Unbelievably despite the success of observables, like Mercator's maps, and the success of GPS, some folks still believe in a flat Earth, or a day that wasn't about 24 hours long.
This mental (gedanken) experiment should put this to bed.
Imagine you can collect a lump of clay.
How big is it? What shape is it?
Add more.
How big is it? What shape is it?
Add more.
...
Flatten it out, what happens to it?
Add more.
Hopefully you'll see, that a sphere is the natural shape of a forming object, if you were to create something flat, it would be pulled into a sphere.
Even God would do this, for pragmatic reasons.
Also, it may help to imagine this flat Earth next to a round object, like Ceres. Something flat would wrap itself around something else, including itself...
Well, we should have convinced you the Earth is indeed round.
Now, what do round things do? They spin.
When it is a big object, like Earth, nothing is going to change that spinning by much - maybe a Moon.
Since spinning defines the day, (if God were watching the Earth spin, even without the Sun, he could mark it's circular motion).
Therefore the Earth is round, and has "always" been about 24 hours.
Questions from flat-earthers?
From those who believe the days were different in the first seven of creation?
Have I missed anything that might vex our flat-Earth or non-24 hour a day friends?
Gedanken proof the world is indeed a globe
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benchwarmer
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Re: Gedanken proof the world is indeed a globe
Post #2[Replying to post 1 by Willum]
My favorite 'proof' for debunking a flat earth is a meme I saw recently on Facebook that goes something like:
"If the earth were flat, cats would have knocked everything off the edge by now."
Anyone who has ever had a cat can attest to the truth of this. QED.
My favorite 'proof' for debunking a flat earth is a meme I saw recently on Facebook that goes something like:
"If the earth were flat, cats would have knocked everything off the edge by now."
Anyone who has ever had a cat can attest to the truth of this. QED.
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Willum
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Re: Gedanken proof the world is indeed a globe
Post #3[Replying to post 2 by benchwarmer]
Yes, indeed, one does feel an absolute hindquarter need to demonstrate the Earth is round, eapecially this side of Ptolomy, but there we are.
Then we have the other lie created by a desperate need to believe, that the day was a different length during creation, but not before or since, so an omnipotent God could have time to build the Earth in a day - and seven.
Ah, me!
Yes, indeed, one does feel an absolute hindquarter need to demonstrate the Earth is round, eapecially this side of Ptolomy, but there we are.
Then we have the other lie created by a desperate need to believe, that the day was a different length during creation, but not before or since, so an omnipotent God could have time to build the Earth in a day - and seven.
Ah, me!
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McCulloch
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Re: Gedanken proof the world is indeed a globe
Post #4[Replying to post 1 by Willum]
A creationist could claim that the earth's rotation would have been much slower during the first week.
A creationist could claim that the earth's rotation would have been much slower during the first week.
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Gospel of John
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Willum
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Re: Gedanken proof the world is indeed a globe
Post #5[Replying to post 4 by McCulloch]
That would be pointless, why create it with a different momentum, when it is just as easy, easier, logical, etc., to create it with a momentum that is referred to - or then why not say the days were longer, or that God changed the days?
It describes other things, that would be noteworthy. Otherwise God is simply deceiving. Which is just silly.
No, I think if God were to create Earth, it doesn't make sense to change its rotation, magnetic field, other gravitational effects, and so on.
That would be pointless, why create it with a different momentum, when it is just as easy, easier, logical, etc., to create it with a momentum that is referred to - or then why not say the days were longer, or that God changed the days?
It describes other things, that would be noteworthy. Otherwise God is simply deceiving. Which is just silly.
No, I think if God were to create Earth, it doesn't make sense to change its rotation, magnetic field, other gravitational effects, and so on.
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DrNoGods
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Re: Gedanken proof the world is indeed a globe
Post #7[Replying to post 3 by Willum]
Earth's rotation rate was much faster in the past, and is slowing down due to transfer of angular momentum to the moon who's orbital distance is increasing with time. About 600 million years ago a day was about 21 hours (Williams, George E. Feb. 2000, "Geological constraints on the Precambrian history of Earth's rotation and the Moon's orbit". Reviews of Geophysics. 38 (1): 37–59), and there are suggestions that prior to the impact of a Mars-sized body postulated to have formed the moon a day was only about 6 hours long.
But to a young earth creationist who believes the Earth is only 6,000 years old, the length of a day has been nearly constant since their creation event as the change in rotation rate with time is less than 2 millisecond per century, so still much less than a 1 second change from a measly 6,000 years ago. They'll have to find another excuse to give god more time for his creation exercise.
Then we have the other lie created by a desperate need to believe, that the day was a different length during creation, but not before or since, so an omnipotent God could have time to build the Earth in a day - and seven.
Earth's rotation rate was much faster in the past, and is slowing down due to transfer of angular momentum to the moon who's orbital distance is increasing with time. About 600 million years ago a day was about 21 hours (Williams, George E. Feb. 2000, "Geological constraints on the Precambrian history of Earth's rotation and the Moon's orbit". Reviews of Geophysics. 38 (1): 37–59), and there are suggestions that prior to the impact of a Mars-sized body postulated to have formed the moon a day was only about 6 hours long.
But to a young earth creationist who believes the Earth is only 6,000 years old, the length of a day has been nearly constant since their creation event as the change in rotation rate with time is less than 2 millisecond per century, so still much less than a 1 second change from a measly 6,000 years ago. They'll have to find another excuse to give god more time for his creation exercise.
In human affairs the sources of success are ever to be found in the fountains of quick resolve and swift stroke; and it seems to be a law, inflexible and inexorable, that he who will not risk cannot win.
John Paul Jones, 1779
The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.
Mark Twain
John Paul Jones, 1779
The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.
Mark Twain
