david and marta's bloggy blog

david and marta's bloggy blog
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Thursday, August 7, 2008

flat earth theory

have you ever considered the possibility that the earth is flat? apparently, there are some folks out there who subscribe to this theory. i received an email today from my brother-in-law matt, alerting me to a website where these types of people discuss topics relevant to flate earth theorists (i don't believe matt is one of these people). it isn't totally clear if everyone on this site is on the up and up, but after learning a bit about the flat earth society, it has become clear that at least some of them are totally serious.

the gist of f.e. theory is that the earth is a flat disc. what we think of as the north pole is at the center of the disc. the disc is surrounded by an ice wall which is what round earthers think of as antarctica.

as the theory goes, the sun and the moon are like spotlights, moving in circular paths above the earth. they are about 3000 miles above the earth's flat surface. they each have diameters of approximately 32 miles. the stars are about 100 miles beyond the sun and moon. the spotlight nature of the sun and moon accounts for our night and day, since we can only see them when they are above us. the seasons are caused by a widening and narrowing of the radius of the sun's path.

why isn't the flat nature of the earth common knowledge by now? what about the fact that the earth is clearly spherical from space? what about the fact that people have crossed antarctica?

well, it's a massive conspiracy. all the governments are in on it. the space programs and moon landing were faked, and the money for the programs was spent generating believable images of a spherical earth. as far as crossing antarctica goes, can you say for certain that anyone has actually crossed it? the best single piece of evidence for the inter-government conspiracy is the u.n. flag. it clearly displays a flat earth. they are laughing at us for believing in this round earth sham.

after reading their websites, hearing their evidence, and pondering my own interactions with the earth, i wouldn't say that i am a f.e. theorist, but i would say that i am definitely a flat earth fan.

6 comments:

Roxanne said...

Wow - A lot of work has gone into fooling all of us. Well, I'll be dern shnickered.

Matt said...

I can confirm that I am indeed not a flat-earther. But perhaps there is some credence to the notion that a Canadian flat-earther posited in a recent BBC article: "We humans seem to be pleased with just accepting what we are told, no matter how much it goes against our senses." Perhaps that guy Isaac Newton wasn't very smart?

To read some more great quotes from flat-earthers, read the BBC article in its entirety:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7540427.stm

Sincerely,

David's brother-in-law Matt

JB said...

I think this is an interesting psychological phemonenon (rather than a geological one). These people's brains should be studied. Also, why doesnt one of these idjits take a trip to Antarctica and take a picture of of the edge to show people? How could the sun "go down"... in that type of model it would never dip below the horizon. I am for a good conspiracy theory now and then, but this is ridiculous.

dwstaple said...

i'm not sure why you resorted to name calling jb.

i believe a flat earther might call upon you to go to the ice wall and observe the sun. can you be certain that it would support your globularist views?

"the idea of a spinning globe is only a conspiracy of error that moses, columbus, and fdr all fought…"
-charles k. johnson

Bonita said...

wow....I also heard a commentary on the local santa cruz radio the other day by a whole group of callers who actually believe that the vice president is an alien morphed into human form and prevent us all from achieving a higher consciousness....people TRULY believe this. Come to think of it....he is quite strange though : )

JB said...

Okay.. I see their point about believing what you are told without evidence taken by yourself Technically this leaves a shadow of doubt. As scientists however we cannot go through and repeat every experiment in the last 500 years to prove its validity to ourselves. I believe that the burden of proof lies with the people making the claim however. and they have neither provided nor performed reasonable experiments to test their claim. They are arguing using a modified socratic method which has a place in philosophy but not science.