No,
the article that I linked to does no such thing. Again, you said: "Would Columbus have sailed to the Americas if he accepted the beliefs of so many flat-earthers?" and when challenged you made clear: "For the record, its entirely likely that the majority of the population of Columbus' time did believe in a flat-earth." James Hannam's article clearly says that in Columbus' time belief in a spherical earth was the norm, and that the notion that Columbus had to deal with flat-earth believers came from a historical novel written centuries later. The fact that you're so absolutely certain of is therefore a fiction. Hannam does not mention any individual from Columbus' time who believed in a flat earth. In fact he mentions only two individuals who believed in a flat earth: Cosmas Indicopleustes and Lactantius. Both lived a thousand years before Columbus, so you can't possibly be referring to them in defense of your statement.
At this point, it would be a lot wiser for you to simply admit that you were wrong, rather than continuing to embarrass yourself by claiming to have support from sources which actually say the opposite of what you claim.
I'll believe it when I see it.
Well I've searched for the name of the founder of the current society (Daniel Shelton) and the word "Bible" and didn't find any evidence. What did you find? Would you mind giving me a link? As for the question of his seriousness, I guess that can't be settled factually.
" James Hannam's article clearly says that in Columbus' time belief in a spherical earth was the norm"....among the educated and scholarly, and since I know your version of history is already pretty far off, I'll just tell you outright that doesn't include the majority of the population.
" I'll believe it when I see it."
The Other World The Societies and Governments of the Moon (published 2 years posthumously in 1657) quotes St. Augustine as saying "that in his day and age the earth was as flat as a stove lid and that it floated on water like half of a sliced orange.
Virgil, sometimes bishop of Saltburg (as Aventinus anno 745 relates) by Bonifacius bishop of Mentz was therefore called in question, because he held antipodes (which they made a doubt whether Christ died for) and so by that means took away the seat of hell, or so contracted it, that it could bear no proportion to heaven, and contradicted that opinion of Austin [St. Augustine], Basil, Lactantius that held the earth round as a trencher (whom Acosta and common experience more largely confute) but not as a ball.
Another early mention in literature is Ludvig Holberg's comedy Erasmus Montanus (1723). Erasmus Montanus meets considerable opposition when he claims the Earth is round, since all the peasants hold it to be flat. He is not allowed to marry his fiancée until he cries "The earth is flat as a pancake".
The widely circulated engraving of a man poking his head through the firmament surroundingthe Earth to view the Empyrean, executed in the style of the 16th century was published in Camille Flammarion's L'Atmosphère: Météorologie Populaire (published much later) The engraving illustrates the statement in the text that a medieval missionary claimed that "he reached the horizon where the Earth and the heavens met".
Now, as I said before, the evidence is largely anecdotal. However, if you had read the links I posted in refuting Rodney Starks, you would've realized that Greek writings were considered pagan by the medieval church, and thus outlawed. The average peasant had no education to speak of which was a huge drop in overall education from Roman and Greek times. Even Charlamagne had remarked that his clergy didn't know enough Latin to understand the very bible they preached. Yet, somehow you seem sure that the entire population knew Greek and astronomy (which was also lost for about 600 years).
You're right about the current version of the Flat Earth Society not being biblically based. My information was written in 2000...and that version of the group's leader died in 2001. That's so long ago that I'm sure none of their 200 members still hold that belief lol. Nevertheless, the current group still advocates a flat-earth according to wiki. That is what you wanted proof of, and you got it.
Oops, I almost forgot. From your link...
Cosmas Indicopleustes, wrote a treatise on Christian Topology that included his flat Earth cosmology. Sure, he could read and write and all that, but I'm sure his views were in no way reflective of the common man of his day.
Also, "Lactantius was another church father who did seem sure the earth was flat..."
It's interesting the contradictions that pervade your link. It mentions how the spherical earth was a Greek invention, later it mentions that commoners never read Cosmas because it was in Greek. It also claims that no one was persecuted for the idea of a spherical earth which was odd because " Bible itself implies the Earth is flat" (I do remember someone on this thread swearing this wasn't true....). Of course, there could be many reasons no record of such persecution existing. With the record the medieval church had of destroying anyone who had an idea that challenged orthodoxy ideas, I don't think I would make a big deal about the shape of the Earth either.
I'm almost certain that in spite of the references I gave you, you'll clutch onto the idea that everyone back then believed the Earth round. To be honest, it doesn't matter. It wasn't even important to the point I was trying to make. If anyone at all believed the Earth was flat, my point was still valid. If Columbus had accepted that person's beliefs based on their authority, progress would've been slowed. The same can be said of really anyone who advanced knowledge in any field throughout mankind.
