Modern Geocentrism A Case Study of Pseudoscience in Astronomy A small group of pseudoscience practitioners called modern geocentrists still suggest that the Earth is in fact the center of the universe. An astronomer examines their ideas and uses them to suggest common properties of pseudoscience purveyors. MATTHEW P. WIESNER stronomy is both an ancient and a rapidly growing production group is currently attempt- ing to get this movie into major the- modern science, and there are many opportunities atres. Modern geocentrism obtained Awithin astronomy to advance human knowledge. But its fifteen minutes of fame when the notable people quoted or involved in astronomy is also a discipline that attracts practitioners of The Principle found out it was a movie pseudoscience who question and spread misinformation about pseudoscience. This included about the science. narrator (and Star Trek: Voyager actress) Kate Mulgrew and scientists Lawrence I present an analysis of one small a book about how the Catholic Church Krauss, Max Tegmark, George Ellis, group of astronomical pseudoscientists, was right to condemn Galileo called and Michio Kaku, who were quoted the modern geocentrists. This group Galileo Was Wrong, the Church Was in the film. purports to show that Copernicus, Gal- Right (Sungenis and Bennett 2014); Modern geocentrism is an idea ileo, Einstein, and many others were in this tome takes up 1,200 pages in developed by a small group of highly fact wrong in their conclusions and that two volumes and was developed from conservative Catholics. Religion is an the Earth is the center of the universe. Sungenis’s 700-page doctoral thesis important part of the argument of the While the impact of this group may be written on geocentrism at Calamus modern geocentrists (as may be noted small, it is a perfect specimen of astro- International University, an unaccred- in the title of the movement’s primary nomical pseudoscience. From quote ited distance learning institution in book). The modern geocentrists divide mining to math avoidance to the ev- the Republic of Vanuatu. There was their arguments into religious argu- er-present conspiracy theories, modern a conference on geocentrism held in ments and scientific arguments. The geocentrism shows us how pseudosci- South Bend, Indiana, in November religious arguments are, in general, that entists operate. By studying these and 2010; there were nine speakers and many passages of the Bible suggest the other groups and teaching about them, about one hundred attendees. Sungenis Sun goes around a stationary Earth and we can show students and the public recently followed up with a popu- many popes of the Catholic Church what not to do and how to recognize lar-science version of his book called stated that the Earth is in the center pseudoscience. Geocentrism 101 (Sungenis 2014). This of the universe. Considering that most year Sungenis, producer Rick Delano, astronomers (and thus most people) What Is Modern Geocentrism? and their group have finished a movie thought the Earth was the center of the universe until the seventeenth century, Modern geocentrism is the idea that on geocentrism titled The Principle, neither of these things is surprising. the heliocentric theory developed by about the Copernican principle, the Copernicus, Galileo, and many others idea that Earth is not in a special is in fact wrong and the Earth is the place in the universe. This is closely The Basic Scientific Premises of Modern center of the universe. It is spearheaded related to the cosmological principle, Geocentrism by a man named Robert Sungenis, the idea that the universe is about The basic scientific premise of modern who holds degrees in theology. The the same everywhere and there are geocentrism is that the cosmological major work on modern geocentrism is no special places in the universe. His principle is wrong and that there is 50 Volume 39 Issue 1 | Skeptical Inquirer a preferred place in the universe, the that physics could allow this. Sungenis tromagnetic waves propagated, the lu- Earth. They suggest that if we throw begins his book Geocentrism 101 with mineferous aether. Since there was no out the cosmological principle, phys- the statement, “Unbeknownst to almost difference in travel time, there was no ics will still work, just with the Earth the entire human race is the fact that evidence of aether. Sungenis suggests forming the center of the universe. no one in all of human history has ever that this is evidence that the Earth is As part of throwing out this principle, proven the Earth moves in space” (Sun- not moving. He then spends time ex- though, they also end up throwing out genis 2014). plaining why Einstein was wrong about the vast majority of physics, includ- Sungenis then goes through the both the special and the general theo- ing the standard model of cosmology, many different pieces of evidence that ries of