engineering dogma bleep pisses me off and people who practice it need to be beaten with iron bars.
Or better yet, bars of Rearden Metal? :)
usually the chance that the fundamentals of physics turn out to be wrong is neglected compared to more immediate dangers.
Sure sure. That's why I try to take as much physics as possible for granted when discussing FE theory. But stuff like optics, electromagnetism, general relativity -- they don't give us any information about the shape of the Earth, not directly at least, so there's some wiggle room.
Anyway, for me at least, this forum is not a venue for determining the Real Truth about the Earth's Shape, but rather, determining the Real Truth about How We Ought To Go About Finding Real Truth.
Don't tell anybody I said that, though.
As far as neglecting the chance that those laws are correct... sure, most people don't bother. But we're a very small chunk of the population. I'm sure the academic community can spare that much personnel :)
-Erasmus