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.

A belief in a flat earth is sometimes connected to religion. You get people who think Hell w is underground and Heaven is above the upturned bowl of the sky.

But when it comes to flat Earthers with no religious motive, I can't think of anything anyone has to gain. Some people are just contrarians.

Yes that’s what I wonder too - what’s the benefit to any authority to pretend the earth is spherical if it is indeed flat?
Who would be benefitting or profiting from it?

Scientists who get grants for research in theoretical physics, space travel, telecommunications, satellite launches, etc.

How do Flat Earthers deal with ships disappearing at the horizon and those same ships appearing at the horizon?

Scientists who get grants for research in theoretical physics, space travel, telecommunications, satellite launches, etc.

Oh pull the other one. It's got bells on. Why would there be less money in that if the Earth were flat? Satellites manifestly work, so why cover up that they work slightly differently from advertised?

If the Flat Earth Society had anyone remotely competent and had any interest in putting their money where their mouth is they could disprove the "globe hypothesis" in a couple of days using parts to hand. You only need a network of volunteers, and a plumb line, protractor, watch, sundial (or just a stick), and phone each to make your own measures of latitude and longitude. Then you can compare that to the evil-conspiracy-approved values and blow the whole thing wide open. If they had any interest in putting their money where their mouth is, of course.

How do Flat Earthers deal with ships disappearing at the horizon and those same ships appearing at the horizon?

They blame it on some phenomenon like the Fata Morgana (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fata_Morgana_(mirage)), I think. But miraculously stable at all times of day and night under all weathers.

There are flights from Johannesburg to Buenos Aires regularly.

Did someone say NASA has only been using one photoshopped picture of earth for years? Apparently they released a new one in 2015.

'Nasa has released the first picture of the Earth that it has taken in 43 years'

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/nasa-releases-first-picture-of-the-whole-earth-taken-in-43-years-10403944.html

My 14 year old loves the flat earth society, his favourite quote is "the Flat Earth society has members all around the globe" . It might come as a shock but people in the southern hemsphere do not go via the northern hemisphere to fly elsewhere in the southern hemisphere. The classic route from Brazil to Australia is Sao Paulo to Santiago and then Santiago to Sydney. Why go another way?

linoleum

As i said my ds2 loves that quote

14 as well...maybe its an age thing

must be

How does she explain the fact that the moon is visible and ,well, round?

Yes people who believe the earth is flat are batcrap crazy. But at the end of the day it doesn’t bother me what they believe

What i don't get is if people really think the earth is flat how come no one has ever reached the end of it ??

Yes someone should have fallen off the edge by now

How does she explain the fact that the moon is visible and ,well, round?

Well, circular, It could simply be flat, like a plate . Although there is libration.

So do people think that the moon is a plate type object going around the earth which is another plate type object going around the sun? I can't get my head round that! It seems so silly. But if we were to talk about little pink creatures called Clangers, well I can believe that.

There's an article in today's Observer about the Flat Earther folk. Apparently, the answer given by some of them when asked about the moon is that it's a "projection".

You can't put a price on that kind of stupid. Mind you, many of them apparently also belong to the anti-vaxxer brigade (as well as being believers in a very wide range of mad conspiracy theories).

Yes some people will become militant on any conspiracy theory just to attention seek and be contrary. They'll believe any old piffle on the internet yet call everyone else sheeple and naive

I think some flat earthers resent the amount of money spent on space projects and try to debunk any new discoveries. I think that's sad as the Earth and space is fascinating. Yes the scientists only usually have theories but they're much closer to the truth than a medieval loony theory that has suddenly become trendy.

I think some flat earthers resent the amount of money spent on anything they don't understand space projects

Did anyone catch

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0b4dffq/neanderthals-meet-your-ancestors-series-1-episode-2

?

You could say "what an absolute waste of money, etc, etc - and miss the bit where they've already started to get some clues about some serious modern day health issues (obesity, type II diabetes and cancers) from the research. (Spoiler alert: looks like Neanderthal genes cause stockpiling of fat for long winter months ....)

Thanks DGRossetti I'll take a look at it. How dare thise scientists try to improve all of our lives with their well thought out research?

those

How dare thise scientists try to improve all of our lives with their well thought out research?

The thing is, as far as I am concerned, any learning is valuable - it's certainly never a waste. Even "quirky" stuff like archaeology, or linguistics of ancient south America (one of Isaac Asimovs stories has a key element that an alien language is eventually cracked by a specialist in ancient Babylonian ....). even if the actual subject is a little ... niche, the techniques needed to draw information from disparate sources, and present them in a logical fashion are pretty universal.

Returning to the Neanderthal genoming ... when it was started, the scientists had no idea what it may (or may not deliver). Bearing in mind until 15 years ago, it was scientific "fact" that Neanderthals died out, and that was that. Now we realise they didn't "die out". They were assimilated into h. sapiens. And the implications of that are profound and could change a lot about what we thought we knew.

Just another tinfoil hat brigade.

Exactly MissMarplesknitting! DGRossetti I agree, researching by anyone who goes out there and fully analyses their findings properly will be taken seriously and we will all be intrigued. People who jump on conspiracy bandwagons and think reading a hooky internet article is their route to omnipotence is a bit wearing and terrifying!