Ahhh, the earth so majestic, so round! – wait
a minute who messed with my pictures of the
earth!
Ah the earth, so majestic, so round…
If I told you the earth was flat a few years
ago I am pretty sure that I would be laughed
out of the room, the town and the country
and possibly even the flat earth its self…
Well ok maybe not that last one…
Until recently with the rise of the internet
and social media, only a very, very, very
small handful of people subscribed to the
belief in the flat earth… but now it has
become an oddly common belief at leased online.
So what do people who believe in the flat
earth believe?
This is an important question as, think about
it, if the earth is flat, what on earth are
NASA, Space X and the European space program
all doing?
How do satellites work and why are the worlds
experts and governments lying about the shape
of the planet?
But before we get to that lets get some historic
background:
In ancient times different cultures had different
views the shape of the earth, Chinese thought
the earth was square, Indians believed it
was a bowl or sphere and the Greeks before
Socrates are believed to have believed in
a flat disc shaped earth; but Aristotle names
two (Leucippus (c. 440 BC) and Democritus
(c. 460 – 370 BC)) prominent philosophers
who stated the earth was round.
The spherical view soon spread rapidly in
the Greek world.
Around 330 BC, Aristotle maintained on the
basis of physical theory and observational
evidence that the Earth was spherical, and
reported on an estimate on the circumference.
(But the Earth's circumference was first determined
around 240 BC by Eratosthenes.)
The knowledge of a round earth was spread
further by the Roman empire, but there is
a myth that after the fall of Rome people
went back to believing in a flat earth.
This myth began in the 19th century.
An early proponent of this myth was the American
writer Washington Irving, who maintained that
Christopher Columbus had to overcome the opposition
of churchmen to gain sponsorship for his voyage
of exploration.
(people really thought he was mad because
they thought the earth was so vast he was
likely heading to his death)
This myth was then furthered by John William
Draper and Andrew Dickson White, who used
it as a major element in their belief that
there was a long lasting and essential conflict
between science and religion.
But study since then, of medieval science,
has shown that most scholars in the Middle
Ages, including those read by Christopher
Columbus, maintained that the Earth was spherical.
Over time the concept of a flat earth fell
into obscurity until In 1956, a guy called
Samuel Shenton set up the International Flat
Earth Research Society (IFERS), better known
as the Flat Earth Society.
This was just before the Soviet Union launched
the first artificial satellite, Sputnik; he
responded, "Would sailing round the Isle of
Wight prove that it were spherical?
It is just the same for those satellites."
His primary aim was to reach children before
they were convinced about a spherical Earth.
Despite plenty of publicity, the space race
eroded Shenton's support in Britain until
1967 when he started to become famous due
to the interest in space caused by the Apollo
program.
In 1972 a guy called Charles Johnson, started
a branch in the US attracted around 3000 members
and began proposing evidence of a conspiracy
against flat-Earth.
The Society declined in the 1990s following
a fire at its headquarters in California and
the death of Johnson in 2001.
It was revived as a website in 2004 by Daniel
Shenton.
He believes that no one has provided proof
that the world is not flat…
So what do flat earthers believe.
I have quite a bit of experience speaking
to people who believe in the flat earth and
know a number of them in real life, and naturally
they all have different thoughts and feelings
about it, but here are some stuff the ones
I know believe:
One - There is a plasma dome that you can’t
get out of.
According to many flat earthers the earth
is surrounded by a dome which we cannot escape,
according to one of the guys I know, who we
will call bob, this dome is 70 miles above
us and nothing can get out of it.
Bob also says there is YouTube videos proving
this if you want to check that out…
Another flat earther we will call ted gave
me a book which said that all telecommunications
used the dome to bounce signals to where they
needed to go.
Two - Some think the sun and moon are also
both flat and disc shaped.
Some of the flat earthers I know explain the
sun and moon by saying they are flat discs
which travel along the dome.
The proof of course is that we never see the
dark side of the moon, and a number have even
told me that the moon gives off its own light
(something I really can’t understand).
Three - The worlds governments are hiding
the fact the earth is flat.
This is the natural progression of this theory,
as flat earthers believe that the government
know and supers the information about the
flat earth for some devious purpose.
And this leads on to the next belief some
flat earthers have:
Four - A flat earth proves Judaism, Christianity
or Islam.
Religious writings contain phrases which speak
poetically about “the four corners of the
earth”, “the earths pillars” and so
forth, and some flat earthers believe that
the flat earth proves their religion to be
true and that governments are hiding it to
suppress this fact.
boko haram for instance believes this, maintaining
that the flat earth proves their religion
– note this is the same group that believes
there is no water cycle and that Allah just
makes more water when it is all used up.
Five - satellites are fake and can only fly
for a short amount of time.
Flat earthers admit that you can see satellites
at times, but maintain that they just fly
for a short amount of time and then come down
to the ground.
Bob has suggested that they just don’t fly
and are a ruse as they are too big to be propelled
into the air.
Six - No gravity.
For some reason some flat earthers claim there
is no such thing as gravity, at least when
it is not going straight down.
The reason for this is they reject the idea
that a round object such as the earth could
hold anything in place.
(a look at the gravitational pull of large
ships in the ocean gets rid of this notion.)
Seven - There is no south pole.
The north pole, according to flat earthers
is the centre of the planet, and the south
pole is the end of the world and surrounds
the whole of the earth like the edges of a
bowl.
Expeditions to the south pole are thus all
fake and can only lead to disaster.
One flat earther even told me you can’t
buy a south facing compass, but I don’t
really think he thought that one through…
there are many more beliefs than this, and
as I said before not all flat earthers believe
the exact same things, but you can see how
these beliefs can lead to quite extreme thoughts
and paranoia.
This is why Flat earthers tend to believe
in things like, NWO, no conflicts, fake news
(chemical attack drills, Paris attacks etc.)
and so forth.
In this video I did not challenge the views
of flat earths that much, but next time we
will look at some arguments for and against
the flat earth which I have encountered.
If you have any thoughts, know anyone who
believes in the flat earth or maybe even believe
yourself and disagree with what I have said
why not leave a comment bellow and as always
thanks for watching.
