Flat Earth Navigation Syndrome

The flat Earth navigation syndrome is one of the many smokescreens that are used to cover the fact that the reasoning is based on one of the three fallacies of Agrippa's trilemma. Whenever a logical fallacy is committed, the fallacy has its roots in Agrippa's trilemma. All human thought (without Divine revelation) is based on one of three unhappy possibilities. These three possibilities are infinite regress, circular reasoning, or axiomatic thinking. This problem is known as Agrippa's trilemma. Some have claimed that only logic and math can be known without Divine revelation; however, that is not true. There is no reason to trust either logic or math without Divine revelation. Science is also limited to the pragmatic because of the weakness on human reasoning, which is known as Agrippa's trilemma.

The flat Earth navigation syndrome occurs when a false concept is still used as the presupposition for future solutions. Here, the problem is finding a definition of what is true or false. We can know that the Earth is not flat using empirical (observational) science. This fallacy only applies when an opinion goes against what can be plainly tested. It doesn't apply when an opinion goes against the majority, even the majority of whatever appeal to authority you want to make--other than the authority of God.

Note that the story that is told that it was generally believed that the Earth was flat is a false story. Before the discovery of the Americas, the argument was over the size of the globe. A flat Earth wasn't considered generally.

Examples of the Flat Earth Navigation Syndrome

Sandy: “The problem is that Christians still believe things that science has proven false. When Columbus sailed, they were afraid that he would fall off of the edge of a flat Earth. Believing in Biblical Creation is an example of the flat Earth navigation syndrome."

Rocky: “The story you just told is known as the flat Earth myth. When Columbus sailed, they were not afraid that he would fall off the edge of a flat Earth. The consensus was that the Earth was a globe, but the argument was over how large the globe was. The Greeks largely believed in a flat Earth at one time, but there is no evidence that Christians did and quite a bit of evidence that Christians did not."

Sandy is the one committing the flat Earth navigation syndrome fallacy. Sandy is using an old story told by Andrew Dickson White in a book he wrote, "The Warfare of Science with Theology." White did admit that Clement, Origen, Ambrose, Augustine, Isodore, Albertus Magnus and Aquinas all wrote that the Earth was a globe. However, he did find some writers on the fringe. There are always some of those. And he put this myth into his book anyway. Many have been fooled by it. In fact, some history classes have taught the myth as if it were fact.

Sandy: “NASA computers, in calculating the positions of planets, found a missing day and 40 minutes, proving Joshua’s ‘long day’ and Hezekiah’s sundial movement of Joshua 10 and 2 Kings 20.”

Rocky: “Actually, that kind of thing can't be calculated using scientific observation and rational thought, just as the age of the Earth or of the Universe cannot be calculated in this way. The reason that we know that Joshua 10 and 2 Kings 20 are true is by Divine revelation. God speaks the truth into our innermost minds about the accuracy of the Bible.”

Sandy committed the flat Earth fallacy. Rather than discerning Christ, he was trying to rationalize from a story that he had heard, and that story was a hoax.

Sandy: “We have been able to create life from non-life in the laboratory. It's done all the time. It's called the Urey-Miller experiment.”

Rocky: “The Urey-Miller experiment actually proves that you can't create life--at least not that way. If you continue to let this type of misinformation form your opinions you will be as if someone were to try navigating the world with a presupposition that the Earth is flat.”

Sandy committed the flat Earth fallacy. Rather than discerning Christ, he was trying to rationalize from a story that he had heard, and that story was a hoax.

FALLACY ABUSE

Sandy: “God doesn’t exist. Belief in God is an archaic belief that is from the stone age.”

Rocky: “You would need to show some evidence that there was a stone age and that God doesn’t exist if you are going to support your claim. I personally know Jesus Christ. He leads me and teaches me moment by moment. I’m learning to discern His Voice, to be attentive to Him, and to respond in obedience.”

Sandy: “You flat-Earther!”

People who wish God didn't exist, and who fail to acknowledge Him, will bring many pieces of so-called “evidence” to prove that God doesn’t exist. They will insist that belief in God is a flat-Earth claim. None of that so-called “evidence” can hold up to scrutiny, however. Christians will insist that Atheism is a flat-Earth claim. Christians will claim that they know that Atheism is a false concept by Divine revelation. They know that God exists because they know God in the Person of Jesus Christ Who leads them moment by moment. Atheists will claim that this isn’t true because of their assumptions, fallacies, and worldview, which they call “evidence.”

A similar false flat-Earth claim is made regarding the Big-Bang-Billions-of-Years-No-Flood-Molecules-to-Man story. Those who hold to this story dogmatically tend to think that observational science supports it. Scientific observation does not support it. It is a story that has been made up, and is being made up, to try to fit observation as closely as possible. The historical account that we find in the Bible does fit the observed facts. The historical account and the made-up story are in conflict in many ways. And there is no evidence that the Big-Bang-Billions-of-Years-No-Flood-Molecules-to-Man story ever happened, so it is fallacy abuse for those who dogmatically believe in the Big-Bang-Billions-of-Years-No-Flood-Molecules-to-Man story to apply the flat Earth navigation syndrome to those who believe what the Creator God is actively saying through Scripture. Fallacy abuse is a fallacy.