Another interesting read from the same Forbes columnist....
http://members.forbes.com/forbes/2007/1008/027.html
Also, I may have stated it in an unclear fashion but both following posters are correct. My point was less about whether Columbus INVENTED the idea of a round earth but rather that the idea was roundly and almost universally discredited by the masses until after he sailed. Also, the first link asks almost exactly the same question regarding the Big Bang. To whit, not whether or not it occurred but why it occured and what proceeded it given that all scientific theory seems to suggest that something must have.