Path: utzoo!hoptoad!amdcad!decwrl!labrea!husc6!bbn!lf-server-2.bbn.com!jr
From: jr@lf-server-2.BBN.COM (John Robinson)
Newsgroups: alt.flame
Subject: Re: Platygaeanism
Message-ID: <449@lf-jr.BBN.COM>
Date: 28 Dec 87 18:40:38 GMT
Organization: BBN Communications Corp., Cambridge, MA
Lines: 40

Someone asked a while back where the Sun goes at night with a flat
earth.  I think I know.

I spent six weeks on the shore of the Arctic Ocean in July-September.
The Sun never set for that whole time; I spent several 24-plus hour
periods awake and accept this.  Instead of setting, the Sun made a
wide circle in the sky, somewhat higher in the south than in the
north.  So it seems the Sun just makes a circle somewhere above the
flat earth, returning to where it used to be by the next morning.

Others that had been at this spot a whole year claimed (and I believe
them and saw their photos) that the Sun set for a period in excess of
5 months during October-February.  Apparently, the circular return to
morning happens above the Antartic during those months.

Now I am still more comfortable with a round-earth explanation for all
this, but I'd like to see how it fits into a flat-earth model.

Another experience that I just had again (the planets and moon have to
be just so) was gazing up a little past sunset a few days ago when the
new moon crescent and Venus were in the evening sky.  I had a very
strong understanding that both these objects were balls hanging out
there with their lit sides facing the Sun (which was below the
horizon).  The dark side of the Moon shone brightly in earthshine.
Once this perception had taken root, it was also easy for me to
imagine myself standing on the surface of a similar sort of ball which
was spinning away from the Sun.  In this case, the round-earth model
of the solar system had a real connection with everything I was
observing, and it all clicked.  I was able to "get above" the locally
flat surroundings and perceive the solar system as a collection of
gravitationally bound spheres.  Now, you can argue that this was
simply my education messing with my perceptions, but in this case, the
round earth model definitely jibed viscerally with my perceptions and
crowded out flat-earth.



-- 
/jr
jr@bbn.com or jr@bbn.uucp