Flat earth- what’s your opinion??

[GaaaaarlicBread]

Just catching up on This Mornings interview with a flat earther-can’t get my head around his debate but at the same time he makes some points that sound very realistic and he seems knowledgable . But I do believe our earth is round and not flat but very open to other people’s views , so just wondered what you think Mumsnetters?? Sorry if there’s been a thread like this before....
YANBU=our earth is round
YABU= it is flat

When you look at the moon its round. In Australia it's also round. It rises round and goes off the horizon still round. If you go on a long distance flight above the clouds you can see the curviture of earth. How does a magnetosphere work for a disk?

My friends dh is a astro physicist. I think he is the most intelligent person I have ever known bar no one.

Science is all based in millions of researchers presenting papers that need peer reviews. So if it's a conspiracy it involves astronomical amounts of educated people lieing.

Like most conspiracies, the truth is just to hard for some to comprehend.

True X files "you cant handle the truth"

There's a good documentary on Netflix on this called beyond the curve

It's either likely idiots looking for a community or charlatans looking to take money from the first group.

*lonely idiots

I'm only here so I can jog my memory about the documentary.

I view flat earthers the same as the woman who told me me that the planet was created by god 6,000 years ago (actually it's approx 3.5 billion years old and no god was involved) and when I asked her to explain dinosaurs and other fossils, said 'god put them there.'

You can't argue with stupid.

I saw a great documentary (from the US, I think) where they got four conspiracy-type people in a room. One was into flat earth, one was anti-vaxx, one was "the moon landings were faked", and I forget the last one. It was really funny because for each loony idea, the other three were all immediately able to pick massive holes in it. But it didn't occur to any of them that if all the other people's beliefs were so easily refuted, theirs might not be so smart after all.

I wish I could find it. I've been looking for ages but the funniest bonkers belief I've seen was a British man who explained that the dinosaurs became extinct because there was more oxygen in the air back then.

OK. His logic went something like this:

1: We know there was more oxygen in the air back then because we have fossils of insects far bigger than those of today - this is actually sensible. Insects are limited as to size because of the way they transpire through their skin. As they get larger the skin to volume ratio gets to a point where they can't get enough oxygen through the surface keep the contained volume supplied. So' back then' there must have been more oxygen. No problem.
2: Dinosaurs are large animals with small nostrils.
3: Gasses heat when compressed.
4: Dinosaurs must have had to breath really hard to get all the air they needed through their small nostrils - which compressed the oxygen heavy air which heated up and...

...the dinosaurs caught fire and died.

5:This would also explain legends of fire-breathing dragons.

He was deadly serious.

Hate to be a pedant, but the Earth is spherical, not round. Come at me!

Its not really the same as Holocaust denial. Holocaut deniers are most usually actual Nazis who know it happened really at the back of their minds but talk it down due to their hatred of Jews. Or their new favourite (which I actually encountered today), whataboutism- 'what about the holodomor'

This should help:

crosstalk.cell.com/blog/seven-ways-to-prove-earth-is-round

You can't even have night time on a flat earth really so that's a bit of a giveaway. :)

Many Flat Earthers will try saying that the sun is a little thing flying overhead and can't reach far, but that doesn't work either. After all if it only lit a little patch it would take weeks to do the whole earth and get back to the starting point.

Flat earthers are light entertainment mostly, but I do worry about the education system that produced them.

If the earth is flat, where does it end? Have they drawn a map? Where would I need to watch out, so I don't fall off?

Didn't they shoot themselves in the foot one time time by saying "We've got followers from all round the globe!" ?! 🤣

The earth is not flat, but evolution is not a fact and vaccines do cause damage.

(Obviously the benefits of vaccines outweigh most risks but until all damage is compensated fully and adequately and acknowledged, then people have the right to refuse them.)

Governments have been proven to test diseases and/or vaccines on poorer people in poorer countries. Caveat: apart from some governments like the USA who see nothing wrong with testing on poorer minority people in their own country. Info freely available on Wikipedia and in government documents.

So whilst the earth is not flat. Equating all conspiracy theories is ridiculous. Some have a core of truth at their midst. Some people just take with too far.

Also science is a fact only as far as our knowledge knows, right now. We can laugh at what people did not know 500 years ago. In 500 years they will laugh at us. Not all scientists agree on theories anyway and a lot of things are just that, theories.

Having watched the documentary, it seems the current theory is the earth is a flat disk. The North Pole is at the center of the disk. What we think is the South Pole is actually a ring of ice around the outer edge of the disk. (As one of them puts it, like the ice wall in Game of Thrones.)

Thus, it seems it is impossible to fall off this flat disk, unless you somehow surmount the ice wall at the edge.

Unclear what's on the other side.

Also, all images of the earth from outer space have been cooked up by the authorities. Who exactly is at the top of this secret cabal is unclear (the suggestions range from garden variety paranoia to religious bigotry, largely in the antisemitic/anti-Catholic strains).

I genuinely recommend watching the documentary. Some very interesting points about why people believe in this and what it means about science from a variety of wonderful, smart, goodhumored scientists. It's a bit terrifying and quite funny and very human. It's streaming on Netflix.

I believe the earth is a globe and not flat. But I don’t condemn anyone who believes it’s flat. Sometimes people need something to believe it to bring them into a “group”. I also don’t think it’s necessarily unintelligent to question, it’s good to have an open and questioning mind.

Its about as likely or possible as it would be for me to change sex.

Its worrying that some actually believe such unscientific falsehoods.

I haven't seen any evidence for either case. Nor that there are lizard people, although I can't prove there aren't either

Nothing wrong with questionning, very wise and sensible, but also wise and sensible to take note of evidence and alter your view accordingly.

The earth is round and flat earthers are thick. The end

I don’t have an opinion.
I have -
Facts. Facts which have been established by the scientific method - centuries of observation, hypothesis, theory, and finally rules of physics. By indépendant experts in their fields.

I don’t ignore my own common sense and my own senses.

I look at constellations, I look out of an airplane window, I notice how shadows work, I notice the seasons and the sun in the sky, I see the moon and see it’s orbit around us.

I, not an astrophysicist a physicist, an astronomer, a mathematician etc would not expect a random ‘opinion’ of mine to trump the body of centuries (millennia actually) if human knowledge and exploration !!!

I am not an ‘apostrophist’ either clearly. Apols - bloody phone.

Everyone knows cats would have pushed everything off a flat earth by now

I love it

Thank you that information about the Venerable Bede, @Mordred. Many years ago I was killing time in a library and came across a quote from the 13th century referring to the Earth being a globe. I never found it again and ended up thinking that maybe I had just dreamt it up.

Possibly Alfonso of castil ?

Love the cat reasoning - so true. Who needs the Chinese or ancient Greeks (and everything since) ??

As for @flirtygirl, I agree with you 100%.

9/11 was a conspiracy, even the US government say it was a conspiracy. The only speculation is on the nature of the conspiracy, whether we believe the US government's version or not.

Writing off everything that doesn't fit in with the official line as a conspiracy theory is lazy thinking.

But the flat earth thing is a laugh. Such a conspiracy to deceive the entire world for over 500 years would require way too many conspirators for it to work.

There are photos from space showing the world as a sphere so no argument really.

I believe the earth is round but have no problem with any who believe otherwise. All part of life's rich tapestry. I have to admit I've never actually knowingly met a flat earther.