Why Galileo was Wrong, Even Though He was Right

Darwin's God ^ | 03/07/2010 | Cornelius Hunter

[messierhunter]

So, according to Einstein, geocentrism is not so much a matter of "right" or "wrong," but a point of view based upon a CS or coordinate system, and, according to him, the debate was rendered moot by General Relativity.

Geocentrism claims that earth is a preferred frame of reference of one reason or another when in fact it is anything but. Even in general relativity, a non-rotating inertial reference frame can be considered preferred because it is the only one in which the laws of physics can be described without explicitly referencing distant masses.

[oldbill]

They all got it wrong.
Barack Obama is the center of the universe.

Just ask him.

[UCANSEE2]

you could also claim that Australia and England are neighbours.

Hail to the Queen!

[James C. Bennett]

Exactly.

Which is why the claim that the Earth is at the centre of the universe, is bull.

You’d have to do a whole circus of academic gymnastics, to account for all physical phenomena, to support that view.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

Now I know why I have never seen a black mountain climber on National Geographic.

And I have never seen a White woman's bare breast in National Geographic. That is because they are racist.

And I referenced latitude, not altitude. If higher latitudes were also at higher altitudes relative to "sea level" (or the ideal rotating oblate spheroid), then the stronger sunlight through thinner air would have aided Blacks in skin production of Vitamin D, offsetting the obliquity of the sun's rays through the atmosphere.

[UCANSEE2]

What church held Ptolemy in thrall, UCANSEE2?

Greek Pagans?

[UCANSEE2]

Where did that superstition come from.

The Sect of the Golden Compass.

[RegulatorCountry]

I’ve seen multiple references and articles over the past few years, regarding a cosmological model attributed to astrophysicist Dr. George Ellis, of a semi-geocentric universe containing a naked singularity as a recycling mechanism, a model that does not require mysterious “dark matter,” messierhunter. It would seem your objections are not entirely valid.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

So, basically if you abstract your view to that level of graininess, you could also claim that Australia and England are neighbours.

Not just neighbors but from the point of view of the Big Bang, exactly the same point. Nothing has moved relative to the edge of spacetime. We are a singularity at the center of a 13.7 billion-year-old event horizon.

[UCANSEE2]

Latitude, Altitude, Attitude... it’s all the same.

Racist.

I bet a black mountain climber could beat a white mountain climber.

[UCANSEE2]

of a semi-geocentric universe containing a naked singularity as a recycling mechanism

That sounds kinda dirty.

[dr_lew]

Ptolemy was Greek, was he not, dr_lew?

He was an Alexandrian Greek, and belonged to late antiquity. His work references observations made between 127 and 151 A.D. The Introduction to the Great Books edition of The Almagest notes:

The geocentric theory of Ptolemy was not the only theory known to the Greeks nor even at times the most accepted. The Pythagoreans, prior to Plato, had theories involving a motion of the earth, and we know that Aristarchus of Samos after Plato had a heliocentric theory which in all essentials was that of Copernicus.

Ptolemy's theory of the planetary motions was a great achievement, but his perfunctory reasoning justifying geocentrism and his insistence on the doctrine that the unchanging Heavens are utterly distinct from the changeable and corruptible sublunary sphere, to which the science of physics is confined, certainly give a premonition of scholasticism, and may even be the same thing; that is, founded on religious doctrine.

Certainly these doctrines are alien to the way of thinking that we see in Aristarchus, whose theorizing seems so modern in style and approach, even though we have only glimpses of it.

[RegulatorCountry]

Most of the Earth centered conceptualism seems to have been borne from the early church, meant in a spiritual way, and then some 'lord' thought it would help his candidacy if he voted it into law.

So, Greek pagans constituted an early church, some "politician" voted geocentrism into law to win election, and it was all an act on Ptolemy's part, to avoid sanction by these Greek pagans?

Do I have your intended meaning right, here?

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

I bet a black mountain climber could beat a white mountain climber.

I bet that is true if there is any overlap in the bell curves at all :-)

[RegulatorCountry]

It’s that Greek pagan influence, they just rolled that way, you know.

[UCANSEE2]

So, Greek pagans constituted an early church, some "politician" voted geocentrism into law to win election, and it was all an act on Ptolemy's part, to avoid sanction by these Greek pagans?

Ptolemy's theory of the planetary motions was a great achievement, but his perfunctory reasoning justifying geocentrism and his insistence on the doctrine that the unchanging Heavens are utterly distinct from the changeable and corruptible sublunary sphere, to which the science of physics is confined, certainly give a premonition of scholasticism, and may even be the same thing; that is, founded on religious doctrine.

Yeah, what Dr_Lew said.

[RegulatorCountry]

You’re just being silly now. Can you successfully paraphrase what you’ve cited? I’m beginning to suspect that you can’t.

[dr_lew]

This book is by Einstein and Infeld, and as per Clark’s biography of Einstein, Infeld approached Einstein with the idea of collaborating on a popular work because he was in financial straits. Einstein was aware of this, and the implication seems to be that he agreed to it as a kindness to Infeld, who pretty much carried the load.

This is not to say that Einstein didn’t actually collaborate, and even if Infeld did the writing I’m sure he would have taken pains to reflect Einstein’s views, which were pretty well known to him. At the same time, one should be careful about attributing any particular implications to Einstein personally.

[RegulatorCountry]

The cite I provided is taken from a question-and-answer format in the book itself, with Albert Einstein answering the questions posed by Infeld, dr_lew.

I provided a link to archive.org. The entire book is available there, for free download. Give it a look.

[UCANSEE2]

Can you successfully paraphrase what you’ve cited?

What I was saying was that it is our 'perception' through history books (altered to fit perception) that before the Sun centered astronomy, we only had Earth centered astronomy, and before that men lived in caves and were quite stupid.

Much of this has to do with the influence of religion.

None of it is true.