Of all the conspiracy theories that litter the Internet, the flat Earth theory is perhaps the most interesting. Also in
How did it all start?
The most curious thing is that the flat earth theoryappeared simultaneously in the development of astronautics - in 1956. Just a year later, on October 4, 1957, the USSR launched the first satellite into space, but this did not stop the conspiracy theorists.
Flat Earth founder Samuel Sheltoncalled the scientific evidence for the spherical shape of the Earth "dogmatic". He repeatedly stated that scientists have too little evidence. He called pictures of the round planet from space unconvincing and fake. He accused everyone who claimed that the Earth had a spherical shape of a conspiracy. He is still the president of the society.
Who are these people?
After Shelton's death the society did not collapse, andit was headed by Charles Johnson. According to the Smithsonian Institution, under his leadership, by the beginning of the second millennium, the organization had grown to 3500 active members.
Today, according to publicly available data, insociety has more than 500 members. But it's worth noting that some "believers" want nothing to do with the Flat Earth Society. In addition, they believe that government agents have infiltrated the organization and are sponsoring it. This was stated by some participants at the International Flat Earth Conference in Dallas that same year. Later, in an interview with CNN, representatives of the society officially denied these accusations. Thus, the “believers” split into two camps—the Flat Earth Society and the International Flat Earth Conference.
The current President of the Society is a Londoner,who lives in Hong Kong. And international conferences are organized by Robbie Davidson, a Canadian who adheres to a biblical worldview and opposes what he calls “scientism.”
Scientism (from Latin scientia - knowledge, science) is the direction according to which scientific knowledge is the highest cultural value and the determining factor of a person’s orientation in the world.
A 2017 national poll by Public Policy Polling found that only 1% of Americans believe the Earth is flat, and another 6% said they were unsure.
In 2018, the Colorado Sunpublished a report on the congress of supporters of the flat Earth theory in Denver. It turned out that many participants are supporters of several conspiracy theories. For example, these people believe that all politicians are actors and that the world is controlled by a powerful shadow government.
Interestingly, some celebrities support the absurd theory. So, on January 25, 2016, rapper-singer Bobby Ray Simmons Jr. (known as V.o.V.) released a track called “Flatline.”
This is a diss track (he English.disrespect - disrespect), addressed to physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, with whom he had a falling out on Twitter over B.o.B's statement that the Earth is flat. In addition to condemning Tyson and expressing his belief in a flat Earth, the rapper references other conspiracy theories in the lyrics: Holocaust denial and the belief that Freemasons control people's minds. In the lyrics of the song, science is called a “cult.”
A day earlier, the rapper wrote on Twitter: “It doesn’t matter how high you are... the horizon is always at eye level... sorry, cadets... I didn’t want to believe it either.”
Later in 2018, NBA player Kyrie Irving was forced to apologize after causing media controversy when he suggested the Earth was flat in a 2017 podcast.
What do flat earthers believe?
Proponents of the flat earth theory claim thatThe Earth is a flat disk, and evidence that it is round—say, photographs taken from space—is an elaborate hoax involving several governments. Opinions vary about exactly how a flat Earth works, and flat-Earthers come up with complex versions of physics and creative interpretations of the solar system to make their theories stand up to some criticism.
According to the leading theory, the Earth is a diskwith the Arctic Circle in the center and Antarctica, an ice wall 45 meters high along the edge. According to them, NASA employees are guarding it so that people cannot climb over the disk or fall from it.
The flat earth map drawn by Orlando Ferguson in 1893 is also considered the biblical map of the world.
Image courtesy of CalimaX/Alamy
Additionally, flat earthers believe that gravityplanets are an illusion. Objects do not fall down, and the gravitational acceleration of 9.8 m/s² does not exist. Instead, the Earth's disk is moving upward at this speed of 9.8 m/s² thanks to a mysterious force that «believers» called dark energy. Of course, we are not talking about dark energy, which, according to the Standard Model of physics, is responsible for the expansion of the Universe.
Acceleration of free fall on the surface of the Earthg varies from 9.780 m/s² at the equator to 9.82 m/s² at the poles. The standard (“normal”) value adopted when constructing systems of units is 9.80665 m/s².
What is under the Earth’s disk is unknown, but most flat-earthers believe that its bottom consists of “rocks.”
It is worth noting that all of the aboveis controversial even in the flat Earth community. "None of us believe we're flying pancakes in space," Davidson told CNN in a 2019 article. According to him, visitors to the International Flat Earth Conference most often believe that space simply does not exist, and that the disk of the Earth stands still. According to The Guardian, one of the speakers at the 2018 Conference even argued that the Earth is neither a sphere nor a disk, but is shaped like a diamond.
Why are flat earthers so hard to convince?
Flat Earth theorizing is basedon a way of thinking known as the Zetetic method. This is an alternative to the scientific approach, which is dominated by sensory observations. In general, the method places great emphasis on “the reconciliation of empiricism and rationalism, as well as logical conclusions based on empirical data,” experts explain.
Empiricism is a direction based onsensory sensations are the source of knowledge and contradicts rationalism. In turn, according to this method, the basis of knowledge and action of people is the mind.
People who adhere to the Zetetic methodinsist that any scientific postulate and fact can be refuted. Their purpose is to test statements that are considered significant and scientific in nature. Sethetics itself is presented as “the rational study of phenomena considered to be paranormal or related to pseudoscience.”
According to Henri Broch's definition, zetetic —this is the “art of doubt”. Therefore, this is not, strictly speaking, a science, but rather a philosophical and practical approach. Its goal is to contribute to the formation in every person of the ability to critically perceive human knowledge.
Within the framework of the flat earth theory,its adherents “fight dogma” and “question any data.” This is an end in itself for the Zethetics, so citing any scientific facts is completely pointless.
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