Guest Post: P'sak in a Doc, Geocentrism, and Relativity

Posted by David Ohsie

Sorry, I have no "P'sak" for the Geocentrism-Relativity discussion thread, but I have the next best thing:

1. I compiled the series of posts on P'sak and Rabbi Meiselman's thesis into a single document that can be accessed here: http://goo.gl/Deyrfo.  Update: Here is a version with margins that is nicer to look at and can be printed and converted to other formats: http://goo.gl/oEBozN.

2. For those interested in continuing the debate on relativity and geocentrism, here are two links that you should read. I don't know to how reconcile them, who is right, or if they even truly contradict, but they look like they are both written by real physicists and seem to come down on different sides of the issue. Although both refute a fundamentalist "Galieo was wrong" position, they do so on differing grounds:

• Geocentrism is also a valid frame of reference, but then so is Heliocentrism and every other one: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/09/14/geocentrism-seriously/

• Geocentrism is not a valid frame of reference, even with relativity, and is just wrong: http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/postmonth/2011_05.html

Hence, my waffling on the issue. In the comments, you can argue with them instead of me :).
P.S. I'm not endorsing Chabad's position here, nor do I agree with it at all, regardless of which of the two articles is "correct" (if not both).