“The Flat Earth”
I’m often asked questions about astronomy when I travel to give the Heavens Declare presentations. In the last couple of years, one question has risen up from obscurity into being one of the most common I hear: “Is the Earth flat?” Or, “What do I say to a flat earther?” The intent of this article is to bring to light problems that arise as a result of the idea that the Earth is a flat disc with the North Pole in the center and the continent of Antarctica posing as an impenetrable wall of ice circling the entire perimeter of the Earth.
1. In Flat Earth (FE) theory, the Sun is only 3,000 miles from the Earth; this is refuted by mathematical triangulation. However, if the Sun is actually 3,000 miles from Earth:
2. The size of the Sun should dramatically increase at noon vs. morning and evening, but it does not. Furthermore;
3. In FE theory, the Sun circles just above the Earth once a day. If this were actually the case, it would show one side of its face in the morning as we see it with a view to the East and another side of its face as we view it to the West at evening. I can see the same view/features on the Sun in a telescope in the evening as I did in the morning with the exception of the approximately 1/50th of a turn it makes due to its rotation.
4. If the Earth were flat, the Sun should be visible at all times, if not:
5. It would exhibit a downward spotlight behavior (FE theorists claim this is the case). Evidence against this comes from many satellites and is also obvious in my own high powered telescopic observations. However, if it in fact is a spotlight:
6. It should exhibit the shape of a flattening oval as it moves toward the far horizon.
7. It should then never appear to sink below the horizon, but rather move in a large circle near the horizon across the northern sky. In FE theory, refraction occurs to cause the Sun to appear projected below the horizon. However:
8. The Sun, when it appears near the horizon, is never projected downward in a mirage but rather upward. Allowing us to see it longer than we would otherwise and causing the Sun to appear to slow slightly when it reaches the horizon. This is also why we have a few minutes more daytime than nighttime at the equinox when both are supposed to be exactly equal.
9. Plain evidence for the Sun going below the horizon is seen when looking East just after sunset. One can often see the Earth’s shadow rising slowly upward and appearing as a dark blue band.
10. The Full Moon phase should not exist in FE theory. It would never be fully illuminated by the Sun from our perspective on Earth in the FE model since it would never be directly opposite us from the Sun. An answer could lie in the Moon producing its own light. However:
11. The Moon does not shine with its own light as evidenced by: its loss of illumination during lunar eclipses, the Apollo astronauts who’ve been there (which flat Earthers reject), my own high powered telescopic observations in which all shadows on the surface of the Moon point directly away from the Sun, and by its consistent phase lighting in relation to its position in the sky relative to the Sun.
12. If the Moon does shine with its own light, why is there never more than a sliver of Moon shining brightly when it’s close to the Sun?
13. During a lunar eclipse Earth’s shadow on the Moon is always circular regardless of the time of night. If Earth were a flat, round disc, it would have the shadow curve we always see, only if the eclipse occurred at midnight. The solution to this problem FE theorists give is that the Moon never goes ‘beneath’ the Earth and therefore is being eclipsed by something else. However:
14. The alternative object (dark Sun, strong magnetic field, etc.) causing the Lunar eclipse has never been found.
15. When viewing ships approaching a shoreline, an observer will first see the top of the mast, then the sails (if it has sails), then the hull, and finally the contact point with the water. This effect is also why sailing ships were built with “crow’s nests” at the top of the masts. A sailor in this high perch could see land much farther away, and sooner, than others on deck below.
16. At the North Pole, the North Star (Polaris) is overhead. You could move in a straight line, in any direction away from there, and eventually arrive at the South Pole in Antarctica, and you would see Polaris Australis directly overhead. The reason for this is that the North Star is directly ‘above’ the Round Earth and Polaris Australis is directly ‘below’. The problem with the FE model is that Antarctica is a band of land or ice encircling the entire earth. Now, whether you move left or right away from the North Pole, the stars above you change until you get to Antarctica and Polaris Australis is overhead. Polaris Australis is not omnipresent and therefore its position overhead in Antarctica could not explained around the entire supposed ring of ice around the Earth. It’s not just Polaris Australis that presents this problem; it extends to millions of other stars as well.
