Religion
In reply to the discussion: People Are Born with Religious Belief Argues New Book [View all]FarCenter
(19,429 posts)The author's got nothing. AFAIK, children raised in isolation, feral children, and primitive cultures either lack a notion of god or they have a fairly unsophisticated theology similar to animism. A belief in an afterlife may or may not be present, along with some sort of creation myth, but monotheism and modern theology are recent developments of religious and philiosophical speculation by intellectual people motivated by societal forces.
And actually, the Sun moves the distance of the radius of earth's orbit every 8 days, so the earth's motion is really a very stretched out helix.
While the choice of a geocentric or heliocentric frame of reference may make only a little difference for computing sunrise and sunset, the choice of a heliocentric frame of reference makes explaining the seasons a lot easier, and it greatly reduces the complexity of computing the orbits of the other planets. Therefore, not all explanatory frameworks are equal, and it is essential to have fools on the hill who conceive of new explanations, rather than agreeing with their friends.