User:Serendipodous/indigo/page 5
zodiac- 12 equal sigs- lu-mash-mesh, 12 equal signs degree= ush 360 degrees
747 BC: Ptolemy claims records from the time of Nebonassar
Chaldeans, egyptians, lack "physiologia"- theon of smyrna
Egyptians had accurate sun clocks, and knowledge of stars and constellations (daylight and night into 12 hours)
while the egyptians had knowledge of the planets, there is little recorded concernign their precise motion
chaldeans identified 223-lunar month soros cycle
Plato and the pythagoreans: math lies at the core of the understanding of the universe
parmeides first to claim universe was spherical- taken up by Plato
atomists believed that all things were created by necessity, not by design. Plato believed in Mind
In the Epinomis, Plato notes that the Greeks only had a name for oen planet (Venus) and that knowledge of the other planets came from "barbarous" countries liek Egypt and Syria where viewing conditions were better, ad that they gave planets the names of their Gods. However, Egypt's astronomy was necver at a high level and ascribig it sacred kowledge on all subjects seems to have been deferece to its age and impressive monuments.
The Greeks may have a bad climate for observation, but the best climate for virtue, adn what they take from others tehy improve.
Eudoxus was the first greek to establish a mathematically predictive astronomical system
Greek science- Benjamin Farringdon
Personal astrology, horoscopic astrology, was invented by Greeks in Alexandria
Ptolemy's Almagest, written in the 2nd century AD, broadly represented a state of the art that had been arrived at by 300 BC
Empirical knowledge from Egypt and Babylon was distilled into a theoretical framework by the Greeks (weights, balances, becomes Archimedes principles of equlibrium)
First attempt to provide a naturalist interpretation of the universe as a whole
Natural philosophy (science) was born on Miletus
Thales was the first to propose a world system that didn't require gods to function.
GER Lloyd Greek Science
Thales's accout of the creation of the world was not all that differet from that described in many myths (Babyloian, even Hebrew) but he does not employ the radomness and arbitrariness of divine will- distinguish natural from supernaturalWhy
In Greece, astronomy as an ad hoc business pursued by philosopehrs; in Babylon, astronomers were civil servants who were seen as vital to the functioning of religion.
Achilles shield: No planets; Works and days: no planets. The Melitians were also the first (probably) to employ debate
Why Melitus became the birthplace of science and Greek philosophy is unknown
Melisian cosmology did not mention the planets. Anximander placed the stars below the sun and the Moon
Anaximander noted that human babies are not born aware or self-sufficient, and so, if we exclude God, must have origially been born of another speices of animal, who could raise them to be self-sufficient before he or she could then beget more humans.
Elements of... in minoan crete, Henriksson, Blomberg
There is littel precise evidence of astronomy in Greece before the fourth century
stars were important for farming (Hesiod, works and days, 7th century)
Systematic observation was never a priority for Greek astronomers; as such, Ptolemyand Hipparchos used Babylonian observations as much as Greek in their calculations
Babylon had no theoretical underpinning for their observations
3nd Century BC: Greece, Egypt (Alexandria) and Babylon were all ruled by Greek-speakers, thanks to Alexander the Great, making cultural contact easy
The ancient Greeks did not acknowledge their debt to the Babylonians, preferring instead to thank the Egyptians, and the Babylonian role in framing Greek astronomy was not recognised until the 20th century.
greek astronomy heath
Homer illustrates the idea of a flat Earth surrounded by Oceanus in the Shield of Achilles in the Iliad
greek astronomy to aristotle
Anaxaoras understood that the moon was illuminated by the Sun.
That the Greeks were aware of the foundations of the Ptolemaic model as early as 600 BC, Pythagoras's time, is at odds with Hesiod, Thales, Anaximander, and the other writings of the period
Pythagoras was the first person to believe that the entire cosmos was composed of numerical relationships. They believed that the universe was forged of number.
Flat earth[edit]
The sphericity of the Earth was first attributed to Pythagoras, but then, nearly everything was. Even Aristotle couldn't ascribe any achievement of the school to a single Pythagorean.
The Pythagoreans in general appear to have known, or at least believed, that the Earth was spherical, though they offered no evidence as to why.
The Pythagoreans appear to have adopted the idea that the palnets were divine from the Babylonians, which would later by sanctioned by Plato and Aristotle.
In Plato's Timeus, Socrates outlines the search for knowledge in his youth, which included the debate over whether the Earth was flat or a globe.
After the 5th century, the only Greek philosophers of any repute who disputed the sphericity of Earth were the Atomists.
