Hey, I’m not arguing it - I think it’s a basic piece of “general information” that, like you said, can help you with things but people were fishing and hunting long, long before they had a clue about orbits of stars and planets.
People forget all sorts of things, surely you can understand that. Do you remember the Pythagorean theorem? If you need it for your job, maybe. Most people have no idea.
As for sun and seasons, people can grasp the East to West rise and set and seasons without knowing the “fact” that Earth orbits our satellite, the Sun. In fact, most people don’t know the Sun is a star. I never knew it before - or if learned it, forgot. See?
If the majority says the earth is flat, is the earth now flat? Does it really matter?
You make a plausible argument for ignorance. Not you, just the people you are arguing for. Somehow I can't fathom someone say he is intelligent and lives in a modern society like the USA, who doesn't understand the clock of our very lives and our planet. It's not complicated. But hey that's just me.
Now photosynthesis and cellular respiration, maybe not so much so.
If you didn't know that about 75% of the earth's surface is covered in water and just said a lot of water, I can understand.
The problem with our modern secularists is they have replaced facts with psuedo-crappola. This effects the reasoning ability, limits our ability to use deductive reasoning because our fact base is so corrupt. This now effects the public at large to our detriment. People argue as if what they see on TV is true, because it's on TV for instance. They don't understand what they are arguing about, but assume 'if seen on TV then it must be fact". Bad decision, easily manipulated by evil. And that is where we are at today. Unable for most to rationalize our world, and find reason in our very freedoms.
This is what I was focused on, not the fact that it is true or necessary.
I would also argue that intellect is not the same as intelligence.