XKCD<\/a> tackles the widely-held but mistaken idea that people in Columbus\u2019 time typically thought the world was flat, while Columbus was a lone voice insisting that it was round.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/files\/2013\/08\/columbus.png\")
<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, this idea had a long opportunity to circulate widely, before the advent of Snopes.<\/p>\n
But while it is bad to make stuff up and then claim it is history, or science, making stuff up is not itself bad. Indeed, sometimes it is wonderful, and the Tolkien allusion in the comic suggests that its creator would agree.<\/p>\n
Myths and fantasies are only problematic when we don\u2019t realize what they are, even though we could and should.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Just because some made up stuff has been around a long time, doesn\u2019t automatically make it better than stuff that was made up more recently. And thus XKCD tackles the widely-held but mistaken idea that people in Columbus\u2019 time typically thought the world was flat, while Columbus was a lone voice insisting that it was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":17007,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,40,42],"tags":[2032,3359,3473,3983,5479,7845,11292,11293,11481,13867],"class_list":["post-17006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fantasy","category-history","category-humor","tag-columbus","tag-fantasy","tag-flat","tag-globe","tag-j-r-r-tolkien","tag-myth","tag-silmaril","tag-silmarillion","tag-snopes","tag-world"],"yoast_head":"\n
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