Much may be gathered, indirectly, from the arguments in these pages, as to the real nature of the Earth on which we live and of the heavenly bodies which were created for us. The reader is requested to be patient in this matter and not expect a whole flood of light to burst in upon him at once, through the dense clouds of opposition and prejudice which hang all around. Old ideas have to be gotten rid of, by some people, before they can entertain the new; and this will especially be the case in the matter of the Sun, about which we are taught, by Mr. Proctor, as follows: “The globe of the Sun is so much larger than that of the Earth that no less than 1,250,000 globes as large as the Earth would be wanted to make up together a globe as large as the Sun.” Whereas, we know that, as it is demonstrated that the Sun moves round over the Earth, its size is proportionately less. We can then easily understand that Day and Night, and the Seasons are brought about by his daily circuits round in a course concentric with the North, diminishing in their extent to the end of June, and increasing until the end of December, the equatorial region being the area covered by the Sun’s mean motion. If, then, these pages serve but to arouse the spirit of enquiry, the author will be satisfied.
Samuel Birley Rowbotham, under the pseudonym 'Parallax', lectured for two decades up and down Britain promoting his unique flat earth theory. This book, in which he lays out his world system, went through three editions, starting with a 16 page pamphlet published in 1849 and a second edition of 221 pages published in 1865. The third edition of 1881 (which had inflated to 430 pages) was used as the basis of this etext. Rowbotham was an accomplished debater who reputedly steamrollered all opponents, and his followers, who included many well-educated people, were equally tenacious. One of them, John Hampden, got involved in a bet with the famous naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace about the flat earth. An experiment which Hampden proposed didn't resolve the issue, and the two ended up in court in 1876. The judge ruled against Hampton, who started a long campaign of legal harassment of Wallace. Rowbotham hints at the incident in this book. Rowbotham believed that the earth is flat. The contients float on an infinite ocean which somehow has a layer of fire underneath it. The lands we know are surrounded by an infinite wilderness of ice and snow, beyond the Antarctic ocean, bordered by an immense circular ice-cliff. What we call the North Pole is in the center of the earth. The polar projection of the flat earth creates obvious discrepancies with known geography, particularly the farther south you go. Figure 54 inadvertantly illustrates this problem. The Zetetic map has a severly squashed South America and Africa, and Australia and New Zealand in the middle of the Pacific. I think that by the 19th century people would have noticed if Australia and Africa were thousands of miles further apart than expected, let alone if Africa was wider than it was long! The Zetetic Sun, moon, planets and stars are all only a few hundred miles above the surface of the earth. The sun orbits the north pole once a day at a constant altitude. The moon is both self-illuminated and semi-transparent. Eclipses can be explained by some unknown object occulting the sun or moon. Zetetic cosmology is 'faith-based', based, that is, on a literal interpretation of selected Biblical quotes. Hell is exactly as advertised, directly below us. Heaven is not a state of mind, it is a real place, somewhere above us. He uses Ussherian Biblical chronology to mock the concept that stars could be millions of light years away. He attacks the concept of a plurality of worlds because no other world than this one is mentioned in the Bible. Rowbotham never adequately explains his alternative astronomy. If the Copernican theory so adequately explains planetary motions, why discard it, and what would he use in its place? What is the sun orbiting around once a day and how does it work like a spotlight, not a 'point source'? If the moon is self-luminous, what creates its phases? If gravity appears to work here on earth, why doesn't it apply to the celestial objects just a few hundred miles up? To make his system work he had to throw out a great deal of science, including the scientific method itself, using instead what he calls a 'Zetetic' method. As far as I can see this is simply a license to employ circular reasoning (e.g., the earth is flat, hence we can see distant lighthouses, hence the earth is flat). Zetetic Astronomy is a key work of flat-earth thought, just as Donnelly's Atlantis, the Antediluvian World is still considered required reading on the subject of Atlantis. If you ever have to debate the flat earth pro or con, this book is a complete agenda of each point that you'll have to argue.
