The Babylonians accumulated records of astronomical observations for many centuries. The records enabled them to see repeated patterns in the motions of the celestial objects. They used the patterns to predict the positions of the Moon and planets.
A Chinese Scientist discovered that the Earth is round during the Han Dynasty by measuring the sun and moon's path in the sky. He recorded this fact down in the imperial records but went unnoticed until it was unearthed recently by Chinese archaeologists.
Pythagoras (6th century before Christ.) and Aristotle (4th century before Christ) knew that the Earth was a round sphere.
Plato (5th century before Christ) knew that the Earth consisted of a red hot liquid substance surrounded by a thin coagulated crust. Scientists in these days knew about the moon being responsible for the tides.
Pliny knew that the Earth is one of the planets:
“Human beings are distributed all around the earth and stand with their feet pointing towards each other . . . Another marvel, that the earth herself hangs suspended and does not fall and carry us with it.”
He already knew the earth was a globe.
"Consequently inhabitants of the East do not perceive evening eclipses of the
sun and moon, nor do those dwelling in the West see morning eclipses, while the
latter see eclipses at midday later than we do. The victory of Alexander the
Great is said to have caused an eclipse of the moon at Arbela at 8 p.m. while
the same eclipse in Sicily was when the moon was just rising. An eclipse of the
sun that occured on April 30 in the consulship of Vipstanus and Fonteius a few
years ago was visible in Campania between 1 and 2 p.m. but was reported by
Corbulo commanding in Armenia as observed between 4 and 5: this was because the
curve of the globe
discloses and hides different phenomena for different localities."
Pliny, "Natural History", II, 180, Loeb
Classical Library, v.330.
Writings of Aristarchus of Samos could be found in the library of Alexandria showing that Earth is one of the planets describing orbits around the Sun and that the stars are enormously far away. Also writings of Eratosthenes who calculated the Earth's ratio of circumference up to a few percents could be found there. The celestial coordinates of stars change with time because of precession, the slow circular shifting of the celestial poles with respect to the stars. Hipparchus discovered precession when he compared his measurements of stellar positions with those of earlier Greek astronomers.
Sometime before Easter 1900 a Greek sponge diver discovered the wreck of an ancient cargo ship off Antikythera island in the Dodecanese. The mechanism is one of the world's oldest known geared devices. It has puzzled and intrigued historians of science and technology since its discovery. The device seemed to have a range of interlocking gears made of bronze and a hand crank to give a turning movement to the geared mechanism, plus a display that showed information about the moon, sun and planets against a background of stars.
The ancients knew that the world wasn't flat, all this should prove that. If, on the other hand, you apply the word "world" to the entire Universe, you might be surprised how flat the world turns out to be.
According to latest discoveries, our ever expanding universe seems to have the same flattened shape as a Galaxy; an egg shaped center drifting in a turbulent sea, like an Egg of Brahm.
It is a modern misconception that the cosmology of the early Church and the middle ages saw the Earth as flat. Through out its history, teachers and doctors of the Church in general adhered the idea that the Earth was round. To most of the early church fathers the topic plays no role, but those who discussed it usually considered the Earth to be round or spherical. A quote from an impartial source, the evolutionistic professor Stephen J. Gould: "there was never a period of "flat earth darkness" among scholar (regardless what the general public may have thought of the planet). The Greek knowledge of a spherical earth never faded away and all the major medieval scientists accepted the round earth as a proven fact of the cosmology." In fact, only a handful of known early writers promoted the idea of a flat earth. The first was Lactantius (245-325). After his conversion he rejected all Greek philosophy and with it the round earth. The Church regarded his work as heresy, and he remained quite unknown until the Renaissance, wherein his Latin grammar was found amusing. It was then that his flat earth theory revived. Then there was Indicopleustes who in the sixth century believed in a flat earth covered by a rainbow. The Church also rejected his work.
The myth of a Church that believed in a flat earth was conceived in the 19th century, which was a time of great hostility between science and religion. It started even before Darwin. In 1834 Letronne spread the lie that church fathers (Augustine, Ambrosius and Basilius included!) would have believed in a flat earth. The Englishman Draper (History of the Conflict between Religion and science, 1874), and American Dickson White (History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom, 1896) did the same some time later.
All this, however, led to the believe that Church taught that the Earth was flat and that heaven rested on four pillars and more of those ideas and that the Bible taught the same things and that this paradigm was being enforced by fanatic priests and by the Inquisition.
That is hardly the case.
Roger Bacon, (1220-1292) who lived in the middle Ages said; "The curvature of the Earth explains why we can see further from higher elevations."
The myth that the Church opposed Columbus when he said that the Earth was round was a fantasy invented by the 19th century novelist Washington Irving (Rip Van Winkle). Columbus as well as his opponents knew that sailing to India going west was possible. The question was, however, if the ships of that time were up to such a challenge. The same kind of nonsense is told about Galileo Galilei, who actually was ineffectively dragged before the inquisition by his own colleagues.
The worldview of a Church that believed in a flat earth is a misconception. The golden days of the myth were between, 1870 and 1920, when Darwinists used the illusion in their fight against the Church about the evolution theory. The belief in Creation had to be ridiculed and equated with flat earth thinking. Some "proofs" on the other hand, of man's gradual evolution from apes like Neanderthal man, Pithecanthropus and others have turned out to be hoaxes.
In a uniformly expanding Universe all Galaxies in general are moving away from each other. From our point of view, with the exception of a few cases having altered their course due to early collisions, or rather "dances" with other Galaxies, all Galaxies are moving away from the Earth, which puts the idea that the Earth is the middle of the Universe in a whole new perspective. The Bible, however, nowhere states that the Earth was the center of the Universe and that little angels pour the rain down on us;
For he takes up the drops from the sea; he sends them through his mist as rain, flowing down from the sky, and dropping on the peoples. Job 36; 27
It teaches that the Earth is round and suspended in space, instead of flat and resting on pillars;
It is he who is seated over the arch of the earth. Isa 40:22 BBE
hanging the earth upon nothing. Job 26; 7 YLT
It teaches however, that the Sun orbits around the center of our Galaxy, of our world and that the celestial bodies are producing "songs", sound waves traveling through space, which in fact is the case.
(click on picture to hear the music of Saturn and the calling of its Roman name "Jupiter".)
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims His handiwork. Day upon day uttering words (songs), and night upon night displaying knowledge. Not as speech nor as language since their voice is not heard. Their sound went forth through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them He set a dwelling-place for the sun, which is as a bridegroom moving around in his chamber, rejoicing as a strong man before a race. From one end of heaven it comes and orbits to the other end and nothing is hidden from its heat. Ps 19; 1
Even Stonehenge was alligned to the sun and its planets.
They didn't think the Earth was flat.
They knew the Earth was orbiting the Sun.
They knew about the other planets.
They knew plenty.
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