Difficult to Say Categorically Whether the Earth Moves
...it is still remarkably difficult to say categorically whether the earth moves...
Intellectual Reference Point Restoration
Topic: “Earth”
🔎 Lexicon containing “Earth”
Definitions and explanations of key terms used throughout the site.
Pale Blue Dot
A phrase popularized by Carl Sagan symbolizing Earth’s smallness and fragility within the vast cosmos.
Geocentrism
The belief or model that Earth is the center of the universe.
Spaceship Earth
A worldview encouraging everyone on Earth to act as a harmonious crew working toward the greater good.
Up
In or into a higher position or level; especially, away from the center of the earth.
Overview Effect
The overview effect is a cognitive shift in awareness reported by some astronauts during spaceflight, often while viewing the Earth from outer space.
Heliocentrism
The idea that the sun is at the center of the universe, with the Earth and other planets moving around it.
🧩 Topic Portals
Fully developed topic hubs that organize major subjects and conceptual ecosystems across the site.
→ Browse Full Topics Directory🎨 Theme Portals
Symbolic and poetic hubs that gather recurring motifs, emotional structures, aesthetics, and thematic patterns from across the site.
→ Browse Full Themes Directory💬 Quote Library — containing “Earth”
He Had Made the Earth a Planet and Set It Spinning
With a wave of his hand, he had made the Earth a planet and set it spinning.
from A More Perfect Heaven by Dava Sobel
📖 Excerpts Library
I Can Feel the Earth Moving
I can feel it. I can feel the earth moving. It’s moving too fast. Raj, slow it down.
Source: The Big Bang Theory
The Unformed Matter That Will Become the Earth
God appears as the architect of the world, shaping the universe with the aid of a compass. Within the perfect circle already created are the spherical sun and moon and the unformed matter that will become the earth once God...
Source: Gardner’s Art Through The Ages by Kleiner, Mamiya, Tansey
He Brought It to Life with His Poetic Touch
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stuart Brand, not far from here in Menlo Park, and...
The Sphere of Earth as Seen from Space
The title Whole Earth Catalog came from a previous project by Stewart Brand. In 1966, he initiated a public campaign to have NASA release the then-rumored satellite photo of the sphere of Earth as seen from space, one of the...
Source: Whole Earth Catalog
The Earth Is a Closed System
Now, one thing I really want your generation to embrace is that the Earth is a closed system. We cannot leave the Earth. There's no place to go.
Source: Big Think
But the World Itself Is Only a Speck of Dust
‘But the world itself is only a speck of dust. And man is tiny — helpless!
Source: 1984 by George Orwell
A Lonely Speck in the Great Enveloping Cosmic Dark
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in...
Source: Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan
Is There a Problem with the Earth’s Gravitational Pull?
Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the earth’s gravitational pull?
Source: Back to the Future
Everything Else That Divides Us…Is Invisible to You
With only one or two human-made structures visible from Earth orbit, everything else that divides us – national borders, politics, languages, skin color, who you worship – is invisible to you.
Source: Starry Messenger by Neil deGrasse Tyson
The Earth Was a Mere Point in a Vast Encompassing Cosmos
It seemed to me that another picture of the Earth, this one taken from a hundred thousand times farther away, might help in the continuing process of revealing to ourselves our true circumstance and condition. It had been well understood...
Source: Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan
Our Obsession With Nationalism Is Nowhere in Evidence
And yet there is no sign of humans in this picture, not our reworking of the Earth's surface, not our machines, not ourselves: We are too small and our statecraft is too feeble to be seen by a spacecraft between...
Source: Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan
A Pantheist Who Believed God Was Everywhere
In a culture conditioned to think in categories of Cartesian dualism or of a pre-Copernican cosmology that split the heavens and the earth, Spinoza was taken either as an atheist who reduced everything to matter ... or as a pantheist...
