[Buddha-l] flat earth?

[jkirk]

The Msulims translated a lot of ancient texts including Aristotle, and they
adopted the Ptomlemaic system of the geocentric earth. From wikipedia:

 

In astronomy, the geocentric model of the universe is the theory that the
Earth is at the center of the universe and the Sun and other objects go
around it. Belief in this system was common in ancient Greece. It was
embraced by both Aristotle and Ptolemy, and most Greek philosophers assumed
that the Sun, Moon, stars, and naked eye planets circle the Earth. Similar
ideas were held in ancient China.[citation needed] 

 

Aristarchus of Samos proposed a heliocentric model of the solar system.

 

The geocentric model was usually combined with a spherical Earth by ancient
Greek and medieval philosophers. It is not the same as the older flat Earth
model implied in some mythology. …

 

The geocentric model held sway into the early modern age; from the late 16th
century onward it was gradually replaced by the heliocentric model of
Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler. Today, geocentric cosmology survives in the
work of some creationist fundamentalist Protestant elements of Christianity,
as well as literary treatments within alternate history science fiction.

 

Joanna


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