The Flat Earth Phenomenon

We have seen a renewed interest in the Flat Earth concept over the last few decades. Before the 6th century BC some cultures believed that the earth was flat, but since then many scientific discoveries have provided evidence that the earth is a sphere. Most people believed that the earth is indeed a sphere right through the Middle Ages until a British inventor and writer re-introduced the Flat Earth concept in the 19th century. We examine 1) the history of geodesy, 2) how flat earthers explain and defend their belief, 3) what the Bible teaches about the shape of the earth, 4) what scientific observations tell us, and 5) the challenges faced by those who believe in a flat earth. How do we explain this recent renewed interest in the Flat Earth concept?

My first message on The Flat Earth Phenomenon will be given on Friday, August 23, 2024 at the Apologetics Forum meeting held at Atonement Free Lutheran Church in Arlington, WA at 7:00 PM. You can find the Powerpoint slides used here. A 1:28 hour recording done on August 22, 2024 can be found here. Comments are welcome at heinz@osta.com.

Flat Earth Concept

Spherical Earth History

  • History of Geodesy – earth shape
  • See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geodesy
  • Homer (8th century BC), advocated a flat earth.
  • Pythagoras of Samos, Greek philosopher and mathematician, 570 – 495 BC, Pythagorean Theorem, Spherical earth postulated by Pythagoras
  • Plato (427 – 347 BC) taught his students the earth was a sphere
  • Aristotle (384 – 322 BC) supported Pythagorean idea
  • Aristarchus of Samos. Greek astronomer, 310 – 230 BC, sizes of earth, moon, sun, heliocentric.
  • Eratosthenes of Cyrene, Greek astronomer, 276 – 194 BC, astronomer and mathematician.
  • Hipparchus, Greek astronomer, mathematician, 190 – 120 BC, founder of trigonometry,
  • How Did We Find the Distance to the Sun? The Universe Today.
  • Claudius Ptolemy, Alexandrian astronomer, 100 – 170 AD, geocentric model of Solar System.
  • Classical planet, planets visible to the naked eye, movement observed across the sky – Sun, Moon, Jupiter, Venus, Mars, Mercury, Saturn
  • John Sacrobosco, French astronomer, 1195 – 1260 AD, wrote a treatise on the Sphere of the World
  • Nicolaus Copernicus, Prussian astronomer and mathematician, 1473 – 1543 AD, proposed Heliocentric model of the universe
  • Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer and physicist, 1564 – 1642 AD, used the refracting telescope (invented in early 1600’s) that he built to discover celestial bodies in the Milky Way galaxy, made improvements to the telescope, supported Copernican heliocentrism
  • Johannes Kepler, German astronomer, 1571 – 1630 AD, developed 3 laws of planetary motion, invented an improved version of the refracting telescope, the Keplerian telescope, which became the foundation of the modern refracting telescope,[13] while also improving on the telescope design by Galileo Galilei.
  • Earth – A Sphere By Design. Dr. John Hartnett, October 25, 2024.

Flat Earth History

What Do Flat Earthers Say?

  1. Gravity makes no sense – buoyancy and density
  2. I should not see this thing, but I do – earth must be flat
  3. Water doesn’t curve, and water finds its own level – electromagnetic force
  4. Perplexed about how the earth’s atmosphere exists next to the vacuum of space
  5. How can water stick to a ball spinning at 1000 miles per hour – gravity
  6. Water cannot flow up – north/up
  7. The earth is closer to the sun in summer than in winter
  8. Science is a religion – scientism
  9. We have all been indoctrinated by government, teachers, etc.

What Do Flat Earthers Believe?

Eric Dubay’s “200 Proofs”

Mark Sargent’s “Flat Earth Clues”

  1. Empty Theater @ 12:38 – NASA, ISS, Apollo, moon landing, hundreds of films
  2. Byrd Wall @ 19:56 – South Pole explorer, 3 explorations, Richard Byrd
  3. Map Makers @ 35:30 – USGS uses same map as FE map? UN Emblem?
  4. Shell Beach @ 41:30 – views of a Dome and ice wall (Antarctic)
  5. Status Quo @ 55:30 – deception of a flat earth, 5 religions, imagine a firmament, Admiral Bryd imagines a barrier, image of the demise of NASA
  6. Depth Perception @ 1:06:45 – continental crust, atmosphere, molten rock, hole dug 8 miles deep, 20 to 100 miles thick?
  7. Long Haul @ 1:13:36 – travel distance calculator
  8. Creative Force @ 1:23:05 – imaginary building of the dome
  9. Magic Show @ 1:33:20 – flights disappear over the oceans in the southern hemisphere because GPS is disabled
  10. Hiding God @ 1:43:35 – 3 statements: a) You are being hidden, b) Wealth is being hidden, c) They are hiding God – the firmament discovered in 1956
  11. Souls in the system @ 1:55:20 – astronauts would not swear with their hand on the Bible that they went to the moon
  12. Real eyes: 11:36 minutes long – your eyes can be deceiving
  13. The Lost Nail: 7:09 minutes long – for a lost nail in a horseshoe. spacesuit for an astronaut
  14. The Coat of Credibility: 6:69 minutes long – lab coat pictures a scientist
  16. End of video at 2:05:42.

