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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flat earth- what’s your opinion??

540 replies

GaaaaarlicBread · 11/02/2020 19:54

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

OP posts:
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13
HeronLanyon · 12/02/2020 04:49

Interesting podcast ‘oh no Ross and Carrie’ did an 8 part investigation into flat earth including attending conventions, observing (failed) experiments takking to proponents etc.
They also did a great series (9 or 10 pods) years ago investigating Scientology in LA. Compelling.
Warning - very American and they have taken a turn for the worse over the last few years (IMO) with a lot of advertising and shorter less investigative stuff - I no longer subscribe but those two were great !

HeronLanyon · 12/02/2020 05:10

I should explain the ‘very American’ I have American family ffs. Her voice is at times beyond annoying (high and mannered) can become very animated. Tbh honest these Scientology series was the first I heard and was so great I didn’t really notice.

The4thSandersonSister · 12/02/2020 05:24

When they say round it's not perfectly round like a ping ping ball. It's spherical with a bulging equator and flatter at the poles. I place Flat Earthers in the harmless crackpot camp.

Flat earth- what’s your opinion??
Gliese163 · 12/02/2020 05:47

A lot of flat-earthers get their belief from a book called 'The Greatest Lie on Earth: Proof That Our World Is Not a Moving Globe', which is a very anti-Semitic book. Not so harmless.

Piglet89 · 12/02/2020 06:04

Guys: the earth is as flat as a pancake. This guy patrols its circumference.

Flat earth- what’s your opinion??
PumpkinPie2016 · 12/02/2020 06:04

I can't believe they gave him air time Hmm

We have nunerous satellite pictures showing the Earth is a sphere. No one has been to an 'edge' because there isn't one.

Seriously, there is nothing to debate at all. The Earth is a sphere like the other planets we know of. That's it. That's all of it. These so called 'flat earthers' are just being completely ridiculous and imo making themselves look stupid.

ImRealHonest · 12/02/2020 06:05

I often feel this way watching Ancient Aliens.

Part way through I start thinking that they may have a point. Then I realize how bullshit it is.

cochineal7 · 12/02/2020 06:10

Some things are not opinions. They are actual science.

bellinisurge · 12/02/2020 06:13

These numpties are all over the globe 😂😂😂

Marahute · 12/02/2020 06:14

I watched the Flat Earth documentary that was aired fairly recently. Aren't the flat earthers planning on chartering a vessel to go and find "the edge" as the next step step in the efforts to prove their "theory"? I'm really looking forward to that... and I really hope they film it.
Flat Earthers are just utterly bonkers, I find them truly fascinating.

Chickychickydodah · 12/02/2020 06:30

They Are nut jobs. Do not give them a reason for more stupid publicity

AlternativePerspective · 12/02/2020 06:40

Where are the 5% who voted YABU? Shock

I hope they only give these nutjobs airtime for a good laugh. Nobody should be giving serious consideration to these people.

I do believe that aliens exist though. Not little green men and may not even have been to earth, but i find it impossible to believe that out of all of the planets in all of the universe (and there are millions of them) there’s only one with life on it.

But I suspect we’ll never know.

Nodnol · 12/02/2020 07:14

@BiologyIsReal, you couldn't possibly have seen the curve of the horizon in Australia because there is no Australia. We are all actors based in an undisclosed location.

Don't tell anyone.

GaaaaarlicBread · 12/02/2020 07:26

Didn’t think I’d get this much of a response , I haven’t read everyone’s responses yet but I need to talk to the people who voted that it’s flat but haven’t commented ! 😂

OP posts:
ForalltheSaints · 12/02/2020 07:32

People have strange ideas and this is one. As for The Edge, he was a very pleasant man when I met him!

ShatnersWig · 12/02/2020 08:07

I worry about people who think the earth is flat. But I worry even more about people who watch This Morning.

There are no sensible arguments for either option. Both are moronic.

dogsdinnerlady · 12/02/2020 08:08

Most of these ideas are just exercises in philosophical debate. It shows how you can compile a 'watertight' argument for anything. Not meant to be taken literally. Same applies to the 'theory' of creationism. Or not vaccinating kids against killer diseases. Science deniers.

KenDodd · 12/02/2020 09:06

@NotALurker2

Your right, flat earthers and anti vaxers are not the same at all, anti vaxers are much worse. Nobody's kid ever died because people believe the earth is flat.

HulksPurplePanties · 12/02/2020 09:09

The earth is really on the back of turtle floating through space. I can prove it.

KenDodd · 12/02/2020 09:11

observing (failed) experiments

The ones I've seen, the experiments didn't fail, they all proved the earth is a globe, and were then dismissed as wrong.

Marahute · 12/02/2020 09:22

I do believe that aliens exist though. Not little green men and may not even have been to earth, but i find it impossible to believe that out of all of the planets in all of the universe (and there are millions of them) there’s only one with life on it.

I agree, but there aren't "millions" of planets. It's estimated that there are trillions of planets within our Milky Way Galaxy alone. And approximately 100-200 billion other galaxies within the observable universe... so that's an almost inconceivable number of planets. And that doesn't include moons (which we know from observations within our solar system can contain conditions favourable to life)... so I find it very hard to believe that there isn't life somewhere else in this vast space, it seems very likely to me that we aren't alone.

Mordred · 12/02/2020 09:25

@Coyoacan "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."

The 13th Century Quote is likely Thomas Aquinas in his work 'Suma Theologica':

“The physicist proves the earth to be round by one means, the astronomer by another: for the latter proves this by means of mathematics, e.g. by the shapes of eclipses, or something of the sort; while the former proves it by means of physics, e.g. by the movement of heavy bodies towards the centre, and so forth.”

Then there's dear old Aristotle of course, in the 4th Century BC, after observing lunar eclipses:

"“Either then the earth is spherical or it is at least naturally spherical. And it is right to call anything that which nature intends it to be, and which belongs to it, rather than which it is by constraint and contrary to nature. The evidence of the senses further corroborates this. How else would eclipses of the moon show segments shaped as we see them? As it is, the shapes which the moon itself each month shows are of every kind—straight, gibbous, and concave—but in eclipses the outline is always curved: and, since it is the interposition of the earth that makes the eclipse, the form of this line will be caused by the form of the earth’s surface, which is therefore spherical."

TheSandman · 12/02/2020 09:32

Science deniers.

No no no. They're not science deniers. They are happy to embrace and promote science that agrees with their world view. And denigrate and deny science that doesn't fit. To a degree this is the way scientific debate progresses. Theories are proposed, tested, evidence gathered, interpretations debated, opinions formed hypothesises proved - or not.

Flat Earthers (and the like) aren't science deniers - they're just really crap at it..

Brahumbug · 12/02/2020 09:34

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

Evolution is very definitely a fact, the evidence for it beyond overwhelming. Even without fossil evidence, the evidence from genetics is completely conclusive.

DGRossetti · 12/02/2020 09:36

They're not science deniers. They are happy to embrace and promote science that agrees with their world view.

And use the internet to spread it ... (the internet wouldn't work if the earth were flat ..)

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