Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Geocentrism: Jewish Press Readers Let Amnon Goldberg Have It

Last week, Amnon Goldberg wrote a letter to the Jewish Press advocating that the hard-geocentric model (i.e. that the earth is the center of the universe, not just the solar system) as the Torah-true model. I blogged about one little absurdity to the theory.

Well, in today's Jewish Press, there are six letters to the editor, all of which concern the extended debate surrounding Rabbi Natan Slifkin. Of the six letters, five take issue with Amnon Goldberg's letter and theory. Several of them even brought up the point that I made in my post, that a "rotating universe" would require most objects in the universe to zoom by at speeds far faster than the speed of light.

The Wolf

10 comments:

Zach Kessin said...

Well Galileo never said it but "Eppur Si Muave".

Anonymous said...

I guess the Jewish Press was making amends for printing Amnon Goldberg's idiotic letter to begin with.

Orthoprax said...

Wolf,

"Several of them even brought up the point that I made in my post, that a "rotating universe" would require most objects in the universe to zoom by at speeds far faster than the speed of light."

I agree that supposing this as opposed to the contrary is absurd, but the 'faster than light' business doesn't actually contradict General Relativity.

The rule about the speed of light is that it cannot be exceeded within a reference frame. But this is no problem if the entire universe is spinning in tandem because then it can all be maintained within one reference frame.

Anonymous said...

This whole controversy is mind boggling. But, I suppose that when people still believe in a flat earth, or that the moon landing was a hoax, it shouldn't really be a surprise.

Michael Koplow said...

"flat earth"

Ever since Aristotle, the Western world has held that the earth is round (I'm such an amoretz that I don't know if this is true of Chazal). In the nineteenth century, Washington Irving (the inspiration for "Ichabod Chrain," who has the world's best pseudonym) invented the idea that pre-Columbians thought the earth was flat.

-suitepotato- said...

Well, if multidimensional universe theories are right, then anywhere you go is the center of the universe. But spinning around you? No.

Anonymous said...

Seems that the fellow is still plugging the geocentric idea in the Jerusalem Post Magazine, & garnering support for it, afiloo!

Yosh55 said...

He was caught lying about the rambam in the english modea twice lately jan 14 2015

TALMID said...

Chazal understood that the Earth was stationary and its surface was flat. Amnon Goldberg appears to be a sincere seeker of Truth. Heliocentrism is derived from ancient Avoda Zarah (sun worship). Globe/ball earthism is a GREEK idea, first attributed to Pythagoras, also rooted in Avoda Zarah - a "worship" of number and geometry. Modern scientism is a current version of this hermetic tradition. We have been living in Golus for nearly 2000 years and it seems that even some of our Torah has become polluted with GREEK ideas. We need to purify ourselves, especially our minds, and "unlearn" these foreign and false notions/concepts, (re)learn the deeper lessons of Chanuka and prepare for the Torah of Moshiach.

Yosh55 said...

Even rav avigdor miller זצל, who is fundamentalist as can be doesn't beleove in geocentalism