I never suggested they had planet formation figured out. Their current guesses seem stupid to me. Truth is they have no idea how planets form.
As far as Gravity goes, the ad-hoc hypothesis known as Dark Matter is pretty good evidence that they don't really understand gravity all that well.
It would be symmetrical from our point of view. It would be asymmetrical looking at it from the side, which we never see.
The broader point here is that you don't have to understand planet formation, tidal locking of orbiting bodies, or angular momentum to evaluate how things appear for the purposes of determining the size and shape of the Earth.
"You don't understand planet formation" is a terrible argument that the Earth is concave.
And likewise "We don't fully understand gravity" is also not an argument the Earth is concave, or flat, or round.
But we observe lots of planetary bodies tidally locked, so that's not even uncommon. And planets do form, we just don't know how.
None of those things change the fact that when I observe the sun and moon, the only model that fits well is round earth.
When I apply the round earth model, everything I observe falls into place. The sun is the same size at dawn as it is at noon. Day and night across the planet make sense. Seasons. The moon.
I dont know where the moon came from, or where the Earth came from. I don't know what the sun is made out of, or how far away it is.
But when I observe the world around me, the sun, the moon, ships on the horizon, and my friend in China with his cell phone to call me when it's dawn in China... the only model of our solar system I've found that makes sense is a round earth... so that's what I'm going with... at least until someone shows me a better model.
I dont need to know how planets are formed or why the moon orbits the way it does to know the Earth is round.
As far as Gravity goes, the ad-hoc hypothesis known as Dark Matter is pretty good evidence that they don't really understand gravity all that well.
2) The moon exhibits no signs of tidal bulging and appears symmetrical.
The broader point here is that you don't have to understand planet formation, tidal locking of orbiting bodies, or angular momentum to evaluate how things appear for the purposes of determining the size and shape of the Earth.
"You don't understand planet formation" is a terrible argument that the Earth is concave.
And likewise "We don't fully understand gravity" is also not an argument the Earth is concave, or flat, or round.
But we observe lots of planetary bodies tidally locked, so that's not even uncommon. And planets do form, we just don't know how.
None of those things change the fact that when I observe the sun and moon, the only model that fits well is round earth.
When I apply the round earth model, everything I observe falls into place. The sun is the same size at dawn as it is at noon. Day and night across the planet make sense. Seasons. The moon.
I dont know where the moon came from, or where the Earth came from. I don't know what the sun is made out of, or how far away it is.
But when I observe the world around me, the sun, the moon, ships on the horizon, and my friend in China with his cell phone to call me when it's dawn in China... the only model of our solar system I've found that makes sense is a round earth... so that's what I'm going with... at least until someone shows me a better model.
I dont need to know how planets are formed or why the moon orbits the way it does to know the Earth is round.