Do they really think the earth is flat?

glenc (Glen) · #1 16-11-2008, 07:28 AM

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7540427.stm
"In the 21st Century, the term "flat-earther" is used to describe someone who is spectacularly - and seemingly wilfully - ignorant. But there is a group of people who claim they believe the planet really is flat. Are they really out there or is it all an elaborate prank?"

mojo (Terry) · #2 16-11-2008, 08:03 AM

It's a puzzle, eh. I've always just assumed it was a group of people who believe in 'alternate' scientific views and not necessarily that the earth is actually flat... but then, they do discuss such things with a straight face over there....

acropolite (Phil) · #3 16-11-2008, 08:26 AM

You have to laugh at this one.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom Bishop

The Flat Earth Society has found that when you compare starmaps from Chile and starmaps from Australia, the constellations are different

It's worth having a look at other posts buy user Tom Bishop, he's obviously the knowledgable one. This is one seriously whacky society.

Kal (Andrew) · #4 16-11-2008, 09:32 AM

One word that seems to pop up alot on their FAQ is 'conspiracy'. It's all a conspiracy by the governments, by NASA, by everyone.

It makes legitamite conspiracy theorists look bad

xelasnave · #5 16-11-2008, 09:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by acropolite

You have to laugh at this one. It's worth having a look at other posts buy user Tom Bishop, he's obviously the knowledgable one. This is one seriously whacky society.

No we really need an IIS team to go to Chile to a nice dark high site and take photos of all the constelations come back and compare with ones we take in Australia...

I remember in the days of the Sydney domain there was a chap there who believed the world was flat... he could prove it.. he just needed on of the air line companies to fly him on a certain course (37 degrees...I dont know if that was to the horizontal a bearing North or what) and he sited as proof he was right the fact the air line company would not fly him on that course because their part in the conspiracy to hide the flat world from everyone...would be exposed....

They are wrong these flat world folk a push universe demands matter is ordered in the shape of a sphere

There is a book Flatlander I think..it has been pointed out to me as if to alert me to the possibility there may be something I dont know

alex

xelasnave · #6 16-11-2008, 09:42 AM

Anyways my point and in reply to Glens question..are they really out there... I say yes I personally met and argued with one... I was young in the apprenticship of an uncle who took me to the Domain to learn how to arge with anybody... and he selected this chap to let me argue against his point as he had and was training me to do... That episode taught me that folk can believe in things and nothing will sway them and it is possible to lose an arguement even if you are right.

This chap was more entrenched than any of the religious "speakers" and more dogmatic than the "political" speakers.

alex

alex

Dog Star (Phil) · #7 16-11-2008, 09:55 AM

Yep. I've heard this one.
The Earth is a disc that is carried on the backs of 4 huge elephants who ride on the back of Atúan, the giant Cosmic Turtle, as he swims lazily through space. The Sun is indeed about 400 miles away and one of the elephants has to lift his hind leg to allow the Sun to pass by as it orbits the Discworld.
Always did think Terry Pratchett was a clever fella. Little did I suspect that he was actually the vanguard of a revolution in scientific thought.
Anyone unfamiliar with this mode of thought should check out the Discworld series of books by the aforementioned Mr Pratchett. You won't be disappointed, I assure you.
Wikipedia has a good introduction to Discworld which will give you the gist of
this wonderfully wild and crazy world.
Enjoy.

erick (Eric) · #8 16-11-2008, 10:19 AM

It cannot be flat, I keep tripping over things!

GrahamL · #9 16-11-2008, 10:21 AM

I've stumbled across that site before

and find a lot of the content very funny.. obviously theres a lot who visit there just to take the ****.And some who take it very seriously.. some posts start as a conspiricy only to skew to challenge the conspiricy as being another conspiricy.

Jen · #10 16-11-2008, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by erick

It cannot be flat, I keep tripping over things!

me too Erick

there are some crazy people out there

wraithe · #11 16-11-2008, 11:59 AM

I got informed yesterday that the media tell the truth...
I was that gobsmacked that I didnt know what to say...
A lady that is in her late 60's informed me that she would believe the media before she would believe anyone who said the media was wrong...
I have been discussing this issue with a friend, our talk involved how the education system has gone from giving people the basics of how to question and learn to a point of conditioning them to do as there told and not question. My son gets into a lot of trouble at school by asking hard questions and wanting to know, if you told him the world is round, he asks how can you show me that, if you tell him that a computer application is the best available, he wants to see the competition...
The teachers cant accept that, they want him to be a puppet...
I think things have started to go backwards from the day when most of us where in school and teachers asked us questions and then discussed the answers and delved into the possibilities...

Sad, Sad earth...

xelasnave · #12 16-11-2008, 12:06 PM

Now its not so bad Wraithe your Son has not fallen under their spell and how good is that.

alex

wraithe · #13 16-11-2008, 01:55 PM

Yeh he is going well, maybe too well in some ways...
Hopefully the world doesnt fall to bits and the thinkers get back to making others think...

