> I, for example, if I lived a couple of hundred years back, would have probably believed the world is flat, since, well, it's the easiest oppinion to have by just looking around.
It's really not, which is why people have generally known that the Earth is round for thousands of years, and even had calculated it's approximate size before Christianity.
I know that there is pro-Columbus mythology that everyone thought he was insane because of a popular belief that the Earth was flat rather than the truth that everyone thought he was crazy because they knew how far away the East Indies actually were in the direction he was proposing to sail, but...
Anyone with even the slightest maritime background will immediately know the earth is round -- you can't see all the way across the atlantic (though this could be written off as being due to fog, etc), and more importantly, ships in the distance sink into the horizon until they are no longer visible.
Sure, but let's think about it. The average person didn't receive much schooling, and if they did it would have probably been on more practical matters.
It's quite possible that the average person could very likely never have even been exposed to the question of whether the earth is flat or not.
It's really not, which is why people have generally known that the Earth is round for thousands of years, and even had calculated it's approximate size before Christianity.
I know that there is pro-Columbus mythology that everyone thought he was insane because of a popular belief that the Earth was flat rather than the truth that everyone thought he was crazy because they knew how far away the East Indies actually were in the direction he was proposing to sail, but...