The Earth is Flat!?

[upnorth]

Conspiracy theories are nothing new, but in the age of the internet, they spread like “chemtrails” in the wind. The theory that the world is flat, for example, gained so much popularity online that this year 500 people gathered for the first ever International Flat Earth Conference. The belief that the world is flat has kind of been around forever, but it picked up steam in 2015 with a rash of online communities, YouTube videos, podcasts, and even songs preaching the gospel. At some point, Kyrie Irving of the Boston Celtics started talking about it too, which really seemed to blow the lid off the heliocentric model. So, the time was right for the Flat Earth International Conference, the first of its kind, held at the beginning of November outside of Raleigh, NC. Sold out since May, the conference brought together hundreds of people who had before only really interacted online. It was an opportunity for believers to network, share research, meet thought leaders, find a flat-earth compatible mate, show off various NASA parody t-shirts, and talk crap about Neil deGrasse Tyson.

 

[JM Safe]

I don't understand how people could believe the Earth is flat when in the space we saw it is clearly a sphere.

 

[upnorth]

I don't understand how people could believe the Earth is flat when in the space we saw it is clearly a sphere.

IMO a great source for a good laugh but also a larger spectrum on how certain people think and argue. A Yale professor named Gordon Pennycook has a great paper on parts of the subject and anyone interested can read more about it here : On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit

 

[Nestor]

Oh, sure!

 

[show-Zi]

It may be a hometown of @JM Security

 

[Arequire]

I don't understand how people could believe the Earth is flat when in the space we saw it is clearly a sphere.

Flat-Earthers believe that all images and videos of Earth being round are fake.
My question is: What benefit would there be in deceiving humanity into believing the Earth is round?

 

[Andy Ful]

Personally, I do not believe that Earth is flat, but I could not prove it to the opponent - the beliefs are stronger than arguments.
Most people who think that Earth is round, believe in what other people said or reported. If the opinions from many sources are consistent, then we tend to believe in them.
So, people who believe that Earth is flat are not stupid, but simply very suspicious. Also, people who belive that Earth is round, are not automatically wiser - they are simply less suspicious to the opinions of other people (especially scientists).
But sometimes scientists can be wrong, for example:

1. Many scientists claim that God does not exist, but in fact such statement cannot be scientifically proved/disproved.
2. Most people believe from the school, that the right point of view is Earth moving around the Sun. But in fact, the point of view that the Sun moves around the Earth is as much good (in General Relativity).
3. Most people think that if something is true, then it can be proved, especially in the mathematics. Unfortunately the opposite is true for most of the mathematics (Gödel's incompleteness theorems).

It is very probable to me that over 5 per 10 people could change their mind if everybody around would start claiming that the new research has proved that Earth is flat.

Twisted Bot.

 

[bribon77]

People are free to believe in what they want .. But another thing is reality.

 

[TairikuOkami]

I don't understand how people could believe the Earth is flat when in the space we saw it is clearly a sphere.

I did not know, that you were in space.

Considering how easily can even a live video be manipulated, you can not trust anything these days. Many people doubt the moon landing and it goes well with this theory, since if there is no space, it makes perfect sense. Scientists found a computer code within us, so we might live in a simulation and so on, we could go like this forever. The point is, it does not matter, if the Earth is a cube, it will not make our life easier, but people are always looking for something, that separates us. People bicker about food, religion, politics, etc. We should just tolerate each other.

 

[upnorth]

Personally, I do not believe that Earth is flat, but I could not prove it to the opponent.

Maybe with tools you can, but if the opponent refuse to listen and not even consider what you present has a single piece of merit, your dead in the water anyway. Here's one tool among many.

Metabunk: Earth's Curve Horizon, Bulge, Drop, and Hidden Calculator

 

[Andy Ful]

People are free to believe in what they want .. But another thing is reality.

Yes, the reality is an interesting concept.
But, there is no proof that reality exists - in fact many scientists can argue that even the physical world has no objective meaning (especially in Quantun Physics). There are also many scientists who believe that the world we can feel and see is in fact a creation of our minds. So, what is the reality???
If it exists, then can be also very strange and very different from the reality in our minds.

 

[Andy Ful]

Maybe with tools you can, but if the opponent refuse to listen and not even consider what you present has a single piece of merit, your dead in the water anyway. Here's one tool among many.

Metabunk: Earth's Curve Horizon, Bulge, Drop, and Hidden Calculator

Clever. But, how do you prove that it can calculate something useful?

 

[upnorth]

Clever. But, how do you prove that it can calculate something useful?

Don't believe me, try it yourself.

Forgot to also mention this as it hopefully will help understand the mathematic behind the tool. Earth curvature refraction experiments - debunking flat/concave Earth

 

[bribon77]

Yes, the reality is an interesting concept.
But, there is no proof that reality exists - in fact many scientists can argue that even the physical world has no objective meaning (especially in Quantun Physics). There are also many scientists who believe that the world we feel and see is in fact a creation of our minds. So, what is the reality???

Reality is the most logical.

 

[Andy Ful]

Reality is the most logical.

Not for Quantum physicists. For them, the opposite is more logical.
But, who cares about the Quantum world.

 

[upnorth]

who cares about the Quantum world.

People that like The Avengers?

 

[Vasudev]

I remember reading in my Physics class and also my professor said, huge spherical object does feel flat to smaller things example Humans.
Even there's some Laws of electrostatics where Gauss says similar stuff but here it refers to static charges occupying a spherical object.

 

[Andy Ful]

Don't believe me, try it yourself.

Forgot to also mention this as it will automatic help understand the mathematic behind the tool. Earth curvature refraction experiments - debunking flat/concave Earth

This tool assumes many things which are not true (radius of the Earth, weather conditions, Earth shape). Furthermore, the effect can be explained much simpler by the local surface roughness - we know that Earth is only average flat (there are exists mountains and valleys).

 

[upnorth]

weather conditions

What has weather to do with if something is flat or has any other shape or form?

 

[bribon77]

We humans have seen the Earth from space and it is Round not like a hamburger.