The idea that the Earth is flat, not spherical, seems anachronistic in the age of satellites and interplanetary missions. However, the theory of a flat Earth continues to exist, attracting supporters and sparking interest among sociologists, psychologists, and philosophers of science. Its history is not just a chronicle of misconceptions but a reflection of deep mechanisms of human thinking and attitude towards knowledge. Antiquity and the Birth of the Geosphere In ancient civilizations, the concept of a flat Earth was a natural consequence of limited observational experience. Egyptians, Sumerians, and Babylonians depicted the world as a disk resting on waters or supported by mythological beings. For a person living on a plain, the horizon indeed creates an illusion of flatness, and only philosophical generalizations could give rise to the idea of a sphere. The turning point came in Ancient Greece. Pythagoras and Aristotle already claimed that the Earth is spherical, citing the shape of the shadow during lunar eclipses and the varying visibility of stars at different latitudes. Eratosthenes' experiments even allowed for the measurement of the planet's circumference with astonishing accuracy. Nevertheless, the belief in a flat Earth persisted in popular consciousness, especially during periods of cultural decline when rational knowledge gave way to religious or symbolic models of the world. The Middle Ages and the Myth of the Dark Ages The common belief that people in the Middle Ages believed in a flat Earth is largely a myth created later. Medieval universities taught the works of Aristotle and Ptolemy, where the Earth was described as spherical. Even theologians like Thomas Aquinas regarded the spherical shape of the world as a fact. However, in popular culture, the image of a flat Earth continued to live in religious parables and symbols, serving as a metaphor for the limitations of human knowledge. The Renaissance and the Triumph of Empiricism The Age of Great Ge ... Read more