How to Make the Earth Seem Flat

If you know me, what I'm about to say might come as a bit of a shock, so I'm just going to throw it out there: I kinda think the earth might be flat. Not only that, I think the sun and moon might be much smaller and closer to us than we've been told--maybe just a few miles above the earth. I know it sounds crazy, but I just can't ignore what I've seen with my own eyes. Before you decide I've lost my mind, just consider a couple of pictures I want to show you--pictures I took myself. Stay with me for just a minute, and try to forget all you've heard from the "experts" about the shape of the earth, and the distance to the sun and moon, and look at the evidence for yourself.

Here's the first picture:

I took it from just east of Denver, looking toward the Front Range of the Rockies. I'm sure you've
seen sunbeams--technically called crepuscular rays--before. But have you ever wondered why they diverge outward like this? They shouldn't do that. If the sun is really 93 million miles away, and much bigger than the earth, then sunbeams should be almost perfectly parallel. Any divergence as the rays cross the relatively tiny distance across earth would be miniscule. But these clearly aren't parallel. If you really look, and forget what you've been told, you can see that they seem to be coming from a small source not that far above the mountains. The foothills in the foreground in this image are about 3,000 feet higher than the plains. If you use them as a ruler and count upward, you can see that the source of the sunbeams is about 6 times as high as the mountains--say, 18,000 feet up. That's nothing! There are clouds higher than that! And that brings me to my next picture:

It's a picture of the moon, and it's definitely not going to win any photography prizes. I'm sharing it
because I took it myself, so I know it hasn't been doctored in any way except that I cropped it to give a closer look at the moon. And "close" is the operative word here! If you look at that image, you can clearly see that the cloud in the picture is behind the moon! How could that be if the moon is over 200,000 miles away? If clouds are behind the moon, it can't be more than a few miles up. Maybe that sounds crazy, but should I just disregard the evidence of my own eyes...evidence I can capture in a camera and share with you, so you can see it for yourself?

The answer is yes, yes I should, and so should you. It's time to come clean: I don't really believe the earth is flat, or that the sun and moon are just a few miles above us. I did take both of those pictures, but what they to show are illusions. The first one, with the sunbeams, is one of the most compelling optical illusions I know. As I said, if the sun is really huge and millions of miles from earth, then its rays should be almost perfectly parallel; as parallel as a set of train tracks. And they are. The picture below shows crepuscular rays from space as the sun sets. They are clearly parallel. But if you were standing on the earth's surface, they would appear to diverge, for the same reason train tracks appear to diverge: perspective. The apparent divergence is a mind-boggling illusion, but an illusion nonetheless. This video explains it in more detail (and in a pleasing Scottish accent.)

As for the image of the clouds behind the moon, that's a little easier to explain. The disc of the moon at night is simply quite bright compared to the surrounding scenery, and many clouds are partly translucent. When clouds appear to be behind the moon, what's happening is that the moon is shining through the clouds. In a photograph like the one I shared, the moon's bright disc is so overexposed that you can see no trace of the clouds in front of it (you can't see the moons craters and valleys, either.) This article and video explains how the effect happens (it actually discusses the sun, which can also seem to be in front of clouds, for the same reason).

So, why am I messing with you like this, pretending to think the earth is flat, and the sun and moon are just a few miles above out heads? I'm not just being a troll, I hope. The point I want to make is that it's really easy to cast doubt on sound, established scientific facts. The earth is round, vaccines save lives, the earth is getting warmer, and life evolved through a process of evolution by natural selection. These are all well-established tenets of modern science, but if you want to find apparently compelling arguments against them online, you can. (In fact, the arguments against them are easier to find than the arguments for them). And if you're like me, reading these anti-science arguments will give you a deeply uneasy feeling. You'll think, "This sounds kinda reasonable. What if I'm the one that's deluded here?" Perhaps you had a similar feeling reading the first part of this post, for which a more honest title would be "Why I Think the Earth is Flat...for Just a Second...When I Talk to Flat-Earthers." If you're like me, you go around assuming that most people are basically honest and have a firm grip on reality. So if someone shows you apparently-compelling evidence that the earth is flat, you may start questioning your own grip on reality. I do, anyway. It's the same reason gaslighting is an effective--and truly evil--way of making someone question their own sanity. A flat-earther who makes you seriously consider his arguments may not mean to be gaslighting you, because he believes them himself, but that's effectively what he's doing.

