I was perusing ChabadTalk this past week when I came across this thread. In it there is one poster who makes the quaint observation that the notion that the earth revolves around the sun is an "outdated assumption." Something that's been accepted as scientific fact for the last five centuries is an "outdated assumption?"
I seriously find it hard to believe that these people still exist in this day and age. I have to wonder just what these people think.
We've landed people on the moon. We've sent the probes to all the major planets (Pluto excepted) and even landed a probe on Titan (a moon of Saturn) within the last year. We've sent spacecraft to orbit the sun. We have spacecraft (the Pioneer and Voyager crafts) which are on their way out of the solar system. In order to do all these, you have to accept the heliocentric model of the solar system as fact. If they sent a craft to orbit the sun using a geocentric model, your craft would have disappeared long ago.
So, what do these people think of these accomplishments? Do they fall in league with the folks who think the moon landings were faked and filmed on a Hollywood sound stage? Do they think that millions of people all over the world are willfully and purposely concealing the truth of a geocentric system? And for what purpose? I would think that if someone could prove that everything we've known until now was wrong, and that the earth is the center of the solar system, they'd win a Nobel prize for it. I can't see the motive why people would think that NASA and thousands (if not millions) of professional and amateur astronomers alike would lie to cover up a geocentric system.
And what even further boggles me, is that they're willing to believe a geocentric system when there is nothing to really base it on in the Torah. It would be one thing if the Torah said in B'raishis "And God created the planets and the sun to revolve in an elipitical pattern around the Earth." But it doesn't say that! B'raishis could just as easily support a heliocentric system as a geocentric one.
So, why do these people believe what they do and what do they *really* think of NASA and astronomers of today?
The Wolf
3 comments:
I'll be the first to admit that I'm no scientist. But even the Young Earth Creationists out there for the most part accept the heliocentric model. Accepting the geocentric model, IMHO, is far more egregious than accepting YEC.
At least with YEC, there are substantial numbers out there who accept the idea (even if you and I don't). But to call helioicentrism an "outdated assumption" IMHO, is just too beyond the pale.
The Wolf
When someone claims that heliocentric model is outdated, he isn't necessarily trying to push a geocentric one (which is even more outdated and has also been accepted as a scientific fact in the past. Most cosmologists do not believe that our Sun is the center of anything once your point of reference is moved outside of the solar system. Also none of this has anything to do with creationism (young or old).
JoeCool:
When someone claims that heliocentric model is outdated, he isn't necessarily trying to push a geocentric one (which is even more outdated and has also been accepted as a scientific fact in the past.
That's true, but the person who made the statement in the thread DOES believe in a geocentric system.
Most cosmologists do not believe that our Sun is the center of anything once your point of reference is moved outside of the solar system.
Of course, you are correct, and I certainly did not mean to imply that the sun (our sun) was the center of the universe (or our galaxy, etc.)
Also none of this has anything to do with creationism (young or old).
True, but this blog isn't only about creationism. :)
The Wolf
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