The leader of the Christian Apostolic Church, a community of about 6,000 members in Zion, Illinois, who believed that the earth is flat. Voliva was more than a \u201cmember\u201d; he was, in fact, the community\u2019s ruler, its General Overseer, for more than 30 years. He established strict rules for the community\u2019s behavior and articulated its beliefs, including that of a flat Earth with the North Pole at the center of the disc and the South Pole around its edges. An around-the- world traveler followed a circular path back to the start: Earth was the center of the universe; the sun was a comparatively small object, 51 kilometers (32 miles) in diameter and a mere 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles) away; and the stars were distant small objects. Since Voliva\u2019s death, Zion\u2019s social regulations have become considerably more relaxed, but there are still many flat Earthers in the population, especially among the elderly.<\/p>\n
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The leader of the Christian Apostolic Church, a community of about 6,000 members in Zion, Illinois, who believed that the earth is flat. Voliva was more than a \u201cmember\u201d; he was, in fact, the community\u2019s ruler, its General Overseer, for more than 30 years. He established strict rules for the community\u2019s behavior and articulated its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-w"],"yoast_head":"\n