Here's a political cartoon from April of 2005. This was penned by Dwane Powell of the Raleigh News & Observer. There have been a few political cartoons along these lines over the years as school boards around the country debate science curriculum, though those debates tend to be about evolution vs. creationism, not so much geography. And to be fair, the "flat earth" myth may well have been created by author Washington Irving (Legend of Sleepy Hollow). James Loewen explains in this great book "Lies my Teacher Told Me" how Irving wrote an early history of America, in which he posited that before Chris Columbus the popular belief was that the Earth was flat. Despite the fact that most sea-faring civilizations in the world had long since figured out the spherical Earth concept centuries before, this "flat earth" myth has become one of the most pervasive urban myths of all time and has found its way into coutless examples of popular culture, case in point this excellent example from Bugs Bunny.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Flat Earth
Here's a political cartoon from April of 2005. This was penned by Dwane Powell of the Raleigh News & Observer. There have been a few political cartoons along these lines over the years as school boards around the country debate science curriculum, though those debates tend to be about evolution vs. creationism, not so much geography. And to be fair, the "flat earth" myth may well have been created by author Washington Irving (Legend of Sleepy Hollow). James Loewen explains in this great book "Lies my Teacher Told Me" how Irving wrote an early history of America, in which he posited that before Chris Columbus the popular belief was that the Earth was flat. Despite the fact that most sea-faring civilizations in the world had long since figured out the spherical Earth concept centuries before, this "flat earth" myth has become one of the most pervasive urban myths of all time and has found its way into coutless examples of popular culture, case in point this excellent example from Bugs Bunny.
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Thanks for pointing that out. People seem to forget how early the circumference of the earth was calculated.
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