but he didn't just bluntly say "people say x, therefore truth value"
Outside of the world of mathematics it’s pretty much impossible to prove anything absolutely
There is a reason why in UK courts something must be proven beyond
reasonable doubt.
You have 10 witnesses that say that Pete shot Tom in cold blood over a dispute over the FE Wiki. They all claim they saw him.
What if they are all mistaken? It’s possible. Or it was someone who really looks like Pete.
But Pete’s fingerprints are on the gun.
Well, how do you know he didn’t handle the gun earlier in the day then left the gun lying around and someone else shot Tom?
…and so on.
The objections can get increasingly ridiculous but you could always say there’s
some doubt. But is the doubt reasonable?
That’s for the jury to decide.
If I was building a case for a round earth the fact that every serious scientist believes in a round earth would absolutely be part of the case.
In itself it doesn’t prove it, but it does add weight to the likelihood of it being true.
This why they have "expert witnesses" in court cases, their expertise does add weight to a claim.
It doesn't automatically make it true but their opinion isn't irrelevant either.
Is it possible that every scientist is mistaken?
That all rocket launches by multiple countries are faked and secretly land somewhere?
That every photo and video from space is faked.
That every astronaut is lying.
That all the space tourists are too, or have been fooled somehow.
That the ISS isn't real and observations of it from earth are actually of something else?
Is it possible that Sky is lying about their signals coming from a geostationary satellite or being fooled by the European space agency?
Is it possible that GPS and satellite phones work in a way differently to the way they’re said to?
By the strictest definition of the word I’d have to concede that yes, all this is possible.
But is there anything which provides some reasonable doubt and makes any of this plausible?
I’d say no.
And the thing is, you can test things for yourself. You should get horizon dip on a globe earth, several ways have been shown recently which demonstrates that, I see no effort from any FE to do their own tests. As someone else noted, you can observe the ISS for yourself. You don't have to take other people's word for it.
You say you have done some experiments on the sinking ship thing. It's a shame your results aren't more easily available, I'd like to look at them.
The best I've seen about that on here is from Tom where a speck was "restored" by zoom. But the speck was just that, you could see no detail. And when they zoomed in it was clear the ship was not as far away as the horizon. You can see plenty of examples online of ships beyond the horizon which can't be restored by zoom because they are clearly behind a "hill of water". I don't have the equipment to do my own tests and, honestly, I don't feel the need to.
I'd like to understand why Tom thinks that earth is different from the other planets. Yes, there's life here. But otherwise we have many of the same characteristics as the other planets, there's no good reason to think we're special (leaving religion aside) or different from the other planets.