[Buddha-l] flat earth?

[Richard Hayes]

On Tue, 15 May 2007 17:05:53 -0400
  curt <curt at cola.iges.org> wrote:

> Batchelor's contention is clearly that all "religions" 
>have always taught people until the advent of modern 
>science that the earth is literally physically flat. My 
>only question is whether there is no evidence for this 
>ridiculous claim or only very little.

Whenever a claim written by an intelligent author strikes 
you as ridiculous, try reading it with a little more 
charity. Batchelor rarely writes anything carelessly and 
without a good basis in research. If one reads his 
statement in context and with an ounce of charity, rather 
than literally and out of context, it pretty clearly means 
that no religious system before modern science was in a 
position to know very much at all about the geography of 
the planet earth or the place of the planet in the solar 
system. There may be little evidence that ancient 
religions all taught that the world is as flat as parts of 
the state of Kansas, but neither is there evidence that 
ancient religions taught that the planet earth is as 
geographers and geologists now portray it.

I know it means a great deal to you to mock Stephen 
Batchelor, but you will have to work a bit harder to find 
a mockery that sticks.

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico