Understanding the (Really Ridiculous) Core Tenets of the Flat Earth Hypothesis
December 2, 2017
by Stephen Johnson
In 1492, Columbus set sail for the New World based on the assumption that Earth was round. Why not? After all, according to historian Jeffrey Burton Russell, “no educated person in the history of Western Civilization from the third century B.C. onward believed that the Earth was flat.â€
But nearly 500 years later, an American man was planning a voyage based on the exact opposite assumption. Mike Hughes, a 61-year-old limo driver, was going to launch himself into space to prove that Earth is flat. Mechanical complications and the federal government shot that idea down, however. (For now at least.)
http://bigthink.com/stephen-johnson/understanding-the-really-ridiculous-core-tenets-of-the-flat-earth-hypothesis