On the Heavens: Book II, part 14:
The Earth is spherical- the eclipse proof; the northern and southern stars proof.
Eratosthenes's measurement of the Earth's circumference.
almagest
Written sometime after 141 AD, since that is the latest dated astronomical observation used in the text. "sensibly spherical"
1. The Sun, Moon and stars set later for those in the west, and earlier for those in the East
2. Astronomical events such as lunar eclipses, which should take place at the same time for all observers, take place at different hours, later in the east than the west
3. The difference in the times of observation between locations is proportional to the distance between those locations.
4. If the Earth were concave, the stars would be seen rising first by those more towards the west
5. If the Earth were a flat plane, they would rise and set simultaneously for everyone on Earth
6. If it were any other shape, such as a polyhedron, then they would appear to rise and set at the same time to everyone on each planar surface.
7. If the Earth were cylindrical, with flat planes in the north and south, no one on the surface would ever see the extreme northern or southern stars, but instead, as one travels north, new stars appear in the sky, familiar ones disappear behind.
8. All high locations, such as mountains, as we sail towards them, appear to us top-first, as if they were emerging from the sea, due to their being hidden by Earth's curveture.
Columbus possessed a copy of Historia Rerum Obique Gestarum "history of things everywhere" by Pope Pius II, and wrote notes in the margins. It contained a reference to Eratosthenes's measurement, which Columbus disregarded.
Flat Earth Christine garwood
Those few in the middle ages who did argue in favour of a flat earth, such as St Lactantius in the 4th century, (declared by some as heretical after his death) often employed the rhetoric of modern flat earthers- arguing that the round earth was a "marvellous fiction"; a lie spread for malicious perposes or "for sake of jest".
The idea of the Middle Ages as a period of darkness was appealing to the philosophes of the Enlightenment, particularly in post-Revolutionary France, which sought to unpin the state from the Church. But it was when Darwin first published his Origin of Species in 1859 that the idea of a war between religion and science began to take hold in popular literature.
No one knows who discovered the sphericity of the Earth; the Pythagorean school is often cited as the first group to argue that the Earth was a sphere, though whether that beleif was based on observation or mystic numerology is unknown.
although the Almagest would be lost to early mediaeval scholars (which is why we know it by its Arabic name) and Aristotle, Plato's Timeus and Pliny's Natural History, both of which argue for a spherical Earth (though without any specific observational evidence), survived into the mediaeval period.
St Augustine believed the Earth was a globe, but but, like many, argued against the existence of "antipodeans" (people living on the opposite side of the globe) because common sense said they would fall off.
The "modern public revival" of the flat earth was the creation of one man: Samuel Birley Rowbotham, aka parallax. a native of the British midlands
His observations of the Old Bedford Canal convinced him he could see along its entire six mile length, and so that the canal, and thus the Earth, was flat. He coopted the flat earth into a Young Earth Creationist, geocentrist worldview.
Despite this, he moved in radical socialist circles, from whcih he borrowed the term "zetetic"
Rowbotham envisioned zetetics as "free inquirers" unburdened by the assumptions of conventional science, and reliant only on their own observations. This despite the fact that rowbotham backed up nearly all his assertions with Biblical claims. He again cited Newton, Copernicus and the other renaissance scientists as round earthers (he referred to round earthers as "Newtonians") and claimed
"Philosophers, insread of beginning to seek, before anything else, the true constitution of the physical world, are still to be seen labouring only to frame hypotheses, and to reconcile phenomena with imaginary and ever-shifting foundations."
Nwewtonianism was pushing the public towards atheism by directly contradicting the word of God.
He saw modern science as an elitist conspiracy; a master debator and rhetorician, he could convince entire halls full of people of his views, hold back surveyors and seamen for hours in 120 degree heat, and leave mathematicians fuming. That said, he was also known for occasionally skipping out on his audience when debates didn't go his way, leaving them to deduce that the program had ended. Published "Zetetic astronomy: Earth not a globe!" (exclamation point)
Eventually,in October 1864, he agreed to test his hypothesis at Eddystone lighthouse at Plymouth Hoe. By taking alternate observations, first at the top of a cliff (where the lighthouse was entirely visible), and then at the beach (where it would be hidden by the Earth's curvature), they hoped to settle this once and for all. But, due to an unexpected decrease in the atmosphere's refraction that day, the curvature of the Earth was more visible than usual, and the lighthouse was less visible than expected. The round-earthers called victory, but Rowbotham argued that the better-than-expected result invalidated their claim. Thanks to his rhetorical skill, the crowd was at least partially won over, though that didn't stop a flood of angry letters to the local paper denouncing him as a "shallow conjurer".
