R ecent news stories, 1 celebrity endorsements, and Google search trends 2 have highlighted an apparently growing conspiracy theory belief that the Earth is not a globe, but instead a flat disc. According to believers, government forces promote a completely fictitious model of the cosmos in order to conceal the true nature of the Earth. Are these claims true?
No. The Earth is RoundThe evidence for a spherical Earth is overwhelming. 3 Most obviously, there are many thousands of images and videos of the Earth from space, including a continually changing live stream view of the globe from the International Space Station—not to mention all the astronauts who have personally seen the Earth from orbit. Flat Earthers claim that all images of the globe are fraudulent inventions, and all testimony from astronauts is false. It is unreasonable to dismiss all of the evidence from the entire history of space exploration, especially when there is zero evidence for a decades-long “globularist” conspiracy. However, we do not need to rely on evidence from modern space agencies to confirm the roundness of the Earth for ourselves.
#53 (cover)" width="200" height="257" class="boxShadow"> Portions of this article appeared previously in Daniel Loxton’s detailed history of the Flat Earth movement in Junior Skeptic #53 , bound within Skeptic magazine 19.4 (2014).
The globe has been clearly understood for thousands of years. Indeed, this was one of the first cosmic facts to be worked out correctly by ancient people because evidence of a spherical Earth is visible to the naked eye.
By the time of the philosopher Socrates and his student Plato, many Greeks understood that the Earth could only be a sphere. Sailors would have noticed that the sails of approaching ships appeared before the hulls of the ships became visible because the surface of the sea is slightly curved, like the surface of an enormous ball. 4 When you sail toward a ship, island, or lighthouse, their tallest points are the first thing to peek up over the curve of the horizon.
Plato’s student Aristotle offered further “evidence of the senses” to support his own conclusion that the Earth “must necessarily be spherical.” First, there was the evidence of lunar eclipses. When the Moon passes through the shadow of the Earth, that shadow is always the circular shadow of a sphere. Also, Aristotle argued, “our observations of the stars” make it clear “not only that the earth is circular, but also that it is a circle of no great size.” He pointed out that “quite a small change of position to south or north” significantly changes “the stars which are overhead, and the stars seen are different, as one moves northward or southward.” Just as ships can be hidden from view by the curvature of the horizon, so too can the stars. 5
The debate about the shape of the Earth has been settled for over two thousand years. An ancient scholar named Eratosthenes—the head of the famous library of Alexandria in Egypt—even correctly approximated the circumference of the Earth using experimental measurements of shadows in two cities and some geometry. 6
Despite modern legends about Medieval backwardness, there never was a time when educated people went back to thinking the Earth was flat. Once discovered, the true shape of the globe was too simple and useful a fact to be forgotten. Sailors were reminded of the planet’s roundness every time they climbed a mast to see further over the horizon or looked to the stars to determine their position. By the time of Columbus, his crew and even his critics understood that our world is a globe. 7 It had been an established fact for centuries. For example, here’s a passage from the popular astronomy textbook On the Sphere of the World , published over 250 years before Columbus sailed:
That the earth, too, is round is shown thus. The…stars do not rise and set the same for all men everywhere but rise and set sooner for those in the east than for those in the west; and of this there is no other cause than the bulge of the earth. 8
Diagram from a later edition of the early 13th century text On the Sphere of the World .
