I don’t think I could survive attending a flat earth conference. The stupidity is a huge backward step for humankind. Michael Marshall attended one, though, and survived. He’s a stronger man than I am, because this would wreck me.
The Earth, according to Nesbitt, is more likely a diamond shape, with East-West travel facilitated by 4D space-time warps along the edges, allowing for a “Pac-Man” version of reality – where a traveller might sail off one side of the screen, and appear at the other side. That diamond is propped up on seven circular pillars, “because God likes the number seven”. This version, he explains, fits the evidence better, and is supported by the Bible, in the book of Job.
Several speakers throughout the weekend take time to highlight that evolution is a myth, accompanied by occasional heckles of “monkey men!” from audience members.
Here’s a telling excerpt. This whole flat earth nonsense is simply weaponized religiosity.
Nesbitt shared what he called the “Flat Earth Addiction” test – seven questions Flat Earth proponents should ask themselves, including “Have people said that you are pushy or obsessive about Flat Earth?”, “Have you thought that if only everyone knew about Flat Earth the world would be a different place?”, and “Have you noticed that you spend less and less time with your family and friends and more and more time talking to Flat Earthers?”.
Looking around the room, I could see knowing nods, as people recognised themselves in each question. The questions, Nesbitt explained, were taken from a checklist used to determine whether someone is in a cult. The implication seemed lost on the audience.
I think I first heard of the Flat Earth Society about 20 years ago. I thought it was a kind of tongue-in-cheek fun sort of thing, done strictly for laughs, a sort of The Onion get-together for geeks. Boy, was I ever wrong, but who could blame me for thinking that nobody could take the notion of a flat earth seriously in this day and age? But then Trump got elected in 2016, and I realized that the entire country had gone stark raving mad.
A sudden mass extinction event such as a small asteroid collision with the ground zero on the conference would represent a massive advance for humanity.
Perhaps a bit rough but the sheer waste of time, space, and resources.
Here’s a recent posting from someone who manages to turn a hopelessly dull issue into a most entertaining thrashing:
Professor Dave Explains —
Response to Globebusters – The Earth Still Isn’t Flat
Its interesting that the dull-witted dudes, who are the very sort who whine loudly about their right to free spinach, tried to deny Prof Dave HIS right to it by flagging his rebuttal. Happily it was reinstated.
That diamond is propped up on seven circular pillars…
What species of turtle is on the bottom end of those pillars?
Not turtles, tortoise; let’s not get crazy here.
The Canadian Geographical Journal had an interesting article on the Flat Earth idea a few months ago. My impression was that the author was not convinced but he was kind.
For those interested, the crew at God Awful Movies tackle the 14 videos from the “Flat Earth Clues” series, with Michael Marshall, in episodes 190 and 191. https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/god-awful-movies/id1041876428
If you haven’t seen it yet, there’s a documentary on Netflix called “Behind the Curve” which follows a couple different groups of flat earthers and some of their attempts to prove themselves right. The test they devise, which show exactly what they should if the earth was a spinning sphere, fail and they just wave it off to “heavenly energy”.
It was painful to watch, but interludes with people on the side of reality make it bearable.
@drksky:
Not a bad reminder, but just FYI that documentary has already been (briefly) discussed here on pharyngula. If you’re interested, the thread can be found here. Of course that discussion mainly focusses on the optical gyroscope instrument that they bought…and then disregarded. Of course, if you have new observations on that documentary there’s no reason you shouldn’t drop those here. Just thought it would be good to remember our past.
The linked-to Grauniad article is about a year old — which is fine, it’s still quite relevant — and earlier this year was the interesting article (ignore the clickbaity title), Study blames YouTube for rise in number of Flat Earthers: “Conspiracy theories shown on video-sharing site persuade people to doubt Earth is round”. With a related video, Flat Earth rising: meet the people casting aside 2,500 years of science (video): “Though not a new phenomenon, flat Earth theory has enjoyed a huge resurgence recently. A YouGov poll indicated that a third of Americans aged 18 to 24 were unsure of the shape of our planet, in spite of scientific proofs from Pythagoras to Nasa. […]”
Me@10, oops, sorry, forgot this one from earlier this year, All aboard the Flat Earth cruise — just don’t tell them about nautical navigation: “Flat earthers, who believe the Earth is a large disk, may be shocked to find the ship’s navigation is based on a spherical planet”. No real news here, just a low-key snarking…
Pierce A. Butler: “What species of turtle is on the bottom end of those pillars?”
