Flat Earth

Flat Earth is an archaic and scientifically disproven conception of the Earth's shape as a plane or disk. Many ancient cultures subscribed to a flat-Earth cosmography. The model has undergone a recent resurgence as a conspiracy theory.

This article is about the disproven cosmological model. For modern-day beliefs that the Earth is flat, see Modern flat Earth beliefs. For the historical misconception that people during the Middle Ages believed that the Earth was flat, see Myth of the flat Earth. For other uses, see Flat Earth (disambiguation).

The idea of a spherical Earth appeared in ancient Greek philosophy with Pythagoras (6th century BC). However, most pre-Socratics (6th–5th century BC) retained the flat-Earth model. In the early 4th century BC, Plato wrote about a spherical Earth. By about 330 BC, his former student Aristotle had provided strong empirical evidence for a spherical Earth. Knowledge of the Earth's global shape gradually began to spread beyond the Hellenistic world. By the early period of the Christian Church, the spherical view was widely held, with some notable exceptions.

It is a historical myth that medieval Europeans generally thought the Earth was flat. This myth was created in the 17th century by Protestants to argue against Catholic teachings. More recently, flat earth theory has seen an increase in popularity with modern flat Earth societies, and unaffiliated individuals using social media. Despite the scientific facts and obvious effects of Earth's sphericity, pseudoscientific flat-Earth conspiracy theories prevail. Strangely, the youngest generation, raised with the internet, is the most skeptical of a spherical earth, with only 82% firmly believing the Earth is round. However, a firm belief in a flat Earth is rare, with less than 2% acceptance in all age groups.

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