The Nature of Flat Earth Beliefs
Flat Earth beliefs vary, but usually involve a large disc-shaped world with a relatively tiny Sun and Moon circling above it like lamps above a table. Flat Earth maps rearrange the continents and seas to radiate outward from the North Pole, which is imagined to be at the center of the disc. Everything we think of as the Southern Hemisphere is spread out around the outer circumference. It is usually claimed that Antarctica does not exist at all. Instead, the entire disc is encircled by a vast wall of ice that we mistake for a frozen southern continent. 9
The people who make these claims are not always sincere. There is a long tradition of humorous trolling by people who merely pretend to think the Earth is flat. 10 However, genuine, passionate Flat Earth believers certainly do exist. They typically base their beliefs on two things: intuition and fundamentalist religious faith. The world seems pretty flat when we go about our daily lives. The Bible also contains passages that suggest that our world could be a flat surface covered by a dome (the “Firmament”). 11
Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, Flat Eartherism was primarily motivated by Biblical literalism. 12 Believers saw the globe and astronomy as threats to faith. “No one can believe a single doctrine or dogma of modern astronomy and accept Scriptures as divine revelation,” argued 19th century Flat Earth author John Hampden. 13
This remains the position of many Flat Earthers today (although the internet apparently also fosters a new more secular 14 conspiracy theory strain alongside traditional Christian Flat Eartherism). Flat Earth believers have long occupied a fringe within the Christian creationism movement, and have been a source of embarrassment for other creationists. For example, the creationist ministry Answers in Genesis has published several articles correctly debunking Flat Earth beliefs, 15 only to be accused of hypocrisy for accepting astronomy while rejecting geology and biology. “The Flat Earth position is first based upon Scripture,” shot back one Christian Flat Earther. 16
Flat Earth beliefs almost require creationist faith because the Flat Earth could not be a natural object. If such a world existed, it could only be an artificial environment constructed on purpose and maintained by forces we do not understand. Left to itself, a disc-world would collapse under its own gravity, forming a sphere like other planets, large moons, and stars.
Since the dawn of the Space Age, Flat Earth beliefs have necessarily also entailed believing that a vast conspiracy deceives us about the nature of the world. 17 “The space program is a scientific plot to hoodwink the public,” claimed Charles and Marjory Johnson, 18 the most prominent Flat Earth advocates during the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. 19 If they were correct about the shape of the Earth, it would follow that a conspiracy must exist to falsify evidence of Moon landings and images of the Earth from space.
However, this claim of a world-wide conspiracy suffers from the same serious flaws as other similar grand conspiracy narratives (such as the “chemtrails” conspiracy theory that aircraft contrails are actually part of a secret global spraying program designed to poison the Earth). First, there is no evidence that any such conspiracy exists. Second, it is implausible to suppose that a conspiracy could exist at that scale for decades without any of the countless thousands of conspirators ever leaking the truth. Third, if a conspiracy was so powerful as to hide itself successfully forever, it would surely also be able stop Flat Earthers from constantly blabbing about it on the internet, newspapers, and television. Finally, it is unclear what could possibly motivate the sustained world-wide effort and expense necessary to conceal the shape of the Earth.
Christian Flat Earthers consider the conspiracy Satanic, which again places Flat Earth beliefs firmly within the sphere of religious fundamentalism. The assumed goal of the round Earth conspiracy is to lead believers astray from their salvation. This has a certain internal logic given their prior assumptions (on faith) of a Flat Earth, a conspiracy, and ongoing spiritual warfare between God and Satan. A round Earth conspiracy seems difficult to justify in secular terms. Why bother pretending the Earth is one shape rather than another? It stretches credibility to accept the motivation that one Flat Earth organization proposes: space agencies are “most likely motivated by greed…and using only some of their funding to continue to fake space travel saves a lot of money to embezzle for themselves.” 20
Flat Earth Ideas Make No Sense and Explain NothingLike other creationists, Flat Earthers base their arguments on perceived flaws in mainstream science while ignoring major problems with their own claims. They do not provide scientific evidence for their radical alternative model. Nor do Flat Earth models explain the broad range of natural phenomena that are well-explained by the modern scientific understanding of the globe and its place in our solar system: planetary formation, volcanoes, tides, seasonal changes, the phases of the Moon, plate tectonics, earthquakes, the coldness of the poles, the magnetic field that compasses rely upon, auroras, and so on.
The Flat Earth model fundamentally conflicts with the things we see in nature. For example, why would the southern hemisphere’s stars be visible from the opposite edges of a Flat Earth, while people in the central region of the disc instead see the constellations of the northern hemisphere? Shouldn’t the same stars hang over everyone on a Flat Earth like a ceiling hangs over a kitchen table?
