[Antithecystem]

More than the shape of the earth, what's intrigued me is the nature of stars.
What are they?
Are they bright balls of fire, or something else?
If so, how do they keep burning for eons?
Is their fuel inexhaustible, or are they just so big that a day of their burning is equivalent to thousands of years of ours, or can they somehow sparkle and shine without burning at all?

Are they pinholes in the curtain of night?
Are they souls of ancient heroes and kings?
At this point in time, we can only speculate.

Are they much bigger than the earth, and very far away, or much smaller, and very close?
Are we spinning or are they spinning?
Perhaps we're both spinning.

Stars appear to be very close together.
While scientific extremists says this is merely a trick of light, that they're actually much further apart than they appear, I'm more inclined to think they're about as near together as they seem.
They also appear to be uniform in size, and uniform in distance from one another and the earth.
While scientific fundamentalists tell us this is also a trick, a trick of perspective, I'm more inclined to trust my eyes and Occam's razor than their wild speculations and unverifiable dogmas.

How did they form?
Did the intelligent designer(s) place them there, to light up the night sky?
Do we conjure or dream them into existence?
Are they unformed, always did exist, and presumably always will?
Are they the remnants of the earth's gravitational formation, or are we a remnant?
I guess we'll never know for sure, until the public has direct access to the heavens, and until we have the technology to reach out and touch the stars.

[Antithecystem]

Antithecystem,

To answer your questions, the stars are actually the flatulence of interstellar aliens that has been lit by their space lighters for more than 5 years ago. They do this in order to easily navigate through space since it's so dark.

The stars are actually counters for how many times people on earth have masturbated and ejaculated.

The stars are actually very far away from the earth because the earth is a gigantic sociopath that the stars find weird and disturbing, so they keep their distance from the earth fearing they too may become a gigantic sociopath.

The stars are actually far apart because their positions were placed their by the aliens that farted them out and they do this in order for the stars to not collide together and release flaming farts that can destroy the alien's spacecraft and misguide their navigation. They seem close because of the alien technology developed to trick humans into believing they are close together. They fear that we may conspire on their plot to control the universe with their burning flatulence.

If we really want to find out how they are formed, we could signal the aliens. All you have to do is burn salmon, lube, and some pubic hair between the two prongs of a curling iron and the aliens might trace the smell through their high-tech smell sensors and may come here. Most aliens don't like humans, so when they know its from Earth, they usually ignore it and go on with their lives.

Interesting theory, well I guess it's about as valid as any other theory, since it's not verifiable.