[devils advocate]

Watcha people 

I was investigating "how to make a spot light" and this brings up a BIG problem for the flat earth idea of the sun being one.

If you look at spot lights you'll notice that the reason they can be "aimed" is that the bulb (light source) sits INSIDE a "shell" that blocks the light from leaking laterally and backwards. If the Sun was a spotlight it would have these sides also otherwise the light couldn't just point down. We would be able to see these sides and we cant. We see a circle with no edge made from a different material.

At FE sunsets/rises the sides of the sun would be even more obvious as the sun moves away towards the horizon. Take a torch and try it.

So HOW is the sun a spotlight?

[3DGeek]

Watcha people 

I was investigating "how to make a spot light" and this brings up a BIG problem for the flat earth idea of the sun being one.

If you look at spot lights you'll notice that the reason they can be "aimed" is that the bulb (light source) sits INSIDE a "shell" that blocks the light from leaking laterally and backwards. If the Sun was a spotlight it would have these sides also otherwise the light couldn't just point down. We would be able to see these sides and we cant. We see a circle with no edge made from a different material.

At FE sunsets/rises the sides of the sun would be even more obvious as the sun moves away towards the horizon. Take a torch and try it.

So HOW is the sun a spotlight?

The Flat Earthers are typically unable to answer the "Why" part of this kind of issue - they mainly insist that it "must be".

However, the SERIOUS question should be:  If the sun shines a spotlight downwards to illuminate only ~50 of the Earth's surface at any one time...how can it illuminate the moon and create moon phases at times when the moon is overhead in some part of the world where it's midnight?

I know some FE'ers simply deny that the moon IS being lit by the sun at all - claiming bizarro stuff like "Holograms" and such.

[devils advocate]

I know some FE'ers simply deny that the moon IS being lit by the sun at all - claiming bizarro stuff like "Holograms" and such.

Hey 3D, 

Are you serious?? Do you mean that some of these good people here believe the moon is a hologram?!

Calling FE's who do:

How come the moon is referred to in so many old texts and pictogram? Are we to believe that the technology required to illumiate and manouvere the moon has been in existance for 1,000' of years?

If not and we're back on the more sensible side of debate 3D's point is complimentary to the OP, spotlight means problems lighting the moon and problems because we don't see the sides.

[Curious Squirrel]

I know some FE'ers simply deny that the moon IS being lit by the sun at all - claiming bizarro stuff like "Holograms" and such.

Hey 3D, 

Are you serious?? Do you mean that some of these good people here believe the moon is a hologram?!

Calling FE's who do:

How come the moon is referred to in so many old texts and pictogram? Are we to believe that the technology required to illumiate and manouvere the moon has been in existance for 1,000' of years?

If not and we're back on the more sensible side of debate 3D's point is complimentary to the OP, spotlight means problems lighting the moon and problems because we don't see the sides.

I know it's a little far afield for being representative of this site, but the one hologram believer I came across on the other insisted all history prior to like, 1900 is fake and fabricated, we just accept it because Mandela Effect. So their world at least had no issue with those long ago observations because they never happened.

[Tommy]

If you can't explain this then the Earth is not flat. Think about it. Why would there be suddenly a 2D object floating around space when there are other 3D objects around it?

[FactiousFacts]

the observations of any one human trump the observations of any other human at the same time. duh, the earth is flat, but it has mountains and valleys. this makes sense if you digest it on an empty skull.

[devils advocate]

the observations of any one human trump the observations of any other human at the same time. duh, the earth is flat, but it has mountains and valleys. this makes sense if you digest it on an empty skull.

I think you're getting confused regarding their definition of a "flat" earth, They mean flat as opposed to a globe/round ball/oblique spheroid not flat as in void of mountains and valleys.

[Mark_1984]

the observations of any one human trump the observations of any other human at the same time. duh, the earth is flat, but it has mountains and valleys. this makes sense if you digest it on an empty skull.

Yeah, I get it that you think it's broadly flat, just as we like to consider a oblate spheroid a ball.  However, you forgot to answer the key point of the original question.  How can the sun behave like a spotlight ?

[3DGeek]

the observations of any one human trump the observations of any other human at the same time. duh, the earth is flat, but it has mountains and valleys. this makes sense if you digest it on an empty skull.

Yeah, I get it that you think it's broadly flat, just as we like to consider a oblate spheroid a ball.  However, you forgot to answer the key point of the original question.  How can the sun behave like a spotlight ?

Indeed.  There is no explanation out there for how the sun can cast a spotlight AND light up the moon when it's at zenith someplace 6000 miles away where it's the middle of the night.   If it isn't the sun that's lighting up the moon - then how come there are moon phases.

The "Moon is a Hologram" idea isn't, by far, the most batshit crazy thing that FE'ers have come up with.   One guy I was talking to said that the moon glows because it's covered in tiny light-producing animals (think "firefly") that migrate across the lunar surface on a monthly basis.   This is clearly someone who's never looked at the moon through a decent pair of binoculars or a small telescope and observed that the lunar mountains and crater rims clearly cast shadows...which would be hard to explain with the "migratory firefly" hypothesis!

[devils advocate]

So unless it's some crazy spotlight, that has no sides and still manages to point down, without being seen from the lateral AND YET still lights the moon from a lateral spotlight, in monthly lunar cycles.....
.......................surely the zetetic philosophy of examining ALL possibilities to find the truth must swerve towards the the RE sun/moon combo?

If not then another PLAUSIBLE option must be offered.