Why do the Sun and Moon and stars appear to rise and set? Most Flat Earthers believe that the Sun and Moon are fairly close objects, each just a few miles across, which always hang above the Flat Earth. Supposedly both objects circle around the North Pole on a plane parallel to the Earth’s flat surface while shining down like lamps to illuminate different parts of the disc. (The Sun and Moon are illuminated and kept moving by unknown forces; neither object orbits anything.) If so, the Sun and Moon should be visible all the time from every part of the Earth’s surface. How could such a world ever experience a sunset? We never see the Sun grow noticeably dimmer or smaller with distance as we would in this Flat Earth model; instead, as the globe turns, the Sun passes out of view over the curvature of the horizon.
Flattening the globe also would severely distort the shapes of oceans and continents and the distances between them. Most notably, all proposed Flat Earth maps greatly expand the distances between southern landmasses. Countries that are relatively close together on a globe would be repositioned many times further away on opposite sides of a flat disc-world. In reality, for example, the distance between the northern countries of China and the USA is similar to the distance between the southern countries of Australia and South Africa—and so are the flight times to travel between them. That would not be true if Flat Earth maps were accurate.
Flat Earth map from Samuel Birley Rowbotham’s book Zetetic Astronomy (1865).
All routes for planes and ships would be different on a Flat Earth, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. According to many Flat Earth maps, the shortest flight route between South America and Australia would cross over the North Pole! 21 A conspiracy to conceal the flatness of the Earth would therefore have to include hundreds of thousands of airline pilots and ship captains as well as governments, space agencies, mapmakers, and Antarctic explorers.
Gravity, Handwaving, and the SupernaturalFlat Earth advocates rely upon made up excuses and invented forces to explain away the problems of their model. They claim that light, perspective, and gravity work differently than we understand from the evidence of science and our senses. Many claim that gravity does not exist at all. This claim is necessary because everyone on every part of the Earth’s surface feels a roughly equal gravitational pull straight down toward their feet, which only makes sense on a globe: gravity pulls everyone down toward the planet’s center of mass. Gravity would feel very different on a Flat Earth. A disc-world’s center of mass would not be located straight down from most parts of the surface. People standing at the central North Pole would feel a vertical downward pull, but everyone further from the center of the disc would feel gravity pull at an angle. At the edges of the disc, the pull of gravity would be almost horizontal. This would pull the oceans and atmosphere inward toward the center of the disc, drowning the center and leaving the outer edges airless and uninhabitable. Standard gravity would also pull down the Flat Earth model’s tiny nearby Sun and Moon to crash into the North Pole. Since none of these things happen, we know the world is not flat.
Rather than confront the problem of gravity, Flat Earthers respond by dismissing gravity altogether. If the “traditional theory of gravitation” is “incompatible with the Flat Earth Model,” then gravity must be weak or nonexistent. 22 But if that were the case, wouldn’t you be floating out of your chair right now? Why would objects fall when you drop them? According to one common Flat Earth claim, objects fall because the Earth “is constantly accelerating up at a rate of 32 feet per second squared (or 9.8 meters per second squared). This constant acceleration causes what you think of as gravity.” 23 This handwaving explanation doesn’t work. If our world is accelerating upward, why doesn’t the Flat Earth crash into the tiny Sun and Moon above us? What force could cause the Flat Earth—an entire world—to constantly accelerate at a perfectly even rate? How would the flat surface remain perfectly oriented with the direction of acceleration without ever tumbling (or even slightly wobbling)?
Flat Earth illustration by Daniel Loxton. Sun and Moon shown larger than imagined by Flat Earthers.
There are no coherent natural explanations for anything in the Flat Earth model. Even when presented in secular language, Flat Earth claims describe an impossible and necessarily artificial world created and maintained through unexplainable miracles. A Flat Earth could only exist through supernatural or technological forces beyond our comprehension.
The Bottom LineBelieving that the Earth is flat requires not only a world-wide conspiracy to fake decades of space exploration, but also the wholesale denial of many branches of science and the evidence of our senses. It requires the invention of new forces and laws of nature without evidence, and implicitly relies upon the actions of a deity-like being or beings.
