Maybe it will help if we think of our earth not as an oblate spheroid, but as a cylinder, closed on one end, filled about half way with water, and of ourselves not as advanced primates, but as green, short-bodied, tailless amphibians. Now relax. If you're having trouble relaxing, try concentrating on something like a transgender whistle blowing amphibian whose been transferred from a lidded cylinder into an open-topped one. Ah...