Saturday, September 22, 2012

Response to Ethan Seigel on "How The Earth Moves"


Note 10/1:

 #4 below contains an error. The stars do not orbit along the plane of the ecliptic. Thanks to "CB" at Ethan's blog for pointing this out.


Ethan Seigel has posted a number of purported difficulties with the geocentric hypothesis in a very interesting piece here.

I respond:


I think all of the reported problems with the geocentric model can be resolved rather easily here, Ethan.
1. Consider the Earth at rest
2. The Moon orbits the Earth.
3. The planets and their moons orbit the Sun.
4. The Sun and stars orbit the Earth along the plane known locally as "the ecliptic".
I believe this resolves all reported difficulties for the geocentric model, and it seems to me it does more than this.
You correctly report the astonishing power and scientific fruitfulness of Newton’s theory of gravity.
It was this astonishing power which persuaded the Republic of letters to adopt the heliocentric model in the first place.
But this theory is wrong- catastrophically wrong- at cosmological scales.
Also, only the geocentric model predicts a cosmological significance to what is locally referred to as the ecliptic.
We now know that the so-called “Axis of Evil” aligns, on a cosmological scale, with this ecliptic.
Score one for Tycho Brahe.
If we suppose two things; a firmament or substance of space which rotates and carries bodies along with it, and a spherically propagating force of gravity, it appears to me we have the basis for explaining both the consistency of gravitational laws at local scales, and the inconsistency of gravitational laws at cosmological scales.


5 comments:

  1. Hi Rick,

    Please delete this comment after you get it, as it doesn't really belong here. I just don't have a better way of contacting you.

    I thought you should be aware of this, though maybe you already came across it.
    http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/07/06/stop-me-if-this-sounds-familia/

    I saw on Ethan Siegel's site recently, where you had mentioned that Dragan Huterer wouldn't talk to you. That link explains how that happened. There truly is an agenda it seems.


    Best regards,

    Fred

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fred:

    Thanks for the tip. Yes I was aware of PZ's disgraceful little incitement to riot.

    Are you sure you would prefer that I not post your comment here?

    I have no problem at all posting it.

    As a matter of fact, I think it would be very helpful if those interested in my blog and project were able to see for themselves what we are up against.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Rick, sure, please post it.

    After reading more about PZ Myers, I had to scratch my head as to why the group "at the gate" of University of Michigan's cosmology conference / department, was asking PZ for advice.

    PZ seems to be a professional in only one area: cultivating a following who act as nasty as himself towards Christians. Anyone going to him for advice has made it obvious they have an agenda.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I wonder if this is typical of those with a "PZ Myers"-agenda in Michigan. A Michigan State University professor appears to have gone insane today while teaching class.


    Michigan State University Professor Strips Naked In Class, Police Arrive To Escort Him To Hospital
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/01/michigan-state-university-naked-prof_n_1930510.html
    > A math professor at Michigan State University allegedly stripped
    > naked, ran naked through his classroom and screamed "There is no
    > f*cking God!" before police apprehended him, according to
    > several reports.... "He was screaming profanities and things you
    > really couldn't understand, and something about religion," David
    > Grabowski, an MSU senior, told MLive.com.

    Perhaps this hostile nature is shared, in a less public manner, by the guardians at the gate of another university in Michigan.





    ReplyDelete
  5. Fred:

    As you have come to know, our war is not against flesh and blood.

    ReplyDelete