Rowbothamism

Venn diagram contrasting Rowbothamism vs. ancient cosmologies

Rowbothamism (/roʊbɒθəmɪzm/ or /roʊbɒtəmɪzm/) is a term coined by Peter Markley to help expose the revisionist history of flerfs and distinguish their cult denialism from the honest ignorance of people in ancient cultures. It is an alternate term for zetetic astronomy (see below).

Flerfs falsely identify their view with ancient cosmologies. In reality, when their cult began with Samuel Rowbotham in the 1800s, it was completely new and ideologically isolated due to its denial of sunset.

Because of this, flerfs have a collection of cult dogmas and bad-faith tactics that no ancient society had. Religiflerfs also use their own false definition of the term “Biblical cosmology” and spread it as misinformation.

History of the term

History of the term

Date	Event	Link
Jul 2019	In his debut flat earth debunking video, Peter Markley explained the concept but did not yet use the term “Rowbothamism.”	YouTube clip
Dec 2023	Peter used the term once in a debate with Kaleb Davis.	YouTube recording
June 2024	Peter brought significant research to support the term as a main strategy in his MDD debut vs. Flatzoid. Flatzoid’s illogical response resulted in a meme.	YouTube live

Ancient cosmologies

Depiction of a stereotypical ancient cosmology, showing the sun going underneath at night.

Peter Markley's research on ancient cosmologies, contrasting them against Rowbothamism.

Contrary to Rowbotham's model, ancient cultures believed the sun left the inhabited world at night, usually by going underneath it. To them, daytime and nighttime were universal. No exceptions exist among world cultures whose cosmologies both survive and provide conclusive data.

Some highlights:

• Sumerian cosmology
  This culture believed there is a tunnel under the earth called the “Road of the Sun.” There's a whole scene in the Epic of Gilgamesh, tablet 9, when Gilgamesh travels along this tunnel to the underworld.
  

• Egyptian cosmology
  The Egyptian sun god Ra travels in a boat through the underworld every night, and is reborn in the east every morning. This nightly journey was central to Egyptian religious practices, and was described in great detail in the Book of Gates.
  

• Aztec cosmology
  In Aztec belief, the earth goddess Tlaltecuhtli swallows the sun every evening and vomits it again in the morning.
  

• Hebrew cosmology
  The Bible does not give any clues about where the sun goes at night, except the use of “rise” and “set” in Matthew 5:45 and Ephesians 4:26. For more detail most sources, including Michael Heiser, look instead to the Book of Enoch.
  A 1909 Mormon source summarized the evidence well:

  It was represented that in the eastern side or the face of the firmament there were six doors or portals through which the sun entered from chambers outside the vault, and that in the western side of the firmament there were also six portals. For thirty days the sun passed through the first portal and at evening, after traversing the sky, passed out through the corresponding opening in the west. At the end of the month the sun entered by the second portal; and so on until the sixth had been reached …

Rowbothamist model

Portrait of Samuel Rowbotham

In his 1865 book Zetetic Astronomy: Earth Not a Globe, Rowbotham wrote:

Although the Sun is at all times above and parallel to the Earth's surface, he appears to ascend the firmament from morning until noon, and to descend and sink below the horizon at evening. This arises from a simple and everywhere visible law of perspective.

This was the birth of flerfspective: the butchered mess that flerfs make of linear perspective as one of their most defining cult dogmas. To this day, they use it to explain sunset, hull down ships, and a variety of other phenomena.

Rowbotham needed this on his model, which he called “zetetic astronomy,” because of time zones. To make a flat earth “work” in the modern world, Samuel Rowbotham had co-opted the azimuthal equidistant world map projection with the North Pole at the center. His sun supposedly traveled in circles overhead around the North Pole.

World map drawn by Rowbotham

Gleason map

Later, flat earther and Rowbothamist proselyte Alexander Gleason refined Rowbotham’s map with his patented “New Standard Map of the World.” This too was a co-opted azimuthal map, which suitably resembled Rowbotham’s but with more accurate geography.

Flat earthers ever since have used this as an icon for their belief system.

The Gleason Map

Firmament

In Rowbothamism, the firmament is a physical, celestial barrier separating the "waters above" from the Earth below; thought to contain all celestial bodies (or "luminaires"), including the Sun, Moon and planets. In Rowbothamism, it is used in essentially the same way that ancient cosmologies used the term.

Most modern flat earthers have adopted the term, and may also refer to it as the dome interchangeably. Despite the complete lack of evidence for its existence, flerfs have attempted to substantiate it by purporting that "you can't have gas pressure without a container" among other claims.

Usage of the term in Zetetic Astronomy

If, to ascertain the true figure and condition of the earth, we adopt the "Zetetic" process, which truly is the only one sufficiently reliable, we shall find that instead of its being a globe--one of an infinite number of worlds moving on axes and in an orbit round the sun, it is the directly contrary--a Plane, without diurnal or progressive motion, and unaccompanied by anything in the firmament analogous to itself; or, in other words, that it is the only known material world.

It is useless to say, in explanation, that this very minute displacement, is owing to the almost infinite distance of the fixed stars; because the very same stars show an equal degree of parallax from a very minute base line; and, secondly, it will be proved from practical data, in a subsequent chapter, that all the luminaries in the firmament are only a few thousand miles from the surface of the earth.

The above method of measuring distances applies equally to the moon and stars; and it is easy to demonstrate, to place it beyond the possibility of error, so long as assumed premises are excluded, that the moon is nearer to the earth than the sun, and that all the visible luminaries in the firmament are contained within a vertical distance of 1000 statute miles.

Pronunciation

Accounts seem to vary (even among UK English speakers) on whether the “th” in “Rowbotham” is the dental fricative (like in thin), or a “t” sound with a silent "h".

In a livestream discussion about this, at 2:01:35 Peter Markley and Michael Toon agreed to split the difference by:

• Peter using the “th” sound like in thin (/roʊbɒθəm/), and
• Michael using the “t” sound like in bottom (/roʊbɒtəm/).