Q: I give out 10 points hmm....I thought since that one pope said Portugal can sail to the east Spain to the west and so Mr Itailan Columbus went West under Spain to try to get to India because he thought the earth was round but he found a big continent in the way.........
A: ~Actually, if you do a little reading, you will find that most all educated people in western civilization from the third century bce forward, including the Church, accepted the fact of a spherical earth. During the Classical Period, there was disagreement amongst scholars as to whether the earth was flat or round but advances in science and math and in observation techniques pretty much resolved the issue in favor of the sphere. Thereafter, very few held to a belief in a flat earth. The myth that people in the Middle Ages believed the earth to be flat has been debunked for more than a century, and in fact the myth was most likely created in the 18th century. Sadly, our uniformed teachers still preach the myth. Most probably don't know any better. By the way, Galileo wasn't tried for teaching a heliocentric theory of the solar system, either. He was expressly granted permission by the Vatican to speak of to topic hypothetically as long as he did not denounce Church doctrine. He was tried and convicted for disobeying the Church injunction and for mocking the Pope and the church in his writings, and for claiming his ideas to be 'right'. As it turns out, Galileo was wrong in many of his postulations.
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