Despite the rising prominence of Flat Earth ideas, there has never been evidence to suggest that the world could be flat. Advocates simply assume the “obvious truth” of a Flat Earth on the basis of religious faith, intuition, or humor, and then invent a reality to match. 24 Although surprisingly frustrating, the rhetoric of Flat Earthers does nothing to change the simple fact, definitively proven for centuries: we live on the surface of a globe.
References- See for example Sebastian Kettley. “SpaceX flat Earth SHOCK: Was Falcon 1 Heavy launch faked to conceal planet’s shape?” Express.co.uk, Feb 7, 2018. https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/915948/spacex-flat-earth-falcon-heavy-launch-fake-elon-musk (Accessed March 13, 2018)
- Google Trends suggest that Google searches for “flat earth” have been climbing since early 2015, with interest since late 2015 remaining consistently higher than any previous period back to 2004.
- “Spherical” is here used in an approximate sense. For a discussion of the finer complexities of describing the slightly irregular shape of the globe, see Isaac Asimov. “The Relativity of Wrong.” The Skeptical Inquirer , Fall 1989, Vol. 14, No. 1. pp. 35–44
- The curvature of bodies of water has also been demonstrated experimentally, most famously by Alfred Russel Wallace to settle a wager with Flat Earther John Hampden in 1870. See Richard Milner and Michael Shermer. “Wallace and the Flat Earthers.” Skeptic , 2015, Vol. 20 No. 3 . pp. 34–36; and, Daniel Loxton. Junior Skeptic #53, “Flat Earth?! The Convoluted Story of a Flatly Mistaken Idea.” Skeptic , 2014, Vol. 19, No. 4. pp. 70–71
- Aristotle, translated by J. L. Stocks. On the Heavens . (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1922.) As transcribed at http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/heavens.2.ii.html
- Carl Sagan. Cosmos . (New York: Random House, 1983.) pp. 14–15
- Jeffrey Burton Russell. Inventing the Flat Earth: Columbus and Modern Historians . (New York: Praeger, 1991.)
- Johannes de Sacrobosco. Lynn Thorndike, trans. Tractatus de Sphaera (On the Sphere of the World) . (c. Early 13th century, translation published 1949.) As transcribed at http://www.esotericarchives.com/solomon/sphere.htm
- This alternative cosmos was fully developed by 19th century Flat Earth proponent Samuel Birley Rowbotham. “Parallax.” Zetetic Astronomy. Earth Not a Globe! An Experimental Inquiry Into the True Figure of the Earth: Proving It a Plane, Without Axial or Orbital Motion; and the only Material World in the Universe! (London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., 1865.) pp. 20–22, 79–80, 85–87
- For a prominent example, see the tongue-in-cheek Flat Earth Society of Canada founded by philosophy professor Leo Ferrari and other mischievous intellectuals in 1970. It would be best, schemed one founding member, if people were “not quite sure whether they should take us literally or not.” Christine Garwood. Flat Earth: The History of an Infamous Idea . (London: Pan Books, 2008) pp. 280–314
- Robert Schadewald. “The Flat Earth Bible.” Bulletin of the Tychonian Society , No. 44, July, 1987. pp. 27–39
- As skeptical scholar of Flat Earth ideas Bob Schadewald observed in 1982, “to my knowledge, every English-speaking flat earther who has ever lived has actually been a flat Earther because of the Bible.” Robert Schadewald. Lois Schadewald, Ed. Worlds of Their Own: A Brief History of Misguided Ideas: Creationism, Flat-Earthism, Energy Scams, and the Velikovsky Affair . (Xlibris, 2008.) 130
- Robert J. Schadewald. “Scientific Creationism, Geocentricity and the Flat Earth.” Skeptical Inquirer , Winter 1981–82, Vol. 6, No. 2. pp. 41–48
- For example, contemporary Flat Earth Society president Daniel Shenton evidently accepts evolution by natural selection. David Adam. “The Earth is flat? What planet is he on?” The Guardian , Feb 23, 2010. https://www.theguardian.com/global/2010/feb/23/flat-earth-society (Accessed March 12, 2018)
- See for example “They Think the Earth is Flat?” August 9, 2008. https://answersingenesis.org/astronomy/earth/they-think-earth-is-flat/ (Accessed March 13, 2018.) The article dismisses Flat Earth proponents as a “tiny minority of untrained, pseudoscientific hacks who—partially based on an overly literal interpretation of Scripture—buy into a disproven, centuries-old myth rather than accepting wellestablished modern science.”