17. If the flat disc model of the Earth is correct, then the distances between locales near Antarctica are much, much farther apart than they are known to be with the globe Earth model. The flight times between cities such as Melbourne, Australia and Johannesburg, South Africa should be much longer than they currently are. The only way the flights could have this short duration in a flat Earth is if the aircraft move at much faster speeds than they do on other routes. On a flat Earth, the shortest route between the two aforementioned cities would be roughly 13,000 miles and on a globe Earth, the route would be roughly 7,000 miles.
18. On a globe Earth you can see farther by rising higher at the seashore or other level surface. On a flat Earth it should make no difference.
19. On a flat Earth the center of gravity would be underneath the North Pole. So, every person would feel a gravitational tug, not just straight down but also toward the North. The farther away from the North Pole a person would be, the greater the northerly pulling force would become. The only way this problem can be answered is by completely rejecting gravity. However, there is an astonishingly large amount of evidence that gravity exists and its laws are carefully observed in order to successfully send spacecraft across the solar system.
20. The mechanism some flat Earthers use to explain the apparent downward force (gravity) is a continual upward acceleration of the flat disc Earth. If this were actually happening, in a short amount of time the Earth would be exceeding the speed of light which is a universal speed limit; nothing can go faster than light. Also, why would this upward acceleration force act on some things but not others? It would act on the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth, but not everything on Earth, including us. If it would, we would feel weightless on the surface of Earth. When we build satellites on Earth they clearly do not feel this “force” because they just sit heavily on the ground. Once we launch them just a couple of hundred miles upward into space, this “force” (in flat Earth theory) would suddenly begin acting on them, keeping them weightless and preventing their return to Earth.
- Supporting Scriptures
Isa 40:22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; (KJV)
Pr 8:27 When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: (KJV) Pr 8:27 When He prepared the heavens, I was there, When He drew a circle on the face of the deep, (NKJV)
Job 26:10 He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end. (KJV) Job 26:10 He drew a circular horizon on the face of the waters, At the boundary of light and darkness. (NKJV) It’s only possible to have a “circular” terminator (boundary between light and dark) on a sphere, when illuminated with an omnidirectional light source like the Sun. - Misunderstood scripture
Re 7:1 ¶ And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. (KJV)
This verse is often used to support a flat Earth. However, it says nothing about a flat Earth. The last part of the verse (four winds) gives context to the first part (four corners). Metaphorical language is being used here to describe the four cardinal, or compass, directions (North, South, East, and West). If the words here are taken out of their proper metaphorical context, this would mean that the winds would come from only four precise directions while everyone knows that the wind comes from any one of the 360 degrees that surround us.
GRAVITY - THE DOWN TO EARTH LAW
Gravity, that restrictive and sometimes pesky element of our everyday life is not a nuisance, it’s a lifesaver! If it weren’t for gravity, every step we take could launch us into space. There would be nothing to keep us on the earth. If there were no gravity, trees wouldn’t know which direction to grow, food would sail off your spoon, plastering your face, and washing dishes would be a nightmare with water, soap, and dishes floating through the entire kitchen!
Gravity is predictable. If you throw a ball straight up, it will turn around and fall back into your hand at the same speed it was going when it left your hand. If you have a place where air doesn’t interfere, all objects drop at the same speed. You could drop a pen and a couch off your house roof and they would both land at the same time. In a more extreme case, you could drive a bulldozer off a 1300 foot skyscraper and drop a feather from it at the same time. They would both smash into the ground at about 200 miles per hour at exactly the same time if there were no drag in the air.
Even astronauts and other objects in space are not free from gravity. It’s a misconception that there is no gravity in space. In fact, gravity has almost complete control over objects in space. They are simply in a perpetual freefall; this freefalling motion is actually their orbit. Everything in space is orbiting (going around) something else. It might seem hard to understand how an object can orbit the Earth continuously without an ongoing source of power, but it’s a relatively simple concept to understand. All an object needs to have is the proper speed and direction.