Source: Constantine’s Sword by James Carroll
Human Beings Literally Lost the Ground of Their View
There are people who regard the deed of Copernicus as the biggest of the cultural revolutions which humanity has ever experienced as far as the historical memory reaches. One has to admit that the impression and the influence of this...
Source: Copernicus and His Time in the Light of Spiritual Science
Get Your Head Down out of the Clouds
Now, Bastian, you're old enough to get your head down out of the clouds and start keeping both feet on the ground. Right?
Source: The NeverEnding Story
The Earth May Now Be a Mere Planet Moving Around the Sun
The earth may now be a mere planet moving around the sun, but man is no longer confined to it. His spiritual energy, his reason, his brain power, his psyche, his consciousness have become the center and the purpose of...
Source: Utopian Thought in the Western World by Frank E. Manuel
Man on the Moon Viewing the Earth Was in the Service of the Copernican Hypothesis
Moon voyages became popular in the 1630s, their underlying inspiration Galileo’s telescope and the curiosity it piqued about the planet; but the way of reaching the new world on the moon was more important than the substance of an ideal...
Source: Utopian Thought in the Western World by Frank E. Manuel
Acceptance of the Copernican Cosmology Was a Religious Act
If there was an infinity of worlds, as Bruno maintained, for whom in particular had Christ died on this earth? If the universe was eternal, what would become of God the Creator? Acceptance of the Copernican cosmology was a religious...
Source: Utopian Thought in the Western World by Frank E. Manuel
It Is Probably a Sphere
Before any celestial distances or sizes could be calculated, the ancient Greeks first had to establish that the Earth is a sphere. This view gained acceptance in ancient Greece as philosophers became familiar with the notion that ships gradually disappear...
Source: Big Bang by Simon Singh
Earth Had to Be a Sphere
It is not so much that certain educated men had not already theorized that Earth was round, but that with the return of the first ship Victoria the expedition’s wealthy financial backers had visual evidence that ships could circumnavigate the...
Source: JFK by L. Fletcher Prouty
All of a Sudden, Proved to Be a Sphere
The first of these schemes derives from the fact that the generally accepted "flat earth" was, all of a sudden, proved to be a sphere by the voyage of Magellan's ships around the world.
Source: JFK by L. Fletcher Prouty
He Believed That the Moon and Stars Were Nothing More than Holes in the Firmament
Anaximander of Miletus argued that the Sun was a hole in a fire-filled ring that encircled the Earth and revolved around it. Similarly, he believed that the Moon and stars were nothing more than holes in the firmament, revealing otherwise...
Source: Big Bang by Simon Singh
It Just Seemed So Utterly Obvious That the Sun Revolved Round a Static Earth
Egocentric attitudes may have been a contributory factor behind the dominance of the geocentric world-view, but there were other reasons for preferring an Earth-centred universe to Aristarchus’ Sun-centred universe. One basic problem with the Sun-centred world-view was that it appeared...
Source: Big Bang by Simon Singh
A Conspiracy of Love
Months later, while outlining a not-yet-titled book about the emerging social alternatives, I thought again about the peculiar form of this movement: its atypical leadership, the patient in-tensity of its adherents, their unlikely successes. It suddenly struck me that in...
Source: The Aquarian Conspiracy by Marilyn Ferguson
Concept of the Earth Revolving—Axially and Orbitally—Around the Sun
The term [revolution] derives from the Latin substantive revolutio, which was unknown in classical Latin but was used in the early Middle Ages by St. Augustine and other Christian writers. Translated into Italian as rivoluzione in the early Renaissance and...
Source: Fire in the Minds of Men by James H. Billington
Rolling Round the Central Sun
In his chapter of the antiquity of Masonry, [Captain George Smith] makes it to be coeval with creation, 'when,' says he, 'the sovereign architect raised on Masonic principles the beauteous globe, and commanded the master science, Geometry, to lay the...