- Philip Stallings. “The Biblical Flat Earth: A Response To Answers In Genesis.” http://www.philipstallings.com/2016/03/the-biblical-flat-earth-response-to.html (Accessed March 13, 2018)
- This became an especially dominant theme during the 1960s as the International Flat Earth Research Society led by Samuel Shenton struggled to rebut news of manned spaceflight into orbit and to the Moon. See Garwood. (2008.) pp. 219–279
- “Flat Earth Proponent Decries Shuttle Fake.’” The Vancouver Sun , November 6, 1981
- Schadewald. (2008.) pp. 111–112; Douglas Martin. “Charles Johnson, 76, Proponent of Flat Earth.” The New York Times , March 25, 2001. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/25/us/charles-johnson-76-proponent-of-flat-earth.html (Accessed March 12, 2018)
- “Frequently Asked Questions.” Flat Earth Society. https://wiki.tfes.org/Frequently_Asked_Questions (Accessed March 7, 2018)
- This would be the case, for example, if the influential maps published by Samuel Birley Rowbotham were accepted. See “Parallax.” (1865.) pp. 21, 35
- “Universal Acceleration.” https://wiki.tfes.org/Universal_Acceleration (Accessed March 14, 2018)
- https://wiki.tfes.org/Frequently_Asked_Questions . (Accessed March 7, 2018)
- As affirmed by Daniel Shenton in 2009, “The Earth is flat. This is a belief I hold as the beginning of an ongoing search for truth and certainty. It is a starting point—an intellectual foundation on which I feel further knowledge can soundly be built.” Daniel Shenton. “In Defense of the Flat Earth.” (Flat Earth Society, 2009.) http://library.tfes.org/library/daniel_shenton_flat_earth_essay.pdf (Accessed March 12, 2018)
https://www.skeptic.com/insight/flat-earth-conspiracy-theory/?utm_source=eSkeptic&utm_campaign=81c1f164d0-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_03_20&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8c0a740eb4-81c1f164d0-73191905&mc_cid=81c1f164d0&mc_eid=32aadf0916
I was tempted to put this under Science at first, however also it contains the history of those who believe in the concept of a Flat Earth. Then again most of the people who believe in a Flat Earth do so because of Fundamentalist religious reasons, yet it really didn't seem to fit there either since it is also about science and history. So it's in here.
If you google Flat Earth you will find that there are still some people who claim to believe in a Flat Earth. I assume that some are only kidding, but it seems that, like those who don't believe that man has landed on the Moon, there seem to be many who are quite serious. It strikes me as odd that, in this day and age and with as much scientific proof that we have, that there could still be people who could still believe the Earth is Flat. However I guess that there are people in the world who are either so ignorant of science through lack of education or so fearful of it or that it violates their religion so much, that they just can not trust it enough to believe it, even when the obviousness of it is right in front of their eyes.
OK what is on the back side? You know the Dark Side of the Earth!
mold
Dirt?
Super Glue........so that the earth does not get tilted out of whack by hurricanes or tornadoes.
What would happen if we organized everyone in the whole world to all run over to one side of the world all at once?
It's gonna tilt and we are all going to fall off...I don't care about that ice shelf that holds us on. It's gonna give under all that weight
Another good reason for the Super Glue. Otherwise, people on the heavier side would slide off the earth into the nether world and die from too much radiation from the sun or be creamed by an asteroid just passing by.
