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Subject: NVGeo - You need to recheck your facts.

NVgeo,I respect what you trying to say here,but some of the things you quote here need more careful scrutiny. First of all, let me begin with this. I always believe that true belief is always fact based, though the interpretation of those facts may lead to different sincere understanding. True belief always aid & contribute to civilisation. OK that said,let me begin.

First of all, there never was an issue of flat earth. From the time of Ptolemy & his writings which form the basis of medieval astronomy, the earth was always thought to be spherical. Although from the 3rd to 7th centuries, there are occasional arguments in favour of a flat Earth from a few christian authors, usually on theological grounds. That doesn’t make it the prevailing thought. In fact, Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), the most important medieval theologian, believed in a spherical Earth; he even took for granted his readers also knew the Earth is round. Lectures in medieval universities commonly favor a spherical Earth. There were others. The church's beef with Galileo is really on his disobedient to church authority rather than over the theology of a flat earth. It is claimed that Columbus had difficulty obtaining support for his plan because Europeans believed that the earth is flat. In fact, few people at the time of Columbus´s voyage (virtually no sailors or navigators) believed this. Most agreed the earth is a sphere. In fact Columbus´s arguments hinged on the circumference of that sphere.
Now how did the wrong story come about? This common misconception that people, especially the Christian Church, before the age of exploration believed that Earth was flat entered popular imagination after Washington Irving's publication of The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus a self-confess mixture of facts & fiction in 1828. This belief persists in popular imagination, & is even repeated in some widely read textbooks. The assertion that "The superstitious sailors ... grew increasingly mutinous...because they were fearful of sailing over the edge of the world"; is not found in historical account. This idea is further advance & promoted through the poorly researched writings of 2 anti-Christian bigots, John Draper & Andrew White in the later part of 19th century who tries to amplify the conflict between science & Christianity in history to promote their humanistic cause. These untruth are widely repeated & taken as truth in the education system to the point that many, including Christian have taken into the lie as well.
As for Roman virtues of clean water, sewers, & hot bath. Those are done away by destruction during the babarian invasion of western Europe along with other Roman vestige. It's mostly confine to Western Europe. The Byzantine Empire which is less affected by it, kept more of them until they are sack by the crusader of the 4th crusade in 1204AD. The misguided church leaders discouraged these practices precisely due to the lost of those knowledge, which only began to be restore with the advent of Renaissance.

As for scientists being jailed (or worse) for opposing the teaching of a solar-centred system during the Middle Age. We have established that as being a myth, a simple check with Wikipedia on the internet on the topic of “Flat Earth” can furnish much info on that. If it is as you purport, Chris Columbus instead of receiving funding from Spain, easily the most Catholic of all nations, he’ll be hauled before the inquisition. The Spanish Inquisition was first set up by then in 1478 with the approval of Pope. Don't you think the Ferdinard II & Isabella be most keen to please the Pope by jailing this heretic? He went west not so much as to try & prove the earth is round but to try & find a shorter route to India, with the original being block by the Portuguese. I’m not sure whom you are refering to that had been jailed on grounds of science, perhaps you do know of some, I'll be more than glad if you could enlighten me on that.

I agree that you can't find any reference in the bible that make a stand on that. I believe beliefs of the Church should be based on the scripture. In turn I believe the scripture is always facts based. Anytime we find any incongruence is only because we have not reached a proper insights due to limitation in our understanding.

Being a faithful believer, I believe in living out my faith to the fullest extent without having to impose it on other. Having that belief cannot be construe as trying to promote our own earthly agenda, which many a liberal seems to presume.