Both fit my argument well. Heliocentrism and the flat earth are the ancient beliefs that the church attempted to preserve and failed.
Dude, the "Columbus argued the Earth is round to a flat-insisting Church" thing is based on a fictional account from Washington Irving, which I regard as more-or-less anti-religious propaganda. (And a perfect example of the importance of artistic responsibility, but that's a discussion for another thread). It's even got its own name: the Flat Earth Myth.
Nobody thought the Earth was flat 500 years ago, except maybe farmers, who often never left their villages their whole lives, so it didn't matter to them. What Columbus was arguing about was not the shape of the Earth with the Church, but trade-route viability with the Spanish Crown. He was arguing that the Ocean was smaller than it is, and that Eurasia was bigger than it is. (And many other details that are incorrect). Such that a trans-Atlantic trip from Spain to India would take roughly 7 weeks. That would give Spain a major trade advantage over their enemies (France and Britain). The only alternatives were to go around Africa, which took forever; or over land, which was incredibly difficult and dangerous,
and went right through the heart of the Muslim world, which Iberia (...Iberia = modern-day Spain+Portugal) had
just broken off from.
Yes, many ancient and not-so-ancient cultures believed in a Flat Earth, including the early Hebrews. Edda songs(that is, Norse Mythology) also describes a flat Earth, and those lays were written about 1000 years ago, give or take a century for an individual lay. But Aristotle proved that the Earth was round 2600 years ago, and the Catholic Church held the guy in
extremely high regard, if his position in Dante's Inferno is any indication. He was regarded as the height of human intellectual capability. They knew well his calculations, and those of Eratosthenes.
By the way, minor correction: the Inquisition was insisting on a
Geo-centric universe, not heliocentric. But more evidence that the Church was more than aware and open to the round Earth, and that a round Earth is, in fact, necessary to the closely held Ptolemic model, is once again found in Dante's work. He goes through Hell, which is described as a massive crater at the top of the world, and then going through Hell, pops out the "other side of the planet" to find the mountain of Purgatory. So unless they believed the Earth to be banana shaped, they've known the Earth is round this whole time. Dante lived about 500 years before Columbus: about as far in time from the overrated but incredibly skilled explorer as we are.