I think we'd all slip off because the ice shelve would be too slippery, plus all of the sly Penguins would see their chance to get rid of all of us pesky humans and give us one big shove off from the edge. Damned Penguins!
You're likely right.
The Mole people!
Hey....I remember them! Weren't they in the old Flash Gordon episodes in early TV?
Ah, someone who has an appreciation for old, classic sci-fi.
You mean the old black and white documentaries! Yes, I watched them religiously which is where I learned about the mole people, the dinosaurs that live in huge caverns beneath us and the robots from space that want to "Serve Man" for dinner...
Yep. Like I said, the classics. Cheesy effects (like visible model wires) and all.
Don't forget Amazon women on the moon.
"Ah, someone who has an appreciation for old, classic sci-fi."
Indeed. I was very young at the time, maybe 4 y/o then, but, my Mother was an avid fan of that show, and no matter where we were, or what we were doing, she had to be home at 4:00p to watch Flash Gordon. I can't ever remember us missing even one episode. I remember I wanted to be Dale when I grew up. She was so much fun to watch. (grin)
" Don't forget Amazon women on the moon. "
I remember hating old Emperor Ming.
I only remember bits and pieces of a few episodes.
She was also hot in the FG movie (1980).
With private enterprise making new plans for getting back to the moon, who knows, maybe we'll see Jeff Bezos set up a hotel there staffed entirely by females...
If the earth is flat, does that mean the moon is flat too?
Flat as a pizza pan and made of cheese...
The waxing and waning is caused by the Gods taking bites out of it each month till the God of Cheese, Mozza Rella, replenishes it...
[slaps forehead] Of course. It's all so obvious now. lol
Dear Friend Raven Wing: In many sci fi shows, (Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Star Trek etc.) whole planets would have only one race and nation per their world.
In my childhood (three black and white channels from which to choose. All shows off by 11:00 PM) announcers would break from the program, saying things like "And now a word from the good people at Dole whose sponsorship makes this program possible".
Like the winged people, plant people etc. from Sci Fi I always imagined Dole People to live on a globe shaped like a pineapple.
They would have yellow minted cubes for eyes, crushed yellow in the gut; their bodies being yellow slices with holes in the middle and sweet yellow juice coursing through their veins.
It was a fun thing to do on rainy days imaging what the (company name here) people advertising on TV shows would look like as one race inhabitants of distant planets.
E.
I think it's time for a reboot series of Buck Rogers. There's already been one for Battlestar Galactica and Flash Gordon. It's time Buck got his due.
Were one of those channels from the DuMont network? LOL
That show was on when I was a senior in high school. My boyfriend would call and I would tell him I had to go because Buck Rogers was on. He hated that.
I liked that show. Although, the second season wasn't so good. Same with the original BSG.
Duh, because you only ever see the front side of the moon not the back side. The sun is flat too but the fires dance around it giving the illusion of rotation.
I have that on disk somewhere...
Nice!
You mean like the Apollo Moon landings?
Dear Friend and Mentor, Enoch.....yes I do remember Buck Rogers as well. And I am a big Star Trek fan. I like the Sci-Fi movies and programs if they are not gory. I have always been interested in outer space. Perhaps, because I was introduced to Flash Gordon at such an early age by my Mother. I can still remember the music related to the Mole people as they came crawling out of hiding!
Oh my....now I'll be hearing that in my mind for who knows how long now.......(sigh)
Dear Friend Gordy: Don't I wish!
We got ABC, NBA and CBS. That was that.
Buck Rogers 2.0 sounds just fine to me.
E.
Dear Friend Evilgenius: I adored Amazon Women on the Moon.
Great comedy.
Thanks for the flashback.
E.
Dear Friend Raven Wing: The earliest Sci Fi flick I ever saw was, The Shape of Things to Come.
It captured my imagination.
Ah memories.
E.
I used to love Buck Rogers, but in retrospect, it seems pretty campy. I'd like a reboot, if it could lose the camp.