Source: The Origin of FreeMasonry
We Are Using Philosophical Criteria in Choosing Our Models
"People need to be aware that there is a range of models that could explain the observations," Ellis argues. "For instance, I can construct you a spherically symmetrical universe with Earth at its center, and you cannot disprove it based...
Source: Scientific American
Psychologically There Is a Great Difference
In fact most of Copernicus' book runs closely parallel with Ptolemy's exposition, only the minimum changes being made to adjust the treatment of the Sun-centered theory; and most of the numerical constants are simply Ptolemy's figures transformed. Not unnaturally, Copernicus...
Source: De revolutionibus orbium coelestium by Nicolaus Copernicus
There Is No Up and Down in Universe
If you, the reader of these lines, personally use the words up and down, you, too, are as yet imprisoned in the Dark Ages. There are no parallels on the surface of the Earth; what may appear to be parallel...
Source: Cosmography by Buckminster Fuller
They Had to Imagine the Sun as Something That Does Not Move
They had to imagine the sun as something that does not move in relation to the earth and the earth even as something moving.
Source: Copernicus and His Time in the Light of Spiritual Science
Humans for the Most Part Don’t Have a Clue
Humans for the most part don't have a clue. They don't want one or need one either. They're happy. They think they have a good bead on things. Why the big secret? People are smart, they can handle it. A...
Source: Men in Black
They Had at Least the Evidence of Their Senses
In the Middle Ages people believed that the earth was flat, for which they had at least the evidence of their senses: we believe it to be round, not because as many as one per cent of us could give...
Source: Saint Joan (play)
Start by Making the Trade Center Disappear
To start by making the trade center disappear, though, seems a good way to begin.
Source: Divided We Stand
The Earth Must Be Stationary
First, the Greeks expected that if the Earth moved then we would feel a constant wind blowing against us, and we would be swept off our feet as the ground raced from under us. However, we feel no such constant...
Source: Big Bang by Simon Singh
The Science of the Spheres and Heavens
The Square is a right angle, formed by two right lines. It is adapted only to a plane surface, and belongs only to geometry, earth-measurement, that trigonometry which deals only with planes, and with the earth, which the ancients supposed...
Source: Morals and Dogma by Albert Pike
Did the Earth Really Orbit the Sun?
Another reason why the Greeks rejected Aristarchus’ Solar System was its apparent failure to stand up to scientific scrutiny. Aristarchus had built a model of the universe that was supposed to match reality, but it was not clear that his...
Source: Big Bang by Simon Singh
Somehow Glued to It by Gravity
While almost everyone is taught that the Earth is a sphere with all of us somehow glued to it by gravity, the reality of our circumstance did not really begin to sink in until the famous frame-filling Apollo photograph of...
Source: Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan
Viewing the Earth from Outer Space
The overview effect is a cognitive shift in awareness reported by some astronauts during spaceflight, often while viewing the Earth from outer space. It is the experience of seeing first-hand the reality of the Earth in space, which is immediately...
Source: Overview effect
Earth Is But a Tiny Speck Whirling Around Our Sun
Thus, we can begin to think of the immense universe in which our green mantled earth is but a tiny speck whirling around our sun, one of the many stars that range throughout space-time.
Source: Nature and Human Nature by Lawrence K. Frank
🎼 Song Excerpts
Just Knowing That the World Is Round
It's crazy, I'm thinking - Just knowing that the world is round - And here I'm dancing on the ground - Am I right side up or upside down? And is this real, or am I dreaming?
