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21st March 2017, 02:22 PM | #1 |
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Flat Earth Discussion
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/c...earth_is_flat/
Currently there is a thread on Ask Reddit about why people believe in the flat earth hypothesis. As I said in a comment in the thread, it would be nice to get a discussion going because it has from a scientific stand-point a certain psychological value to it. |
21st March 2017, 02:25 PM | #2 |
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There are several existing flat earth threads, one here, perhaps one in science and a bunch of posts in the abandon all hope sub-forum.
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21st March 2017, 02:35 PM | #3 |
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Already one thread here in Conspiracy Theories that has been here for a week;another Thread in General Skepticism started Yesterday because of Shaquille O Neal advocacy of the Flat Earth.
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21st March 2017, 09:02 PM | #4 |
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Idiots will be idiots!!!! Flatearthers are very special idiots!!!!!
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22nd March 2017, 03:00 AM | #5 |
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It takes a very special, almost unique kind of Stupid to deny the evidence of your own eyes (which clearly shows that the surface of the Earth is curved) in order to actually believe that the Earth is flat. Anyone who has ever flown in an airliner that flew high enough (about 35,000 ft or over) can observe this for themselves.
IMO, only a very small number of people who claim the earth is flat actually believe it is so. Additionally, I am sure that the best known flat earth website, http://theflatearthsociety.org, is a Poe, and it originators are having a good laugh at Flat Earthers' expense |
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22nd March 2017, 03:37 AM | #6 |
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There's no debate to be had. I'd like to add an analogy, as in, "It's like discussing whether..." but there is no analogy that illustrates the stupidity better than the original premise. It's the most absurd, evidently false and outright brain-shy belief that it's possible to hold, even in theory.
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22nd March 2017, 12:26 PM | #7 |
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The success of celestial navigation for centuries puts the lie to flat earth theory pretty solidly.
Celestial navigation depends on there being a defined distance to the visible horizon. Here is one of several references: http://www.tecepe.com.br/nav/inav_c11.htm |
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22nd March 2017, 01:45 PM | #8 |
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Think modern-day gnostic cult. People without much education get to imagine that they know a huge secret that most people are too, stupid to discern.
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22nd March 2017, 01:53 PM | #9 |
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The vast majority of people who espouse the Flat Earth idea have not got the mental skills to operate kitchen utensils unaided either. The remainder are in it solely to bilk the majority of as much money as possible before they wise up. Much like president Trump.
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23rd March 2017, 03:54 AM | #10 |
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Some believe all wars are started by Jews, some believe the world trade centre came down due to lasers and holograms, some believe vaccinations are a population control device, some believe the father of Ted Cruz killed jfk, some believe Obama was born in Kenya.
In general, some people will believe anything. |
23rd March 2017, 05:09 AM | #11 |
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23rd March 2017, 11:02 AM | #12 |
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Until the rise of the flat earth fad, I thought you couldn't get any dumber than chemtrails, but I was wrong. If something dumber than flat earth comes up (and I can't begin to think what that might be), I think there is no hope for humanity.
Of course, for level of harm in stupid, anti-scientific ideas, anti-vaxers seem to be the champions. Believing the earth is flat is relatively harmless, aside from sheer stupidity. Convincing people not to vaccinate their children will cause some of those children to die needlessly. |
23rd March 2017, 12:21 PM | #13 |
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23rd March 2017, 12:25 PM | #14 |
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23rd March 2017, 01:25 PM | #15 |
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I had an earnest but very misguided young man in the store this afternoon who asked me about the flat earth theory and obviously subscribed to it (along with 9/11, Moon hoax). I may be overrating myself but I did get him to question a few things. ONe example was how he said that snipers did not have to take the curvature of the Earth into account. I pointed out that they did and had to take into account the rotation of the Earth as well.
He was actually searching that when I left, on a whim I looked it up myself and, lo, the 2nd google result is the flat earth society. |
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23rd March 2017, 01:34 PM | #16 |
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I think the problem starts when someone teaches their kids to disregard all information from so-called 'authority', then one thing follows on from another. Flat earthers also believe in chemtrails and all that muck, and are more likely to be anti-vaxers and hold opinions that are actively damaging. To accept one load of horse crap is to open the stable door to the others.
