[Buddha-l] flat earth?

[Bob Zeuschner]

The way I learned it was that the Greeks (after Aristotle) did indeed 
figure out that the earth was a sphere and moved around the sun.
However, Greek learning was minimized by the church (who held that the 
only knowledge that was of any value was knowledge of church truths -- 
God never rewarded scientific knowledge, only faith), and as the western 
half of Europe drifted into illiteracy, Greek knowledge was mostly 
forgotten.
Also, as I recall, the Church authorities quoted the Book of Job to 
support the inerrant truth that the earth was flat, and the center of 
creation.
Thomas Aquinas quoted and accepted Aristotle to the effect that the 
earth was the center of the universe and that the sun circled the earth 
(spheres of ether, etc.).
So, the way I remember it, the Church (including Martin Luther and other 
protestants) argued that the earth could not move in space.
Bob
Dept. of Philosophy

curt wrote:
> 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
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