...And to counter that, Michael, might I opine that imagination may matter more than accuracy? Possession of the truth may be stifling - that may be what's wrong with fundamentalists of all flavors, that they think they possess the truth and that they have a duty to defend it. Imagination, on the other hand, is creative. I'll cast my vote in favor of whimsy and creativity - tempered by a reasonable dose of reason, of course...

Widen your perspective, Michael. Drop your preconceived notions and listen carefully to what I have to say. We stand on earth, therefore we must view the universe from a geocentric perspective. To view from another perspective, we must extrapolate or use remote equipment. So, it seems to me that the geocentric perspective of the universe is the most common perspective - and whether we like it or not, it is a valid perspective. We're so used to looking at our universe from a heliocentric perspective, that we make adjustments almost unconsciously from our geocentric view to a heliocentric one.

But for that matter, is a heliocentric model of the universe any more valid than a geocentric one? After all, you don't really have the hubris to claim that our sun is the center of the universe, do you?

At least in some ways, the perspective depends on the location of the observer, or on whatever is selected as the center of the model that is chosen. And then, one could ask whether there actually is a center of our universe, or if the choice of a center point is mostly arbitrary.

...and thank you for admitting that you (at least partially) share my aesthetic delight in geocentric models. I was starting to worry about you.

-Joe-