The Earth is Flat

[newcastle]

Maybe this should be in "Just 4 Fun"....but I'll put it here.

PhD thesis: The earth is flat

Last week, a huge scandal rocked the Tunisian and Arab scientific and educational world: a PhD student submitted a thesis declaring Earth to be flat, unmoving, young (only 13,500 years of age), and the centre of the universe.

Going even bolder and further, the student explicitly rejected the physics of Newton and Einstein, the astronomy of Copernicus and Kepler, the cosmology of the Big Bang, the main models of atmospheric and geological activity, and most of modern climatology.

The student submitted her thesis after five years of work; it was then sent to two assessors, thus passing the first stage of approvals. The reports were expected soon, for the thesis defence to be scheduled.

It was at this stage that fate luckily intervened: a copy of the thesis was “leaked” to the former president of the Tunisian Astronomical Association, who checked that it was not a hoax and then quickly rang the alarm by posting on Facebook the general conclusions of the thesis, verbatim.......

http://gulfnews.com/opinion/thinkers/ph ... -1.2009202

So....no hoax then. And apparently from a bright and sane student.

Of course science can't (as yet) answer all questions, and there are some "questions" which don't readily submit to a scientific answer. e.g. what is the purpose of our existence?

Then again, you can postulate things which, whilst lacking any evidence* whatsoever, are impossible to disprove. e.g. the existence of God....or the Flying Spaghetti Monster.


* Perhaps I should say "scientific evidence"..... to be termed scientific, a method of inquiry is commonly based on empirical or measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning.

[carrie]

Met a woman in Hurghada who was adamant that the world was flat, didn't matter what your arguments against she wouldn't believe she will be very pleased with this new "proof".

[newcastle]

Met a woman in Hurghada who was adamant that the world was flat, didn't matter what your arguments against she wouldn't believe she will be very pleased with this new "proof".

Well.....if you stand on the shoreline at Hurghada and look out to sea it does look pretty flat

[John Landon]

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[Dusak]

I'm adamant that my stomach is flat. So, is it being pulled along through space on the back of an elephant by giant turtles?

[John Landon]

Carl Sagan brings the answer from Egypt.

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Not sure how it took Galileo so long to figure it out afterwards though...

Still, A Flat Earth would stop any "would be" explorers going off to find things without permission of the Church and a boat load of lovable Priests to go with them, to record exactly what was discovered.

[Horus]

Carl Sagan, a really great guy, sadly taken before his time. I can remember watching him once doing the yearly BBC Christmas Lecture and being fascinated as he talked about space and the universe.

[John Landon]

I remember that one too Horus, it was incredible.

Sort of a longer version of the Galaxy Song...

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At first I thought he was Sam Neill ( Jurassic park actor ) as they both looked similar to me..

[newcastle]

Not sure how it took Galileo so long to figure it out afterwards though...

Actually, Galileo knew perfectly well that the earth was spherical. Virtually all scholars acknowledged this fact which the Greeks had proved in the 3rd century BC. The idea that anyone seriously postulated otherwise is a bit of a myth.

Eratosthenes' use of the varying length of shadows at different latitudes did not so much indicate to him that the earth was round (he already knew this) but enabled him to calculate its circumference.

[John Landon]

So, as usual just the Church keeping people dumb ? telling them the Earth was the centre of the universe and all celestial bodies rotated around the earth ?

How did religious control take over ? surely people knew better back before the days of Abraham and his religions...
Why was it necessary to reset the clock 2000 years ago ?

[newcastle]

No....the Roman Catholic Church didn't have a problem with a spheroid earth and didn't maintain the earth was flat.

They did however, even after the time of Copernicus and Galileo, have a problem with heliocentrism. I suppose it conflicted with their holy scriptures.

Is wasn't until 1822 that they finally allowed the heliocentric view of the solar system to be taught and not until 1992 that Pope John Paul II finally "apologised" for the treatment of Galileo.

[John Landon]

I wonder how long its going to take the Church to admit there is no f*cking sky fairy to worship and kill each other over !!!!!!

One thing I did not realise until recently, was that the Old and New testa-ment were both introduced around the same time.