The Earth is flat and gravity doesn't exist

[josephpalazzo]

To me, the craziest thing about believing in a flat earth is that this is in age where you can hop on a plane and circumnavigate the globe and never see an edge.  And every single time the Earth or any other planet has been photographed, there's no edge.  Nada.  It doesn't take a genius to figure out what an object with no edges would look like.  I mean, the ancient Greeks figured that one out and the technology of the time was pretty crude.  They essentially just measured shadows at different sites and did some trig calculations.  Or easier still, note that some stars can be seen in some places and not at other places and deduce that the Earth cannot be flat because if it were, they would be visible at both places.  It just boggles the mind that modern human beings could possibly champion the idea of a flat earth.

The ancient Greeks were a lot smarter than the average American. The dummying of the culture started with Reagan, and it has been quite successful, sadly.

[SGOS]

It just boggles the mind that modern human beings could possibly champion the idea of a flat earth.

It is indeed a hard psychological dynamic to understand.  When I think about it, the only way I can account for not believing something that is so obvious is prideful ignorance.  But even that is not very satisfying.  If it is prideful ignorance, and it might not be since I'm basically just grasping at straws, what purpose would that serve a person?  Proving how stubborn one can be?  Proving how stupid one can be?

If someone has convinced themselves it is an elaborate conspiracy theory, what would be the practical goal of such a conspiracy?  And it would have to be elaborate, with at least half the people on planet in on it.

However, as far as wacky ideas go, this one is closer to the bottom of the popularity list of wacky ideas.  It certainly does have some supporters, but they are rare.  I've never actually met a flat Earther.  Looking at it as a rare anomaly, it might be easier to understand.  Out of 5 billion people, you are bound to find a few with very strange ideas, delusions, and odd mental defects.  And trying to identify the one theoretical umbrella that explains all flat Earther psychology, might be impossible.

[Baruch]

The ancient Greeks were a lot smarter than the average American. The dummying of the culture started with Reagan, and it has been quite successful, sadly.

You could have chosen Carter instead of Reagan ... that is like a fingerprint!

SGOS - There was a mental health case, where a man mistook his wife for a hat.  I think for some people, the ideas are just internal word salad, tossed.

[josephpalazzo]

You could have chosen Carter instead of Reagan ... that is like a fingerprint!

Absolutely not. It was Reagan that open up the GOP to Falwell's Moral Majority and the ensuing religious nut-heads. Today the religious right with their bubble at Fox News have dominated the political landscape, and have royally screwed the educational system ever since.

[Termin]

To me, the craziest thing about believing in a flat earth is that this is in age where you can hop on a plane and circumnavigate the globe and never see an edge.

You have to understand that they have excuses for everything. there is no edge to the world. There is a conspiracy that keeps people out of Antarctica, because it's not what is seems. Antarctica is a land ring around the disc with a large impassable ice wall, beyond which the so called dome exists.

" And every single time the Earth or any other planet has been photographed, there's no edge."

Well you have to understand every single picture of space is either fake or doctored. There is no outerspace btw, we are not seeing stars or planets, those are merely projections on the dome.

" Nada.  It doesn't take a genius to figure out what an object with no edges would look like.  I mean, the ancient Greeks figured that one out and the technology of the time was pretty crude.  They essentially just measured shadows at different sites and did some trig calculations."

Flat earthers simply changed both the size of the sun and the distance of the sun to account for this.

  Or easier still, note that some stars can be seen in some places and not at other places and deduce that the Earth cannot be flat because if it were, they would be visible at both places.  It just boggles the mind that modern human beings could possibly champion the idea of a flat earth.

Most I'm sure are trolls or poes.

I hope.

[Hydra009]

It is indeed a hard psychological dynamic to understand.  When I think about it, the only way I can account for not believing something that is so obvious is prideful ignorance.

Well, part of it is definitely religion.  Out of the less than a dozen times I've heard this stuff seriously peddled, it's always conjoined with Christian beliefs.  The Bible is of course not especially scientifically accurate, but adherents are conditioned to believe that this stuff is the height of wisdom.  So when it speaks about the four corners of the world, they take that seriously.  Only global (heh) acceptance of a spherical world and an abundance of physical proof pushes this idea to the fringe rather than the mainstream.

