Anti-heliocentrism: Gob-smacked and dumbfounded

Posted on May 20, 2007
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When it comes to religion the age-old battle is faith vs. science. So be it, maybe that battle will never be settled. But I had taken it to be a truism that we could all at least accept some science to be true, such basic concepts as gravity pulls towards the centre of mass, white light is made up of a complete spectrum of other colours, and the Sun is the centre of our solar system and the Earth revolves around it along with all the other planets.

I don’t know about the status of the first two points but it appears that there is a genuine movement in the United States that is adamantely against the notion that the Earth revolves around the Sun (aka the Heliocentric - Helio = sun, centric = centred) model of our solar system:

Heliocentrism is an Atheist Doctrine

What’s even worse than the debate raging in American schools about the teaching of the soulless doctrine of evolution, is the non-debate over an issue that rational Americans have foolishly conceded to the secular among us: the issue of Heliocentrism, or the idea that the Earth revolves around the Sun.
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However, for both moral and theological reasons, we should always bear in mind that the Earth does not move. If it moved, we would feel it moving. That’s called empiricism, the experience of the senses.

The article goes on to cite a bunch of biblical passages as “evidence” to discount a rather rock-solid foundation of sound scientific evidence amassed over the past 500 years (or more, depending on which society you live in; for more details see Heliocentrism) and then wraps up with the usual inane, inarticulate ramblings that such zealots usually seem to traipse out as “proof” for their cause.

I was ready to write this article off as the ramblings of one lone imbecile until I started reading the comments. Some people genuinely believe it, not on any scientific or rational basis but simply because a heavily-edited, biased old book tells them to. They truly believe it.

I am dumbfounded.

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