To not understand how some can believe the earth is flat?

[crunchymint]

I have a friend who seems intelligent, well read and is lovely. And yet she believes the earth is flat. She shares on social media posts "explaining" this fact.
How can someone like this possibly believe this? I really don't understand.

If we are living in a simulation, maybe the bits we can't explain (like gravity !) are just where the designers couldn't be bothered to make it up

Just in the same way how the made everything else in the universe so far away and impossible to get to :)

My best friend is a conspiracy nut and he also believes this. His only evidence is various YouTube videos . Brilliant and reliable source there. I counteract his videos with ones of actual physicists explaining why it is most definitely round. He believes we are shown world maps the wrong way around too and that Africa and Asia are actually at the top. We place them at the bottom to degrade them . This is the kind of shit I have to listen to.

*they made

I would think it fairly obvious that flight recorder in the cockpit was destroyed in the explosion on impact.

The passport was not necessarily on the person of the hijacker who having boarded as a passenger could have left it in his coat or cabin baggage and therefore in an overhead locker in a part of the plane that did not connect with the building.

Conspiracy theories about 9/11 are incredibly distasteful.

Just in the same way how the made everything else in the universe so far away and impossible to get to

If it's "there" at all

The funniest thing is if we are in a simulation, then all of a sudden, "woo" can't be dismissed out of hand. After all, who can say what quirks, glitches and other oddities might get thrown up as it runs ? "Ghosts" could just be memory that wasn't cleared properly (for example).

There was a "Monkey Cage" about it a while back, which was fascinating - particularly the different ways a "simulation" could be thought about.

in a part of the plane that did not connect with the building

The aircraft was travelling at over 300 miles an hour. What part of it didn't connect with the building?

DGRossetti ... We can explain gravity

If it's "there" at all

I don't know if you've looked into quantum physics but it's extremely "woo". I'm not sure the creators ever thought we'd get so clever as they seemed to have not paid much attention to that part of physics

*lighthearted.

He believes we are shown world maps the wrong way around too and that Africa and Asia are actually at the top. We place them at the bottom to degrade them

But if the world is flat then there is no up or down (everything is on the same level) so the world maps can't be the wrong way around!

His argument still doesn't hold water - the printed flat earth map still has Africa at the bottom and Asia kind of at the top when Asia is at the top of a 'normal' map anyway. The only real difference is that the arctic circle is in the centre instead of the north, everything is a bit more squashed together and there is an ice wall around the outside.

So all the other planets and moons are balls, billions of stars too then magical earth, by itself, a frisbee through space .

DGRossetti ... We can explain gravity

Not at a quantum level.

I have just looked at it more and it is quite funny (sorry if anyone seriously believes it).

The earth is flat, the moon and sun go around in circles with an invisible 'anti-moon' to block the moon when there is a lunar eclipse. All planes actually fly around in circles and GPS is wrong (there seems to be a lot of insiders on this conspiracy) and gravity does not exist it is just the planet moving up!

Conspiracy theories are a proxy for religious beliefs. They are not about evidence, data, analysis, rationality or the scientific method.

I don't know if you've looked into quantum physics but it's extremely "woo".

to our minds, perhaps but it works. I'm increasingly fascinated how it seems nature got there first (as always) and has leveraged quantum effects in smell, photosynthesis and (possibly ?) evolution.

Conspiracy theories are a proxy for religious beliefs. They are not about evidence, data, analysis, rationality or the scientific method

I have two people telling me on this thread that the planes that hit the towers didn't enter the building. Apparently I'm the crazy one and they are sane.

The earth is flat, the moon and sun go around in circles with an invisible 'anti-moon' to block the moon when there is a lunar eclipse

At which point Occam kicks in ...

That's the problem with conspiracy theories. Any slightest inconsistency, and you need to add another variable. And another. And another. Finally you get to the conclusion that everyone is somehow "in on it" as the only rational explanation to cover all bases. The Kennedy one(s) being textbook examples.

to our minds, perhaps

Well of course but the double split experiment is quite difficult to explain, I love the way this branch of physics reacts differently when it's observed by humans.

I'm increasingly fascinated how it seems nature got there first (as always) and has leveraged quantum effects in smell, photosynthesis and (possibly ?) evolution

Life, probably the strongest force in the galaxy!

I love this thread has completely derailed jidt remembered a meme I saw a few years ago made by flat earthers who insisted that the Japanese bombing of pearl harbour was a conspiracy because aircraft at that time period couldn't have made it that far by any possible route that is available on the flat earth map. Idiots.

Flat earthers are like the spirit animal of the internet!

@oldinbru you should put that on a mug. Best thing I have seen on the Internet in ages

My husband’s old boss is a flat earther. He also believed dinosaurs were made up.

If you every questioned him he’d just tap the side of his nose and tell you to do your research. He thought he was of superior intelligence and believed all this sort of stuff.

I vaguely remember something about Australia not existing too

I learned not to get into any kind of discussion with him pretty quickly. He’d go on for hours and hours

I know someone who thought there was more than one moon, because "how will they see the moon at night in Scotland when it's over in Wales"

So if Finland doesn’t exist where was I taken to to see Santa.

Racecaredriver, great idea! I'll even split the 50p profit with you!

Life, probably the strongest force in the galaxy!

Many scientists would agree. The fact we keep pushing the origins of life on Earth back so far (is it 3.8billion years now ? or 4,2 ?) suggests that it's just raring to go wherever there's free energy and water. In fact, based on the one example we have (so far) it's arguable that life under those conditions is inevitable. With the philosophical (and religious) implications that brings.