Source: Crush by Dave Matthews Band
I Look at the World, and I Notice It’s Turning
I look at the world, and I notice it's turning - While my guitar gently weeps
Source: While My Guitar Gently Weeps by The Beatles
Come Down Now, but We’ll Stay
Come down now, but we'll stay
Source: Such Great Heights by The Postal Service
There Is Water at the Bottom of the Ocean (Video)
There is water at the bottom of the ocean
Source: Once in a Lifetime by Talking Heads
It’s Like I’m Anchored to the Floor
It's like I'm anchored to the floor, and I need more, I need stars to light the colony
Source: Stuck In Gravity by Of Monsters and Men
Forces Pulling from the Center of the Earth Again
I can feel it, coming back again – Like a rolling, thunder chasing the wind – Forces pulling from the center of the earth again – I can feel it
Source: Lightning Crashes by Live
There’s a World That Was Meant for Our Eyes to See
There's a world that was meant for our eyes to see
Source: Ends of the Earth by Lord Huron
Mountains Come out of the Sky and They Stand There
In and around the lake, mountains come out of the sky and they stand there
Source: Roundabout by Yes
I Gotta Get My Feet Back on the Ground
World turning - I gotta get my feet back on the ground - World turning - Everybody's got me down
Source: World Turning by Fleetwood Mac
I Try to Stop the World from Moving So Fast
I try to stop the world from moving so fast - Try to get a grip on where I'm at - And simplify this dizzy life - And put my feet in the grass
Source: Back to the Earth (Jason Mraz) by Jason Mraz
You Can Have Your Place Up in Outer Space
Well, you can have your place up in outer space, 'cause my home is where my food is grown
Source: Back to the Earth (Jason Mraz) by Jason Mraz
Something Tells Me This Isn’t True
Something tells me this isn't true
Source: Planet Earth (Poem) by Michael Jackson
There Is Water at the Bottom of the Ocean (Album)
There is water at the bottom of the ocean
Source: Once in a Lifetime by Talking Heads
Before the Earth Was Round, There Was No End to Things
Before the earth was round, there was no end to things - And no one tried to measure what they knew
Source: Before the Earth Was Round by OK Go
Back to the Earth, I Lived
Back to the earth, I lived - and they all follow
Source: Back to the Earth (Rusted Root) by Rusted Root
Back to the Earth, I Screamed
Back to the earth, I screamed - and no one listened to me
Source: Back to the Earth (Rusted Root) by Rusted Root
Making the Earth Whirl Softly
Making the earth whirl softly - Love makes the world go 'round
Source: Love Makes the World Go Round (Everly Brothers) by The Everly Brothers
Just an Earth-Bound Misfit, I
Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I
Source: Learning to Fly (Pink Floyd) by Pink Floyd
Back to My Loving Ground
Crazy on a ship of fools - Crazy on a ship of fools - Turn this boat around - Back to my loving ground
Source: Ship of Fools by Robert Plant
The Earth Laughs Beneath My Heavy Feet
The earth laughs beneath my heavy feet, at the blasphemy in my old jangly walk
Source: Thirty-Three by The Smashing Pumpkins
Slowly I Become One With the Mud
My world is a flood - Slowly I become one with the mud
Source: Flood (Jars of Clay) by Jars of Clay
We’ll Make Heaven a Place on Earth
They say in Heaven, love comes first - We'll make Heaven a place on Earth
Source: Heaven Is a Place on Earth by Belinda Carlisle
Back to the Earth, I Feel It
Back to the earth, I feel it - Back to the earth I'm fallin'
Source: Back to the Earth (Rusted Root) by Rusted Root
I Feel the Earth Move Under My Feet
I feel the earth move under my feet
Source: I Feel the Earth Move by Carole King
Can’t Keep My Mind From the Circling Sky
Can't keep my mind from the circling sky Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I
Source: Learning to Fly (Pink Floyd) by Pink Floyd
But Never Feel the Earth Spinning Around
Night after night, watching the sky move - But never feel the earth spinning around
Source: Learning to See by Van Halen
We All Live In a Yellow Submarine
Sky of blue and sea of green, In our yellow submarine - We all live in a yellow submarine
Source: Yellow Submarine by The Beatles
We Are Digging Holes to China
We are digging holes to China - Then we pray to our reflections in the water when it rises
Source: God Of Ocean Tides by Counting Crows
This Ground Is Not the Rock I Thought It To Be
This ground is not the rock I thought it to be
Source: Flood (Tool) by Tool
I Could Feel the Whole World Turn Round Underneath Me
I could feel the whole world turn round underneath me
Source: I Could Feel The Whole World Turn Round by Rod Stewart (The Shotgun Express)
When the Earth Folded In on Itself
Will you tell me what you saw, and I'll tell you what you missed, when the ocean met the sky - You missed when time and life shook hands and said goodbye - When the Earth folded in on itself
Source: Ocean Breathes Salty by Modest Mouse
If You Go Straight Long Enough You’ll End Up Where You Were
If you go straight long enough you'll end up where you were.
