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?

Wouldn’t bother me at all - the fact she is a flat earther and Christian. Everyone has their own beliefs and it’s not like her beliefs are dangerous. Personally I think it’s balanced and healthy to role model to children being respectful of peoples differences (faith, age, sex, disability, race and so on) while holding firm in your own personal beliefs.

Irresistably reminded of Terry Pratchett writing style.

Have any flat earthers actually been to the edge and brought back photos?

Yes, that's a good point - surely if it's flat you could just get to the end somehow?
Kind of like Truman in the Truman Show
Surely there'd be photographic evidence , curious to know how they explain that one away!

@haddockfortea @UprootedSunflower

Me either.

I ignore a lot of ridiculous things my friends say, one in particular and I'm not claiming to be Mensa material, far from it. But 'flat earth' it's 2024 - how can anyone believe that?

Are you SURE she wasn't joking??

@kitteninabasket

for me, it's not even about that. It's about them lacking any critical thought, any at all.

i can't cope with that level of absolute stupidity!!

My best friend has recently become a flat earther and a young earth creationist, if it was just a case of her believing the earth was flat I could just roll my eyes and ignore her when she tells me I only think the earth is a globe because I’m looking through a curved window on a plane 🙄, however I struggle with her insistence that the earth is only 7000 years old, we lived with dinosaurs, we used to be giants, there is no such thing as gravity, the only science she believes is from the bible and she fears for my soul and that I am going to hell because I don’t believe. She absolutely is convinced that her beliefs are right and I’m heading for eternal damnation.

I have had the “are you ok? conversation with her as I am worried about her mental state despite in her day to day life being a perfectly normal lovely person with no health or money worries, she just laughs and says she is absolutely fine! I really have to try to ignore her rants but it’s so hard as she will shoehorn her beliefs into any conversations she can, it’s really difficult sometimes it’s like she has been utterly brainwashed.

I’d certainly say she is educated and far from stupid.

I’m gonna hold your hand when I tell you this…

I would have to debate them, how do sailing boat's work, tides, what is at the end of the earth if it is flat, I am told ice so what is holding the ice up?

What is underneath the earth? The other planets are they flat or a mirage?

So where is the North and South pole sure at the top and bottom but what about theie shape?, we need details people! And then ask what are they on

if you've been friends for a while and you've only just become aware of this, then presumably she doesn't go on about it all the time - or is it a new belief? - then maybe just avoid the subject.

but I'd be obsessed with finding out what she think happens when people get to the edge😂

I got dumped by friends over Brexit and Covid. My closest, childhood friend has now cut me off because of some beliefs she has and I don't even know what they are! I have no idea what's going on really; it's as though nobody can stand to be anywhere near viewpoints that differ from their own, never mind debate them.

So it will seem hypocritical of me to say I would dump a friend who became a flat-earther, creationist, etc. Beliefs like these are matters of extreme faith - unlike the existence of deities (which I also disbelieve), there actually is concrete evidence that Earth is round and prehistory happened. You can't debate this, it's a case of one side insisting the facts are wrong. And I don't want that sort of madness in my life, thank you. I could never trust them.

You can also see the earth’s curvature if you watch footage of rockets/ space shuttle lift off too…..

YANBU.

I simply couldn’t be friends with someone who won’t accept a basic universal fact, an indisputable truth.

Like insisting 2 plus 2 equals 5.

Whether they are mad or bad or thick or easily manipulated it would make me question every conversation and information exchange.

And of course there is zero equivalence between the faith of Christianity and this wilful worship of absolute lies. 😤

There is a documentary on flat earthers on Netflix. It’s fascinating. I think it’s a combination of misfits of society wanting to fit in somewhere and the dunning Kruger effect. The leader of the America group is this completely loser nobody who lived with his mum and was unemployed. And then started the society and is now a celebrity in the group. He wears a shirt round saying ‘I Am xxxxx’ whatever his name is.

they did all these experiments in the documentary which they had come up with to prove it but all they did was prove that the earth was curved. They were all disappointed that it didn’t work and ended saying they will need to come up with a new idea.