Carpeenter saw the flat earth as a democtatisation of knowledge; artisans, workers and labourers could form their own ideas about the shape of the Earth.
increased learnng, better communication tech, like the penny post and affordable reading material, were creating breeding grounds for pseudoscience. perpetual motion and qucak medicine, rising secularism promoting growth of the "conflict narrative" between religion and science from both sides.
Christian polemicists like John Hampden embraced the work of Rowbotham and Carpenter while also denouncing all of academia, the church, and above all, the press, for conspirign to spread the lie of the Earth's rotundity. The competitive and unscrupulous victorian publishing world ate it up.
Rowbotham's young adulthood comprised the 1830s, when "science" had begun to supplant "natural philosophy" as the term of art
In January 1870, Hempden put an advertisement in the journal Scientific Opinion, offering between £50 and £500 to anyone who could prove scientifically that the Earth was round.
Alfred Russell Wallace had independently arrived at evolution by natural selection, and his letter to darwin spurred him to publish his hitherto unpublished work, origin of species. A self-taught maverick who openly supported spiritualism, he was beginning to be seen as a crank who was bringing science, and evolution in particular, into disrepute.
Hampden declared that all the leading engineers of England were shirking their duty as honest men to accept his challenge, and that he would "expose" them if they did not.
on 8 feb 1870 wallace and hampden agreed to sign a contract and set £500 pounds for the wager, which was to be conducted at the Old Bedford Canal.
Hampden then selected, with Wallace's permission, William Carpenter to act as referee- his closest confidante and flat earth associate.
5 mar 1870
The money was entrusted to a final referee, the Field editor John Henry Walsh, who found in favour of Wallace and paid him the money
wallace was harshly reprimanded by professional scientists, for rashly deciding to take these people on, and thus making established facts seem like they were up for debate.
Rowbotham himself disapproved of the test, feeling that Carpenter and Hampden were bound to lose, since they did not understand the equiment involved.
In 1871, Hampden sent a death threat to Wallace's wife, leading to his arrest. After some time in prison, he was fined £600, but transferred all his wealth to his son-in-law's name so that he could declare bankruptcy and not have to pay. He continued to publish pamphlets declaring himself a victor over the scientific establishment. His letters to his opponents in the wager became so numerous and vitriolic that Walsh eventually sued him for libel, and Hampden was remanded on £100 bail. Eventually, after failing to maintain the peace, he spent two months in Newgate gaol, and yet still continued his campaign against Wallace upon his releasem sending letters to him and to publications to whcih he contrinuted, calling him a thief anda swindler. eventually, Hampden was sent to gaol for a year, though the legal expenses left Wallace beyond his means.
in 1884, rowbotham died, the result of a long illness brought on by an injured leg. Two years later, the cause of zetetics was taken up by Lady Elizabeth Blount, an aristocratic creationist, who reoriented zetetic theory far more towards biblical literalism. She founded the Universal Zetetic Society in 1893 to combat "scientific blasphemy", and established a journal, the Earth Not A Globe review, to counter evolution, newtonian mechanics, and agnosticism.
public interest in the flat earth had waned by this point, and the society fell back on self-publication. Throughout her career, Blount found herself more the target of mild ridicule and pity than any anger. Her society was inactive by 1913.
Wallace was self-tought, lacked a degree, and paid his own way in a series of odd intellectual jobs (specimin collector, examiner, teacher. He was not the elite, and would have done well out of the wager.
Wallace's close friend, Alfred Newton, called fringe believers paradoxers.
Blount married ito titles and money, but her husband was cut from the inheritance because she was Anglican.
Samuel Shenton was a signpainter who lived modestly in Dover, England
He eventually casm acroos a copy of "Zetetric Astronomy: Earth Not A Globe!" and was converted to Zeteticism
He denied the Earth's motion on the same grounds that Ptolemy did; arguing that gravity was "hocus pocus" that "Newton himself denied"
"It's olnly the weight of an article that makes it fall" -Galileo?
Shenton drew on his iterpretation of the Book of Genesis
1956: Internatioal Flat Earth Research Society- creationist, but more focused on "scientific" investigation than the Universal Zetetic Society
One year later, the Space Age began with the launch of Sputnik
Shenton claimed that they were merely "just like marbles spinning round a saucer" and that they no more proved the earth a sphere than "sailing round the Isle of Wight"
He particularly ejoyed lecturing young people, who had yet to be corrupted, and spent many hours in youth clubs schools and student unions.
