Justin Schwartz wrote:
> >
> >The earth was not flat when scientists thought it was, it was round. The
> >consensus caught up with the truth of the matter, it did not create it.
>
> Of course I agree with this.
No scientist ever thought the earth was flat, since all literate men and women all over the world have known it was round for about 2500 years. Why should we even bother to argue against the opinions on science of someone who is this ignorant of history.
Probably this writer thinks that Colombus was special in seeing the world was round. But everyone knew that. Colombus based his voyage on a *false* notion: he denied the established view of the earth's diameter (which had been known by scientific consensus to within 50 miles for a couple millenia), and claimed that the earth was much smaller than the "established" view. Hence his confidence that he could sail all the way to China. Of course that established view was correct, and Colombus and his men would have died of thirst somewhere near St. Louis except for the great luck of the western hemisphere being there.
I can't think of a single case in which the "scientific consensus" was broken *except* by someone who shared that scientific consensus.
Carrol