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In the early Christian Church these germs began struggling into life in the minds of a few thinking men, and these men renewed the suggestion that the earth is a globe. ...Among the first who took up arms against it was Eusebius. In view of the New Testament texts indicating the immediately approaching end of the world, he endeavoured to turn off this idea by bringing scientific studies into contempt. Speaking of investigators, he said, "It is not through ignorance of the things admired by them, but through contempt of their useless labour, that we think little of these matters, turning our souls to better things."
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see Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica (Preparation for the Gospel) xv, 6l
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Andrew Dickson White, A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1896) Ch.2, p.91-92

 

Eusebius of Caesarea

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