[Buddha-l] flat earth?

[curt]

It is a common misconception that "until recently religions maintained 
that the earth was flat." ("Buddhism Without Beliefs" p. 35)

The above statement is certainly not true with respect to Christianity, 
or to the Pagan religions that preceded it in the Western world. For 
example, As early as 240 BC Alexandrian astronomers knew how to 
calculate, at least in theory, not only the circumferences of the earth 
and the moon - but also the distance between them! They lacked the 
technology to make sufficiently accurate measurements to get the right 
answer consistently, but as they say in physics class - they knew how to 
"set the problem up". (see for example: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth )

Is there any evidence that Buddhists, Hindus, Taoists or Confucianists 
ever espoused a "flat earth" theory as part of their religions? Or is 
this just another example of Stephen Batchelor being completely wrong?

- Curt