Definitions and explanations of key terms used throughout the site.
The belief or model that Earth is the center of the universe.
But the actual tendency of the geocentric system was, for the medieval mind, precisely the opposite. For the centre of the world was not a position of honor; it was rather the place farthest removed from the Empyrean, the bottom...
Source: The Great Chain of Being by Arthur Oncken Lovejoy
And the one change of this kind implied by the abandonment of the geocentric system was, as is evident from what has already been said, the reverse of that often attributed to the new astronomy; to remove man from the...
Source: The Great Chain of Being by Arthur Oncken Lovejoy
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
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
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: On the Origin of Free-Masonry by Thomas Paine
"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...
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
Do you suppose it is beyond us to produce a dual system of astronomy? The stars can be near or distant, according as we need them. Do you suppose our mathematicians are unequal to that? Have you forgotten doublethink?
Source: 1984 by George Orwell
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
Sometimes notions get reversed - Center of the universe