Flat Earth Dave

What Does The Bible Teach?

Flat Earth verses in the Bible?

“Four Corners”

Revelation 7:1 and 20:7–8 mention that the earth has four corners. So it’s obviously not a sphere because a sphere doesn’t have corners, right?

Most people recognize that the earth’s four corners is an idiomatic expression referring to the remotest parts of the earth. That’s how believers have always understood the words, and it is the correct understanding.

If the flat-earth interpretation were correct, it wouldn’t help them anyway. A square earth might have four corners, but in the flat-earth model, the earth is round! How can a round earth have four corners?

“Ends of the Earth”

What about the phrase “ends of the earth,” which appears 28 times in the Bible? Surely, flat-earthers reason, a globe earth has no ends, but a flat earth does.

Here again, words have more than literal, spatial meanings. In several instances, the phrase “ends of the earth” refers not to geography, but to people scattered across the earth (Psalm 67:7, 98:3; Isaiah 45:22). Clearly, these uses do not refer to a physical edge of the earth. That’s how the church has always read these passages (and what the original authors meant).

The Earth’s “Pillars”

Many other verses that flat-earthers cite refer to the earth having pillars, such as Job 9:6 (though flat-earthers never seem to address what the pillars are resting on). Other verses say that the earth does not move, such as Psalm 93:1. Of course, none of these verses make statements about the earth’s shape, so you must read a flat-earth interpretation into them without even a hint from the biblical text. Never mind that most of these verses are found in the poetic books, which use much imagery and other nonliteral language.

Dome over the Earth

What about the dome that sits over the earth, according to their model? Flat-earthers claim that the dome is the firmament described in the day-two account of Genesis 1:6–8. They claim that this is what the original Hebrew word rāqîa‘, translated “firmament” in early English translations, means.

However, the noun rāqîa‘ comes from the verb rāqa, meaning “to stamp, beat, or spread out.” That is, the rāqîa‘ is something that was spread out. So most modern English translations render this Hebrew word as “expanse.” That is the most natural and clear meaning of the word and what most people have understood over the centuries.

It is true that some people came to view the rāqîa‘ as a hard surface, either a sphere around the earth or possibly a dome over the earth, but that is not necessarily what the rāqîa‘ originally meant or actually is.

What is the rāqîa‘? The day-four account (Genesis 1:14–19) places the sun, moon, and other astronomical bodies in the rāqîa‘, and Genesis 1:20 described the birds flying across the face of the rāqîa‘. So in today’s terminology, we might call the rāqîa‘ “space and the earth’s atmosphere” or more simply “sky.”

Spherical Earth In The Bible?

Old Testament Cosmology – Dr. Michael Heiser

Observations In Support of a Spherical Earth

  1. The hulls of ships disappear first as they move away from the observer. (This observation doesn’t always work on warm days because a temperature inversion can bend light along the earth’s curvature.) Atmospheric Refraction must be considered. See Earth’s Curve Horizon, Bulge, Drop, and Hidden Calculator.
  2. During a lunar eclipse, the earth’s shadow is always circular. Only a sphere casts a circular shadow regardless of its orientation.
  3. The moon, the sun, and the other planets clearly appear to be spheres. By analogy, one would expect the earth to be a sphere too.
  4. Classical planets moving across the sky – sun, moon, Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn
  5. Traveling west shows the need for time zones.
  6. From very high altitudes (50,000 feet or more) the earth’s curvature is visible.
  7. Pictures of earth from space, on the moon, or from International Space Station (ISS)
  8. Pictures from Hubble Telescope and from James Webb Telescope Station
  9. Foucault pendulum demonstrates rotation of the earth
  10. The Coriolis effect is an important physics phenomenon that impacts the atmosphere. A rotating earth causes this effect, but there is no explanation if the earth is flat and motionless.
  11. As we travel northward, stars above the southern horizon disappear below the horizon. Conversely, stars below the northern horizon become visible. The reverse happens as we travel southward.
  12. In the Northern Hemisphere, stars appear to spin counterclockwise each day around the north celestial pole (the North Star is very close to the north celestial pole). In the Southern Hemisphere, stars appear to spin clockwise around the south celestial pole (but there is no bright “south star”). This is not possible on a flat earth but must be true if the earth is a spinning ball. Telescope mounts must compensate for this motion. If the earth were flat with a dome over top, everyone on earth would see the same stars. But we don’t—a large part of the sky is not visible from temperate latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere and likewise in the Southern Hemisphere. The Moving Stars of the Northern Hemisphere. Amazing Sky, December 2015, and The Moving Stars of the Southern Hemisphere. Amazing Sky, 2017.