Whether he was believed or not, there was strong competition among various veues, including the Young Conservatives, Young Socialists, and even a few natural history organizatios for him to talk
"sciece canot shout us down" "the moon is transparet, you know" "stars have been seen trhoguh teh moon" "there isn't anything much to land on"
When John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, Shenton sent him a IFERS membership card with the note "OK wise guy"
By the early 1960s, flat earth was taking a financial and physical toll on Shenton who had already suffered a stroke.
In 1964 Conservative British politician eoch Powell described his opponents as flat earthers, leading Harold Wilson to call him the same; Shenton was incensed, and complained in letter and in the press that flat earthers were "honest searchers" who were fighting against a "media of mass brain conditioning". The tabloids loved it.
He claimed that the first spacewalk was proof of the non-existence of gravity.
After the Gemini 4 American spacewalk, shenton claimed that spaceflight was impossible due to the fermament and the ice barrier around the world and that the entire space race was a goverment deception.
His accusation sent thousands of letters to his home from all over the world, and he found himself straining to answer them all.
The space race, and its addentant images of the sphere of the Earth, had decimated membership of the IFERS, which fell from 200 to 24
the moon race continued to bring Sheton to the attention of the media, ad i 1967 he outlined his beliefs in a article in the Sun: "The Great global earth conspiracy "to dey god as the creator of all thigns"
by 1968 his signpainting business had collapsed, and his health deteriorated. IFERS had brougt in a measley ten shilligs over the previous year and he was in desperate need of donations. Frank Borman, commader of Apollo 8, metioned Shenton by name when broadcasting the image of the spherical earth to the world
His wife Lilian "seems to be coming around"
In a world of ever more complex science, and ever increasig data, expertise becomes nescessary, and the zetetic principle becomes impossible to maintain.
setetics gathered facts to support a fixed conclusion, employing doubt on the one hand ad belief on the other
Sheton nearly broke under the inundation of letters prior to teh launch of Apollo 11
hillman assumed the presidecy, but mainly as a joke
"for god's sake keep it going- we must have heretical people in the realm of astroomy. Patrick Moore shenton died i 1970
Charles Johnson (cetrifugal force bucket) iherited a portion of IFERS archives from Lilian Shelton and set up the American IFERS
Johnson considered other creationists "devils " and "phonies" for accepting a spherical earth, and launched a feud with the head of the Canadian flat earth society
divie authority was central to his campaign
Johnson claimed science was a sun worshipping religion that had been inveted i 1840
Common sense is a term ofte used by zetetics
Johnson even claimed that Columbus discovererd the earth was flat. Europeans silenced him, but America was founded by flat earthers, such as George Washington.
Contrary to many conspiracy theorists, he saw the establishment of the UN as evidence of a benevolent conspiracy, since the UN flag showed the earth as flat.
Johnso beleived the Mormons had captured Howard Hugues and used his fortune to fund the false space race
I 1986 he claimed the challenger had been destroyed by god
Like shenton though, he admitted that defending his beliefs had been a trying experience: Everyoe likes to be liked, but you can't be liked. You have to make up your mind to do without that, because people stay away"
He believed OJ had been framed, because he starred in capricorn one
at its peak the society had 4000 members worldwide, thoguh i 1996 The Johnson's modest house burned down, taking all their records with it.
Another maverick, Leo Fararri, an Italian Canadian from Australia, with a degree in chemical engineering but developed a passion for philisophy so all consuming he eventually obtaied a PhD and became a tenured professor of philosophy at St thomass uiversity in new brunswick
An unrepentant oddball with a taste for the eccetric, he embraced the humorous and the weird with gusto and was a self-convert to the zetetic concept of first through one's own senses. hailed from a working class background
From the begining, the FESC was established with tongue in cheek, and a goal towards examining philosophical implications
"They cite Columbus as havign proved the roundness of the earth - the forget, gentleme, that he sought to reach India by sailing West; they also forget that he failed miserably
If the earth is round, there can be no up or down, who gave them the right to place north america above south america? Why don't they leave cartography to those who know what they are doing?
they contend gentlemen, that the earth rotates aroud an imaginary axis at the poles. The absurdity is self-evident
they attempted to garer a vaneer of seriousness and solemnety without actually being serious themselves.
He wrote serious-seeming papers arguign that, since those at the "top" of the earth felt superior to those at the "bottom", the roud earth encouraged racial prejudice.
Johnson only slowly cottoned on to the true intentions of the FESC, eventually branding them atheistic and a gimmick. He described the FESC as idiot devils and declared that Ferarri beig an expert meant he had no hope. Ferrarri kept his correspondence in his "hope he goes away" file, where he put all missifs from cranks.