Either that or I shall enjoy hiding in the middle of nowhere..

Whats the saying, "got me horse, got me swag, got me kids, got me gun, got meself lost out nowhere"...
Sounds like a nice life plan...

wraithe · #14 16-11-2008, 02:20 PM

Adding to this thread...

When you discuss things with people, you tend to find yourself migrate to those that think like yourselves...
Now in this group that think like you do, you will come across people that have a very limited understanding of things and others that can adopt to any discussion, albiet talking about farming, then how to design a boat to the concepts of space and then off to discussing the climate...
When a group of friends change the subject matter around, you will notice some that think outside of the box and others that sit on the fence convinced that what they read in the paper is fact.
If you ever go to a party or bbq, just twist the conversation around a few times and watch people get into and drop out of the conversation...
If you can adapt to any subject, you can get people talking easy...
I do it with friends, talk about farming and livestock, then bring up about mechanics(only have to say anything about my ute and they start asking questions), then move it onto say climate change or the universe, and I am amazed how many drop out of the conversation and become spectators...
My best friend and I usually get left alone, we talk about things like ET's, psycology, the universe, nature, history etc etc, but others think we are potty, and thats mainly because they have a limited concept of how big things are...

My favourite question, "How big is the universe?"

I love telling people that humans are trained in a box, live in a box, and cant think outside of the box...
And another thing that stuffs them up is when I say "To put a limit on the universe is human, we as humans cant grasp the idea of space being infinite"
Have been informed that a couple of my friends have gone home with headaches trying to grasp the idea of the universe not having a limit...rofl

jungle11 (Greg) · #15 16-11-2008, 03:37 PM

It sounds like mysticism to me, lots of people think like that even these days, i know a couple myself.
But the earth being flat! - a round earth conspiracy would have costed trillions already, and what could possibly be the point of that?
The hundreds of thousands of pictures from orbit, the thousands of hours of video, countries space programmes and budgets, gps, satellite phones, satellite tv, satellite internet, the fact that you can see the satellites themselves cruising overhead at night, all the international airliners in on it too, the moon is obviously round, so are the planets also with phases and moons (oh yeah, you'd have to fake another 50 000 pictures at least from all the probes we've sent around the solar system.

Yeah 'nuff said

jungle

xelasnave · #16 16-11-2008, 03:51 PM

Wraithe sounds like you have a wonderful and free mind. That is great. However we will always find others who for whatever reason find it hard to hold up their end of the conversation.... well no problem... they are usually good listeners... so run the latest ideas past them...that is your duty.

So how big is the Universe... I like to think it is infinite and that is so big you can take any amount away from it and it is still infinite... this may not fit current cosmology but unlike the flat world thing the answer to such a question is in little fear of chalenge in so far as proving the contrary is just as difficult as proving the opposite.

Alex

leinad (Dan) · #17 16-11-2008, 03:57 PM

I suppose they think then that satellites just hover above a continent. Otherwise they'd have to move in a racetrack fashion above the continents. Perhaps then they can think about how that would be possible? Anti-gravity? endless amounts of fuel? Or objects up there just stay on a cushion of air and dont fall ? LOL

xelasnave · #18 16-11-2008, 04:10 PM

If most of us are ashamed of shabby clothes and shoddy furniture,
let us be more ashamed of shabby ideas and shoddy philosophies.

--Albert Einstein

alex

g__day (Matthew) · #19 16-11-2008, 04:21 PM

Now to throw same rain on the parade - there is a very serious branch of theoretical physics that accepts the Earh as flat - in fact it insists on it!

But it doesn't stop there - in fact it says everything in the entire universe is two dimensional and its our minds that infer a third dimension. I must say you can have alot of fun with the maths here - so long as it is internally consistent - you can hypothesis anything you want - even if it is completely counter-intuitive. The point becomes unless you can dis-prove it - the simplist thing to intuit will probably be all you need in everyday life.

jungle11 (Greg) · #20 16-11-2008, 06:03 PM

Yeah i guess so, but grrr. You and i know that matter itself couldn't exist in a two dimensional universe, but as long as the math works someone will always believe it.

It just pains me that these people are missing out on the awesome knowledge that mankind is accomplishing amazing things these days (how often does a species evolve that can make rockets, and wonder about the nature of reality itself?
Who needs unfounded fancifull ideas, when science has proven so many amazing things?

These people aren't hurting anyone so that's cool with me - but they are missing out on a whole lot.

On the flat Earther's web sight, they state that the speed the earth would need to travel at to rotate around the sun in a year is too fast - we would fly off into space! Yet they state that the sun revolves around us, the stars too. If that was so, those stars would be travelling millions or billions X light?!?