Joseph et al. Great thread.
J – I really admire your bekios. And how you laid it forth.
I w/ like to be bring up a gemoro ( is it shabbos?); Rebbi Hakadosh says Chachmei Yisrael say that the sun travels on top of some curtain at night all the way to the east and then starts again under the curtain so that we could see it. However chachmei umos haolom say that at night the sun goes back to the east by traveling under the ground. Then Rebbi adds that the umos haolom are right. For in the morning the waters are warm.
This used to bother me when I was younger, for obvious reasons.
When I got older I realized; If it didn’t bother Rebbi Hakodosh, if he didn’t loose emunah in the Chachmei Yisrael even though it might seem that when it came to science maybe the umos haolom knew it better, then how could I, Joe Shmoe, loose emunah in CHAZAL?
Chazak, Ah Freilichen Purim, & remember, Yayin but not shnapps.