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"Zetetic cosmogony" refers to the flat-Earth model proposed by 19th-century writer Samuel Birley Rowbotham, which relies purely on "sense-perception" rather than scientific instrumentation and mathematics. The theory has been thoroughly debunked by multiple branches of science, repeatable experiments, and direct observation over the last two millennia.
Core Flaws of the Zetetic Method
The "Zetetic" method is based on the idea that if the Earth "looks flat," it is flat, dismissing scientific instruments and mathematics as unreliable. However, this method has fundamental flaws:
- Senses can be deceived: Human senses and common sense are limited by perspective and scale. Optical illusions, atmospheric refraction, gravity, germs, and radiation are all real phenomena that are not visible to the naked eye. Science uses precise instruments to measure reality beyond appearances.
- Lack of controls and repeatability: Rowbotham's "experiments" (such as the Bedford Level experiment) failed to account for variables like atmospheric refraction and dismissed inconvenient data, making their results unscientific. True scientific experiments must be controlled, repeatable, and peer-reviewed.
- Denial of established physics: The model requires the invention of new forces and laws of nature without evidence and outright denial of known physics, such as gravity and the Coriolis effect.
Scientific Evidence Debunking Zetetic Claims
Overwhelming evidence from multiple scientific disciplines confirms the Earth is a sphere:
- Geometry and Astronomy: As deduced by the ancient Greeks, the Earth's spherical shape is evident during lunar eclipses, when its shadow on the moon is always round, regardless of orientation. Eratosthenes used geometry and the angle of shadows in different locations to accurately estimate Earth's circumference over 2,000 years ago.
- Physics and Navigation:
- Gravity: Gravity pulls mass toward the center of a sphere, a force that cannot exist in the same way on a flat plane.
- Circumnavigation: People have sailed and flown around the globe, returning to their starting points without falling off an "edge". Modern commercial airline routes and navigation systems rely entirely on a spherical model of Earth.
- Horizon: Ships disappear hull-first over the horizon when sailing away, a clear visual indicator of the Earth's curvature.
- Direct Observation and Technology:
- Space Travel: Photos and videos from space, satellites, the International Space Station (ISS), and crewed space missions provide direct, irrefutable visual confirmation of a spherical Earth.
- Satellites and GPS: The global positioning system (GPS), satellite communications, and global weather monitoring rely on a network of satellites orbiting a spherical planet.
In summary, the zetetic cosmogony is classified as a form of science denial and pseudoscience, contradicting millennia of accumulated scientific evidence, measurements, and direct observation.