Source: 3rd Planet by Modest Mouse
Research and Find Out the Root of the Truth That You Seek Of
The Earth was flat, if you went too far, you would fall off - Now the Earth is round, if the shape change again, everybody woulda start laugh - The average man can't prove of most of the things that he chooses to speak of - And still won't research and find out the root of the truth that you seek of
Source: Patience by Nas & Damian Marley
And I Step to the Edge, to See My World Below
So I walk up on high, and I step to the edge - To see my world below
Source: The World I Know by Collective Soul
Oh for One More Trip Around the Sun
Oh for one more trip around the sun
Source: As Lights Fall by Alan Parsons
I Hoped to Find Why the World Wasn’t Glowing
I hoped to find why the world wasn’t glowing, It’s darker as we end this ride
Source: Starseed by Our Lady Peace
Gravity Is Pulling Me Around
Read the scene where gravity is pulling me around - Shift the swaying river's shift Oceans fall and mountains drift
Source: Feeling Gravity’s Pull by R.E.M.
Did You Feel You Were Tricked
Did you think that your feet had been bound by what gravity brings to the ground? Did you feel you were tricked by the future you picked? Well, come on down.
Source: Down to the Earth by Peter Gabriel
My Dream May Be Your Nightmare
Fantasy fills my mind - To leave this place before my time - Release myself from earthly care - My dream may be your nightmare
Source: Take Me Away by Blue Öyster Cult
Don’t Look up and down Unless You’re Lookin’ for a Fight
All the answers stay a secret and yet everybody knows - They're followin' the leader but no one's watchin' where it goes - Movin' to the left, movin' to the right, but don't look up and down, unless you're lookin' for a fight
Source: The Road by Rare Earth
That’s Great It Starts with an Earthquake
That's great it starts with an earthquake
Source: Its the End of the World As We Know It by R.E.M.
Your Feet in Dreams Never Touch the Earth
The sweetest song is silence that I've ever heard - Funny how your feet In dreams never touch the earth
Source: These Dreams by Heart
Now My Feet Won’t Touch the Ground
Gravity release me, and don't ever hold me down. Now my feet won’t touch the ground
Source: Life in Technicolor II by Coldplay
Believe That Planet Earth Turns
I'd like to make myself believe, that planet Earth turns slowly
How Can We Dance When Our Earth Is Turning?
How can we dance when our earth is turning?
Source: Beds Are Burning by Midnight Oil
The World Went Round
We'd better think about the games we play - The world went round, around and round
Source: Time Is Ticking Out by The Cranberries
We Are Turning with the Earth So Fast
We are turning with the earth so fast - but it feels a lot slower
Source: Left & Right In the Dark by Julian Casablancas
There’s a River That Winds On Forever
Oh, there's a river that winds on forever - I'm gonna see where it leads
Source: Ends of the Earth by Lord Huron
📰 Research Sources containing “Earth”
External sources, credits, and citations referenced throughout the site.
Big Think
"Hey Bill Nye, Should We Throw Our Trash Into Space?"
🎵 Songs containing “Earth”
🖼 Images Gallery
📚 Books Cited containing “Earth”
🎬 Movies Referenced containing “Earth”
🎤 Artists Featured containing “Earth”
👤 People Referenced containing “Earth”
People referenced across the archive.
