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

I didn't see the interview, but I cannot understand how people still believe this?

How would they explain being able to fly from the USA to the UK, to Africa then on to Australia and finally back to the USA again without having to retrace your flight path? I'm no scientist but doesn't that prove the earth can't be flat?

I’m more worried that the voting shows 4% YABU, 100% YANBU

Logic would suggest that if the earth was flat, the we mould be an end to it. Ie you would ‘fall off’ the edge.

If you’re referring to flat as if still 3 dimensional but ‘squashed’ as if someone was pushing a tennis ball flat.... then you just have to look at the imagines from the international space station to clearly see the early is round.

It also wouldn’t make sense for it to be flat as the mood orbits it in a particular way and as night follows day follows night etc... a flat earth would potentially mean that the physics and maths is wrong for everything we ‘know’ now.

There are always people wanting to go against the grain, partly for publicity and financial gain, but partly because if they’d self belief, arrogance and ignorance....

Being open minded is a good thing
Being vacant, not so much

I've heard Dr Helen Sharman speak (the first Britain in space, sorry Sir Tim) and she assured the audience that having been in orbit for over a week, the earth is spherical.

@CoffeeRunner exactly ! And he was going on about how you fly in a straight line and he came from America and said it was a straight flight across I was like what ???? It was so weird but then he went on to make comments about how photography shows that the earth is flat because of horizons which at first I was like yeah I guess but then I thought more about it and realised he’s just talking BS . But I really want the 7% of people who voting YABU to come on here and prove why they think it’s flat lol

I also subscribe to the view that if the earth was flat, cats would push everything off the edge

^Briton

I didn’t say it made me feel like he’s telling the truth, I’m very much a ‘there’s scientific evidence as well as actual logic to prove we live on a globe’ but what I meant by my comment was he sounds like he is talking sense like he had an answer for every question and query Holly and Phil had, but I don’t believe him but he just sounded like he knew stuff

The only lesson worth taking from that is that liars and idiots can be convincing if you are gullible enough to allow their sincerity to distracts you from the utter lunacy of their views.

He's probably had a lot of time to hone his answers. I doubt Phil and Holly came up with any questions he hadn't been asked thousands of times before. As with most conspiracy theorists, their main argument is 'you're all sheep brainwashed by the government/the CIA/ random secret service/the Illuminati/ so don't know the truth' . There is no argument against that because any logical argument is just proof of you being brainwashed by the establishment. You can't persuade them with logic so it's best to leave them to it and hope they don't infiltrate the Labour Party try and blow something up.

just sounded really intelligent
That and
flat earther

Just doesn't work together

5% have voted flat earth. Really???

I find this topic fascinating. Ie fascinating that anyone could make up such elaborate “science”. But then hey, there are the Scientologists, who make flat earther claims positively mainstream.

We've been into space. We know the earth is round. There are pictures and everything.

It would also be very weird if there were huge flat things floating around in space. .

Don’t they also believe that the Moon (because it’s often used in arguments as in it’s round and we see it with our own eyes) is a projection by NASA ?
Apparently, all the photos of earth are a NASA conspiracy. To what end, I still haven’t a clue.

Oh FFS. Of course he doesn't make any points that sound realistic. Flearthers are literally insane. It's the uber conspiracy theory and people who believe should he offered therapy and sympathy not air time.

He was saying he doesn’t believe we’ve been to space and there’s no space station with people in up there and it’s all CGI , so weird

This is similar to those people who dont believe the holocaust happened, and that Auschwitz didnt exist.

They dont believe in the international space station?

It was fascinating to watch him, and how much he believed it all.

He said the Earth was flat with an ice wall all around it.

‘Proof’ for this was the fact that no organisation, country, nation Etc can have any claim to the Artic, as it’s protected, but back in the 50/60s when this treaty was formed, there were no concerns about the environment, so why was it set up... ?

Also, the International space station doesn’t exist. Tim peake and all the other astronauts are actually in a film set somewhere, and the ‘live’ space pictures are actually cgi. In fact, a lot of modern science regarding a round earth was all a big conspiracy.

There were more scientific arguments also, but these are the ones I understood.

People travelling across the earth go in a straight line.

He said there was a dome over the earth, a bit like a snow dome. He also mentioned gravity, and how gravity keeps things down in a room, but outside, in theory, there shouldn’t be any gravity - not sure I understood this correctly.

I may actually see if I can watch this clip again, as it was fascinating. He was definantly a man convinced!

Are these the same people who believe we’re controlled by Alien lizards? Was their planet flat too?

Sorry, in the time I”ve typed, others have made the same points.

I watched a documentary about Flat Earthers. They seem to be people who have a rudimentary understanding of science, alongside a belief in conspiracy theories. This leads them reject any kind of 'proof' that doesn't fit their narrative. The science can be disproved but their belief in conspiracy theories means they reject it. In the doc I watched, they set up an experiment that they were convinced would prove their theory. When it proved the opposite, one or two were crestfallen. Others blamed the equipment. One of the people in the documentary pointed out that the flat earthers are scientists who ask scientific questions, but aren't very good and interpreting the results. However, we shouldn't seek to humiliate or ridicule them because at least they ask the questions. I quite like that idea.

@slipperywhensparticus yeah he said it’s all CGI and not real

Right, put it this way, the whole basis of flat earth theory is that every country in the world has colluded with each other to lie forever about something that doesnt affect peoples lives, with hundreds of thousands of people involved working at all space stations maintaining a lie forever with not one of them spilling "the truth". For what purpose would all governments lie about the earth being round? Why spend billions maintaining a lie? Why do they ignore actual basic science like the guy who said when you see the curve of the horizon on the plane its actually the curve inside the glass window you are seeing. I cqn't wrap my head around it but theres a fantastic documentary called behind the curve. Honestly watch it its hilarious when they fuck up their own experiment at the end and disprove their own theory

Tabby, it's not similar to Holocaust deniers at all. Those people are purely evil scum hell bent on ignoring/denying the attempted genocide of the Jews so that they can merrily go on murdering Jews without anyone noticing.