For example, if we were to throw a stone across the earth’s surface, we would have the right direction but not the right speed. The stone would fall to the ground within a few seconds. If we would fire a high powered rifle toward a point just above the horizon, the bullet would be travelling at about 2,000 miles per hour and would go farther than the stone before it would drop to the earth but it would still not have the proper speed. Now if we could get a super high powered cannon and shoot a cannonball at about 17,000 miles per hour, the cannonball would start to drop to the ground just as fast as the stone and the bullet did, but this time it wouldn’t hit the ground because the earth is round and as the cannonball curves toward the earth, the earth curves away from it. Now we have the right direction and speed. 17,000 miles per hour just happens to be the speed to keep objects in low orbit away from the earth even though they are continuously falling toward it. If no atmospheric drag were present, the cannonball would keep falling around the earth until it would make a complete circle and come back to the same place it was fired from and keep right on going (provided we’ve moved ourselves and the cannon out of the way)! The cannonball would then be in orbit. If it would slow down just slightly it would crash into the earth, if it were to speed up it would spiral farther away. Each object in orbit is set at the precise speed needed for stability. Objects in our solar system are no exception; the Moon is falling around the earth at 2,300 mph, the earth is falling around the sun at 67,000 mph, and the sun is falling around the center of our galaxy at 500,000 mph.
The big question is; why would two objects in empty space want to bang into each other at every opportunity -- what causes gravity? Our current, best understanding of gravity is that any object with mass will bend space itself inward toward that mass. Other objects are then naturally drawn to that mass. Space around us seems to be empty nothingness, but in reality, it actually has a type of framework that objects move in. A heavy ball on a trampoline illustrates the warping of space by massive objects. The ball makes a dip on a trampoline so other objects on the trampoline want to roll toward it, not because they particularly like the ball but because the trampoline they are on is tilted toward the ball. In the same way, objects in space and on the earth are attracted to each other not because of some force between them but because space itself, like the trampoline, is curved toward the objects.
God has set everything in order and at precise speeds for proper orbits. The precision and clockwork-like patterns speak of a supreme designer. So in this case even gravity glorifies God!
Gravity, that restrictive and sometimes pesky element of our everyday life is not a nuisance, it’s a lifesaver! If it weren’t for gravity, every step we take could launch us into space. There would be nothing to keep us on the earth. If there were no gravity, trees wouldn’t know which direction to grow, food would sail off your spoon, plastering your face, and washing dishes would be a nightmare with water, soap, and dishes floating through the entire kitchen!
Gravity is predictable. If you throw a ball straight up, it will turn around and fall back into your hand at the same speed it was going when it left your hand. If you have a place where air doesn’t interfere, all objects drop at the same speed. You could drop a pen and a couch off your house roof and they would both land at the same time. In a more extreme case, you could drive a bulldozer off a 1300 foot skyscraper and drop a feather from it at the same time. They would both smash into the ground at about 200 miles per hour at exactly the same time if there were no drag in the air.
Even astronauts and other objects in space are not free from gravity. It’s a misconception that there is no gravity in space. In fact, gravity has almost complete control over objects in space. They are simply in a perpetual freefall; this freefalling motion is actually their orbit. Everything in space is orbiting (going around) something else. It might seem hard to understand how an object can orbit the Earth continuously without an ongoing source of power, but it’s a relatively simple concept to understand. All an object needs to have is the proper speed and direction.
For example, if we were to throw a stone across the earth’s surface, we would have the right direction but not the right speed. The stone would fall to the ground within a few seconds. If we would fire a high powered rifle toward a point just above the horizon, the bullet would be travelling at about 2,000 miles per hour and would go farther than the stone before it would drop to the earth but it would still not have the proper speed. Now if we could get a super high powered cannon and shoot a cannonball at about 17,000 miles per hour, the cannonball would start to drop to the ground just as fast as the stone and the bullet did, but this time it wouldn’t hit the ground because the earth is round and as the cannonball curves toward the earth, the earth curves away from it. Now we have the right direction and speed. 17,000 miles per hour just happens to be the speed to keep objects in low orbit away from the earth even though they are continuously falling toward it. If no atmospheric drag were present, the cannonball would keep falling around the earth until it would make a complete circle and come back to the same place it was fired from and keep right on going (provided we’ve moved ourselves and the cannon out of the way)! The cannonball would then be in orbit. If it would slow down just slightly it would crash into the earth, if it were to speed up it would spiral farther away. Each object in orbit is set at the precise speed needed for stability. Objects in our solar system are no exception; the Moon is falling around the earth at 2,300 mph, the earth is falling around the sun at 67,000 mph, and the sun is falling around the center of our galaxy at 500,000 mph.
