Did the Church believe the Earth was flat?

[theCardinalbird]

Did they? If not, why did people think that. If so, where did they get that idea?

 

[RandomAlias]

From the surface, it looks flat. The origin of the belief is as simple as that.

So far I am unable to find a Bible passage or Church teaching regarding flat earth.

 

[1ke]

Did they? If not, why did people think that. If so, where did they get that idea?

Almost all ancient peoples had this concept, see depicting of the “firmament” as a dome. See depictions of the earth held up by pillars.

But, when astronomy and scientific observation of the earth began, with the Greeks, the educated people knew the earth was a globe, and even estimated its circumference— the mathematician Eratosthenes did so.

In the early Church the jury was out on different theories. But by the Middle Ages, the Vatican observatory, the science academy, and all educated peoples knew the earth was not flat.

The Church didn’t have a “teaching” on this as it is not a matter of faith or morals. But certainly they knew. Columbus knew.

Why the idea the Church was a “flat earth” proponent? This is a perpetuated myth begun in the 19th century in service of making the Church look ignorant and to create tension between science and religion.

In part it is also true that many of the uneducated and simple folk down through the ages believed and continued to believe all manner of folk tales and superstitions about the earth, the sea, witches, curses, evil, calamity, sickness, and death.

 

[JohnR77]

Almost everyone in the Middle Ages believed that the Earth was spherical in shape.

This “Flat Earth” theory was simultaneously established by Washington Irving and a Frenchman, Antoine-Jean Letronne (1787-1848), who had strong antireligious prejudices.

In 1828 Washington Irving published his book, The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus.

However, before the 1828 no one believed in this myth that the Europeans believed the earth was flat.

This theory was enabled to grow in part by the ideas advanced by Auguste Compte (1798-1857). He developed the idea of positivism and the concept of progress, step by step, from superstition to science.

In 1896 Andrew Dickson White, the founder of Cornell University, wrote his “History of the warfare of science with theology in Christendom.” He further advanced this Flat Earth theory. He depicted religion as something that needed to be swept away to make room for “real” science.

Read more at

http://www.defendingthebride.com/code/flat.html

 

[BlackFriar]

The Church didn’t have a “teaching” on this as it is not a matter of faith or morals.

It can get a bit more complicated when a theological doctrine is seen to be firmly dependent/attached to a scientific or biological truth. Think “Virgin in partu” doctrine (a hotly debated thread at present) or think geocentrism/Galileo and Biblical inerrancy.

We have finally managed to accept the inerrancy of the Bible was not in fact jeopardised by the denial of geocentrism (Pope JPIIs admittance in 1992 was a long time coming though).
Many fundamentalist Catholics are are still unable to accept that Jesus’s birth need not have been a miracle (ie where her cervix was not dilated nor her hymen torn).

 

[Mboo]

Oh! as the scientists (photo in support) tell you that the earth is spherical, do you think it’s an absolute truth? in the future we can discover that there are other dimensions and find that the earth is flat or even square in these dimensions …

 

[BlackFriar]

Indeed, but in 3 dimensions its spherical.
The Church (and science up to that time) also used a three dimension framework - and still considered it flat.