Obviously the diamondback terrapin!
Whatever happened to Ye Goode Olde Dayen when the Earth was a hollow sphere with a flying saucer base inside — the entrance was a hole at the N.Pole, where the saucers fly in / out…
(Generalissimo Google indicates this wacky idea, plus variants, is apparently still around… Geesh!
The mildly deranged penguin points out the Massive Orbital Cheese Vault — MOON — is hollow, that’s where all the cheese is stored. The MOON isn’t “made” of cheese, it’s stuffed full of it. And it isn’t the Man in the Moon, it’s a certain penguin inside the MOON.)
@blf:
The flying saucer base was decommissioned to make way for Skartaris.
I’m confused – is Nesbitt trying to show his fellow flat-Earthers that they have traits in common with cult members?
#1: When life imitates comic books? Bizarro World is flat, in a manner of speaking –> http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/marvel_dc/images/e/e9/Bizarro_World_002.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20160708193348
#16: Which immediately leads to the Time Cube website, where the Earth is a cube – or something, it is hard to determine what the terminally irrational author actually thinks*.
http://timecube.2enp.com/
*Using that word in a very “relaxed” manner.
A basic understanding of gravity should be enough to convince anyone that something as massive as the Earth couldn’t be anything else but round.
Before anyone jumps in, I know it’s an oblate spheroid but ’round’ is close enough when you’re dealing with flat Earthers.
I tried to watch the Netflix documentary on flat Earth believers, and just couldn’t stand the stupidity, lack of critical thinking, that abounds in that group. I gave up after 10 or 15 minutes.
Not flatearthers, but another “weaponised reglion” bunch of kooks — and unlike flatearthers, peddling something immediately dangerous (potentially lethal) — to offer ‘ despite FDA warnings against drinking bleach:
A quick check suggests that, depending on grade, NaClO2 sells for c.$10/kilo, so $15/c.100g is an order-of-magnitude markup (even more since it’s apparently diluted)… plus the $450 (plus any fees for attending the event). Plus the medical, and possibly funeral, costs.
ABC in the States apparently did an expose on these quacks in 2016; here’s Orac’s report Bleaching away what ails you: Miracle Mineral Solution and Jim Humble’s Genesis II Church.
There’s not a lot of overt religiosity in Behind the Curve, but near the end of the movie, Mark Sargent gives the game away: “This is what you’ve been waiting for. You’re not alone. You’re not this little speck of dust flying through space at incredible velocities. You are the center of the universe, as a matter of fact. You are the star of the show.”
I think it’s more something like:
Maybe.
But I could be misunderstanding it.
@Owlmirror:
I’m not necessarily likely to have any real insight, but my take on it was,
Long ago I convinced myself (without actually calculating anything) that something the mass and density of the earth couldn’t be a cube (although I see in retrospect that I assumed the density was constant, which is pretty clearly bogus…), and the same method (or lack thereof) appears to apply for a regular tetrahedron or octahedron. It would be interesting to figure out how big a regular dodecahedral or icosahedral planetoid could be. Moon size?
@bassmanpete #18
Alas, gravity is also something many flerfers deny. They tend to either claim it’s density that causes things to fall¹ of that the flat Earth is accelerating upwards.
Also, do not presume a flerfer has a “basic understanding’ of just about anything.
1: Yes, I know that is just a demonstration of gravity but there are multiple flerfer videos boiling down to: “An egg will sink in fresh water and float in salt water therefore gravity is false.”
Update related to @20, British man arrested on suspicion of giving bleach-based ‘cure’ to Ugandans: