Cassiterides #fundie

Cassiterides #fundie evolutionfairytale.com

A scientist in 1899 claimed the diameter is only 32 miles, some of his points made are very interesting.

''The sun is always somewhere between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, a distance admitted to be less than 3,000 miles; how then can the sun if it be so many thousand miles in diameter, squeece itself into a space of about 3,000 miles only...can a camel ride on a mouse, or a whale rush down the throat of a herring?

What is the diameter of the sun?

32 miles. If the navigator neglects to apply the sun's semi-diameter to his observation at sea, he is 16 nautical miles (nearly) in calculating the position his ship is in. A minute of arc on the sextant represents a nautical mile, and if the semi-diameter be 16 miles, the diameter is of course 32 miles. And as measured by the sextant, the sun's diameter is 32 minutes of arc, that is 32 nautical miles in diameter. If ever dispoof is attempted, it will be a literary curiosity, well worth framing.''

[later in the same thread]

I asked how you know the distance to the sun. You are claiming it's not an estimate but that you know the precise figure. So have you traveled to the sun and back? My point was to clarify the distinction between fact and estimates (guesses).
I'm open minded and read different theories. Unless you go up into space yourself there is no way of proving the exact size of the sun or location of celestial objects. It appears you base all your faith in what NASA etc tell you without ever questioning anything. I thought atheists were meant to be 'skeptics'?

92 comments

old comment by Anon-e-moose

As far back as in ancient Greece, mathematicians not only discovered that the world as spherical (and way before the description of Earth, re. Genesis), but calculated it's diameter with some accuracy too. And it certainly wasn't 32 miles.

Even the likes of Vasco Da Gama would've told you that the world is a hell of a lot more than 32 miles in diameter.

But then, that's what science is about. The refining of theories as new information is found, thus increasing knowledge about the world, solar system and the universe around us.

According to your Bible, Pi = exactly 3:

Whereas science proves otherwise. The ancient Greek mathematicians knew this way before Christianity even existed.

Even astronomers centuries ago were able to determine that the Sun is far bigger than any of the planets in our solar system. And all down to mathematics, the basis of science. NASA's obsevations (especially via solar probes) merely confirm their calculations, but with greater accuracy. Again, refining theories and thus increasing knowledge.

Consider yourself - and thus your beliefs, Cassiterides - comprehensively owned.

@Canadia

"Prove them wrong, go sit on the sun and attempt to measure it."

Cassiterides would probably travel to the sun, setting off during the hours of darkness, when it's cooler.

X3 ;)

--EDIT--

Clicking on the quote link, seems that Cassiterides is nothing more than at best a Flat Earther Poe/troll, at worst a stubborn fundie who is in complete denial of all the scientific facts (especially the glaringly obvious one that if the world is '32 miles in diameter', then even the UK at it's thinnest is wider than the planet itself!), and basically doing the intellectual equivalent of sticking his fingers in his ears and shouting 'LA-LA-LA! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!'. Sad, really. But that's fundies all over.

Ergo, the superiority of Atheism. QED.

old comment by Count Dribbler

32 miles! Are you crazy or what? The sun's no bigger than the tip of my finger. OK I know it's a bit higher than Mount Everest, the sun that is, not the tip of my finger, except for when I'm standing on the top of Everest with my hand pointing up, but even so, it can't really be any bigger than a double decker bus, the sun that is, not the tip of my finger. You drooling creationists haven't a clue have you? It's simple math. 2 * Pi / 368758.967853479865577779999995 * 1.5 / o + 0000000.000000000000000000000000000000001 or Pi = 3 / 0 or 25 and a half times the diameter of a pixie's thumb at a distance of 3 trillion miles. Get a grip mate.

old comment by Joe Mama

Yes, the sun really is 32 miles in diameter, and it travels through the sky. Sometimes it bumps into stars and they fall, which is what are known as meteorites. At night, it might be the moon bumping into them. And when it rains, it's just the floodgates opening allowing the upper waters to fall down to the lower waters on earth. Thunder is just the sound of the floodgates opening. Clouds are where angels live, and God is up there too. At the top of Mt. Everest, you can see the entire world because it's the tallest mountain and the earth is flat. And when the sun sets in the western sea, it makes the water rise and that gives us the tides.

Fundie science is fun!

old comment by Prof. Bill Hill

Whenever a question of scientific validity comes up, please always remember the golden rule:- Consult a first-class science text. So, in a spirit of scientific accuracy, and practicing what I preach, I open the greatest scientific authority known to man, the Bible as written by King James's royal scientists.

Turn to the chapter on the sizes of the celestial bodies, Obadiah 1:15.

For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.

Now, the last word is head. Let the number of letters from the d of head be counted backwards to the first letter, h, there should be 4 letters. Now take the preceding word, own, and add up the blank spaces to either side of it, there should be 2 spaces. Now multiply the number of spaces by the number of letters (2 x 4) and you should obtain 8. Now carefully counting back 8 letters and spaces from the last letter of the word be, which you should find to be e, you will eventually arrive at the s of shall. So we know that the celestial body begins with s. The second letter of shall is not a, so it can't be referring to Saturn, therefore, it must be referring to the sun. Sun has 3 letters, the previous figure we arrived at was 8. So if we multiply 3 x 8 we get the diameter of the sun, which is 24 inches.

So the sun has a diameter of 24 inches. We know that that is the real diameter because it is in the Bible and should end further dispute on the subject. Easy when you know how. Like I say, consult the best science text book ever written, the Bible, and you won't be far wrong. In fact, you'll be perfectly correct.

old comment by GodotIsWaiting4U

"Semi-diameter"

The fact that you don't know the word "radius" is unbelievably telling.

As for the distance from the Earth to the Sun, it's called trigonometry and parallax view, bitch. We can measure its distance with good old pre-calculus, for near-perfect accuracy. Two observers at different points on the Earth can measure the angle from their location to the Sun at the same time. From there, we know two angles and the length of one side of the triangle that these three bodies form (the two observers and the Sun), and it's a simply matter to determine the other angle and the two remaining legs.

It's almost as though you know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about astronomy.

old comment by Swede

A manager of a patents office in 1899 (or thereabout) is supposed to have said that they could close down, that everything was already invented. (It might just have been a joke, though.)
In other words; what people knew, or thought they knew 120 years ago is of little or no importance if it hasn't been corroborated in recent years.

The sun is smaller than my thumb, and the moon is sometimes larger than the sun. I've held up my thumb towards the sky and it always covers the sun, but it doesn't always cover the moon. So there!

I'd say the distance is closer to fact than estimates, and definitely closer to fact than guesses. Estimates and guesses are not the same.

Yes, we are skeptics, but we accept evidence-based facts.