Flat Earth

[FPAlpha]

From time to time i like to check in to Flat Earthers on Youtube, it is sometimes hilarious to see them bend over backwards to explain away simple proofs that the Earth is not flat.

Just recently i saw a video by a supposedly well known Flat Earther, who promised 10.000$ to anyone who could verifiably prove to him that the Earth was round ( or disprove one of his theories concerning skyscraper construction).

One guy then took a CAD program and actually set everything to scale and modelled the tallest skyscraper in existence, slightly taller than 800m. Step by step he has shown why the Flat Earther claim had one fatal flaw - they never take the scale of the Earth into account when put up against humans or even the tallest Skyscrapers.

Even the tallest Skyscraper is not even a bump when you zoom out from Earth until you see the curvature.

At times it is mindboogling that they still stick to this with so much evidence and simple experiments, that prove the Earth is round.

 

[MacLeod]

I think I've seen that video or maybe SciManDan covered in part on one of his Flat Earth Friday vids.

 

[Bork359]

Most people are barely sentient apes. It's amazing we have any civilization at all.

 

[StarCruiser]

Well, the aliens have been here and...well...

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Well, the aliens have been here and...well...

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Is that a skit or short film? It's great but are not the aliens also meat?

 

[Redfern]

Is that a skit or short film? It's great but are not the aliens also meat?

A short story by Terry Bisson first published in Omni magazine April 1991.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They're_Made_Out_of_Meat

It has been adapted many times into different media. Personally, I feel it works better as an audio only presentation because we slowly build up this mental image of these starfaring aliens as they chip away our human-centric expectations of what sapient "life" might actually be.

Here's the original short story.

https://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/prose/text/thinkingMeat.html

I first heard it when the SciFi Channel had a website called "The Dominion" in the late 90s, early 00s.

 

[1001001]

 

[publiusr]

The best way to win an argument with someone who wonders why you don’t fall off the sides at the equator is to ask…fall off where? There is no surface beneath the globe to fall to. Down means coreward.

 

[Oddish]

You expect logic to work against a flat earther?

 

[publiusr]

It is a little nicer than launching them into orbit and shoving them out an airlock to see for themselves

 

[Oddish]

Better to just laugh at them and leave them alone.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

You think Flat Earthers are funny you should check out the pyramid people. There are videos on youtube by I'd assume nutters that claim the missing capstones on the pyramids were to make electricity. You just have to laugh when watching those videos.

 

[shapeshifter]

How else would they power their huge light bulbs?

https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/80/590x/secondary/Light-Bulb2-481786.jpg

 

[Oddish]

There are mainstream beliefs that, when you think about them, are just as crazy as flat earth. But because they're fashionable, and people who question them are regularly targeted for abuse, they continue to persist.

 

[fireproof78]

Better to just laugh at them and leave them alone.

Exactly. I never understand the compulsive need to prove everyone wrong who has a belief you don't agree with. What will that accomplish? You going to browbeat them in to submission until they don't argue with you any more? Mock them until they feel such shame that they dare not speak of it even though their silence is not a demonstration of agreement?

Did anyone ever think that part of the long standing hold of this belief is because people insist that they are wrong?

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I'll just post one of them here. It's amusing.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I never understand the compulsive need to prove everyone wrong who has a belief you don't agree with. What will that accomplish?

Hopefully a reduction in ignorance and the spread of misinformation? I believe it's called education, and it's sort of the cornerstone of a productive society.

You going to browbeat them in to submission until they don't argue with you any more? Mock them until they feel such shame that they dare not speak of it even though their silence is not a demonstration of agreement?

Not mocking or browbeating, but you also should not just sit passively by and say nothing out of some misplaced sense of politeness or respect while ignorant misinformation is disseminated ranging from the mildly amusing like Flat Earthers to the dangerous and damaging like anti-vaxxers / anti-maskers.

Did anyone ever think that part of the long standing hold of this belief is because people insist that they are wrong?

This isn't some untestable thing like belief in a deity where it's a matter of faith, not science. This is easily (dis)provable stuff that you can see and test for yourself in the span of a day by visiting a large body of water and watching ships pass over the horizon or noticing the lower levels of buildings on the opposite shore are below the horizon. There's no reason to accept willful ignorance without challenging it.

 

[fireproof78]

Hopefully a reduction in ignorance and the spread of misinformation? I believe it's called education, and it's sort of the cornerstone of a productive society.

Not mocking or browbeating, but you also should not just sit passively by and say nothing out of some misplaced sense of politeness or respect while ignorant misinformation is disseminated ranging from the mildly amusing like Flat Earthers to the dangerous and damaging like anti-vaxxers / anti-maskers.

This isn't some untestable thing like belief in a deity where it's a matter of faith, not science. This is easily (dis)provable stuff that you can see and test for yourself in the span of a day by visiting a large body of water and watching ships pass over the horizon or noticing the lower levels of buildings on the opposite shore are below the horizon. There's no reason to accept willful ignorance without challenging it.

So it is your responsibility to educate all? Curious. One of the cornerstones that I have learned in sharing information in working with deeply held beliefs is building a relationship first not browbeating.

My larger point is that in my experience it is important to establish a relationship rather than immediately moving in to educating unprompted. If I invite you to share with me then that's fine. But just jumping in on them and pointing fingers and declaring them wrong is counterproductive in the stated goal of education as you say. So, while I appreciate the passion this isn't a black and white situation of "You're wrong!" "Oh thanks!"

I feel that online is an extremely poor format to do this.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

... building a relationship first not browbeating.

But just jumping in on them and pointing fingers and declaring them wrong is counterproductive in the stated goal of education as you say.

"Not mocking or browbeating..." It was the first line of the second passage of my post.

 

[fireproof78]

"Not mocking or browbeating..." It was the first line of the second passage of my post.

Once the relationship is established I'm all for education. But, to quote one of my favorite authors, "You can lead a child to knowledge but you can't make them think."