Quote Originally Posted by Pero
Just that Mayans (I think) knew about the existence of several planets which Europeans discovered centuries later than them with the use of telescopes. Mayans didn't have them. So either they had some kind of super vision and saw those planets or someone told them about them. I don't see how it's not giving enough credit to ancient civilisations when some things would be pretty much impossible to do with their technology or even with ours.
Eeehhhh, not exactly correct.

If your definition of Europe includes Greece, then your entire point here is lost.

Basically, the names you call planets...yeah, Greek. The height of Greece pre-dates the Bible by about a thousand years, give or take a couple decades.

Europeans didnt "discover" much about the solar system but they certainly re-discovered much. I think what youre mistaking is the order of our Solar System...which had more to do with religious oppression than unknown science (at least from a global perspective, not so much a Euro-centric one).

Europe had a very hard time coming to terms with a helio-centric solar system, but this again had more to do with the Church than unknown science. In scientific circles outside the church, which was rare-ish seeing as most scholars of the day were in fact priests, a helio-centric solar system was generally accepted but never talked about.

Its the common problem of the time before the advent of the scientific method. The "world" already knew how the universe was created, it wasnt a mystery. God did it just as the Bible says it was done...the trick was proving it to be true using measurable evidence, even when that evidence lead you away from Creation as it is written in the Bible.

As I am sure Mouse's troll will be quick to tell you, exactly how did the Church reward the greatest astronmer of his time? The man to forever prove beyond reasonable doubt that the Sun was the center of the universe (solar system for us), not the Earth? Lifelong imprisonment until death (house arrest at the end, but all the same).

The point of this post is this...

Do not give credit to Europe for anything after the fall of Rome and previous to the Renaissance. Sure, they were whipping out discoveries left and right and the names associated with those discoveries are revered to this day. But it was all very old news to the world that was lost to time, war and religion.