Re: CHAT: Religions (was: Visible planets)
| From: | Ray Brown <ray.brown@...> |
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| Date: | Friday, November 14, 2003, 6:15 |
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On Thursday, November 13, 2003, at 12:01 PM, John Cowan wrote:
> Ray Brown scripsit:
>
>> Are you serious about the 1st? I know 'Merkan Fundamentalist are
>> very 'fundamental' by UK standards - but you mean that some still
>> hold to the geocentric theory, like the good ol' "Flat Earth
>> Society"?
>
> It's hard to be sure, because there's a lot of parody out there.
> Serious flat-earthism is vanishingly rare (the two members of the
> (U.S.)
Yes, sorry, I was being a bit facetious mentioning the flat-earthers.
I know that 99.9% of geocentric believers in the past 2 to 3 millennia
have, at least, believed in a spherical earth.
(Strange how the urban myth of Columbus's contemporaries believing the
earth was flat still lingers on. It apparently was dreamt up some time
in the 19th cent. as a bit of anti-Catholic propaganda. Urban myths
die hard, it seems)
> International Flat Earth Society died in a fire some years ago,
> I believe); Ptolemaic or Tychonic geocentricism is a lot more common.
> I don't know that any particular sects or churches adhere to it,
> but certainly many individuals believe it,
That does surprise me. I've, of course, come upon 'creationists' (tho
they seem to be thinner on the ground here than on your side of the Pond),
but in my 60+ years I've never actually encountered AFAIK a 'geocentricist'
.
I truly thought that belief had died out.
> and I think it safe to say
> that no one who is not a particularly literal-minded sort of inerrantist
> would attach any value to either idea.
I should hope not, indeed!
> In the _Illuminatus_ trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Michael Shea,
> which is entirely parodies (and parodies of parodies, I suspect),
> we are given the idea that the earth is carrot-shaped, and we all
> live on the flat bottom of the carrot....
Nah, it's pumpkin shaped :-)
Ray
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