A belief is just that, A fact is used to believe . Again, facts show science wins this one and if someone wishes to act like a star or radical they can by pretending to go against the grain. I do not give credence to things that are not real. The Satan Church headquartered in England, is considered to believe in Satan but that is just not the case. They are theist who used the name satan, which all realize is imaginary, to just stir the christians.
What I find interesting is why the ancient philosophers didn't posit a cylindrical Earth when they saw the round shadow on the moon.
Funny, but the reason is probably because the moon, sun, and planets are all round spheres...not cylinders. Ever see a cylinder occur naturally in the sky?
@Heraclitus The ancients came up with all sorts of excuses. Look at the last ditch attempts to prop up the Ptolemaic system. Look up Tycho Brahe's version of the solar system: he had a stationary Earth with all the other planets orbiting the sun.
I should think that they could justify a cylindrical Earth by assuming that only the round part faced the sun.
But your point is well taken. Thank you for correcting me.
The idea that most people used to believe the earth was flat is also a myth. This myth was perpetuated by a book written in the 19th century. Not only has the roundness of the earth been known at least since the Ancient Greeks (Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, Aristotle), but every sailor knew it. The top sail of a ship is always seen first, the stars are different in the Southern Hemisphere than they are in the Northern Hemisphere, and the existence of time zones. Also, the earth's shadow on a lunar eclipse, and the fact that you can actually see the earth's curvature on a high mountain. The ancients were not so dumb as we like to think.
There is no way to debunk flat earth as it does not exist. Can we debunk the easter bunny? No, it is fantasy from the beginning.
But there are people "adults" who actually believe in a flat Earth. There is no belief among "adults" for the Easter bunny or Santa Claus.