Yes , skepticism has been removed from scientific endeavour by the peer review system in tandem with the separation of the scientific disciplines.
This website
septemberclues.org | The Central Role of the News Media on 9/11 includes a beautiful demolition of the current solar system model , with outstandingly simple explanations for the many problems that plague the established model.
The author has basically improved the old Tycho Brahe geocentric model and was a good way to start afresh , I found . Get's very technical in places .
I bought and read his book at leisure but it is there on site free as PDF. Well worth a look.
His starting point being that earth does not speed around the sun at 66,600 mph but travels sedately at 1 mph - almost stationary.
He is not a flat earther and still froths at the mention , where as I rule nothing out ,but the demolition of the Copernican solar system is superb.
The Tychos Geoaxial Binary System it is called
Arguments
Right. That author (Shack) has made some points about FE including something like the following:
1. If you use "fair" (perfect enough, non-fisheye) glass optics and photograph the "horizon" on a clear enough day with still enough waters, with the camera "level" and "centered" on the horizon as one would require, with enough horizon in sight, and put that image on a 4K monitor, you can actually "see" and "measure" the *exact* curvature predicted/measure by conventional means (trigonometry and canonical academic measurements), amounting to something like 2 or 4 pixels going down on each edge compared with the middle of the "horizon".
2. Similar to (1), but more subjective: that author (Shack) claims that he can personally, when gazing at such a horizon under clear enough conditions, "see" the very same "slight" curvature. Also, any similarly "perceptive" person can do the same, so long as they can position themselves at a sufficiently good location with good enough weather.
3. Unrelated to (1) and (2), a
PDF from the author (Shack) describes observations from amateurs on "opposite" sides of the planet, at the same time, who compared their photos. Anyone can compare their photos, too. They show *exactly* the differences in the moon shadow and rotation as would be and are predicted by the mathematics and modeling that assume spherical Earth and Moon, along with a Sun (e.g., as in the Author's same modified-Tychos model, which is that Geoaxial Binary System model). Shack has a software simulator running online that confirms the "expected" views based on spherical assumptions.
4. More generally, basically, all the astronomy planet/star observations that people have recorded over the years are consistent with the motions of the modified-Tychos (Geoaxial Binary System) model, which, while not proving "non-flatness" necessarily, is awfully tempting to consider as evidence toward ball-masses that move with some "momentum" of some kind, not unlike the basic physical movements attributed to Newton, et al. (even if that itself is a simplification and may not apply at astronomical scales).
To recap:
If one has a good camera, and a good location to view the horizon, and a 4K monitor, one can reproduce (1), allegedly.
If one has two people willing to participate, and good enough cameras, then two people can reproduce (3), allegedly.
Criticism
Now, argument (1) requires ensuring the camera "does not have fisheye" and is not "biased in the elevation or direction of the ground", etc. I do not know if any such experiment actually documents checking for this. IIRC, Shack used a photo off of the internet, which could have been biased.
And argument (2) is purely subjective.
Meanwhile, argument (3) does not "prove" the "shape" of anything, instead asserting that the way that light appears to scatter and shadow and be positioned is consistent with what would be expected to occur, given roughly spherical shapes.
Therefore
It seems like there is an opportunity for more rigorously proving "beyond a shadow of a doubt" the "actual overall flatness or sphere-like curvature" to a greater degree. I do not know of better arguments put forth by Shack than those overviewed immediately above, but they certainly could exist. I have not read his whole book.
Please LMK if Shack's non-flat position is proven with better evidence not discussed in this comment.
Basically, making physical measurements other than optical observation would be key, I think. Thoughts?