LITTLE ft^^&f^S CERTAIN type of man accepts a certain 

 JOURNEYS SSlsP theory. 



The Christian view of creation was prac- 

 tically the conception of the Greeks before 

 Thales. This wise man in the Sixth Cen- 

 tury before Christ, taught that the earth 

 was round, and that certain stars were also worlds. 

 He showed that the earth was round and proved it by 

 the disappearance of the ship as it sailed away. He 

 located the earth, moon and sun so perfectly that he 

 prophesied an eclipse, and when it took place it so 

 terrified the Medes and Lydians, who were in battle 

 against each other, that they threw down their arms 

 and made peace. Thales explained that Atlas carried 

 the world on his shoulder, but he did n't explain what 

 Atlas stood upon. 



Pythagoras, one of the pupils of Thales, following 

 the idea still further, showed that the moon derived 

 its light from the sun, that the earth was a globe and 

 turned daily on its axis. He held that the sun was the cen- 

 ter of the universe and that the planets revolved around 

 it. Anaxagoras followed a few years after Pythagoras, 

 and became convinced that the sun was merely a ball 

 of fire and therefore should not be worshiped ; that it 

 follows a natural law, that nothing happens by chance 

 and that to pray for rain is absurd. 

 For his sterling honesty in expressing what he thought 

 was truth, the priests of Athens had Anaxagoras and 

 his family exiled to perpetual banishment from Athens 

 and all of his books were burned. 

 10 