As I mentioned, this gaslighting effect happens because we tend to think most people are basically honest and in touch with reality. Sadly, this isn't true. Some people are unabashed liars, but what's far more common is that otherwise-sane people are simply delusional about some things. This is natural. We are small creatures in a very large, complex universe, and our brains are easily fooled (for evidence of this, take a look at these optical illusions). We are so easily fooled that for most of human existence, common sense said that the planet we spent every day of our lives on was flat. And common sense was wrong. That's how limited our perception is. That's how prone to illusion we are. Science is a way of expanding our perception and systematically finding and dispelling our illusions. But many don't see it that way. They trust their own perceptions far more, and see science as a vast and sinister plot, cooked up by an global elite to make money and lead good people astray.

For example, I just had a conversation on Facebook with one of these people--a man who truly does believe the earth is flat. And he wasn't totally insane. He could express himself rather clearly, and he seems to be a fairly functional member of society. Yet he believes in a vision of the cosmos that's been debunked since Aristotle. Not only that, but he also believes that everything we've been told about a round earth is part of a massive, sinister conspiracy: The moon landing was faked. Satellite images of a round earth on the evening weather are faked. Antarctica is a giant, icy wall encircling the flat disc of the earth, guarded by NASA to keep people from learning the truth. He is sane in many ways, but on this topic he is utterly delusional.

The problem is that for a while, he can sound somewhat convincing, by repeating some of the same claims I repeated above. Because our brains are so prone to illusion, it's easy to find very bad arguments that can seem very convincing, and can be very hard to refute. And it's not just flat-earthers. Many other delusional people can sound just as convincing, and the Internet is full of their arguments--sometimes presented on very professional-looking websites. And that's what really worries me. In an age when we've defeated smallpox, landed remote control cars on Mars, and cracked the genetic code, more and more people are rejecting basic tenets of science, because they're reading anti-science websites on the internet. The ranks of flat-earthers, moon landing conspiracists, and antivaxxers are growing. It's enough to make me worry that the wonder of modern technology known as the Internet could usher us into a new Dark Age of ignorance and superstition, where people reject the hard-won discoveries of science in favor of something they saw by some guy with a YouTube channel. It may sound far-fetched, but it's happening all around us. And we have to find a way to stop it. Whatever problems the world has now, we're a lot better off than we were in the Dark Ages.

True Magic; Real Miracles

One of [the brain's] functions is to make the miraculous seem ordinary, to turn the unusual into the usual. Otherwise, human beings, faced with the daily wondrousness of everything, would go around wearing a stupid grin, saying “Wow,” a lot. Part of the brain exists to stop this from happening.  - Terry Pratchett

It doesn't stop being magic just because you know how it works. - Terry Pratchett, again 

The Raising of Lazarus

As a skeptic, I'm sometimes accused of being blind to the possibility of magic and miracles. But the fact is, I see miracles every single day. Just this morning, for example, I woke up on a great spinning sphere in space, just as it turned to slowly reveal another, gigantic sphere; one too brilliant to even look at directly. The big sphere was turning mass into energy, just as Einstein described, and I could feel the results warming my skin from 93 million miles away. All along the streets were living organisms taller than houses, also bathed in the morning light. They had used the light over the years to build themselves out of little more than air and water. Some had covered themselves in flowers. The best jeweler in history couldn't have made a single one of those flowers, and the trees were making them by the thousands, without even thinking about it. In one of the trees was a small, feathered dinosaur. It made a laughing sound that told me it was a woodpecker, and then it flew away. It was a fantastical, wondrous scene. I was surrounded by magic; encircled by miracles. We don't usually think of a scene like that in those terms, but that's only because we've so used to seeing amazing things every day that we take them for granted.

And those are just everyday miracles; commonplace magic. Every week or so I'm treated to a something unusually miraculous. Not long ago I looked out my window before sunrise, and saw Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars, the Moon, and Jupiter lined up across the sky. Six other worlds, and I was looking right at them across millions of miles of space. Is that not incredible? And then, last week I was walking to work and saw a puddle with a thin skin of patterned ice on top. The ice crystals had grown from a single point in the middle of the puddle; radiating and branching outward in six directions like a giant snowflake. Countless water molecules--far more than all the people who have ever lived on earth--had been milling around in watery chaos, and then lined up in perfect rank and file to create a symmetrical pattern. Order had emerged from disorder, spontaneously, as the puddle cooled. It was a miracle, right there in a mud puddle. I stared at it, and thought about how an analogous process occurred at the birth of the universe, when the universe cooled and expanded, creating pockets of order that would become stars, galaxies, and eventually, trees and woodpeckers.

