[Avodah] Geocentrism

[Joel C. Salomon]

On Wed, Jul 24, 2013 at 3:48 PM, Eliyahu Grossman
<Eliyahu at kosherjudaism.com> wrote:
> "more correct" is not really a valid term here.
>
> The reason I selected the link that I did was because one does not don't
> need to misuse relativism at all in order to see the flaw in geocentrism.
> Simple math does it, but many discount that, so let's use facts.

It is possible to mathematically-construct a force law, centered on
Earth and rotating around it, extending throughout the universe.
Everything in the universe is subject to this force -- along with the
familiar gravitational, electromagnetic, and nuclear weak & strong
forces.  Every physical law we know of (yes, including the speed of
light) will still apply. The odd thing about this force law is that
earth is constrained to remain motionless and rotationless at the
universe's center.

A fundamental result of General Relativity is that there is no
conceivable way to determine whether this (very contrived) force
exists.  Even things like the Foucault Penulum and other indications
of the Earth's rotation would be explained by this force law.

At this point, it's not "wrong" to assert that this force actually
exists; or that (as Chazal believed) the universe revolves around the
Earth. It's just not a very productive way to calculate anything.

--Chesky