Both flat and curved?

Hello, new to the forum.

I'm a big believer in Occam's Razor, whereby the answer that requires the smallest shoehorn is the most likely to be right. So a flat Earth is appealing, after all it certainly looks flat. But I was wondering, surely some of the observed phenomena that suggest curvature (ships over the horizon, etc) could simply be due to the the fact that it's actually slightly curved? Is this not the simplest explanation?

Hello, new to the forum.

I'm a big believer in Occam's Razor, whereby the answer that requires the smallest shoehorn is the most likely to be right. So a flat Earth is appealing, after all it certainly looks flat. But I was wondering, surely some of the observed phenomena that suggest curvature (ships over the horizon, etc) could simply be due to the the fact that it's actually slightly curved? Is this not the simplest explanation?

It's a moot point that the earth is not "flat", but "round". However , because of the size of the earth compared to the size of the observer standing on the earth  it does look flat. Same thing at sea. It does look flat but to the observer watching the ship passing over the horizon, it  might  look "slightly curved." Interesting observation !

If something appears to have the same slight curvature from any vantage point on the surface, then it must be a sphere.  There is no other explanation.

Hello, new to the forum.

I'm a big believer in Occam's Razor, whereby the answer that requires the smallest shoehorn is the most likely to be right. So a flat Earth is appealing, after all it certainly looks flat. But I was wondering, surely some of the observed phenomena that suggest curvature (ships over the horizon, etc) could simply be due to the the fact that it's actually slightly curved? Is this not the simplest explanation?

At the human scale, the planet is only curved very, very slightly;  imperceptibly in fact at ground level.

And yes; Occam's Razor applies absolutely to the proven spherical earth "model".

—To a flea circumnavigating a basketball, his "world" would look flat too.

Hello, new to the forum.

I'm a big believer in Occam's Razor, whereby the answer that requires the smallest shoehorn is the most likely to be right. So a flat Earth is appealing, after all it certainly looks flat. But I was wondering, surely some of the observed phenomena that suggest curvature (ships over the horizon, etc) could simply be due to the the fact that it's actually slightly curved? Is this not the simplest explanation?

Occam's Razor is actually in favor of the spherical earth.
And on the slight curve, you're right! The surface of the earth is slightly curved. But it is so absolutely massive that this slight curve, over it's huge area, meets up on the other side to form a sphere. You see, a flat earth requires a massive shoehorn because it doesn't match up with the real world in any way. You don't have to make all these excuses and lies (the aether, close sun & moon that are same size, light distortion, etc.) to make a compelling argument for a spherical earth, because everything we've seen supports it. After all, we have bloody pictures of the thing.