[extropy-chat] NASA and the Big Bang "theory"

[Technotranscendence]

Well, actually, the Ancient Greeks knew the world was round and already had good estimates of its size.  (IIRC, Erasthones made an estimate about 200 BCE of 25K miles.)  The reasoning was based on information known at that time, including things like the shape of the Earth's shadow on the Moon during eclipses (obviously, when the Earth eclipses the Sun from the Moon's point of view:), that the masts of ship appeared first on the horizon, that the horizon looked round from high altitudes, and that difference in angle of the Sun at various places during noon on the same day (that how Erasthonese made his famous calculation).

Of course, we sophisticated moderns know that current flat earth theory explains how the Ancients got it so wrong with their silly notion of a spherical Earth.  Just kidding!":)

Regards,

Dan
http://uweb1.superlink.net/~neptune/
  From: Anne-Marie Taylor 
  To: ExI chat list 
  Sent: Saturday, February 04, 2006 9:23 PM
  Subject: Re: [extropy-chat] NASA and the Big Bang "theory"

  Damien Broderick <thespike at satx.rr.com> wrote: 
    religious issue: the Bible implies that the world is flat, with four corners.
  Just curious but couldn't that have meant that 2000 years ago somebody came
  up with a scientic hypothesis that the world is flat with four corner?.  I think
  that would seem like a very good probability based on the information they
  had at that time. 
  Anna
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