More evidence:

Flat Earth Challenges

  1. Laws of Nature, Physics, Astronomy
  2. What causes tides?
    • The modern theory of tides is explained in Wikipedia here        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_tides
    • This is a very detailed article that explains the history of ocean tides from ancient civilizations to the modern dynamic theory of tides today.
  3. It takes longer to fly from Boston to Los Angeles than from Los Angeles to Boston
  4. Stars, planets, rare 6 planet alignment
  5. Sizes of the sun and moon in the sky?
  6. Spotlight sun issues
  7. Spotlight sun cannot explain solstices
  8. Prediction of lunar and solar eclipses
  9. Communication and Navigation Satellites
  10. Land Surveying uses GPS for distance compensation
  11. Projectile flight dynamic model
  12. Antarctica can’t be an ice wall

Summary of Challenges in Astronomy

  1. Lunar and solar eclipses
  2. Rare 6-Planet Alignment
  3. Stars rotating around celestial poles
  4. Stars, Polaris, Southern Cross
  5. Flat Earth dome with Sun and Moon inside
  6. Solstice Predictions in FE Concept
  7. 8 places on earth where sun never sets
  8. Geostationary satellites
  9. Global Positioning System (GPS)
  10. Low Earth Orbit satellites

More Challenges for Flat Earthers

  1. 44 Government Documents – Flat Earth — FLAT EARTH SUN, MOON AND ZODIAC CLOCK APP
    • Claims that these 44 documents admit to a “flat earth” are false
    • Document #4 from the Army Research Laboratory (2001) uses the words “flat earth” (8 times). “flat ground” (3), “conducive flat earth” (1), “homogeneous flat earth” (5).
    • The references to “flat earth” have nothing to do with the shape of the earth
    • Document #11 from University of Kansas (for NASA) uses the words “flat earth” and “nonrotating earth” in simplifying assumptions for their calculations.
    • In their problem statement they make these 3 idealizing assumptions: 1) a point-mass vehicle, 2) a flat, nonrotating earth”, 3) a constant gravity field of 32 feet per sec**
    • The references to “flat earth” have nothing to do with the shape of the earth
    • Note that one of the assumptions is that of “a constant gravity field” [debunking the Flat Earth claim that gravity is not a recognized force]
    • The “Government Admits a Flat Earth” statements are false
    • Earth is a 3d sphere
  2. Map Projections:
  3. Scale to measure distance between two places on a map of “Flat Earth” cannot be shown
  4. Longitude (meridian) and Latitude lines on 1892 Gleason Map
  5. Angles to North Pole from anywhere on FE can’t be less than 45 degrees – CMI
  6. Flying from Australia to certain parts of the Antarctic would take a long time.
  7. Nautical Miles
  8. Why, if the earth is flat?
  9. Flat Earth. Dr. John Hartnett, Bible Science Forum.
  10. Refuting Flat Earth Claims. Dr Jason Lisle.

Flat Earth Assumptions:

  1. Gravity is NOT a law of nature
  2. Things fall down because of density and buoyancy
  3. Earth is stationary and does not rotate
  4. Space does not exist
  5. Nothing can orbit the earth (over/under disk)
  6. Newton’s 3 laws of motion are fake
  7. Kepler’s 3 laws of planetary motion are fake
  8. There are no satellites or Space Stations
  9. Astronauts have not been to the moon
  10. NASA lied about everything they claimed
  11. NASA photos from and in space are fake
  12. Antarctic is an ice wall around the earth disc

Conclusions:

  1. Some ancient cultures believed in a Flat Earth
  2. The Bible text does not require a Flat Earth
  3. The Bible text has language in support of Spherical Earth
  4. Observations from the 5th century BC to the 19th century AD show Earth to be a Sphere
  5. An incomplete experiment by Rowbotham in the 19th century AD renewed interest in a Flat Earth
  6. Scientific observations show the earth to be a Sphere
  7. The Flat Earth model fails to explain observations
  8. Wide use of social media has revived interest in Flat Earth
  9. The Earth as a sphere in our Solar System is supported by the Bible and by science

References:

More References:

Flat Earth: The Final Experiment

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