“The knowledge of astronomy was well developed among the ancients upon the American continent … .
“We know, then, that the prevalent notion in the world today that the ancients from the dawn of history to the days of Galileo believed that the earth is flat and the center of the universe, around which the sun and stars revolve, is a most stupendous error. The ignorance made manifest in the days of Galileo and Columbus, and for centuries preceding their time, was the result of apostasy from and rebellion against the truth which in the beginning was plainly revealed from the heavens” (Smith, Progress of Man, 184–85) .