At least that leads to some fun fantasy literature. |
23rd March 2017, 01:46 PM | #17 |
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23rd March 2017, 01:49 PM | #18 |
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"I love the poorly educated" -- Donald Trump |
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23rd March 2017, 01:51 PM | #19 |
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"I love the poorly educated" -- Donald Trump |
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23rd March 2017, 02:01 PM | #20 |
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www.spectrum-scientifics.com <- |
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23rd March 2017, 02:58 PM | #21 |
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I was surprised to find that this belief is still widespread, but I've done some research and found that there are 'flat-earthers' all around the globe!
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24th March 2017, 06:44 AM | #22 |
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Google Earth is a flat earther's worst nightmare...unless Google is in on the conspiracy to fool the rest of us into thinking the earth is round.
Of all the CTs out there, this one baffles me the most. The fake moon landing conspiracy has a lot more meat on the bone compared to the flat earth theory. |
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24th March 2017, 07:07 AM | #23 |
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Flat Eartherism, at least in whatever current form, seems to be related to the "You can't trust whatever people in authority tell you" crowd.
If you listen to any Flat Earthers it almost never seems to be about the shape of the Earth itself but some broader point cloaked in that performance art language about not trusting "the official story" or vague conspiratorial nonsense about how some single entity controls all the news or other sources of information. As with a lot of stuff that is so over the top nonsensical it's hard to for a rational person to believe they are being serious part of me is tempted to just call them all Poes and go about my day, but that rationalization has its own set of problems as well. Do I think that a statistically significant percent of people, even the tiny percent it would take to qualify as an extreme fringe, exist that honestly on an intellectual level think the Earth is flat? Errrr... maybe. It's hard to be sure. I think, although I'm hardly married to this opinion and am fully ready to be wrong on it, that it's more a character act about how the facts don't matter as much as being an individual or not being part of the herd or something over inane pseudo-rebel nonsense. I think that was is being done is a passion play, an ongoing role playing skit where we're supposed to learn the "moral" that being factually right isn't all that important, probably with some of its adherents far deeper down the rabbit hole then others. |
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24th March 2017, 07:16 AM | #24 |
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^^^There it is^^^. Doesn't matter how outlandish the belief, some people just think you can't go along with the establishment.
Also, I can't work up any interest in what Shaq personally thinks about the cosmos, much as I am not on the edge of my seat over Kim Kardashian's geopolitical musings. ETA: whoopsie, wrong flat earth thread. Weird that there is more than one |
24th March 2017, 07:25 AM | #25 |
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24th March 2017, 07:48 AM | #26 |
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Flat earth is definitely dumber than hollow earth. Hollow earth doesn't deny what can clearly be seen, it denies what can not be seen.
I'm not convinced that anyone actually believes the hollow earth, at least some of the proponents are having a good laugh and some are just selling books to rubes. |
24th March 2017, 12:30 PM | #27 |
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24th March 2017, 12:44 PM | #28 |
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25th March 2017, 04:42 PM | #29 |
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25th March 2017, 06:40 PM | #30 |
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Some of the FE stuff on RubeTube includes huge doses of Christian fundamentalism, with phrases like "firmament of the heavens" sprinkled in as "evidence". Seemed to me like a weird mashup at first but I suppose it's not very far from talking snakes to the earth as a big Frisbee.
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26th March 2017, 02:39 AM | #31 |
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Just remember, though.... Some of us live on a Discworld!!!!!
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26th March 2017, 07:02 PM | #32 |
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26th March 2017, 09:22 PM | #33 |
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If you're not a scientist but you think you've destroyed the foundation of a vast scientific edifice with 10 minutes of Googling, you might want to consider the possibility that you're wrong. Its TRE45ON season... convict the F45CIST!! |
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26th March 2017, 11:20 PM | #34 |
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27th March 2017, 12:29 AM | #35 |
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If you're not a scientist but you think you've destroyed the foundation of a vast scientific edifice with 10 minutes of Googling, you might want to consider the possibility that you're wrong. Its TRE45ON season... convict the F45CIST!! |
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27th March 2017, 08:47 AM | #36 |
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27th March 2017, 09:17 AM | #37 |
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27th March 2017, 03:45 PM | #38 |
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Pacifism is a shifty doctrine under which a man accepts the benefits of the social group without being willing to pay - and claims a halo for his dishonesty. Robert Heinlein. |
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27th March 2017, 09:20 PM | #39 |
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28th March 2017, 04:34 AM | #40 |
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Most of us just use the handy charts in the firing tables to work it out.
It's been a couple of years, but I believe that the compensation for the rotation of the earth is found at Table J. |
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