On Jan 7, 10:58*pm, "LDosser" wrote:
"Robatoy" wrote in message

...
On Jan 7, 5:54 pm, "LDosser" wrote:





"HeyBub" wrote in message

om...

Doug Miller wrote:

And you must be restricting your viewpoint to Europe only. :-)
Mariners knew
for a long time that the surface of the earth is curved -- what other
explanation can there be for the fact that you can see the masts of a
distant
ship long before you can see the hull? Non-sea-faring cultures,
though, had no
such reference points -- the earth is "obviously" flat, right?

The answer to the ship-mast question can easily be answered by positing
a
hill (of water) between the ships.

As to the conclusion "what other explanation can there be," ignorance of
any other possibility is not a proof. Sherlock Holmes said: "If you
eliminate all other possibilities, whatever is left must be the answer"
is
correct as far as it goes. The fact remains that one cannot eliminate
all
other possibilities. There always remain the cases of miracles,
hallucination, lies, mistakes, and a host of others. Absence of evidence
is not evidence of anything.

As for the earth being flat, it is if you're building a house, surveying
a
lot, plowing a field, laying out a road, building a railroad (except for
the hills), and so on. Just like Newtonian mechanics are the ultimate
truths for bowling, billiards, or shooting a scrot who breaks into your
shed.

Measuring the universe. For all practical purposes, the universe is Flat.