Of course Buck was campy. Just like the original BSG was. That was part of the charm. But like BSG, a BR reboot should have a story arc and more drama.Along with plenty of action as well.
I guess back then, I liked camp. I was probably 10 or so. Yeah, a story arc, action, and maybe a bit darker feel, and I'd be all for it.
I really need to watch the BSG reboot.
One has to wonder about the mental/intellectual stability (or lack thereof) of people who actually believe in a flat earth.
That would explain the lack of stability.
Possibly those reasons, another could be that believing in strange things and conspiracy theories makes people think they're unique/not one of the sheep and thus they are special and more important (in their own minds).
So the same reason why some believe in a "deep State" conspiracy, that the moon landing was faked, that Russia didn't manipulate our elections, that Trump didn't obstruct justice, that Obama was a secret gay Muslim born in Kenya, that the fluoride in the water is to control our minds and not to help our teeth, that airplane contrails are government chemicals being dropped on unsuspecting populaces, that George Soros controls most world governments and is behind antifa or that the Sandy Hook school shooting was staged by gun control advocates.
yup could be applicable to any of those
TLTR
Too bad, it's a good read even if it does require some time and effort
Here is an article in 2016 (ref #16 above) that claims to use NASA to proof that the Earth is Flat! Including that NASA cuts and pastes clouds on it's photos of Earth to make the pictures more cloudy and that they have proof.
If the Earth is tilted like that, how are we staying in one place? Shouldn't we be all gathered at the bottom like marbles when you upend the box?
Besides if the Earth were flat, The Cats would have knocked everything off by now
winner of the funniest comment of the day.
Thank-you. I can't take credit for it, tho. I stole it from a Face Book meme
The wobbling of the earth's axis is why Sarah Palin sometimes really is in Russia. It's like one of those games where you try to get all the little ball bearings to land in a hole.
LOL! That's what I was thinking of!
Another question:
If the Earth is flat why can't we see the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars 24 hours a day?
Because. According to the religious fundamentalists who believe in a Flat Earth it's a miracle. Not kidding.
"There are no coherent natural explanations for anything in the Flat Earth model. Even when presented in secular language, Flat Earth claims describe an impossible and necessarily artificial world created and maintained through unexplainable miracles. A Flat Earth could only exist through supernatural or technological forces beyond our comprehension."
They hide......peek-a-boo
You've obviously swallowed the fake news about the newfangled heliocentric model, but the sun, moon and stars actually rotate around the disc of the earth. That's just common sense and apparent to anyone who bothers to look at the sky.
And as Calvin's father explained the sun sets near Sedona AZ at night. That's why the rocks there are red. The reason the people who live in that area aren't burned up is because the sun goes out at night. Also if you hold a quarter at arm's length you can see that the sun is about the same size, so it's just not heavy enough to crush Arizona.
smarty pants
Well obviously because the God driving the sun chariot across the sky goes into his barn at night which is when the Goddess of the moon comes out and dances across the heavenly meadows of sparkling star flowers that are only visible in her dim glow... And when it's raining it's because God is crying, probably because of something you did...
Well, gee....it should be raining all the time since I'm such a sinner, right?
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="
" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>Sorry but in this day and age people who truly believe this have a screw loose somewhere.
But it's so much fun to make fun of them
More like the screws all fell out completely.
Just one? I think they have so many loose screws that their heads are backwards and tilting perilously to one side.
If all of those people who have loose screws have those screws fall out then maybe we won't run out of screws for a long time?
These folks don't use screws, they have tabs which are stuck in the wrong slots.
At least we'd be well screwed. (grin)
This is the only reason I hesitate at times to poke fun at the President. I might feel bad about making fun of someone who is mentally challenged if we find out he really does only have a 60 IQ as his words and actions seem to indicate.
I stalked a woman on Facebook who thought Monster High dolls were possessed, and surprise! She is also a flat Earther. As evidence, she presented photos of the Earth taken from space at different times and - gasp! - they didn't all look exactly the same. It was like a shot of the western hemisphere was supposed to look exactly like a shot of the eastern hemisphere, and she obviously thought that clouds don't move.
