![]() ![]() Nonetheless, the concept of a spherical earth prevailed, and eventually it was widely accepted. So where could any antipodeans have come from? Perplexed, some theologians preferred to believe that there could be no antipodeans, or even, as Lactantius argued, that the earth could not be a sphere in the first place! Certain theories held that if there were antipodeans, they could have no possible connection with known humans either because the sea was too wide to navigate or because an impassable torrid zone surrounded the equator. The concept of antipodes posed a dilemma for a few theologians. that the crops and trees grow downwards? that the rains, and snow, and hail fall upwards?” 2 He reasoned: “Is there any one so senseless as to believe that there are men whose footsteps are higher than their heads?. Lactantius, Christian apologist of the fourth century C.E., ridiculed the very idea. Some could not accept the logical implication of a round earth-the concept of antipodes. However, the notion of a flat earth (with only its upper side inhabited) did not disappear completely. ![]() The earth’s shadow on the moon is curved. Aristotle (fourth century B.C.E.) later agreed, explaining that the sphericity of the earth is proved by lunar eclipses. ![]() A primitive tribe in Asia pictured the earth as a huge tea tray.Īs early as the sixth century B.C.E., Greek philosopher Pythagoras theorized that since the moon and the sun are spherical, the earth must also be a sphere. Vedic priests of India imagined that the earth was flat and that only one side of it was inhabited. The Babylonians, for example, believed that the universe was a box or a chamber with the earth as its floor. The general view in ancient times was that the earth was flat. That question has intrigued humans for thousands of years. In a brochure entitled: “A Book for All People” published in 1997 the Watchtower society comments on this verse: He is stretching out the heavens like a fine gauze, And he spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. There is One who dwells above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers. ![]()
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