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Editorial transcription lightly normalized from the cited scan; historical claims below are those of The Flaming Sword and are not independently verified.
We have attempted - by various illustrations - to dissipate from modern thought the hallucination, by which it has been led captive, regarding that system of astronomy which had its rise in the medieval and dark period of the Christian or Piscatorial dispensation. We herewith present another effort to enlighten the dense stupidity and gross darkness of these times concerning scientific facts.
A, in the diagram, represents a circle of the earth, on the supposition of the Copernican System; B, a high mountain, and point from which observation is made; C, a high pole, and D, a pole on the horizon so far distant from the mountain as to appear contracted to the dimension of a few feet in altitude. To explain the phenomenon of foreshortening, let us suppose B, the point of observation, to be so far distant from D as to cause a balloon one hundred and fifty feet in diameter to appear as a mere speck at D. If the balloon one hundred and fifty feet in diameter is seen as a mere speck, a pole one hundred and fifty feet in height would be foreshortened to the same extent, and the consequence would be that what is observed as the top of the pole would look as if it were very near the earth at D, the horizon point. The top of the mountain - the point of observation - is supposed to be far enough from D to cause a pole one hundred and fifty feet high to appear as if it were, we will say, six inches high. If a pole one hundred and fifty feet high, on the horizon, is contracted by foreshortening to the appearance of a pole six inches in height, as observed over the distance from B to D, does it not follow, in estimating the height of the pole at C, that the ratio of foreshortening should be considered as a factor in the solution of the problem?
It will be noticed that we have presented this diagram on the supposition of the Copernican system, a supposition which we know to be mere supposition and fallacy. There cannot be a direct visual line from B to C, nor even from B to D, for the reason that a line starting from B - with the eye at B as the subjective point and place from which observation is made - must embrace a dimension as large at C as the area apparently contracted to the dimension of a point. For instance: if at C an object one thousand feet in diameter, viewed from B, the place of observation, appears to be only a mere speck, how can it be said that the visual line is a level one? The sides (circumference) of the object are contracted to the speck, hence the visual area actually expands, widening out the entire distance so that at the objective point that which appears to be the extremity of a straight hair-line is a visual curve outward, like an enlarging trumpet, the terminal of which is a thousand feet, while it appears to be a needle's point in size. Any calculation must be made, not on the appearance, but on the fact; while the fact is, the scientists deduce their theories from the appearance and not from the fact.
The mind that conceived the Copernican system, arising in the dark ages, was so simple as to take an appearance for a fact, and to deduce a theory which better thinkers of more modern times would very soon dispose of, were it not for the fact that they will not take time to think. We have shown, by repeated illustrations, that the convex theory cannot be true; but the blind idiots, called astronomers and scientists, with their inconceivable bigotry, having gone crazy through the hallucinations of medieval times, must lose their reputations as scientific men - and their bread and butter also - if they permit the world to be set right with regard to questions upon which they have built up for themselves names, and, through this, are honored as great lights and as educators of the people. If any man with brains, having facts at his command, will give two hours' candid and unbiased thought to the investigation of this subject, with the application of the principles of foreshortening as set forth in The Guiding Star, The Flaming Sword, and other literature of the Koreshan Unity, he will be convinced of the truth of the cellular cosmogony, and of the utter absurdity of the so-called Copernican hallucination.
We are told that we do not exhibit the spirit and principle of the Christ, regarding the blockheads called scientists, when we resort to language sometimes seen in The Flaming Sword. What difference does it make whether we say, as did the Lord, "fools and blind," blind fools, blind idiots, or blind bigots and idiots. He told the truth, because it was the best way to exasperate people and set them thinking. Koreshanity has the truth, but the present humanity - steeped in tobacco, rum, and sensualism - prefers to meet the truth of Koreshanity with ridicule rather than to give it candid consideration. But as ridicule is always the strongest argument, and the one that usually has the greatest weight with the non-thinking mind, it is not surprising that the so-called scientist usually takes refuge behind it when meeting a rational force that otherwise is irresistible.
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The Flaming Sword · Vol. 6, No. 18 · · PDF p. 7