The Flat Earth Theory is True. The Round Earth Theory is False.

It's unfortunate that Pro did not post an argument. I was looking forward to it. I will just post something I have prepared in response to his initial argument from another debate about Flat Earth regarding intuition. I will also begin with one simple proof that the Earth is not flat along with a refutation of the Monopole model of the Earth that is used by The Flat Earth Society. IntuitionScience is not bounded by intuition alone; it is merely the starting point. When discovering empirical truths about the external world, intuition (much likely a biblical text) can serve to function as a device to form a hypothesis. The scientific method requires that we define the question, form a hypothesis, test it, adjust, and then test again. Repeat until you have something that can be reproduced consistently. Flat Earth Theory (FET) was once a sound theory because it gave results that were fairly good by the measurement standards of the time. At such a time the general feeling was that the earth was flat. Over a considerable length, how much does the surface deviate (on the average) from perfect flatness? The FET would make it seem that the surface doesn’t deviate from flatness at all, that its curvature is 0 to the mile. This isn’t terribly wrong because it is certainly close. The curvature of the Earth is nearly 0 per mile, so that although the FET is wrong, it happens to be nearly right.Teacher: How much is 2 + 2?Joseph: 2 + 2 = purpleMaxwell: 2 + 2 = 17.Both are wrong but isn’t it fair to say that Joseph is more wrong than Maxwell?Suppose you said: 2 + 2 = an integer. You’d be right, wouldn’t you? Or suppose you said: 2 + 2 = an even integer. You’d be righter. Or suppose you said: 2 + 2 = 3.999. Wouldn’t you be nearly right?The curvature of the Earth is about 0.000126 per mile, a quantity very close to 0 per mile. For the time of the ancients, such a curvature was immeasurable by the techniques at their disposal. The tiny difference between 0 and 0.000126 accounts for the fact that it took so long to pass from the flat Earth to the spherical Earth.Apparent Movement of Celestial ObjectsThe video above is a time lapse video of the rotation of stars somewhere in the northern hemisphere. The star directly center of this rotation is known as Polaris and is otherwise known as the North Star. http://www.youtube.com...Pole StarsWhile other stars' apparent positions in the sky change throughout the night, as they appear to rotate around the celestial poles, pole stars' apparent positions remain virtually fixed. This makes them especially useful in celestial navigation and their angle of elevation can also be used to determine latitude.Looking at Polaris from the north pole shows its position directly overhead and as one travels south its angle in the celestial sphere will gradually move toward the horizon until an observer meets the equator. From there an observer can see both Polaris and the Southern Cross. Currently, there is no South Star as useful as Polaris. Sigma Octantis is the star closest to the south Celestial pole, but at apparent magnitude 5.45 it is barely visible on a clear night, making it unusable for navigational purposes so the Southern Cross constellation functions as an approximate southern pole constellation, by pointing to where a southern pole star would be. As an observer continues southward toward the south pole the Southern Cross will gradually rise until it is overhead. If the observer pressed on and traversed all the way back to the north pole but this time on the opposite side of earth the Southern Cross and Polaris would behave again the same way but on the opposite side of the night sky.Rise and Set StarsDuring the rotation of the earth, some stars rise from below the eastern horizon and later set below the western horizon. Appropriately enough, these stars are called rise and set stars.The angle rise and set stars (including the sun) make with the horizon as they rise is the same for all rise and set stars for that observer. Specifically, the angle is 90° minus the observer's latitude. They make this same angle in the west. In the northern hemisphere the angle is tilted towards the south and in the southern hemisphere the angle is tilted towards the north.Circumpolar & Never-Rise StarsStars near the celestial poles make small circles and may not pass the horizon plane. If they are always above the horizon they are called circumpolar stars. If they are always below the horizon they are never rise stars. Circumpolar stars for the northern hemisphere are never-rise stars for the southern hemisphere and vice versa.ExampleAs time passes, the stars rise in the east (just like the sun). But notice that they rise diagonally, not straight up. The diagonal goes from north (left) to south (right). After a few hours, these same stars will appear high in the southern sky.Turning to face south, we see that the stars there are moving from left (east) to right (west): By now you can probably guess that stars set in the western sky, again along a diagonal: And in the north, the motion is most interesting. Stars rise in the northeast and set in the northwest, moving in counter-clockwise circles around a point that's high above the northern horizon: Feel free to follow http://physics.weber.edu... to use an applet that can show you these rotations from any location and at any time.The Flat Earth Society's Monopole Model of the EarthOne of the FE models is that of a disk centered around the North Pole, with "Antarctica" circling the circumference as the Ice Wall. The FE explanation for sunsets is that the sun gets far enough away such that it appears to sink into the horizon and/or it's light can no longer reach us. Since sunrise and sunsets happen at very predictable times then this distance needs to be constant. That is, sunsets are hardly dependent on atmospheric conditions if they're dependent on that at all.However, if you actually map out sunrise and sunsets on this single-poled model, you find that this distance changes dramatically throughout a year. For me it changes by a whole 13.8% of the distance between the north pole and the equator!Below you can see the to-scale diagram of this. The red is during the summer solstice, the blue during an equinox, and the green during the winter solstice. The dotted lines represent the distance from the sun to me during that time. Notice how they're all different sizes?Thus, because this model is inconsistent with FE arguments (mainly sunset is caused by distance), it can be safely thrown into the garbage.