The big question is; why would two objects in empty space want to bang into each other at every opportunity -- what causes gravity? Our current, best understanding of gravity is that any object with mass will bend space itself inward toward that mass. Other objects are then naturally drawn to that mass. Space around us seems to be empty nothingness, but in reality, it actually has a type of framework that objects move in. A heavy ball on a trampoline illustrates the warping of space by massive objects. The ball makes a dip on a trampoline so other objects on the trampoline want to roll toward it, not because they particularly like the ball but because the trampoline they are on is tilted toward the ball. In the same way, objects in space and on the earth are attracted to each other not because of some force between them but because space itself, like the trampoline, is curved toward the objects.
God has set everything in order and at precise speeds for proper orbits. The precision and clockwork-like patterns speak of a supreme designer. So in this case even gravity glorifies God!
THE DOOMED COMET
Nearly 21 years ago in March of 1993, Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker and David Levy were searching the sky for near-Earth objects. These objects, which are mostly asteroids, pose a threat to the earth, since a collision between one of them and the earth could cause widespread destruction. On that particular night in March, the Shoemakers and Levy discovered an unusual object that wasn’t a threat to the Earth but rather something that would give a real example of the devastating force that can come from astronomical objects colliding. What they found was a comet that was later named Shoemaker-Levy 9.
Something was obviously different about the comet when they first saw it. Instead of having one solid nucleus like normal, it appeared to have multiple nuclei, or heads. After a few months of studying its orbit, it was also obvious that the comet was orbiting Jupiter. That in itself was strange since comets ordinarily orbit the sun. The orbit also showed that the comet had apparently been orbiting the sun in the recent past. But unfortunately, the original orbit’s aphelion (farthest point from the Sun) had been close to Jupiter, this was a recipe for disaster.
Sometime in the 1960s to 1970s the comet was snatched away from its orbit around the sun by Jupiter’s strong gravity. It went on to orbit Jupiter, getting perilously closer with each successive orbit until apparently it got too close to the planet on July 7, 1992. As the comet circled in and sped over Jupiter at tens of thousands of miles per hour, it felt the powerful tug of Jupiter’s gravity pulling down on it. The comet’s kinetic energy was forcing it onward through space but Jupiter’s gravity was giving a mighty heave in another direction, this caused tremendous tidal forces. The comet refused to yield its forward speeding motion and Jupiter refused to let it go on its merry way so the comet was ripped to pieces! 21 large fragments were seen spreading through space after this happened; the largest of them was close to two and a half miles in diameter. These all continued on their orbit away from Jupiter.
After about two years the fragments had circled back again and were racing toward Jupiter at a blistering speed of 134,000 mph. All this commotion caused such a stir among astronomers that lots of them were watching with their telescopes. They were sure that they were about to be the first to witness a collision of objects in the solar system. Then it happened, this time around the pieces plunged into the Jovian atmosphere and Jupiter swallowed all of them whole! It was a spectacular event; each of the fragments impacted the planet and exploded with a tremendous force, scattering debris for thousands of miles and leaving a series of dark scars. The impacts from the collisions caused plumes of ejected material that reached nearly 2,000 miles high. One of the fragments smashed into Jupiter with a force hundreds of times greater than all the nuclear weapons in the world. It left a dark scar twice the size of the earth.
The comet left its path and went another way only to be doomed to unpleasant consequences. It’s a valuable lesson worthy of our consideration too. It’s important for us to follow the right paths instead of being sidetracked into the path of destruction, just as the proverb says; “Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths. For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her… going down to the chambers of death”. (Pr 7:25-27)
Nearly 21 years ago in March of 1993, Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker and David Levy were searching the sky for near-Earth objects. These objects, which are mostly asteroids, pose a threat to the earth, since a collision between one of them and the earth could cause widespread destruction. On that particular night in March, the Shoemakers and Levy discovered an unusual object that wasn’t a threat to the Earth but rather something that would give a real example of the devastating force that can come from astronomical objects colliding. What they found was a comet that was later named Shoemaker-Levy 9.