relativity. There is quite a bit of special and general relativity, quantum indicate the motion of the Earth and conspiracy theory in these chapters, mechanics, and more. Their position is attempts to find a reason he doesn’t accusing Einstein, scientists behind that Einstein and others were in fact have to believe the Earth is moving. the global positioning system (GPS), really smart, but they were blinded by Of course as philosopher of science and others with hiding the truth. Sun- their conviction that the Earth is not Karl Popper tells us, if you don’t want genis also rather blithely claims that the center of the universe. They pro- something to be true, you will find a lumineferous aether exists, without pose that these scientists were mate- way to interpret the facts to support giving much information on its nature. rialists who didn’t like the religious your belief (Popper 1963), which is ex- (In Galileo Was Wrong, he explains that implications of a geocentric universe. actly what the geocentrists do. For ex- aether causes gravity.) Sungenis doesn’t The modern geocentrists propose that the reason the Sun rises and sets and the stars rise and set is that the entire universe revolves around Earth once a day. Einstein and others failed to see the ample, the Foucault pendulum changes spend any time addressing the fact that right answer because of their innate its direction of oscillation continuously special relativity is critical to much of biases and therefore pretty much all of throughout the day due to the rotation modern technology, including most modern physics is wrong. of the Earth. Sungenis counters and high-energy physics experiments. The modern geocentrists propose says that he can achieve the same effect Chapter 8 of Geocentrism 101 begins that the reason the Sun rises and sets if the entire universe is rotating around with the statement, “Ten years after he and the stars rise and set is that the en- the Earth. invented the Special Theory of Rela- tire universe revolves around Earth once Sungenis spends a lot of time on tivity to answer the Michelson-Mor- a day. They indicate that this could the Michelson-Morley experiment, ley experiment, Einstein was forced to be possible if the entire universe were an experiment that showed no differ- invent a second theory to compensate distributed so that Earth is the center ence in light travel time whether light for what the first one lacked.” Using of mass of the universe, perfectly bal- was going parallel or perpendicular to words like invent implies that Einstein anced. They present no observational the motion of the Earth. This exper- was just making things up. This sen- evidence for this balance; they just try iment was looking for evidence of the tence also betrays a deep lack of under- to make the point that it is conceivable medium in which it was believed elec- standing of how the development of Skeptical Inquirer | January/February 2015 51 scientific theories actually works. Sun- has no real conception of how science To support this, he shows several di- genis quotes Einstein to say, “The two works and so he suggests scientists agrams showing locations of galaxies. sentences: ‘the Sun is at rest and the make things up ad hoc and conspire to This is a classic example of the use of Earth moves,’ or ‘the Sun moves and hide evidence about the failings of their plots to misrepresent information. He the Earth is at rest’ would simply mean theories. At the end of this chapter, the shows plots of galaxy distributions two different conventions concerning first few verses of Genesis are quoted in in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and the two different coordinate systems” large text. shows how Earth is in the center. Well, (Sungenis 2014). In other words, Ein- In Chapter 10, Sungenis discusses of course it is, that’s the point of ob- stein is saying the question of what is in the cosmic microwave background servation. He does the same thing with the center of the universe is not an in- (CMB; light from the big bang). He a plot of quasars by redshift, showing has already indicated that the big bang a void in the center where Earth is. theory is fake, so it is surprising that he Again, this is what you’d expect, since makes no explanation for the origin of quasars do not occur at low redshift. the CMB; he simply uses it to prove The book closes with a quote from the his arguments. Sungenis describes the New Testament, applying it to us sci- Like most pseudoscien- CMB experiment called the Cosmic entists as “. those who suppress the tists, Sungenis is Background Explorer (COBE): “. truth by their wickedness.” uncomfortable with COBE showed that not only was a significant portion of the universe’s The Properties of Pseudoscience as math and likes to claim radiation anisotropic and inhomoge- Shown by Modern Geocentrism neous, but also that it was distributed that math lies.