I am saying its quite pointless to argue about this, no one is going to change their minds, at least have Matt move it.

You are doing exactly the opposite of what St. Augustine taught.  He wrote that it is incorrect and of no spiritual benefit to use such statements as the basis of a cosmology.  And this is not simply an opinion of a Father of the Church; it was incorporated into magisterial teaching by Leo XIII.  We cannot simply ignore it.

This approach to Scripture is essentially Protestant and should not be practiced by Catholics.

And yet another straw man argument.  I did not say that.

Anyhow I'm done with the thread.  I think that Romulus was right.

Even if it were appropriate to use Scripture to support cosmology,

Globers really have to stop using Eratosthenes.  His experiment was badly flawed.  He made assumptions about the distance between the earth and the sun (which ended up wildly wrong by modern calculations.  I think he said one million miles) and also made no account of the possibility of atmospheric refraction.

I had started out by wondering why, with the “flat earth” hypothesis, no one has yet discovered the “edge” or the “wall of the firmament dome”, whatever you want to call it.  And yes, even with an ice wall or firmament dome there would still necessarily be an “edge” or “terminus” with the flat earth model.  I cited explorers going back to the 10^th century, half a millennium before Columbus, and a very abridged list at that.  All manner of new lands and new peoples were discovered by these explorations, and the explorers’ chartings and navigational prowess largely described our current understanding of the earth’s land mass.
 
Yet no one, as far as I am aware, has been to “the ends of the earth” to describe what is there, what it looks like, provide navigational aids and drawings, perhaps establish a settlement, and etc.  This does seem rather odd.  In answer to my query the ONLY response was that this is because of “The Treaty”, from two responders as I recall.  There were no references to what this treaty was about, or where it fit into a chronological spectrum, but I looked into it.  I discovered that the reference was to “The Antarctic Treaty”.  The original 12 nations agreeing to the treaty signed it on December 1, 1959 but it did not take effect until June 23, 1961.  Today there are 50 nations that agree to the terms of the treaty, representing two-thirds of the world’s population.  U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Richard Byrd's (1888-1957) explorations to the “South Pole” (placed in quotes as proponents of the Flat Earth hypothesis don’t believe in a “South Pole”) have been mentioned.  It is to be noted, from my research, that Rear Admiral Byrd was last physically present on the “Antarctic continent” (placed in quotes as I don’t think proponents of the Flat Earth hypothesis believe Antarctica is a continent, but rather the “rim” of the flat earth) on February 3, 1956, nearly three years before “The Treaty” was signed and nearly half a decade before “The Treaty” took effect.  Of course there have also been hundreds of centuries of global exploration before this “The Treaty”.  I do not believe that “The Treaty” can be used as an excuse for why the “edges” of the “flat earth” cannot be explored, let alone even discovered.  “The Treaty” also stipulates the area it covers, so if one is exploring any area outside of “the area south of 60o South latitude, including all ice shelves” “The Treaty” wouldn’t apply and wouldn’t present any hindrance to finding “the ends of the earth” as envisioned in the “flat earth” hypothesis.  As far as I can find, there is NOTHING in “The Treaty” that precludes private scientific investigation, though that claim in made by one of the forum’s most vigorous apologists for the “flat earth”.  ACTUAL citations would be helpful.
 

There is a REALLY EASY solution to sorting this out which doesn’t involve satellites (I have the impression that some proponents of the “flat earth” hypothesis don’t believe in satellites, nor the pictures they transmit back to earth).

• Pick a “terra firma” location.  I’ve chosen Australia for my example as it seems “near the edge”, though I note that not all “flat earth maps” seem to agree as to exactly where Australia is.
• Charter a jet liner.  There are still plenty of Boing 737 Max’s and Airbus 380’s in storage, one of these models, and others no doubt, should be available at a reasonable cost.
• There are plenty of eccentric wealthy who enjoy seeing their names highlighted, so funding should be available, Donald Trump comes easily to mind.
• Take off from Australia and head … we “global earth” types would say due east, I am uncertain how “flat earth” types would describe the direction.

There would seem to be only two possible results:

If the airliner arrives at the earth "edge, terminus, ice wall, firmament dome” the explorers can take pictures (“flat earth” believers seem to have a special affinity for a particular Nikon camera and the model number has been mentioned in this thread).  The explorers should also be able to note the “coordinates” which would allow a sea fairing expedition to be launched for further exploration.  As long as they stay above or north of “the area south of 60o South latitude” the vaunted “Treaty” would offer no hindrance.


OR

The other possible outcome might be that the airliner continues on its “due east” linear flight path and arrives, not at “the edge of the earth” but rather on the west coast of Chile.  Wow, what a disappointment that would be.  Presumably they would refuel and continue their flight in the same linear direction, to arrive back at Australia, approaching its western coast, having circuмnavigated a global earth (as in a "ball shape").

The above approach seems much more logical than arguing about why my morning coffee isn't flying out of its cup because of the rate of speed that the earth supposedly rotates, or why people in the southern hemisphere don't fall off the planet (as some believe "gravity doesn't exist"), or why railroad tracks aren't curved.

I believe all true seekers of the truth will be waiting with great anticipation for such an expedition to take place.