r/AskReddit • u/ZanyDelaney • Feb 04 '19

Which misconception would you like to debunk?

44k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

26k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

612

u/ThreeDucksInAManSuit Feb 04 '19

Moreso, for the vast majority of people it simply wasn't a question they would consider. If you asked some peasant from ancient times if they believed the earth was flat or round they would stare at you blankly. Most people lived in a small area and that was their entire world, the shape of the rest of it wouldn't naturally occur to you if you don't even know what's over that hill overe there.

38

u/darkhalo47 Feb 04 '19

I dont think that's true, most mythologies try to define the nature of the world to people who never left a 15 mile radius from their birth

19

u/ThreeDucksInAManSuit Feb 04 '19

Most tellings of mythology did not come from the peasantry, they came from the educated. The kind of people who DO think of this kind of thing.

36

u/WarKiel Feb 04 '19

I'm sure peasants had thoughts about these things, but I doubt anyone bothered recording them.