Something was obviously different about the comet when they first saw it. Instead of having one solid nucleus like normal, it appeared to have multiple nuclei, or heads. After a few months of studying its orbit, it was also obvious that the comet was orbiting Jupiter. That in itself was strange since comets ordinarily orbit the sun. The orbit also showed that the comet had apparently been orbiting the sun in the recent past. But unfortunately, the original orbit’s aphelion (farthest point from the Sun) had been close to Jupiter, this was a recipe for disaster.
Sometime in the 1960s to 1970s the comet was snatched away from its orbit around the sun by Jupiter’s strong gravity. It went on to orbit Jupiter, getting perilously closer with each successive orbit until apparently it got too close to the planet on July 7, 1992. As the comet circled in and sped over Jupiter at tens of thousands of miles per hour, it felt the powerful tug of Jupiter’s gravity pulling down on it. The comet’s kinetic energy was forcing it onward through space but Jupiter’s gravity was giving a mighty heave in another direction, this caused tremendous tidal forces. The comet refused to yield its forward speeding motion and Jupiter refused to let it go on its merry way so the comet was ripped to pieces! 21 large fragments were seen spreading through space after this happened; the largest of them was close to two and a half miles in diameter. These all continued on their orbit away from Jupiter.
After about two years the fragments had circled back again and were racing toward Jupiter at a blistering speed of 134,000 mph. All this commotion caused such a stir among astronomers that lots of them were watching with their telescopes. They were sure that they were about to be the first to witness a collision of objects in the solar system. Then it happened, this time around the pieces plunged into the Jovian atmosphere and Jupiter swallowed all of them whole! It was a spectacular event; each of the fragments impacted the planet and exploded with a tremendous force, scattering debris for thousands of miles and leaving a series of dark scars. The impacts from the collisions caused plumes of ejected material that reached nearly 2,000 miles high. One of the fragments smashed into Jupiter with a force hundreds of times greater than all the nuclear weapons in the world. It left a dark scar twice the size of the earth.
The comet left its path and went another way only to be doomed to unpleasant consequences. It’s a valuable lesson worthy of our consideration too. It’s important for us to follow the right paths instead of being sidetracked into the path of destruction, just as the proverb says; “Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths. For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her… going down to the chambers of death”. (Pr 7:25-27)
PROBABILITIES & EVOLUTION - FUN WITH NUMBERS
Probability
Air molecules are continuously zipping around in random directions around us. Given enough time, there is a real possibility that all the air molecules in front of your nose would momentarily choose to move in one direction away from you, leaving you gasping for air. The problem with this scenario is that there is such a great number of molecules in air that the odds against them all moving in the same direction away from you are so high that it is entirely safe to say it won’t happen, so go ahead and breathe easy. Now is it possible this would happen? Yes. Is it likely? Not at all.
Mathematicians agree that in the laws of probability, anything with odds greater than 1050 (1 with 50 zeros behind it) is considered an impossibility. So what are the odds of life forming by chance?
ODDS
Flip a coin, the odds that it will land on heads up are one in two, because the probability for that is calculated by multiplying 1X2. Arranging a deck of 3 cards would provide 6 possible arrangements (1X2X3=6) adding the fourth card would give 24 possibilities (1X2X3X4=24).
Probability of life
What have scientists calculated the probability to be of an average-size protein occurring naturally? Walter Bradley, PhD, materials science, and Charles Thaxton, PhD, chemistry, calculated that the probability of amino acids forming into a protein is:
4.9 x 10-191
This is well beyond the laws of probability (1x10-50), and a protein is not even close to becoming a complete living cell. Sir Fred Hoyle*, PhD, astronomy, and Chandra Wickramasinghe, professor of applied math and astronomy, calculated that the probability of getting a cell by naturalistic processes is:
1 x 10-40,000
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/nab2/natural-processes-origin-of-life
*Sir Fred Hoyle: secular astronomer who gave the Big Bang its name.