Samuel Birley Rowbotham advances the Flat Earth theory, which holds that Earth is not in fact an oblate spheroid planet, but an enclosed plane above which the astronomical bodies are situated. This premium edition contains all of Rowbotham's original graphs, charts and drawings. This book began as a pamphlet in the 1840s, explaining the theory with a few sketches alongside. Rowbotham was already an inventor and author, and over time theories of Zetetic Astronomy - in which the Earth is flat - became popular. In 1881 the author expanded and published this book, in part to meet public and scientific scrutiny. Experiments and demonstrations are conducted in support of the Earth being flat, with the astronomical bodies situated above, rather than around it. Most of these are framed with illustrations and diagrams, that the reader understands Rowbotham's notions. Various chapters concern motion of the heavenly bodies, sunrises, sunsets, the tidal movements, and distances of the Sun and Moon from Earth.
-Is the Bible from Heaven? or is the Earth a Globe?- First published as a 95 page soft cover book in 1890 to expound upon these questions. The 402 page second edition was released in 1893. We release this 160 page modern edition of the second portion of that book, Is the Earth A Globe? for new consideration. In this portion Gleason disproves the arguments generally advanced in favor of the so-called Copernican theory, and then proceeds to demonstrate beyond any reasonable doubt, that the earth is not a globe, that it does not move or rotate, that the sun moves, that the moon is not an opaque or non-luminous body, etc. The writer shows to the satisfaction of common sense that the modern universally accepted and taught theoretical astronomy, which claims the earth to be a globe, revolving around the sun, etc., is based on very weak arguments indeed, and that, on the contrary, it is not at all antagonistic to true science to accept the teachings of the Bible as they read. - Lutheran Witness, April 21, 1891
"Earth and Mars relates in images and words the life story of two planets: both born in the dusty disk surrounding the young sun; each shaped by volcanic activity, wind, and water; but only one home to life"--Provided by publisher.
The most popular flat Earth book ever written, translated into over 20 languages, 200 Proofs Earth is Not a Spinning Ball inspired by John Carpenter's 19th century opus "100 Proofs Earth is Not a Globe," doubles the number of natural scientific evidences proving Earth is not a tilting, wobbling, spinning space-ball.Wolves in sheep
2017 Reprint of the original from 1893. Is the Bible from Heaven? Is the Earth a Globe? In Two Parts - Does Modern Science and the Bible Agree? Also, an Accurate Chronology of All Past Time Containing a Classification of All the Eclipses from Creation. Alexander Gleason, creator of the Gleason New Standard Map of the World, makes the case for a flat earth. Includes an accurate chronology of all past time containing a classification of all the eclipses from creation. Over 400 pages of Gleason's original text and illustrations. From the Preface: 'It shall not be the object of this work to promulgate the creeds of men, but such truth as shall prove to be according to that which we shall, without doubt, find to be the standard, regardless of whatever has been our preconceived opinions. If, in the course of this work, we shall show, that there is a God, a Divine ruler and maker of all things, and that the book which we call the Bible is His will and word to you and to all; then do not chide me if I shall depart from the text or title of this work to show some of the mistakes of men.'
Contrary to popular belief fostered in countless school classrooms the world over, Christopher Columbus did not discover that the earth was round. The idea of a spherical world had been widely accepted in educated circles from as early as the fourth century B.C. Yet, bizarrely, it was not until the supposedly more rational nineteenth century that the notion of a flat earth really took hold. Even more bizarrely, it persists to this day, despite Apollo missions and widely publicized pictures of the decidedly spherical Earth from space. Based on a range of original sources, Garwood's history of flat-Earth beliefs---from the Babylonians to the present day---raises issues central to the history and philosophy of science, its relationship to religion and the making of human knowledge about the natural world. Flat Earth is the first definitive study of one of history's most notorious and persistent ideas, and it evokes all the intellectual, philosophical, and spiritual turmoil of the modern age. Ranging from ancient Greece, through Victorian England, to modern-day America, this is a story that encompasses religion, science, and pseudoscience, as well as a spectacular array of people and places. Where else could eccentric aristocrats, fundamentalist preachers, and conspiracy theorists appear alongside Copernicus, Newton, and NASA, except in an account of such a legendary misconception? Thoroughly enjoyable and illuminating, Flat Earth is social and intellectual history at its best.
