I never take things personally. I do wonder though...I run across some very smart people. Certainly smarter than myself. They spend a lot of time learning about many things and have a desire to share. Just like you. And their desire is honorable and admirable. But in all their learning, they have never learned how people learn. So they end up with much knowledge and little audience.
I'm not singling you out. But what good many could do is lost for want of love. Rather than look for an area of agreement to build upon, differences are noted and positions are hardened as emotions rise. Nothing profitable ensues. What was the point?
I understand what you are saying; however, I believe that there is a 'facet' of this thing you are not seeing...
Upon reaching the decision that you wish to learn something - and, asking the 'teacher' (the Bible, a pastor, a teacher in school, a video channel on YouTube, etc.) the question - do you then demand that the 'teacher' only teach you in a particular specified way - or, do you allow the 'teacher' to "lead" you in the "path of knowledge" to the final end result that you seek?
Do you totally mistrust the 'teacher' by assuming that the 'method' the 'teacher' wishes to use to help you best understand the answer you seek is wrong? And, that you know better? Or, do you give the teacher the common courtesy of "leading" in the learning process?
I know that people can learn by asking questions; however, that is the part that takes place before the point in the process that is at the beginning of the paragraph above that starts with the word 'Upon'. After the question has been asked - should the 'teacher' not have any say in how they teach you the knowledge you seek? Did they not learn it themselves - and, along with experience - learn themselves the best way to convey/teach it to others?
Why would you say, in effect, "please teach me" - and then totally resist being "led" by the 'teacher' in the "path of knowledge" that you seek - that they presumably know more about than you...??? (Which is why you asked the question in the first place - because you believe they have knowledge you wish to obtain.
And, if you really don't believe the 'teacher' is "worthy" of teaching you anything/something - why did you ask [them] the question???)
We started out with an area of agreement to build upon; however, you wanted to leave it in order to complicate it.
In this particular context,
there is no point to getting away from the drawing until you decide one of two things:
1) You
agree that the drawing does in fact illustrate the true facts.
2) You
disagree that the drawing does in fact illustrate the true facts.
The predictability of eclipses, the nature of earthquakes and volcanoes, or anything else -
has absolutely nothing to do with what the drawing is illustrating - and, while more questions may be interesting to ask in future inquiries about other aspects of the larger topic, they are not helpful to arriving at a conclusion about whether the illustration that is given by the drawing is true or not.
Do you understand what I am trying to get across to you?
If you are going to stick close to the topic-at-hand - the thing being focused upon - then you cannot stray from the topic-at-hand - which was/is the illustration of the drawing.
If you cannot agree or disagree with the illustration of the drawing, then you definitely do not need to be straying off into other areas - which will be totally unproductive as you have seen.
First you say you want to do this in "baby steps" (as it were) - and then you want to make a giant leap into another arena entirely ---
what is the deal with that???
Just imagine the good that could be done if everyone on here swallowed their pride and let the Flat Earth "teachers" lead them in the "path of knowledge" concerning Flat Earth.
The problem is - very few actually seek knowledge...
And, most just want to "mess with" the Flat Earth folks.
You may-or-may-not want to do that; however, most do I assure you. And,
we have gotten really tired of that crap...
Nobody really truly wants to learn anything. What most people want is expressed in this saying:
"Most people don't really want the Truth. They just want constant reassurance that what they believe is the Truth." (Author Unknown)
"Just sayin'..."