Extracted text
Editorial transcription, lightly normalized from the scan. Line-break hyphenation, spacing, capitalization, and unmistakable OCR errors have been repaired; the claims remain those of The Flaming Sword.
Optical Illusions and Proofs of the Earth's Concavity.
My questions necessarily relate to celestial phenomena, since terrestrial appearances cannot be urged as evidence without begging the question at issue. On my asking in effect, why cellular evidences were absent from the sky, and Copernican lies so abundant, the answer was, "optical illusion;" and that answer would be equally pertinent to any question I might ask.—PROF. J. W. T., Salem, O.
The difficulty with the astronomer is, that he wants to go off into the sky, concerning which he knows absolutely nothing for certain, to prove the form of the earth, while the Koreshan Astronomer begins with the tangible surface upon which we live, to prove the shape of the sky. Now, which is the more logical and reasonable—to begin with a known premise, from which to arrive at conclusions concerning things to which we have not direct access? or to begin with an unknown quantity to reach conclusions concerning things within the reach of direct processes?
Have you ever looked into a pseudoscope? It is an optical apparatus which reverses the relief of all material objects. It makes hollows of prominences, and converts hills to cavities; it reverses the human face, and gives it the appearance of the inside of a mask. In it a globe appears concave, and a concave map appears convex. Now, suppose the mind were ignorant of the pseudoscope when receiving impressions of objects through it,—would not that be an optical illusion? Wherever, for any reason, there is a false sense of vision or a false interpretation of what is seen, the result is optical illusion, whether it be in viewing a picture, a landscape, or the sky.
Without a knowledge of the laws of perspective, the mind observing two metallic lines of the railway apparently approaching each other in the distance, might conclude that they did so in fact; you see, in such case there would be a difference in appearance and fact, although it would be a fact that they apparently approached each other. The illusioned mind would reach a false conclusion from the appearance, while the enlightened mind would reach conclusions from the basis of the actual fact, when the factor of illusion is eliminated. This is exactly the difference between the Copernican system and the Koreshan Astronomy; the former is founded upon what the heavens appear to be; while the Koreshan is founded upon what the heavens are known to be, after the factors of illusion are determined and eliminated from the problem.
There has never been an astronomer of the Copernican school that has ever considered the laws and factors of optics and physics in making conclusions concerning the points of light in the physical heavens; and we claim that until the laws of vision are known, it is impossible for the astronomer to correctly interpret what he sees in media whose indices of refraction are unknown; neither can he determine the true location of a single star until he knows the exact course of a ray of light from any given star to the eye. Without these necessary factors, there must obtain a deceptive appearance through the false sense of vision, the astronomical pseudoscope, now almost universally applied in astronomical research.
When the laws of visual perception are scientifically comprehended, everything seen in the sky or in the earth, demonstrates the concavity of the surface on which we live. We not only say and prove that the evidences of the truth of the Copernican system are not abundant in the sky, but that there never has been a single absolute proof of its truth observed anywhere, and there never can be! The Copernican system is an accumulation of centuries of fallacious conclusions; it is a great network of fallacy. When any truth is expressed concerning the form or function of the physical universe, the astronomer is very desirous of testing it by some false conclusion without reference to a single fact in heaven or in earth! We first lay the foundation upon the earth; and if our friends concede to us the field of tangible facts, they may make what they can of infinite space until they return to fundamentals of rational conclusion—a demonstrated premise. It is easy to build card houses without foundations; but solid scientific structures, never!
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The source scans remain the record. This page preserves the periodical's argument and reported observations without presenting its conclusions as independently established results. The claims remain attributed to The Flaming Sword.
The Flaming Sword · Vol. 13, No. 31 · 23 Jun 1899 · PDF p. 11