[3DGeek]

So unless it's some crazy spotlight, that has no sides and still manages to point down, without being seen from the lateral AND YET still lights the moon from a lateral spotlight, in monthly lunar cycles.....
.......................surely the zetetic philosophy of examining ALL possibilities to find the truth must swerve towards the the RE sun/moon combo?

If not then another PLAUSIBLE option must be offered.

Well, yes indeed.   A spotlight with a hole cut in the side, just so it can light up the moon.  (Oh...and another hole for Venus...it exhibits clear phases too...well maybe it could send out beams of light aimed at every object in the solar system!)  Oh - but wait...now I've gone too far...the line along which the planets appear to move (the "ecliptic") is tilted and is at a different angle to the horizon depending on your latitude...so the hole in the sun's flashlight has to move...and at different speeds for each hole.

Oh - crap...

But then what about syzygy's?   The same hole has to produce different phases for different planets...Urgh.

Oh god...this FE theory stuff is SO complicated!   If only there was a simpler concept?

[devils advocate]

So unless it's some crazy spotlight, that has no sides and still manages to point down, without being seen from the lateral AND YET still lights the moon from a lateral spotlight, in monthly lunar cycles.....
.......................surely the zetetic philosophy of examining ALL possibilities to find the truth must swerve towards the the RE sun/moon combo?

If not then another PLAUSIBLE option must be offered.

Well, yes indeed.   A spotlight with a hole cut in the side, just so it can light up the moon.  (Oh...and another hole for Venus...it exhibits clear phases too...well maybe it could send out beams of light aimed at every object in the solar system!)  Oh - but wait...now I've gone too far...the line along which the planets appear to move (the "ecliptic") is tilted and is at a different angle to the horizon depending on your latitude...so the hole in the sun's flashlight has to move...and at different speeds for each hole.

Oh - crap...

But then what about syzygy's?   The same hole has to produce different phases for different planets...Urgh.

Oh god...this FE theory stuff is SO complicated!   If only there was a simpler concept?

Indeed. I'll try and get ROUND to seeing if I can come up with a simpler concept.....Sure it's around sphere somewhere.....

But then even if we sort the spotlight with multi directional spotlights we then need to come up with a power source (too small for fusion) and the force that moves it in it's crazy pattern over earth (taking into account the equinox)

Hmmmmmm

[Mark_1984]

Indeed. I'll try and get ROUND to seeing if I can come up with a simpler concept.....Sure it's around sphere somewhere.....

That’s funny !  Worth risking a low content warning from Junkers !

[3DGeek]

So unless it's some crazy spotlight, that has no sides and still manages to point down, without being seen from the lateral AND YET still lights the moon from a lateral spotlight, in monthly lunar cycles.....
.......................surely the zetetic philosophy of examining ALL possibilities to find the truth must swerve towards the the RE sun/moon combo?

If not then another PLAUSIBLE option must be offered.

Then of course we still have THIS problem with the bipolar map...when it's midnight in Africa and daytime in the USA and China - er...how exactly does that spotlight thing work again?

[devils advocate]

So unless it's some crazy spotlight, that has no sides and still manages to point down, without being seen from the lateral AND YET still lights the moon from a lateral spotlight, in monthly lunar cycles.....
.......................surely the zetetic philosophy of examining ALL possibilities to find the truth must swerve towards the the RE sun/moon combo?

If not then another PLAUSIBLE option must be offered.

Then of course we still have THIS problem with the bipolar map...when it's midnight in Africa and daytime in the USA and China - er...how exactly does that spotlight thing work again?

Hmmmm its almost as if the spotlight sun is another nail in the coffin for the flat earth theory, although that coffin is more nails than wood by now.......

So the sun can't rise or set on flat earth nor provide the day/night patterns we experience.

And all Tom has to defend this with is some utter tripe about perspective lines and a serious misunderstanding about what the word parallel means. Even the J-mans posts are starting to be more credible that TBs lately....

[3DGeek]

So unless it's some crazy spotlight, that has no sides and still manages to point down, without being seen from the lateral AND YET still lights the moon from a lateral spotlight, in monthly lunar cycles.....
.......................surely the zetetic philosophy of examining ALL possibilities to find the truth must swerve towards the the RE sun/moon combo?

If not then another PLAUSIBLE option must be offered.

Then of course we still have THIS problem with the bipolar map...when it's midnight in Africa and daytime in the USA and China - er...how exactly does that spotlight thing work again?

Hmmmm its almost as if the spotlight sun is another nail in the coffin for the flat earth theory, although that coffin is more nails than wood by now.......

So the sun can't rise or set on flat earth nor provide the day/night patterns we experience.

And all Tom has to defend this with is some utter tripe about perspective lines and a serious misunderstanding about what the word parallel means. Even the J-mans posts are starting to be more credible that TBs lately....

The "spotlight sun" idea works somewhat bearably in the unipolar map.  It's not perfect - and the shape of the spotlight isn't a nice circle - and the shape has to change with the seasons.

But according to Mr Bishop, the unipolar map was proven incorrect in 1911 and has been entirely superseded by the bipolar map.    This is odd because it implies that the TFES Wiki is over 100 years out of date!   So I suspect that many (most?) FE'ers didn't go along with that change.

The trouble is that much of what made FET work was BECAUSE of the old unipolar map.   Evidently, when this bipolar map was adopted, and over the intervening 100 years - nobody ever stopped to re-think things like the flashlight sun idea - or even to reconsider the path the sun and moon would have to take across the Earth.   In the unipolar map, it makes some kind of  a weird double-spiral pattern - but on the bipolar map, it has to teleport from one side to the other or to be in two places at once...it's very weird and quite implausible.

As usual, FE'ers only have the ability to think one step ahead and not to consider the further consequences.