The New York herald., 1921-10-19
zion PUPILS LEARN
OUR WORLD IS FLAT
VOliva's Belief on Saucer
With Rim of Ice Fed
to Children.
TEACHERS SUPPORT 1T
Sun Smaller Than Earth
and Near at Hand, Is
Holding.
GLOBE IDEA DISLIKED
Plane Theory More Valuable
to Students-Test Proposed
for 'Donbters.'


Zion, ILL.,, Oct. 1S-Zion schools. OF
which Wilbur Glenn voliva, overseer
of the colony. is president, nave
adopted his new theories of fat
world and the absence of gravitation
The 1000 grade and high school pupils
believe them implicitly, according to
their teachers.
The public school maintained by the
State Board of Education and attended
by the children of non-members of
Voliva's Christian Catholic Apostolic
Church still teaches, however, that the
world is globe moving through linn
itless space and that it was the at
traction of gravity which caused the
apple to fall on Isaac NeYton's head.
At the Zion schools the new course
Of study insists that:
The earth is a nat circular world,
with a north pole in the exact centre.
no south pole. and surrounded by
wall of ice which keeps venturesome
mariners from falling off the rim.
That the earth has no motion, but
remains stationary in space.
That the sun is not millions Of
miles in diameter and 91.000,000
miles away, but is really a little orb
32 miles across and only 5000 miles
from the earth.
That the law of gravitation is a
fallacy and when objects are thrown
into the air they continue to rise
until the force which propelled them
is expended, and then fall back to
Iau vie fha.,
air
A standard map of the world, or
Christopher's projection, is used in the
schools to demonstrate the fiat world
theory. This map, which Is by naN-
gators and scientists in making time
and longitude calculations, differs from
the usual Mercator's projection familia,
in other schools, in that it shows the
earth as it would look to an observer
directly above the North Pole, with the
continents and seas projected on a fiat
plane.
AS a result the north pole is in the
centre, and instead of q south pole the
Antarctic regions are indicated by q
white ring about the outer circumference
of the circle. This ring, according to
Voliva, Is the ice barrier which keeps
mariners from falling off the edge OF
his fiat world.
The Christopher projection was made
thirty years ago. prior to the discovery
of the south pole and before much wa:
known about the Antarctic regions 81
only bare outline Of portions of thu
southern ice land is shown.
Miss Mary Thompson, principal of th'
Zion school system, and an ardent be
lever in the Voliva theories, has pro
pounded question which she believes
will trip scientists and navigators
Showing on her fiat map that tho tropi
of Cancer, AZ degrees from the nortl
pole was a much smaller circle thai
the tropic of Capricorn. AZ degrees
farther away, Miss Thompson says:
"Navigators on globular eartl
would find If they were to sail com
petely around either of these troplc
that they would be identicaily the sam
length. On flat earth, however, tn
tropic of Capricorn would be mucl
larger than the tropic of Cancer. ant
would take much longer to sail around
because on a flat earth Cancer woult
be nearer the centre, or north pole
Why don't some of the globular eartl
believers try sailing around the tw'
tropics and find out whether they or W
arc correct? The globular people Ger
tainly can't prove curvature Of tn
earth"
demonstrates to her classes that tn
sun is only a tiny orb a few thousan'
miles away, instead OF an orb million
of miles in diameter ana 81. 100000 mile
from the earth.
IL the sun were so large. she says, ]
would light up all the world, fnstea'
of combining it's hottest rays to 800
mile wide belt between the two tropics
Voliva, himself, In a recent sermon a
Shiloh Tabelnacle. said God certainl
would not have made a sun to ligh
the world and then placed it so IA
away.
"a man would be fool" the oversee
added. ito build a house In Zion an
place his parlor light in Kenosha, Wis.
Miss Thompson, principal of tn
schools. says the children prefer thei
new flat world to the old fashionc
round one in which Columbus believed
1.-The students DIN Zion schools" sh
SAYS. grasp the theory of the flat cart
readily because their minds are not ful
of globular earth teaching such as olde
folks have had drilled into them. There
fore they accept the flat earth teach.n.
without questioning, not because the.
have to, but because 1t appeals to thcr
as rational. ] don't believe there is on
student in the grades who has qucstione
it. The flat earth seems more reason
able to them. The globuar seems un
real"
Wilbur Glenn Voliva, who succeede,
John Alexander Dowie as overscer o
Zion on the latter's death in March. 1907
was born near Newton. Ind. March ~
1870. In 1897 he received his y.
from Hiram College, Ohio, and in th
same year a degree from Union Chris
tian College at Merom, Ind. In 1889 n
had been ordained n minister in th'
Christian Church at the age OF 10, anc
held a pastorate at Linden. Ind, from
1889 TO 1892: Urbana, ILL.,. 1S9c-e3: stud
led theology at Stanfordville. n. Y.
Iss3-94 and supplied the pulpit OF Chest
nut Street Christian Church at Albany
n. Y; filled a pulpit at York Harbor
Me-. the following year. and was pastor
of the Christian Church at Washington
Court House, Ohio. in 1SeT-99.
In 1899 voliva Joined Dowie's church
and was ordained an elder and placed
In charge Of tho Zion Tabernacle in Chi.
cago.