You denigrate RE believers because we stand on what scientists using the scientific method have provided.
Why have FE believers not been able to muster a collection of evidence based upon the zetetic method which is incontrovertible and refutes evidence provided through the scientific method?
It's not our place to have to defend the basic and obvious, its your place to refute it.
Sure to your eyes the earth looks flat, but when I look around with open eyes I see numerous things that simply do fit with that conclusion.
Everything from the sun and moon staying the same size all the time they are visible to the sun rising in the East (here and I gather EVERYWHERE) at the equinoxes - you might check it out on 7 days time - I see it rises almost in the east here now.
So I what do I see with my own etes:- The Earth looks flat and the horizon looks flat - it does, simply because the earth is huge![1]
- On a clear day looking out to sea the sky-horizon interface is a sharp line (it is only about 5 km away!). On a flat earth it would have to fade into the distance with no distinct boundary.
- The sun appears to rise from behind the horizon and appears to set behind the horizon.
- The sun stays the same size as it arcs up and over the sky - actually it sometimes seems a bit little larger at sunrise and sunset.
- The sun always appears to be a disk, though sometimes a bit distorted at sunrise and sunset.
- The sun always rises due east and sets due west on each equinox - here, and I am told it happens all over the earth.
- Likewise the moon appears to rise from behind the horizon and appears to set behind the horizon.
- The moon stays the same size as it arcs up and over the sky - it sometimes seems a bit bigger at moonrise and moonset.
- The moon always appears to show the same face wherever it is in the sky. (And from wherever we observe it - though we have to travel for this observation).
- The full moon always appears to be a circle, though sometimes a bit distorted at moonrise and moonset.
While none of this is evidence of a
rotating earth, but I believe is strong evidence of a Globe with a distant (that is far further than the earths size) sun and moon. So many of these points are "explained away" by TFES using "perspective", "bendy light" (massive refraction), extreme "magnification" by the atmosphere or simply ignored. These explanations are
simply quoted with no justification at all!
Of these, number (1) could indicate a flat earth or a globe, but then when we try to work out what the sun and moon are doing, we get into big trouble.
The Flat Earth movement just
takes (1) and says "The earth is flat", then gets into terrible trouble
explaining away all of the others with fanciful ideas of perspective, bending light, "celestial gears", universal acceleration (powered by "dark energy") and on and on.
But all the other points are far
more simply explained on a Globe Earth, though not necessarily rotating.
There are more points you can see around every day (like the movement of the stars at night!) that are hard to explain on any flat earth model without resorting to nothing more than guesswork about strange things like
celestial gears and aetheric whirlpools etc.
Even the problems with the stationary Globe earth were found in the past from observations made without modern instruments.
Largely eyes and simple (though large) angle measuring equipment.Honestly, I find that
the Globe Earth conforms far better to the Zetetic approach than all the imagination and guesswork needed to support any Flat Earth model!
No, the globe has been accepted with very good reason for well over 2,000 years. Its
size has been known accurately since around 1,000 AD - Abu Rayhan al-Biruni (973–1048) and the heliocentric globe was gradually accepted (with a bit of a struggle in places) over the period from the 1600's to the early 1800's.
Yes,
you are the newcomers and need good evidence as to why we should go back to the "old ways". I am continually amazed at the profession where the globe simply comes implicitly into the work - right through of course from Geodetic Surveying, and navigation, to microwave link installations and satellite TV and GPS. So many things that just would not work in the way they do on a flat earth! And, it is NOT simply a matter of viewpoint as John Davis would have us believe - it is simply a matter of fact, the earth is certainly some definite shape and the main contenders are certainly flat or globe.
[1] If you were the size of an ant (1.5 mm eye height - we have big ants!) the earth would be around 10 km in diameter.