@Neodymium i was just about to post about the Netflix programme. It was fascinating. It’s called Behind the Curve and worth a watch. I might rewatch it.

From memory, the flat earth they believe in has an edge running round it? I actually felt a bit sorry for them when their experiments failed. They seemed crestfallen. But yet still remained firm in their beliefs.

It’s worth a watch as it’s not just gawping and mocking the flat earthers. It was really well done.

I think you have to separate the two things out from one another. I have friends of all different beliefs and faiths and while we don't make it a part of our friendship on the whole, I've certainly heard them say things they believe that I don't agree with. Religion is deeply personal and complex, tied into so many things - upbringing, vulnerabilities, need for community, etc.

If she's a good friend just leave religion out of it. There's so many other things to talk about and many other things that make relationships valuable.

But she’s an utter loon — frothing about people being blackmailed into having the Covid vaccine and governments using ‘Nazi tactics’ to enforce compliance.

@Helengreggregson

Are they kind and fun to be around ? These are the things that are more important to me personally

Each to their own I guess: people value different things in friendships. Intelligence is non negotiable for me. I don’t want to have close friendships with people who are of limited intelligence and can’t process and manage complex concepts. It’s not just the specific topic (ie the earth being flat or not). It’s the ability to digest and manage information, the ability to understand nuance etc. Friendship without interesting and sometimes challenging conversation for me is no fun.

I’m very happy to be polite and courteous to people who belief daft things like this and to not hurt them or call them out in public but life it too short to build them into your schedule and I wouldn’t want them around my children.

"I’d certainly say she is educated and far from stupid."

😂😂😂😂

Her belief in a flat pizza world says otherwise.....

I wouldnt want to be friends with someone with this level of idiocy. People like that beat you with their experience of stupid.

Yes, exactly. This ‘belief’ is not a minor personal pregerence for vanilla being better than chocolate, it’s a sign of a limited intellect and a credulous personality incapable of judging sources of information. Not someone I want around me in a sustained way. Most people are ‘kind’. I absolutely require an equivalent level of intelligence to my own in friendships.

Describing a flat earther under the spectrum of “a range of faiths and beliefs” is not ok

Some things can’t be denied or questioned.

Would you be friends with someone who resolutely believed 2 + 2 = 5? A Holocaust denier? These cannot be classified as a “faith or belief”. Neither can believing our planet is a plate!!

Talk about a return to the dark ages. Sometimes I think we need a second enlightenment…

😂😂

It wouldn't bother me. If she was the sort of person who was always there for friends in difficult times as well as good, her ideas about the geometry of the earth would fade into irrelevance. Having her as a friend would certainly be preferable to having someone with a degree in astronomy who made themselves scarce when there was a need for human company and care.

Might buy her a globe for Christmas though!

To be honest, I think people who believe in a big sky wizard who created the world are pretty delusional, but there's a difference between believing in god, which is a concept that can't actually be disproved, and believing in a flat earth, which is really sodding easy to disprove.

I am friends with religious people, despite thinking their beliefs are a bit daft. I couldn't be friends with a flat earther.

Who cares if she believes the earth is flat, or a triangle shape, or a heart shape? Who gives a s**t? Where is your tolerance?
I don't know why people get so triggered if someone has a different point of view. If I didn't agree with their belief, I think I would find their opinions amusing.

Tricky, as on the one hand every friend has views on something or other I wouldn't agree with but most things can be explained by having had different life experiences, education, background etc. I normally avoid getting into conversations where different views are stark. But in this case - well it's not a 'view' is it. It's completely untrue, unless you believe satellite views of the earth and space are produced fraudulently. I think it might affect my view of her as a person too, especially if she is a close friend. If a friendly acquaintance, I could probably live with it.