell that it is a sphere, or just a flat disk. Also the earth flat theory hasn't been seriously considered since before Aristotle.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/NeatAstronomy/

Answer 7

Most people DIDN'T think the Earth was flat. No, I don't care what someone told you or you read somewhere - just watch a lunar eclipse, like the one tomorrow (they happen twice a year) and it's VERY obvious that the Earth is round. A lot of ancient people knew that.

Answer 8

this belief wasn't held by all, certain great thinkers saw the earths shadow on the moon and realized the earth was round. by the time of Christopher Columbus most people understood this

Answer 9

Because they had not viewed the Earth from a telescope in space then and 'they' could only see horizons - guess that is why 'they' thought the earth was flat.

Answer 10

When you are on the EARTH, IT CAN LOOK FLAT from your view, it does to me TOO, but, I KNOW the EARTH is ROUND, cause IF, 1 FLIES in a PLANE or SPACESHIP, YOU can certainly SEE the EARTH's TRUE SHAPE.

I can certainly see why OUR FOREFATHERS thought THE EARTH was FLAT.

I'll NEVER thought of the DISC IDEA, cause our FOREFATHERS see the SHADOW of the EARTH on the MOON, clever!!!!