Now, some readers will object to me calling these things miracles, or magic. And I'll admit I'm using both words in a particular sense. According to Merriam-Webster Online, a miracle is "an unusual or wonderful event that is believed to be caused by the power of God". That's the first definition listed. I'm using the word in the sense of the second definition: "a very amazing or unusual event, thing, or achievement." Similarly, I'm not using the word "magic" in this most common sense: "a power that allows people (such as witches and wizards) to do impossible things by saying special words or performing special actions." I'm using it in a more metaphorical sense, as in "that was a magical sunset".

Most people who talk about miracles and magic have something very different in mind than I do, and different people prefer different words. The ones who talk about miracles are usually religious--they see miracles as acts of God that suspend the ordinary laws of nature: things like Jesus walking on water or rising from the dead. Magic, by contrast, is something that's more likely to be embraced by people in the New Age or occult movements. They're impressed by mysterious alleged phenomena that seem unexplained by science: auras, ESP, astrology, healing properties of crystals, spells, magical potions, and so on. In either case, the key point is that people are more impressed by alleged violations of natural law than by natural law itself. That's why they will probably find my examples of magic and miracles unsatisfying--a poor substitute for the real thing.

I have the opposite opinion. I think the kind of miracles and magic I'm talking about are FAR more impressive and awe-inspiring than accounts of people walking on water or reading minds. Why? Because they're demonstrably real. They clearly exist in the real world, and that, in my opinion, is a distinct advantage. Things like auras and resurrection do not clearly exist; at least not in any easily demonstrable way. If they were easy to demonstrate, people wouldn't think of them as miraculous or magical (in the usual sense of those terms). They would just be part of everyday life, and people would stop seeing the wonder in them, the way they've stopped seeing the wonder in ice crystals and the sun. We would have long ago started taking them for granted.

Of course, I can't prove that miracles and magic, in the sense of violations of natural law, don't exist. I can't prove that Jesus didn't walk on water, or that my being a Pisces tells me absolutely nothing about my personality or destiny, or that magic spells are useless. But I think these are fairly safe assumptions. I could get into why I think that, but that's a big topic that would make this post much too long, so I'll just touch on a couple of points.

First the "magical" things that impress New Agers and occultists: There is no good evidence that they work, and no known mechanism by which most of them could work. There's no force known to science that could explain how an arrangement of stars in the sky could influence your personality or destiny. There's no force known to science that could explain how crystals could heal you. Of course, it could be that they work because of forces science hasn't yet discovered, but there's no evidence for that, either, because there's no evidence that they work at all.

As for miracles, I look at reports of miracles in much the way David Hume did:

When anyone tells me, that he saw a dead man restored to life, I immediately consider with myself, whether it be more probable, that this person should either deceive or be deceived, or that the fact, which he relates, should really have happened. I weigh the one miracle against the other; and according to the superiority, which I discover, I pronounce my decision, and always reject the greater miracle. 

In other words, which is more plausible--that a dead man came back to life, or that a few people mistakenly believed he did? How many times have you talked to someone who was mistaken? And how many times have you seen someone come back from the dead?

Another issue I want to raise about miracles is one noted by the philosopher James Keller. Lots of people believe that if someone makes an unexpected recovery from cancer, for example, it means God performed a miracle. But what about all the people who don't recover? Why would God single out one person to miraculously save, and let all the others die? Or, as Keller put it, "If God intervenes to save your life in a car crash, then what was he doing in Auschwitz?" If God cured your cancer, why didn't he do anything about the child rapes and terrorist attacks we read about in the papers?

As I said, though, this isn't the place to get into a deep discussion of the plausibility of miracles and magic. You could write a whole book about it, and others are better qualified than me. The point I want to make is about what we should think of as a miracle. What should we consider magical? Does something have to violate the laws of nature to merit our awe? I don't think it does. In fact, I think people all too often become blind to the real wonders in this world because they're looking for imagined ones.

