Are flat-earthers serious?

[doggie]

Well This is crazy but no more so then the denial we see with fundies. it is just based on less. The weird thing is they don't fall for the other crap and tend to believe in global warming and such.

Members of the Flat Earth Society claim to believe the Earth is flat. Walking around on the planet's surface, it looks and feels flat, so they deem all evidence to the contrary, such as satellite photos of Earth as a sphere, to be fabrications of a "round Earth conspiracy" orchestrated by NASA and other government agencies.

The belief that the Earth is flat has been described as the ultimate conspiracy theory. According to the Flat Earth Society's leadership, its ranks have grown by 200 people (mostly Americans and Britons) per year since 2009. Judging by the exhaustive effort flat-earthers have invested in fleshing out the theory on their website, as well as the staunch defenses of their views they offer in media interviews and on Twitter, it would seem that these people genuinely believe the Earth is flat.

http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-cultu ... rs-serious

[clicker dies]

Good lord. Of all the cockamamie things to deny.

Have they ever seen the sun? The moon? Any of the planets in the solar system? I mean, fuck.

[Guest Anonymous]

Doggie, I wish it was possible to tell you that this is just a global legpull but it's not. I've always suspected that the fundies/global warming deniers/all-purpose wingnuts were blackballed by the Flat Earth Society, so they decided to start one of their own.

[doggie]

Doggie, I wish it was possible to tell you that this is just a global legpull but it's not. I've always suspected that the fundies/global warming deniers/all-purpose wingnuts were blackballed by the Flat Earth Society, so they decided to start one of their own.

could be. they seem more rational for everything else.

[Becket70]

Am I missing something? If it's flat, wouldn't there be an end at some point? Perhaps they think earth is a square. At some point the ends would have to meet, wouldn't they? Why am I even wasting my time trying to figure out how they think? As the saying goes, it takes all kinds.

[Trynn]

Am I missing something? If it's flat, wouldn't there be an end at some point? Perhaps they think earth is a square. At some point the ends would have to meet, wouldn't they? Why am I even wasting my time trying to figure out how they think? As the saying goes, it takes all kinds.

QFT. This is exactly what I was thinking... it's just absolutely illogical, no matter how you look at it.

[snarkbillie]

Am I missing something? If it's flat, wouldn't there be an end at some point? Perhaps they think earth is a square. At some point the ends would have to meet, wouldn't they? Why am I even wasting my time trying to figure out how they think? As the saying goes, it takes all kinds.

I believe they think it's a semi-hemi shape.

kottke.org/08/08/flatearthers

Not flat, because then they can't explain away the times you can see the curvature of the Earth. It's just not round, according to them.

[ILoveJellybeans]

I hope theyre joking, there is no way the earth can be flat. People have been up in space and seen it for themselves, and can even travel around the world and end up back to where they started.

Seriously? So Antartica is a 150 foot tall wall of ice around the very edge of this disk and NASA guards it so that people dont fall off? Theres an invisible anti moon that explains eclypses? The sun is small and only 3000 miles up (lower than a plane?). Gravity is an illusion and "dark energy" moves the earth upwards?

That defies all logic, and stupidity like that is the logical conclusion for some peoples distrust of science and the government.

[Naga Viper]

Seriously? So Antartica is a 150 foot tall wall of ice around the very edge of this disk and NASA guards it so that people dont fall off? Theres an invisible anti moon that explains eclypses? The sun is small and only 3000 miles up (lower than a plane?). Gravity is an illusion and "dark energy" moves the earth upwards?

You forgot about the planet riding on the backs of four giant elephants, who themselves are but passengers on the shell of the giant space turtle Great A'Tuin. [link=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld_(world)]Cosmology 101[/link], people. :naughty:

[nokoanna]

It's turtles, all the way down...

[doggie]

No matter how wacky they tend to believe in evolution and global warming so they can't be too crazy.

[AuntCloud]

Wrote a post stating the natural order of things is four elephants on top of the great A'Tuin, got distracted when needed to answer the door, and now I see great minds think alike.

Another question: how did people not fall off the edge before NASA?

[penguinagogo]

these people need an introduction to Occams razor

[mkitten]

I can't even.... I'm choosing to believe it's a big joke (please don't burst my bubble....)

[mirele]

This subject reminds me of how the late Grand Mufti ibn Bin Baaz of Saudi Arabia, issued a fatwa stating the earth was flat. However:

Ibn Baz did not change his mind until 1985 when Prince Sultan bin Salman returned home after a week aboard the space shuttle Discovery to tell him that he had seen the earth rotate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abd_al-Azi ... h_ibn_Baaz (Link also includes some discussion about how King Faisal was so annoyed by an article Bin Baaz wrote about the flat earth, he ordered all copies of the article burned.)

Sheesh.

Bin Baaz is also the reason women aren't allowed to drive cars in Saudi Arabia.

[Sumeri]

No matter how wacky they tend to believe in evolution and global warming so they can't be too crazy.

but...but...doesn't "global" warming involve, you know, the globe? As in, the earth is spherical? Globe-shaped? Or are they envisioning global warming like all of us on a flat griddle under heat lamps?

[slickcat79]

Wrote a post stating the natural order of things is four elephants on top of the great A'Tuin, got distracted when needed to answer the door, and now I see great minds think alike.

Another question: how did people not fall off the edge before NASA?

Who says they didn't? Clearly every person who has ever mysteriously disappeared throughout recorded human history has fallen off the giant ice-wall in Antarctica.

[nokidsmom]

I can't believe that in this day and age, with much proof to the contrary, that folks still insist on the flat earth theory. The circumference of the earth was calculated mathematically in around 200 BC. So the ancients knew it was round and didn't have the benefit of visual proof like we do now.

But I know they can be serious. I have in laws that believe that space aliens came down to the Mayans and gave them their culture and technology, it was not something that was developed over time, from a number of cultural influences and trade. I haven't asked them about flat earth or the fake moon landing. It's scary enough.

[nokidsmom]

Who says they didn't? Clearly every person who has ever mysteriously disappeared throughout recorded human history has fallen off the giant ice-wall in Antarctica.

And end up in Rio partying with Elvis.

[RosyDaisy]

Well...I've heard of the moonwalk being a conspiracy, so this doesn't really surprise me.

[Childless]

These people are just as ridiculous as the people that insist the earth is the center of the solar system. Yeah, those yahoos had a conference in my state a short while back. Just another reason to be ashamed of where I live.

[jockosmom]

Well...I've heard of the moonwalk being a conspiracy, so this doesn't really surprise me.

My husband and I have a friend who seriously believes the moon landings were faked. He says there is no way computers were sophisticated enough in 1969 to assist with running the spacecraft and such. He's super-sensitive about his beliefs about this, too. I tried to ask him questions once, not trying to argue with him, but just trying to understand where's he coming from on this and he just repeats his same few lines about this and then shuts down. He won't entertain any ideas other than his own.

[bellicosebroad]

Well...I've heard of the moonwalk being a conspiracy, so this doesn't really surprise me.

My brother (brother!) thinks it was, and he is a fully science savvy non-fundy. :doh:

[xDreamerx]

I was reminded of this instantly...

UkrkaH_V7fE

[doggie]

If you don't know something basic like if the world is flat then how the hell do you have the knowledge to know something like what god wants?