Browse Search Feedback Other Links Home Home The Talk.Origins Archive: Exploring the Creation/Evolution Controversy

Index to Creationist Claims,  edited by Mark Isaak,    Copyright © 2004
Previous Claim: CA660   |   List of Claims   |   Next Claim: CB000

Claim CA662:

It is not true that the church used to teach that the Earth was flat. Only two Christian theologians (Lactantius and Cosmas Indicopleustes) taught it, and they were largely ignored and uninfluential. The flat earth myth is a product of Darwinism meant to make it look like religion was the enemy of science when it was not so.

Source:

Wells, Jonathan, 1999 (Oct. 20). "Evolution: Teaching the Controversy", debate at Burlington-Edison High School, sponsored by Skagit Parents for Scientific Truth in Education.

Response:

  1. Wells, who has a PhD in theology, is ignorant of Theophilus of Antioch, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Methodius, Theodore of Mopsuestia, John Chrysostom, Cyril of Jerusalem, Ephraim Syrus, Athanasius of Alexandria, Diodorus of Tarsus, Epiphanius of Salamis, Hilary of Poitiers, and Severianus of Gabala. It is true that flat Earthism was never a majority or official position of the early church, and that it became practically nonexistent among the educated during and after the Middle Ages, but many of the early Fathers were flat Earthers (Schadewald, 1999).

  2. One need not manufacture myths to show a hostility of religion towards science. The church's reaction to heliocentrism is another well known example, as is Wells himself.

Links:

Ethical Atheist. 2001. The flat earth: A detailed study of personal bias and historical thinking. http://www.ethicalatheist.com/docs/flat_earth_myth.html

References:

  1. Schadewald, Robert. 1999 (Oct. 24, 16:15). "Re: Wells speech at Burlington Edison High School", USENET post to talk.origins, Message-Id <3.0.1.32.19991024161523.01174958@gold.tc.umn.edu>.

Previous Claim: CA660   |   List of Claims   |   Next Claim: CB000

created 2001-2-18