DNA
The chance of Just DNA arising spontaneously through natural processes is so improbable that it is far beyond the statistical zero. For this to happen, massive quantities of DNA material would be required.
"This means that 1089190 DNA molecules, on average, must form to provide the one chance of forming the specific DNA sequence necessary to code 124 proteins. 1089190 DNAs would weigh 1089147 more than the earth ... A quantity of DNA this colossal could never have been formed”.
R.L. Wysong, The Creation Evolution Controversy, (Inquiry Press, Midland MI, 1976) p.115, as quoted in The Evolution Handbook(Evolution Facts, Inc., Altamont TN, 2001) p. 261. http://creationdesign.org/english/chances.html
Seconds in the supposed evolutionary universe history
How can one gain some conception of the size of such a huge number? According to most Evolutionists, the universe is less than 30 billion years old -- and there are fewer than 10 to the 18th Power seconds in 30 billion years. So, even if nature could somehow have produced trillions of genetic code combinations every second for 30 billion years, the probabilities against producing the simplest one-celled animal by trial and error would still be inconceivably immense! In other words, probabilities greatly favor those that believe an intelligent designer was responsible for originating even the simplest DNA molecules.
http://www.scienceforums.net/topic/67884-what-are-the-odds-of-life-evolving-by-chance-alone/
Probability
Air molecules are continuously zipping around in random directions around us. Given enough time, there is a real possibility that all the air molecules in front of your nose would momentarily choose to move in one direction away from you, leaving you gasping for air. The problem with this scenario is that there is such a great number of molecules in air that the odds against them all moving in the same direction away from you are so high that it is entirely safe to say it won’t happen, so go ahead and breathe easy. Now is it possible this would happen? Yes. Is it likely? Not at all.
Mathematicians agree that in the laws of probability, anything with odds greater than 1050 (1 with 50 zeros behind it) is considered an impossibility. So what are the odds of life forming by chance?
ODDS
Flip a coin, the odds that it will land on heads up are one in two, because the probability for that is calculated by multiplying 1X2. Arranging a deck of 3 cards would provide 6 possible arrangements (1X2X3=6) adding the fourth card would give 24 possibilities (1X2X3X4=24).
Probability of life
What have scientists calculated the probability to be of an average-size protein occurring naturally? Walter Bradley, PhD, materials science, and Charles Thaxton, PhD, chemistry, calculated that the probability of amino acids forming into a protein is:
4.9 x 10-191
This is well beyond the laws of probability (1x10-50), and a protein is not even close to becoming a complete living cell. Sir Fred Hoyle*, PhD, astronomy, and Chandra Wickramasinghe, professor of applied math and astronomy, calculated that the probability of getting a cell by naturalistic processes is:
1 x 10-40,000
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/nab2/natural-processes-origin-of-life
*Sir Fred Hoyle: secular astronomer who gave the Big Bang its name.
DNA
The chance of Just DNA arising spontaneously through natural processes is so improbable that it is far beyond the statistical zero. For this to happen, massive quantities of DNA material would be required.
"This means that 1089190 DNA molecules, on average, must form to provide the one chance of forming the specific DNA sequence necessary to code 124 proteins. 1089190 DNAs would weigh 1089147 more than the earth ... A quantity of DNA this colossal could never have been formed”.
R.L. Wysong, The Creation Evolution Controversy, (Inquiry Press, Midland MI, 1976) p.115, as quoted in The Evolution Handbook(Evolution Facts, Inc., Altamont TN, 2001) p. 261. http://creationdesign.org/english/chances.html
Seconds in the supposed evolutionary universe history
How can one gain some conception of the size of such a huge number? According to most Evolutionists, the universe is less than 30 billion years old -- and there are fewer than 10 to the 18th Power seconds in 30 billion years. So, even if nature could somehow have produced trillions of genetic code combinations every second for 30 billion years, the probabilities against producing the simplest one-celled animal by trial and error would still be inconceivably immense! In other words, probabilities greatly favor those that believe an intelligent designer was responsible for originating even the simplest DNA molecules.
http://www.scienceforums.net/topic/67884-what-are-the-odds-of-life-evolving-by-chance-alone/