[Mike Cl]

It is indeed a hard psychological dynamic to understand.  When I think about it, the only way I can account for not believing something that is so obvious is prideful ignorance.  But even that is not very satisfying.  If it is prideful ignorance, and it might not be since I'm basically just grasping at straws, what purpose would that serve a person?  Proving how stubborn one can be?  Proving how stupid one can be?

For me this just further illustrates just how strong willful ignorance is.  The bible talks of the four corners.  So, the earth must be flat.  Simple.  The bible also tells them that faith has to be blind to be authentic and that the wise person is the person who holds to faith no matter what.  That ensures them entrance into heaven.  Facts and reason have little to no chance of breaching that kind of armor.  It blows my mind every time I run across that way of being--but there are millions and millions who believe in that manner.

[Baruch]

That and most religious are literal, because they are metaphor-challenged.  They think that if you look at a verse metaphorically, then you are a heretic.

[josephpalazzo]

That and most religious are literal, because they are metaphor-challenged.  They think that if you look at a verse metaphorically, then you are a heretic.

It's also that if your metaphorical interpretation is different than my metaphorical interpretation, you are a heretic.

[Termin]

That and most religious are literal, because they are metaphor-challenged.  They think that if you look at a verse metaphorically, then you are a heretic.

And yet one of the passages used by flat Earthers is in Daniel, where he interprets a dream by king Nebuchadnezzar , and no where in his interpretation does he say the earth is flat.

The bible literally says , it's a dream, and then explains what it really means, if you can't figure out that's a metaphor, there is something wrong with you :)

[drunkenshoe]

US Navy Missile Instructor confirms FLAT EARTH - SW21 Interview. Published on 20 September 2015

This is gold.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJOB0vcZ4NI

Comments section is highly reccomended.

There is a dialogue about taking a flight to observe the curvature and the how flight got canceled 36 hours before.


PS Munch, don't miss the Navy Seals pic.

[drunkenshoe]

US Navy Submarine Chief: What Curve? - Flat Earth SW23

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFi98T8phoI

[drunkenshoe]

Flight Instructor: We All Fly Over a Flat Earth.

Observe the planes, by the way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TL30VW5hJY

[Hydra009]

Update:  the dumbass flatearther in question makes a bigger fool out of himself than before (he tries to rebut the rebuttal and fails spectacularly)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPD6WpF6p3s

The best part was when Skeptic asked him what he believes keeps him on the planet since he doesn't believe in gravity.  His answer?  "Weight."

This blew my mind because weight is mass times the force of gravity.  The concept of weight entails the existence of gravity.  So yeah, doesn't make sense as a reply and demonstrates the level of cluelessness we're talking about here.  It'd be like asking someone who doesn't believe in radiation what's going on with the Cherenkov effect (the glow in a nuclear reactor) and he responds, "That's nuclear decay."  It's like, do you not know that you're denying something in one breath and affirming it in another?!

P.S. - and this piece of human refuse somehow gets ~$300/month from Patreon patrons just to blather arguments from incredulity and conspiratorial nonsense that even a kid in elementary school could shoot down under the risable guise of "searching for truth".  Granted, that's not Joshua "balla" Feuerstein money, but damn, if I could slap together some complete BS for that chunk of change, I'd quit my job in a heartbeat!

[SGOS]

The best part was when Skeptic asked him what he believes keeps him on the planet since he doesn't believe in gravity.  His answer?  "Weight."

Well you see, if the Earth were a sphere, everything would be normal at the North Pole because you would be standing at the very top, but as you walked down toward the equator,  you would start to slip and slide, not much at first, but the closer you got to the equator, the more you would slip until you would eventually slip right down on your ass and begin sliding faster and faster as the ground became more and more vertical.  As you passed the equator, you would be sliding, oh I don't know, like a hundred miles an hour, which is faster than a jet plane, even.  Pretty soon you would be on your way to the bottom of the Earth, and you would try to hang onto tree branches and vines, or you would start to fall away from the Earth, and now you would be going even faster, like I don't know, maybe 115 miles an hour.  Eventually, you would see the elephant and the turtles, until you get to the last turtle, and then it would be "splat city," and you would die.
Since this doesn't happen, the Earth has to be flat.