Subject: Kansas action
Date: Aug 12 10:25:08 1999
From: Don Baccus - dhogaza at pacifier.com


At 05:15 PM 8/11/99 -0700, Mary Manson wrote:

....

>Mr. Cleland, people who refused to believe that the earth is a globe
>existed long after ole Columbus proved them wrong,

On a historical note, the basis for this story is really another
example of myth and ignorance of history (not your fault, it's a myth
that's widespread throughout the US).

The fact is that Columbus didn't prove the earth was round. He proved
that his faith that the earth was round and SMALL was wrong. He sailed
west not to prove the world was round (which was well-known among the
academics of the day, not to mention serious navigators and explorers),
but to prove that the earth was so small that sailing 'round the earth
west-to-east would land you in India in much less time than sailing
south 'round the Cape of Good Hope, then northeast to India. He thought
there's be a direct west-to-east path with no need to make the several
thousand mile detour that sailing 'round Africa entails. Look at a map
and you'll see why the chance of avoiding that detour was attractive.

As it turned out there were two entire continents (N and S America) in
the way, and that body of water lying northeast of the Cape of Good
Hope was very, very wide (the Pacific), much wider than the Atlantic.

Columbus mostly proved he was lucky. If North and South America didn't
exist, he would've sailed west and starved to death, as voyagers of the
day simply couldn't traverse such huge distances living solely off of
ship's stores. His sailors had every reason to grumble that Columbus
didn't know where the hell he was - because he didn't.

I think it was Archimedes who calculated the circumference of the
earth within a few percent more than a millenia before Columbus
convinced himself that it was far smaller, no?

> and personally,
>my opinion is that fundamentalists still belong to the Flat Earth Society.

If they were honest in their belief that the Bible truthfully describes
the Universe, they would be...

....

>If your parents raisel you with their version of the "truth", and your
>church
>continues their version of the "truth", and your SCHOOL BOARD makes it
>unanimous with their version of the "truth", how many "good" children are
>going to believe otherwise ??? Adults get brainwashed - how can children
>hold out ?

This I agree with.



- Don Baccus, Portland OR <dhogaza at pacifier.com>
Nature photos, on-line guides, Pacific Northwest
Rare Bird Alert Service and other goodies at
http://donb.photo.net.