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?

I'd have to end this friendship. I'm completely fine with people disagreeing with my views. As long as we agree that facts are that, facts. We are all entitled to interpret facts as we see them so, we are all entitled to our own opinion. What we are not entitled to, is out own facts.

We now have pictures from outer space, that show our earth is round. Anyone whose ever looked at a wide expanse of sea can see the curve of the earth.

So, how anyone can possibly interpret these facts as proving that the earth is flat, would annoy me to the point I couldn't interact with them.

I don't know if it's been mentioned already but there's a great documentary on Netflix called Behind the Curve. From that, it looks great being a flatearther. You have all these new friends, you get to do 'research' to prove your beliefs, you get to go to conferences. Despite being an atheist, you can't compare it to religious belief because you can absolutely categorically prove the earth is not flat. All the experiments the flat earthers do in the documentary above, prove it. This does zero to change any of the followers conviction in FE though.

Unlike some people, I don't see FE as harmless eccentrics, they are dangerous people. FE goes hand in hand with anti vax, far right conspiracy, anti expert, climate change denial etc. These people vote and are easily manipulated as they dismiss any actual evidence and expert knowledge. It's a cult with no easy way out.

People have different beliefs, yes.
The problem is that in my experience:

• they want to keep bringing it up in conversation
• they won't even look at or consider evidence to the contrary, and get agitated or dismissive when challenged, which is (personally) I think quite rude
• they aren't people who would ever admit they were wrong, and I have yet to find the company of someone who struggles to admit they were wrong, or made a mistake, to be enjoyable in any way - they are always twats.

Now, I will caveat that this is just my experience - I'm sure I've met people or know people with these views and I don't know anything about that. But this is just my experience so far.

So you are telling me the earth isn't flat? 😲

It's a little bumpy in places. Wet in other places. Past that it doesn't really matter does it 🤣 never understood why anyone gets concerned about the flat earth theory, it's not going to impact on any of our lives - worst case scenario someone walks a very long way trying to find the edge and gets a bit frustrated!

🤣🤣🤣

Don’t Flatters also believe that Australia doesn’t exist and that the moon & sun are the same?
Mor than happy to be corrected.

Some worlds are flat, more dish-shaped really. Balanced on the back of 4 elephants standing on a giant space turtle.
And although seas flow over the edge, cats don't knock everything off because of the circumfence.
Thanks to Terry Pratchett for the Disc world, which lives in my imagination, not reality.
Sadly.

I bet Greebo would if he had the chance ...

Amazing isn't it?!🙄What I cannot for the life of me understand is how they can argue and/or dismiss the multitude of photographs that have been taken from space and best of all the videos and 'live' broadcasts from the ISS, etc etc etc that to any rational thinking person surely should be indisputable evidence of the rotundity of the earth?!🤔 I believe they have concocted some weird and wonderful 'explanations' for some of the things that challenge their 'beliefs' but seriously? WTAF!!! 😱

It astounds me how weird people are! DH (manual worker with not very educated people mostly) has worked with several people who don't think we ever went to the moon!

I have a group of Mum 'friends' from school - one won't vax as Covid is dodgy and the government is spamming us all, one thinks the McCanns killed Madeleine and the evidence is all online - honestly, I despair........

I really don't think I could spend much time with a flat-earther. Quick coffee once every few years? She's bonkers...

To me it’s not just the stupid element but that it shows they’ve a propensity for being brainwashed via the internet. These beliefs don’t usually live in isolation. A flat earther is often a great resetter busy preparing their kids for end of times. And if not that then probably a fan of Johnny Depp at the least…(joke, sort of..) I wish them the best but life is too short to have them in my friendship group or my kid’s social, uh, sphere 😆

That’s true!

😂

I find believing in a God and following religion just as absurd. As long as these people arnt hurting me I don't care what they believe in.

"People having different beliefs to oneself is what makes the world go around."

@MoonWoman69

😂 I'm no physicist, but I really don't think this is true!

Wow - how ignorant to shun a ‘friend’ because they have a different belief to you.

I've come across flat earthers and sone things aren't just a difference of opinion.It isn't about just not being tolerant, these aren't rational people.Ive come across this and there are other batshit opinions they hold which my own dcs have been exposed to. How can you trust their judgement?

Ex friend was all the above plus sense of superiority as they were in a clique of wackos holding similarly odd ideas.Its not shunning to avoid them, it's good sense.

But then again, despite science proving otherwise, billions of people believe in a deity/god in some form or another who created the planet...
So really, they are no different

Sounds like fundamental christian doctrines

This.

Never argue with a fool.
Or be friends with one.

And if someone can believe planet earth is flat like a pancake, they can believe anything they're fed - including stuff that actually harms people.

Why you'd want that in your life, I don't know.

My DH has fallen in to this belief since covid, started with being anti-vax and now believes all of the stuff listed above including flat earth, fake moon landing etc. He has a disability and is very cut off from the real world which has only made this worse. I am very worried about our future together as, if he had expressed any of this when we first met, i would have run a mile

This of course is the problem, people get sucked into this sort of nonsense then fall down other conspiracy rabbit holes, some of which are definitely harmful. The best example I can give of this is a Canadian nutcase that I've followed for years since he was booted out of a Facebook group that a friend administers. He's a Flerfer fundamentalist, it's at the centre of his personality, but he has also adopted a huge variety of other conspiracy rubbish - you name it he believes it so long as it's anti science or anti establishment - including two worrying ones. The first is this idea that the Magna Carta contains a clause that effectively allows you to be immune to all statute laws if you swear allegiance to a Baron. This is the Sovereign Citizen idea/crap/cult/whatever, which is absolute tripe but which resulted in him being imprisoned for the better part of a year because he wouldn't engage with the courts in any way other than to spout pseudolegal rubbish. The second was the reason he got booted out of the FB group when he started advocating the drinking of hydrogen peroxide as a cure for all ills, an extremely dangerous idea. Sadly he has a small child who may well be in the care of his former partner who has left him, presumably because he's mad, but he still has some form of access to her. Flat earth beliefs are so often just the tip of a very dangerous iceberg, as soon as anyone mentions one of these beliefs I walk away, don't engage, don't argue, just avoid.

Walk away. FAST,

There are many things up for debate. But some things are not.

Black is not white. The sun does rise every day.

But we don't live on a flat planet. Even before astronauts went into space, we actually worked that one out in the 3rd century, not just the hundreds of years since Galileo.

The question to ask is why is your friend choosing to believe something you know is not true?

And on something so fundamental and easily researchable - Why is she choosing to believe? Or who is she choosing to believe?

Your friend has lost touch with reason and common sense.

For no apparent reason.

Unless you're a trained mental health professional, I'd say create as much space as you can without doing harm.

This wins 😂