.
Where the editor for the Internet page I copied, above, has said the following:
.
Ed. note: Several atheopaths have attacked both Isaiah and Bede because the earth is not a perfect sphere, although even Bede understood that it has irregularities “similar to a potato” such as mountains and deep-sea trenches. But he realized that this was a tiny deviation from sphericity; that it was reasonable to call the earth a "sphere." Also, long after Bede, it was predicted, then discovered, that the earth is an oblate spheroid, i.e. flattened at the poles. In reality, ‘sphere’ is a very good approximation for the shape of the earth, not an error. Most astronomers today are OK with calling the earth a ‘globe’ or ‘sphere’, knowing full well that it’s an approximation. So the same allowance should be made for the Bible. Actually, Sir Isaac Newton, a creationist, was the one who first predicted oblateness from the earth’s rotation.......he was beginning to touch on the difference between our modern concept of the earth's sphericity and that of the ancients.
.
With the help of satellites and computers today, we are able to get a far more accurate understanding of the earth's external contours, by which we have endeavored to propose a variety of models in order to simplify our world view. It is a common theme to find ways of simplifying complex reality, and in so doing one ellipsoid model might be chosen while another model is rejected. That doesn't mean the rejected model is "wrong," but that it is merely not as good as another for a particular application. We have come up with several different ellipsoid models over the past 40 years, some of which are more commonly used in particular regions of the earth where other ellipsoid models are selectively ignored. An ellipsoid is a theoretical ideal geometrical deformed sphere which may pass above or below specific surface locations on the earth, whether they be solid land or the surface of bodies of water. Generally speaking, a particular ellipsoid is more useful when it passes ABOVE a given surface area, but not very far above it (such as 5 meters, or 27 meters, but not 100 meters). Given a choice between using an ellipsoid that passes 1 meter below a particular point of interest and another that passes 10 meters above the same point, usually the latter is preferred.
.
There is a lot to say about ellipsoids and each one of them entails mountains of data.............. iow TLDR ...............
.
Bottom line: it's not even a matter of whether the earth is "flat" or spheroid.
It is rather a question of what
precisely the shape is of the spheroidial earth.
Is it a spherical shape like
this, or is it a slightly different spherical shape like
this?And to the vast majority of causal observers, the differences between them are so minor as to be of no interest. TLDR again.
.
Another abstract model in common usage is the geoid. But there is a huge difference between the geoid and any particular ellipsoid.
.
When one refers to ellipsoid, one must identify WHICH ellipsoid is being used, because there are a variety to select from.
.
But when one refers to the geoid, there is only one of those: The Geoid.
(But for whatever reason, the G is conventionally not upper case: "the geoid.")
.