To feel sad and like the friendship is over due to flat earth belief

[UprootedSunflower]

Friend is a nice person. Comes across sensible, though has had a deepening religious conviction over the last 5-10 years. I’m Christian myself, but I’m talking a bit more fringe. We don’t talk about the fact she probably doesn’t consider me a Christian anymore. I ignore it.
But today I overheard her get really animated and happy in a flat earth discussion. She believes in flat earth. An intelligent woman who’s travelled the world and is from a country in the southern hemisphere. I’d certainly say she is educated and far from stupid.
Aibu in finding this a bit of a final straw moment for being friends? It just felt like something snapped inside that I could t ignore tbh when I heard her. I don’t feel like I want to expose the children, and I don’t feel I can keep the pretence up. It’s just a bit too far, and it feels like it’s gone over the edge.
Aibu, silly to give up on a warm and pleasant person? Or would you be drawing a line?

This prodded me to look up their website, the FAQ section of which is below ... it's so unhinged that I thought it was a spoof, but no it really is their own

So I'm wondering, OP: does your friend really think this or has she got herself so enmeshed with the cultish beliefs that she's trying to convince herself?
If it's the latter I'd probably keep off the subject but try to be there for her when she comes to her senses

https://www.theflatearthsociety.org/home/index.php/about-the-society/faq

What?

There's absolutely no evidence that the earth is flat. Because it isn't.

You can literally see the curvature of the earth from a boat or a plane.

Several people have made this point, however it’s a false equivalence. The earth is demonstrably not flat, however science doesn’t rule out the existence of god.

It’s not though it’s a comparison of two (in this case harmless) beliefs and it shouldn’t ruin a friendship between people who sound lovely and get on fine otherwise except for one thinking the earth is flat

OP may as well say ‘I’m cleverer than my friend and although she’s a good kind person I can’t get over the fact she’s stupid’

@Littlepenguintwins

It shouldn’t ruin a friendship between people who sound lovely and get on fine otherwise except for one thinking the earth is flat

I don’t know about you but I prefer my friends to have a modicum of basic intelligence and critical thinking skills.

I couldn’t be friends with someone that gullible and stupid OP. Sorry. If you can just avoid the subject you can at least ring fence it. But I would worry every time I had a conversation about how her brain was processing it.

Surely she can't come from the southern 'hemisphere' ?
I think she would have yo come from the 'B' side?

😁

Hmm. I've got friends with different beliefs, some that are plainly ridiculous. I've only walked away from one and that's because her specific belief has quite dangerous consequences and she has been abusive online about people who don't believe what she does.

I think for me that's where I draw the line. I can't/won't be friends with someone who has a dangerous belief and abuses others because of it.

Depends!!!

I know a flat earther! He is a business man and has several bars. Very intelligent and I always have a blast when I visit him and his wife ( wife is my friend) I find it absolutely fascinating and it all goes over my head but they always have fantastic wine 😂😂😂

I do get people have their limits - there are some people I couldn’t engage with. Flat earthers don’t bother me.

There's probably a world where it is flat, and it might even be overlapped with the one where the earth isn't. There has to be consistency though, so when we literally observe it reality collapses into the most popular world, or it's faked.

My lovely kind and generous neighbour believes that Donald Trump David Icke and Elon Musk have been sent as higher beings to this world to save us all from ourselves. She believes that there will be no illness in the future due to these MedBed things that everyone will receive in due course. She says to get food and water in ready cos it will be a bit rocky for a while ie: no TV for two weeks etc and then leadership of the world will change and it’s going to be beautiful. I always say “oh give over Bev” and she laughs but then replies “ you ll see”! Daft as a brush but I love her to bits! And I think we re fucked if those three knobs are supposed to be higher level 🤣

One is a mainstream belief system with 2.2 billion followers worldwide, the other is an easily debunked by science conspiracy theory.

How are the two remotely similar?

Yanbu. Of course you can't associate with this person. God and Jesus aren't proven but flat earth is proven to be ridiculous (I don't have a religious faith and I'm guessing that most of the 8 billion people on this planet don't either).

But even just a photograph from space! ffs.

I worked with some kids (siblings) whose parent believed the earth was flat and was absolutely rampant about it. Isolated them from people who didn't 'believe', confused the fuck out of the kids because they didn't know whether to believe what they learned at school.

He was part of a whole community who were vociferous on it, very much like anti vaxxers who shun non believers.

The man worked in education. Madness.

Exactly. And quite correct.

How popular are you that you will cut someone off because they have a different belief than yours about something so trivial

I've distanced myself from a friend due to her beliefs too op u are not alone. Among many other crazy things she won't brush her kids' teeth with toothpaste 'because Fluoride is a chemical'. That to me is neglectful so fundamentally we are not aligned. Won't vaccinate her kids either.

Report her

It’s not the belief in and of itself. It’s the illustration of incredibly poor judgement and the gullibility.

Fluoride is toxic

Where the postcards come from maybe!

Report her to who? 😂😂

The dentist

@iamreallyabee it's in literally all tap water so good luck thinking it's toxic! We'd all be dead if it was as we all consume it daily!