🧵 Narrative Threads containing “Earth”
My Friends Would Think I Was a Nut
When the human race learns to read the language of symbolism, a great veil will fall from the eyes of men.
Cause Everything Is Never As It Seems…
With a wave of his hand, he had made the Earth a planet and set it spinning.
Absolutely Still and I Can’t Wait One Minute More
The world is spinning, turning day to night, and my thoughts are running at the speed of light.
Cause It’s the World I Know
We accept the reality of the world with which we’re presented. It’s as simple as that.
Think About the Place Where You Live
If you are confused, check with the sun. Carry a compass to help you along. Your feet are going to be on the ground. Your head is there to move you around.
Feelings Are Intense, Words Are Trivial
To start by making the trade center disappear, though, seems a good way to begin.
The More You Change, the Less You Feel
And our lives are forever changed. We will never be the same.
Get It Together and Flow
See a pearl form, a diamond in the rough. See a bird soaring high above the flood. It’s in your blood, it’s in your blood.
And I Will Try To Fix You…
Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right.
I Was Just Guessing at Numbers and Figures
Nobody said it was easy. No one ever said it would be so hard. I’m going back to the start.
We’ll Begin With a Spin
Anything you want to, do it. Want to change the world? There’s nothing to it.
High Time We Made a Stand
Read it in the books, in the crannies and the nooks, there are books to read.
It Was Always Burning Since the World’s Been Turning
And I’m trying to believe in things that I don’t know. The turning of the world, the color of your soul.
We Just Want To Dance Here, Someone Stole the Stage
We’re seeing things in a different way and God knows it ain’t his.
We Built This City on Rock and Roll
…how different theories are suddenly introduced to add strength to the edifice.
But I Feel It Still…
If wishes were trees, the trees would be falling. Listen to reason, reason is calling.
Open Your Eyes, Your Life Is a Lie
I’ve been looking so long at these pictures of you that I almost believe that they’re real.
The Distance in Your Eyes. Oh No, I’ve Said Too Much
Consider this. Consider this, the hint of the century.
Narrative Episodes
Oh, Who Would Ever Want To Be King?
I discovered that my castles stand upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand.
This Is No Place, but Here I Am
Looks like it’s time to decide, are you here, are you now, is this it?
My Head Is Stuck in the Clouds
They had to imagine the sun as something that does not move in relation to the earth and the earth even as something moving.
They Say in Heaven, Love Comes First
You pull me close, and we start to move. And we’re spinnin’ with the stars above. And you lift me up in a wave of love.
Anywhere You Go, We Are Bound Together
Circle in the sand, round and round, never ending love is what we’ve found.
Everything Looks Perfect From Far Away
With only one or two human-made structures visible from Earth orbit, everything else that divides us – national borders, politics, languages, skin color, who you worship – is invisible to you.
Watching the Wheels Go Round and Round
No longer riding on the merry-go-round. I just had to let it go.
I Wanna Turn the Whole Thing Upside Down
Who’s to say what’s impossible? Well they forgot, this world keeps spinning.
Am I Right Side Up or Upside Down?
You start to see the world a little differently when you turn it upside down.
We’ll Bring It Back but It Won’t Be Easy
I hoped to find why the world wasn’t glowing It’s darker as we end this ride.
Something Tells Me This Isn’t True
Nothin’ comes from talkers but sound. We can talk all we want to but the world still goes around and round.
Again and Again and Again and Again and Again
Down from the clouds, words stumble ’round your head Just can’t believe in everything they’ve said.
The Resolution of All the Fruitless Searches
All my instincts, they return, and the grand facade, so soon will burn.
To the Ends of the Earth Would You Follow Me?
I’m on a river that winds on forever. Follow ’til I get where I’m goin’.
When You Met the New You, Did Someone Die Inside?
Gravity’s just a habit that you’re pretty sure you can’t break.
In Our Short Years, We Come Long Way
I want you to be free. Don’t worry about me. And just like the movies, we play out our last scene.