One reason I know this is that I work in a public library. Every day, I help people find books on things like astrology, witchcraft, angels, ancient aliens, crystal healing, Nostradamus, demons, bigfoot and other things that are entirely at odds with a scientific understanding of the universe. If someone asks for books on astronomy, I can usually assume they really mean astrology, and don't know there's a difference. If they use the word "quantum", they almost always want some kind of New Age pseudoscience that has nothing to do with the actual science of quantum mechanics (again, they don't usually know the difference). And how often do people ask for actual science? Maybe once every six months. Maybe. If I do some very rough math, that means the general public is about 150 times as interested in alleged violations of natural law as they are in learning about natural law itself.

Why is this? Why is it that people are so much more excited about what is unexplained (and often completely made up) than what is explained? It's really bizarre, when you think about it. Consider this discussion of miracles by Thomas Aquinas:

an astronomer is not astonished when he sees an eclipse of the sun, for he knows the cause; whereas one who is ignorant of this science must needs wonder, since he knows not the cause. Wherefore it is wonderful to the latter but not to the former. Accordingly a thing is wonderful simply, when its cause is hidden simply: and this is what we mean by a miracle, to wit, that is wonderful in itself and not only in respect of this person or that. Now God is the cause which is hidden to every man simply: for we have proved above that in this state of life no man can comprehend Him by his intellect. 

Aquinas is defining a miracle as that whose cause is hidden to everyone, not just the ignorant. It's an interesting argument, and he was a brilliant man, but consider what he's saying in the first part of that quotation, "one who is ignorant of this science must needs wonder." Here wonder can mean two different things: to ponder how a thing can be, and to be amazed (it's telling that we use the same word for both). If we think of wonder as being amazed, then Aquinas is saying that the more ignorant people are about a thing, the more amazing they will find it. And he's right! That's usually how it works. Human nature is such that what we wonder about--what we are ignorant of--is what seems wonder-ful.

That's our natural impulse, but does it make sense? Why should things be more amazing the more ignorant we are about them? Why shouldn't knowing more about something make it even more amazing? For example, if I look up at the planet Saturn, and didn't know anything about it, all I would see is an unusually bright star. But when I read more about it, I discover its true wonders: how it has rings, colorful bands, and a whole litter of moons; how it rains helium there, and how hundreds of Earths could fit inside it. All these things make Saturn more amazing, not less. They make it more magical. More miraculous. Not because they violate any laws of nature, but because they show us how much more incredible it is than it seems when we first see that little bright dot in the sky.

What I want to ask with this post then, is whether we should reconsider what we think of as magical or miraculous. What if the real miracles aren't things that violate the laws of nature--it's not even clear that such things exist--but are instead the incredible things all around us; the things we've become so used to that we've forgotten how incredible they really are? What if the goal of spirituality isn't to find miracles and magic in the sense of violations of natural law, but to learn to see what's miraculous about the real world? If so, then the true magic--the real miracles--are the things that surround us every day of our lives.

What Would Cruz Do? Comparing Ted Cruz with Jesus

Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy. - Matthew 5.7 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. - Matthew 6:15	Defended the death penalty twice before the Supreme Court as Texas Solicitor General. Also as Solicitor General, argued before the Supreme Court that a man should serve 16 years in prison for stealing a calculator.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. - Luke 6:31	Voted against a bill to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me. - Matthew 25:42-13 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? - Matthew 5:46-47	Argued before the Supreme Court that Texas should not have to comply with a federal program improving healthcare for young, impoverished children. Voted against a bill extending funding for food stamps.
When asked what is the greatest commandment, Jesus responded: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” - Matthew 22:32-40	Described Ayn Rand as "one of my all-time heroes". Rand was an outspoken atheist whose philosophy is captured well in the title of one of her books: The Virtue of Selfishness. One of her sayings: "Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life."
You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? - Matthew 5:43-47 You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth. But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. - Matthew 5:38-39	"rather than respond to radical Islam and terrorism with a commitment from the president to keep this nation safe–to kill the terrorists–instead, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton refuse to even utter the words “radical Islamic terrorism.”
Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God. - Matthew 5:9 "Put your sword back in its place," Jesus said to him, "for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. - Matthew 26.52	"We will carpet bomb them into oblivion. I don’t know if sand can glow in the dark, but we’re going to find out." "You don’t get rid of the bad guys by getting rid of our guns. You get rid of the bad guys by using our guns." Voted against bills regulating assault weapons and high-capacity clips.
And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother’s eye. - Luke 6:41-42 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles?"	See all the other statements in this table by Cruz, who talks constantly about his Christianity. I will let readers decide whether his words and actions (his "fruits") sound like those of Jesus.