Firstly, how can you accept anecdotal observations that support your theory, while rejecting anecdotal observations that contradict it? Wouldn't ALL anecdotal observations then need to be rejected?
Better yet, why not accept *some anecdotal observations of those whose work has been peer-reviewed and put through the ringer by hard-working competitors, and which corroborates well with other things having been demonstrated to solve problems in the past?
Now, before this avalanche of questions that makes believing in FE nowadays seem utterly uneducated, imbecilic, or psychologically impaired,
you should know that there are several ways that YOU personally--can--plainly, with your naked eye--see and even measure the curve of the earth for yourself:
- A. For only $150, using your own small weather balloon, you yourself can send a camera to the edge of space, where you will photograph a curved earth.
You will have to take several photos beforehand of distant, large scenery, (preferably from elevated views) to confirm that the lens doesn't have enough distortion to curve a flat line into a curve as substantial as the one you will obtain. http://www.wired.com/2009/09/the-150-space-camera-mit-students-beat-nasa-on-beer-money-budget/
This will only suffice if you will accept photos that you take yourself. If not, and it needs to be with the naked eye:
B. Hire a helicopter, and ask for a maximum altitude check. You will fly straight up, and can look down directly at the round earth.
C. Go up in a high-altitude balloon and experience the same from even higher.
D. On some airplanes you can look out of the window on your flight and see the curve, especially on a clear day.
E. You can look at any ship going away from you out to sea, and watch at it drops over the horizon. It looks like it's sinking into the ocean; not like it's merely getting smaller, but that parts of it are actually passing below the horizon line. This can only be explained by curvature.
F. Calculate the approx. circumference for yourself, in two ways:
a. use the method here: http://www.wired.com/2011/06/how-to-estimate-the-radius-of-the-earth-with-a-lake
OR
b. Exactly at noon on the summer solstice, find a straight post on reasonably flat ground. Measure the size of its shadow, and the angle it produces to draw a straight line back to two feet high on the post from the tip of the shadow.
*The next year at noon on the summer solstice (or the same day if you have a teammate), go 800-1600km along the same longitude as your first spot. Find a straight post there, and do the same measurement.
*Use their differences to calculate the circumference as determined by your 800-1600km arc. You can google the geometric math for specifics as to how. A similar calculation is described here: https://brilliant.org/discussions/thread/calculating-the-size-of-the-earth
*Note that the only thing that can account for the differences in shadow size is being on a round ball, as long as you took measurements at the same time on the same day.
If you choose not to do any of this, but still reject RE and the observations of others, then you prove yourself truly an imbecile w/out a chance of legitimate debate or investigation.
However if you are at least open to debate that could change either of our minds, here are the questions:
1. When you look through a telescope at any of the other planets for long enough, why are you able to see them and their moons clearly as round, with a shadow cast as a ball has a shadow, right in front of your eyes?
2. How are you able to see their moons orbit them if they are not round?
3. How are you able to see Saturn's rings encircle its globe if it's not round?
4. How are you able to see their poles change angle toward you in three dimensions if not round?
5. How are you able to see the large planets like Jupiter and Saturn clearly spin about their axes if not round?
6. How are you able to see them pass behind the Sun if not orbiting it?
7. These are all things that you, personally, can go and look at plainly through common telescopes. So:
IF we can all at least agree that the OTHER planets and moons we look at are round, (since each of you can look at them yourselves and clearly see that they are with your own eyes), is it more likely or less likely that Earth would be an exception among all of them, and be the only planet that behaves differently?
8. Or does FE claim that Earth is not a planet, but something else entirely???
9. If the earth is flat, why is it that Euclidean Geometry does not work to obtain the shortest path over long distances (such as those traveled by airplanes)?
9a. To further that question, how can it be that a parabola actually produces the shorter route, if the surface is not curved? Why does only non-Euclidean geometry work for determining shortest travel distances over long paths? Are you claiming such is not the case?
10. Why must GPS satellites calculate positions based on a sphere in order to perform accurately?
11. What is Sunset on a flat earth? How could it occur geometrically and still explain how half of the earth is night and half day?
12. Please describe the ice wall that you're saying exists instead of the south pole. How high is it? Can one fly over it? When one does fly over it, does one fly off into space?
13. Are you then claiming that we can launch ourselves into space by flying perpendicular to the "earth's upward acceleration?" merely by flying off over this ice wall?
14. How far does the ice wall extend? Has anyone ever walked upon it? Is there evidence of that walk?
15. Has the FE ice wall ever been documented as observed in any way? Anything? Even one photo or report from the field somehow?
16. Please describe your competence in what lens distortion is and how it works, especially to varying degrees of severity.
17. Also then describe how it's possible that so many photos could be so SEVERELY distorted by a regular lens so as to make a flat object look round, with parts of it fully behind other parts of it and not exposed to the camera, while objects adjacent to it are hardly distorted at all.
18. Are you saying that literally ALL photographs ever taken of the earth have been faked or subject to extreme lens distortion?
19. If we are not accepting photographic evidence of RE, do you believe ANY photos of ANYthing whatsoever? Ever?
20. If you're willing to accept even one photo of anything ever at all (that you didn't take yourself), why are photos of the round earth excluded?
21. If we're not accepting photographs, please at least explain the most likely reason why there have been NONE of a flat earth, EVER, and ONLY photos of a round one.
22. How do seasons occur if we are not on a ball, axially tilted toward a central light and heat source?
23. Explain the phases of the moon, and what causes them, if not orbit and rotation.
24. Explain the tides, and what causes them, if not gravity and orbit.
25. If the earth is not round, and planets not round, then why is it that we must use calculations based on orbits of round objects in order to place satellites into space adequately?
26. Why is it that we can see those satellites orbit us with a common telescope, and how do they lose direct line of sight if not dropping behind the curve of a round earth?
27. Why is it that we must calculate based on those orbits and related signal loss to make our phones work?
28. If the earth is not round, and planets not round, then why have we had to use spherical/orbital calculations in order to successfully land rovers on other planets? Are you claiming that we have not done such?
29. If the earth is not round and gravity does not exist, then what keeps us from losing our atmosphere and ocean?
30. Are the seas supposedly contained by this ice wall?
31. Since the atmosphere would surely be above such ice wall, what prevents it from spilling off over the sides of the earth, into space, as the earth accelerates up toward the atmosphere?
32. If the earth is flat, then how is it that if I fly in any direction along a straight line from any point and don't stop, I will eventually return to exactly where I started from? Do you claim that this will not occur?
33. Astronauts have been to space and claimed to have looked at an unmistakably round earth. If you reject their photographic evidence, do you also claim they are lying or delusional about what they have seen??
Good luck, be well, and remain open-minded.