this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2026
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[–] rollin@piefed.social 7 points 13 hours ago

I don't think you'll ever find a scientific consensus which "about all" are in agreement with, and especially so when you look deep into history.

Take for example the idea of the earth being a floating ball rather than a flat plane. You'll often find people saying that the ancient Greeks knew the world was round often with an implication that everyone used to accept this, it's only in recent times that the flat earth idea has become popular.

But the reality is that even after Herodotus had done his experiment showing shadows were cast at different angles in different places at the same moment, there was still a large contingent in the scientific community that held on to the idea of a flat earth.

There was never really even a singular scientific community before the modern age. Just think how slow and difficult it used to be to share ideas and knowledge around the world.

Then of course there were all the varied religions of the world, where followers will not tolerate interpretations of the world that conflict with their particular set of myths.

The vast majority of normal people - living in small villages and so on - would never have heard of such experiments and if asked, would almost certainly say the world was flat and how stupid you are for even asking.