Why an Atheist Thinks the Shroud of Turin is the Real Deal

Who Thought the Earth Was Flat

While it may be true that a segment of the population believed the world was flat, it was not because of Christian thought and dogma but because of simple folklore, much of it pagan. Few who thought the world was flat ever read Topographia Christiana, the absurd, biblically-based description of the world by Cosmos, a sixth-century monk. Those educated enough to read his works, did not take him seriously. Arguably, much of the population just didn’t think about the shape of the world at all. It wasn’t important to most people who lived in small communities and never ventured more than a few miles from home. Those who did think about the shape of the earth were educated and actually understood that the world was round.

Clement (c.150-215), Origen (c.185-254), Ambrose and feet-opposite-ours Augustine all thought that the world was round. Thomas Aquinas when he wrote Summa Theologica spoke of a globe at the center of a universe encircled by transparent spheres holding the heavenly bodies. Aquinas was much into angels—his worldview—and so he thought that angels moved the heavenly bodies about the earth. Isidore of Seville (c. 560-636), once a custodian of the Sudarium and one of the most gifted, influential and best read writers of medieval Europe, expounded on the ancient view of a round world. His compendiums of classical learning were read throughout medieval Europe for many centuries. Dante Alighieri (c.1265-1321) wrote of “our hemisphere” in the Divine Comedy.  Dante's earth was a sphere at the center of the universe with a northern of mostly land and a southern hemisphere mostly water. The Venerable Bede described the earth as round “like a playground ball.” Roger Bacon, we know, also knew that the world was round. We can be confident that the world was well understood to be round in the medieval court of King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella of Spain. It was a well-known fact throughout all of Christendom.