April 10

Celestial Navigation

Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south.

(Job 9:9) KJV

Biblical cosmology is Geocentrospheric but it’s not a problem because it’s an empirical observation. Christians who combine the Bible with heliocentricity are in for a bumpy ride.

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

(Genesis 1:14) KJV

This is Creation Theory Predictive Testable Hypothesis 9. It has a positive result: It’s called Celestial Navigation.

Predictive Testable Hypothesis 9

• IF the Earth is at the center of the cosmos
  • AND the Sun, Moon and stars were set to mark signs and seasons,
• THEN knowledge of the relative positions of the stars and planets will enable the observer to find their position on the Earth.

This is how Mary Blewitt describes celestial navigation in her book on the subject:

We navigate by means of the Sun, the Moon, the planets and the stars. Forget the Earth spinning around the Sun with the motionless stars infinite distances away, and imagine that the Earth is the center of the universe and that all of the heavenly bodies circle slowly round us, the stars keeping their relative position while the Sun, Moon and planets change their positions in relation to each other and to the stars. This pre-Copernican outlook comes easily as we watch the heavenly bodies rise and set, and is a help in practical navigation.

– Mary Blewitt, Celestial Navigation for Yachtsmen (1964)

Mary Blewitt was being circumspect when she wrote that, in keeping with the prevailing thought of our time. However it’s not necessary to imagine that the Earth is at the center of the universe, it’s empirical.