The world is flat

[BrightOranges]

I learnt today that there are 'flat earthers' who seriously believe the conspiracy theories of a flat planet rather than a spherical one.
AIBU to think you can't fix stupid? Or is that too harsh?

A group of people who dont believe in evolution and think the world is 6,000 years old and climate change doesn"t exist are about to join the Tory government. Strange but true.

But the bible says the earth is round? Isaiah 40:22. What have Christians got to do with flat earthers??

the biggest conspiracy is man made global warming in the history of the earth its been much warmer and much colder than it is today fact

Interesting that you should say that bluegreenyellow. I wonder why something like 97% of climate scientists disagree with you, what do you know that they don't? I'd be fascinated to discover what their vested interest would be in making such a false claim to the point they've managed to convince all the governments of all the countries which signed up to the Paris Accords that there may be something in what they have observed and agree to try and do something about it.

Has anyone ridiculing these things actually researched it? Before they start spouting out about how stupid it is. It's like saying you don't like something even though you've never tried it.

I BEEN around the world more than once, I have seen the sun set and rise and observed the curvature of the earth. I have been out on the ocean/in the middle of the desert and seen the great arc of stars. I have seen the Auroras both Borealis and the Australis.

But what do I know, I am Australian and therefore a figment of my own imagination.

Is it just a coincidence that the moon and the sun look exactly the same size during an eclipse even though they are different sizes and difference distances away from the earth?

I was going to ask what's the issue with electric toothbrushes since I use one twice a day, but then I remembered I'm imaginary so don't need to worry about it

I believe Australia exists, but New Zealand has definitely been moved! It was higher up when I was a child, just across to the right.

Bastards!

Counterpane so is the weather in NZ is apparently worse than it used to be in the olden days because it was moved? Was there a global conspiracy to ruin the summers?!

WildKiwi Yes, that's it. I thought I was alone.

I'm suddenly having a massive identity crisis! I woke up thinking I was Australian but now find I'm an African (possibly) whose sky has no moon or sun and whose ancestors sailed off the end of the world...so apparently I don't actually exist at all! That's an awful lot to take in at once. Whatever do I tell the children?

Well that's it. No more time wasting on Mumsnet, I'll now be devoting my time to petitioning for NZ to be towed back to it's original site

My cousin believes the world is flat and there is no such thing as gravity. He also tries to convince other people he meets of these 'facts'.

I've met a flat earther. He's my friend's boss. He had a small bunker built in preparation for the mayan calendar finishing and the world ending.

In the morning he sent his son up (son is in his 20s) to open the hatch.

"I see a cow!"
"No! It's not a cow! It's the leftover light particles fooling you into thinking a cow is there."

If you hadn't already guessed, turned out it was a cow and the world hadn't ended at all.

My favourite conspiracy theory was the one about Jim Morrison not being dead but being er, Barry Manilow.

Then I met dd's art teacher, who is not a dinosaur denier...but...believes that the Nephilim built the pyramids, (durr, dinosaurs were dead big, right? So were men when the pyramids were built, then we shrank, but now we're getting big again!) and that the photos (on snopes among other places ) of archeologists standing next to giant human bones are proof of the Nephilim existing. When she gave the kids this to research on t'web, I foolishly thought it was an exercise in what not to believe on the www. But no.

The incredulity with which people view these beliefs is exactly the same as how I view anyone who believes in an all powerful deity, but I don't think those of faith quite get that ! Just because Christianity or Judaism or Islam have big numbers of followers doesn't make their stories any less ridiculous.

I'm a card carrying member of the Flat Earth Society its great for practicing debating skills by defending an impossible position. And actually learnt a lot more about physics from those debates than I did in school (as in school I only learnt about Newtonian gravity which isn't actually how it works and not relativity and gravitation) as people would come along to argue against it but use piss poor arguments so was fun to argue with them. No one (out of the core membership group anyway) actually believes but you didn't hear that from me whistles innocently

I've got a membership certificate and everything

Natsku - I actually really like that idea!

Natsku

Shit you fucking hero! hahaha

I'm actually member number 00006

Oooh and I have a Flat Earth medallion!

Natsku

Do I understand it correctly that you belong to the society and argue FOR a flat Earth?

If so, why you people supporting such crap, even for giggles?
It just reinforces stupidity and dismissal of actual science.

Literally carry my card around with me!

Actually it reinforces using correct science to debate. Many people join and use stupid arguments but after debating against people with a better grasp of physics they start to use better arguments (or, more commonly, switch sides and join in the more difficult side to argue).

I haven't joined in the debating for a few years now though because I just can't keep up but it really is a good place to learn more advanced science, you just have to sift through the joke stuff like the ice wall or Australia not existing.

I don't get it.
Surely you can learn good science by arguing against it. Not for it.

And how can anyone use good science to argue for a flat Earth?