I recall from my days as a pastor that many members of my congregation believed, back in the 1980's and 1990's, that Smurf dolls were possessed and were attacking children in their sleep. I suppose it was inevitable when the regular Sunday message was almost always something about Satan and his demons attacking us and our children.
Wow, just wow (face palm).
Seriously, at first I thought the mother was joking when she asked if she should throw out her kids Smurf toys, but when I realized she was serious I had to tell her I doubted it, but if she felt safer without them then she should do what she felt was right. She decided that getting rid of them was the safest option, just in case, she wasn't taking any chances with that sneaky snake Satan. I think it was something that was started among JW's but was also talked about among my Pentecostal parishioners in Ohio. This was the only link I can find now discussing it in any depth.
That makes me wonder if JW's take a lot of hallucinogenics.
Human beings have a strange ability to believe almost anything. Seems like a vulnerability. That is, I cannot imagine the advantage of having the means to invent and then actually believe an alternate reality.
No it is not
What do you expect when this is the first map of the world that any kid sees? My parents couldn't afford to buy a globe to put in my room so I could see the world wasn't flat.
If a kid is then shown a globe, the kid will think all you've done is wrap the flat map around it.
Maybe the problem is that flat-earthers are just kids who never grew up.
From kids, not too much. But from grown adults with a supposedly functioning frontal lobe, I would expect them to understand the world is not flat.
I guess not all adults have grown up, or the functioning of their frontal lobes leaves something to be desired. LOL
This is true .
I'm glad the first map of the world I got was a globe. Otherwise, I might be a Flat Earther
LOL
They were pretty cheap when I was 7 years old. <cheeky grin>
My parents got one for free when they bought the World Book Encyclopedia. Probably one of the best purchases they ever made. I took volumes of the encyclopedia to bed to read. I was a strange child.
Me, too! I was always reading the encyclopedia
I always had a set of encyclopedias in my house as a kid and always bought a set as an adult before the internet. Whenever I was bored I'd grab a volume at random, flip it open in no particular place and just start reading. You learn a lot that way and it's almost always interesting reading. Like brain candy.
It was a great way to learn stuff
I like to think of the Earth as a layer cake.
Anyway, I love flat Earthers. There are a surprisingly large amount of them, especially when taking into consideration actual and all encompassing evidence to the contrary of the Earth being flat.
They make this old globe a bit less boring lol.
Which is a really sad commentary on society.
This is true.
NASA Photos from the space program depict the earth as more pair shaped.
Flattened at the poles, round in the middle.
Gravitation forces and all.
E.
I'm sick and tired of this flat earth crap. Shouldn't this be settled by now? We've known for a long time that the earth is hollow...
It's not hollow....it has a cream center like a Cadbury egg
Well...this changes everything.
You didn't think it was chocolate, did you? That would make no sense at all.
Just trying something new
She's just got on her fur coat... it's been cold here!
I'm not shaving. You can't make me
No, but I might have put some money on Pumpkin Chiffon.
Now I'm going to dream of a world made of chocolate. Of course, if that were true, I'd weigh about 3 tons.
Maybe I need to explore this whole "gravity is fake" thing more thoroughly. If there's no gravity, you don't weigh anything.
I'm down with that theory. Then we go and ahead and dream of a Chocolate World
And then there is this guy:
http://www.newser.com/story/257045/self-taught-rocket-scientist-achieves-the-dream.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=earthlink&utm_campaign=rss_topnews
Launched himself up in the air in a home made rocket this past Saturday (3-24-18), made it up almost 1,900 feet at 350mph and landed with parachutes (while breaking his "rocket") with just a sore back. He says his goal is to get up into space so he can prove that the Earth is "shaped like a Frisbee"
Oh and he is a limo driver for a living, so this prom season I'd double check who you are hiring to take your kids out.
If the Earth is shaped like a Frisbee like this guy thinks, does that mean that we are flying over a huge sandy beach and that there is a giant dog that is going to grab us in it's mouth sooner or later?
Fun to read!