FIGURE OF EARTH

ZETETIC COSMOGONY:
OR
Conclusive Evidence
THAT THE WORLD IS NOT A
ROTATING—REVOLVING—GLOBE,
BUT
A STATIONARY PLANE CIRCLE.
By Thomas Winship
1899

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(Post 12/47)

FIGURE OF EARTH.

In the "History of the Conflict between Religion and Science," by J. W. Draper, page 153, we are informed that:

"An uncritical observation of the aspect of nature persuades us that the earth is an extended level surface which sustains the dome of the sky, a firmament dividing the waters above from the waters beneath; that the heavenly bodies—the sun, the moon, the stars—pursue their way, moving from east to west, their insignificant size and motion round the motionless earth proclaiming their inferiority. Of the various organic forms surrounding man none rival him in dignity, and hence he seems justified in concluding that everything has been created for his use—the sun for the purpose of giving him light by day, the moon and stars by night."

A critical observation of Nature, I may say, persuades an intelligent and unbiased mind that “seeing is believing," and that, therefore, the world is not the globe of modern ideas. Dr. Draper further tells us, on page 156 of his book:

"Many ages previously a speculation had been brought from India to Europe by Pythagoras. It presented the sun as the centre of the system. Around him the planets revolved in circular orbits, their order of position being Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, each of them being supposed to rotate on its axis, as it revolved round the sun."

"Aristarchus adopted the Pythagorean system as representing the actual facts. This was the result of a recognition of the sun's amazing distance, and therefore of his enormous size. The heliocentric system, thus regarding the sun as the central orb, degraded the earth to a very subordinate rank, making her only one of a company of six revolving bodies."

This speculation (apt word this) has been shown in the foregoing pages to be without the slightest foundation in fact, and the world shown to be a plane and not a globe.

In "Modern Science and Modern Thought," by S. Laing, the following imaginative proof of the globular figure of the earth is brought forward:

"If, for instance, by travelling 65 miles from North to South, we lower the apparent height of the Pole Star one degree, IT IS MATHEMATICALLY CERTAIN that we have travelled this 65 miles, not along a flat surface, but along a circle which is three hundred and sixty times 65, or, in round numbers, 24,000 miles in circumference, and 8,000 miles in diameter . . . . . and that the form of the earth is a perfect sphere of these dimensions."

And on pages 162 and 163 the following is the continuation of the same ridiculous argument:

"Until the Cape was doubled, the course of De Gama's ships was in a general manner southward. Very soon it was noticed that the elevation of the Pole Star above the horizon was diminishing, and soon after the equator was reached the star had ceased to be visible. Meantime other stars, some of them forming magnificent constellations, had come into view—the stars of the Southern hemisphere. ALL THIS WAS IN CONFORMITY TO THEORETICAL EXPECTATION FOUNDED ON THE ADMISSION OF THE GLOBULAR FORM OF THE EARTH."

If we select a flat street a mile long, containing a row of lamps, it will be noticed that from where we stand the lamps gradually decline to the ground, the last one being apparently quite on the ground. Take the lamp at the end of the street and walk away from it a hundred yards, and it will appear to be much nearer the ground than when we were close to it; keep on walking away from it and it will appear to be gradually depressed until it is last seen on the ground and then disappears. Now, according to the astronomers, the whole mile was only depressed about eight inches from one end to the other, so that this 8 in. could not account for the enormous depression of the light as we recede from it. This proves that the depression of the Pole Star can and does take place in relation to a flat surface, simply because we increase our distance from it, the same as from the street lamp. In other words, the further away we get from any object above us, as a star for example, the more it is depressed, and if we go far enough it will sink (or appear to sink) to the horizon and then disappear. The writer has tried the street lamp many times with the same result.

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There are also other "higher-order" shape deviations which make the Earth slightly pear-shaped with a larger southern hemisphere, but at a kilometer or so in radial girth. the biggest effect, though, is its polar flattening.—NASA