Is the Earth flat?

EM2 · 3 May 2018

You may have seen This Morning yesterday, when Holly Willoughby and Philip Schofield had three people in the studio who believe that the Earth is flat:
http://www.itv.com/thismorning/hot-topics/could-the-earth-be-flat

We’ve been told for centuries that the Earth is round - but one group of people would go to the end of the Earth (whatever shape it is) to prove that it’s actually flat. Gary Heather, Darren Nesbit and Martin Kenny are part of The Flat Earthers, who come from all ‘four corners’ of the globe even claiming that gravity is fake and The Moon Landing of 1969 was a hoax.

My personal opinion is that this is utter balderdash for numerous reasons, but I'd be interested to know if anyone agrees with these guys?

RailUK Forums

trainmania100 · 3 May 2018

It's not flat, people who claim the earth is flat aren't very well.
They say the earth but where is the edge? Makes no sense whatsoever. Probably the same people who claim noone went to the moon conspiracy

EM2 · 3 May 2018

trainmania100 said:
Probably the same people who claim noone went to the moon conspiracy

Oh yes, they believe that too!

nlogax · 3 May 2018

I don't think anyone who believes in that sort of conspiracist baloney would ever admit to it on this forum.

(right..?)

NSEFAN · 3 May 2018

A while back, someone on this forum tried to argue that the earth isn't round, but is an upright circle. Whatever that means.

edwin_m · 3 May 2018

NSEFAN said:
A while back, someone on this forum tried to argue that the earth isn't round, but is an upright circle. Whatever that means.

Is it also carried on the back of a giant turtle?

If the earth is flat how come the sun sets and rises at different times in different places?

nlogax · 3 May 2018

NSEFAN said:
A while back, someone on this forum tried to argue that the earth isn't round, but is an upright circle. Whatever that means.

I've just read most of that thread to catch up. Related; hope I remembered to bring ibruprofen to work with me.

ComUtoR · 3 May 2018

Our Earth is round but the Disc is certainly flat.

furnessvale · 3 May 2018

The Flat Earth Society has members situated all over the globe.

EM2 · 3 May 2018

Oh, I should also add that they believe that gravity is not a force, simply an effect.

PaxVobiscum · 3 May 2018

furnessvale said:
The Flat Earth Society has members situated all over the globe.

Of course, it is possible that the earth is both flat and round:

mallard · 3 May 2018

"Conspiracies" like this don't even make any sense whatsoever. Just imagine how many people would have to be "in on" the conspiracy for it to work; everyone from satellite TV installers to classical scholars (Eratosthenes is the first known person to calculate the circumference of the earth) to every single space agency (orbit is impossible without a round Earth).

How and why would a whole series of "unfriendly" nations co-operate on such a conspiracy? The height of the Space Race co-incided with the height of the Cold War and North Korea sucessfully put a satellite in orbit in 2016. And somehow these rival nations were in cahoots in a scheme to decieve the world on such a massive scale? To what end?

Similar logic applies to those who believe the Moon landings were faked. The Soviet intelligence agencies were certainly following the US space programme closely. It's well documented that they acquired important technical information that acellerated the development their version of a Space Shuttle and of course their signals intelligence was tracking every spaceflight that NASA launched. If there was any hint whatsoever that the Moon landings were anything less than legitimate you can bet that the Soviet propaganda machine would have been all over it... But no, the landings were reported as fact by Soviet press and no hint of any suspicion has come from any Communist archives.

Up_Tilt_390 · 3 May 2018

If the earth was flat, then cats would just be pushing everything off the edge.

Warwick · 3 May 2018

If you ask the deluded people who believe that the earth is flat to explain -
Tides
Climate
seasons
time zones
lengthening and shortening of days through the year
how it's not possible to stand on the cliffs at Rottingdean with a powerful telescope and see the coast of France you'll find the subject changes tout d'suite.
They are oxygen thieves and should be treated with the contempt that they deserve.

PeterC · 3 May 2018

The whole spherical earth idea comes from Aristotle in 330 BC so it is definitely out of date.

Lucan · 3 May 2018

For the real unbiased answer I'm afraid we must wait for "Mad Mike Hughes" next rocket flight. He has launched himself into space (well into the air at least) several times already from a ramp on the back of his motor-caravan https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevor...e-rocket-to-prove-earth-is-flat/#27953f2c9b6f in order to see for himself and report back to us non-believers.

As it says in the link : "As for proving the Earth is flat, Mad Mike says that will come later with larger rockets planned to launch him into space. So as of now, Mad Mike is not convinced one way or another. He still believes the Earth is flat but wants to confirm with his own eyes. It's unclear why Mad Mike doesn't hop on a commercial flight".

theblackwatch · 3 May 2018

I can understand that, back in years gone by, people assumed the earth was flat - hence why people didn't like to sail far in case they fell off the edge. I'm sure that quite a few members of the "Flat Earth Society" are in it just for a laugh, but there are others who clearly have difficulties believing or understanding scientific facts, or just merely want to dismiss them.

Cowley · 3 May 2018

I think it is flat because there’s the odd place they forgot to finish properly like East Anglia.

Yew · 3 May 2018

I'd always presumed that flat-earthisim was a bit of a joke, or an interesting thought experiment (trying to get things like tides, seasons etc to work correctly with a flat earth seems like a fun challenge)

shredder1 · 3 May 2018

furnessvale said:
The Flat Earth Society has members situated all over the globe.

But only on the flat bits

Lucan · 3 May 2018

theblackwatch said:
in years gone by, people assumed the earth was flat - hence why people didn't like to sail far in case they fell off the edge.

Like this you mean :-

385069d1516911857-show-me-sign-billboards-sign-bus-ads-shop-signs-go-here-imgp3907_is.jpg

TheEdge · 3 May 2018

Up_Tilt_390 said:
If the earth was flat, then cats would just be pushing everything off the edge.

That's obviously the most irrefutable evidence

AM9 · 3 May 2018

Those three on TV this morning need to go away and listen to David Icke. They would probably say that he was unhinged, but at least he recognised that the Earth was spherical, (I can't say that much of the other stuff wasn't bonkers).

I was surprise that Holly Willoughby managed to keep a striaght face though, - she's a serial giggler.

whhistle · 3 May 2018

This reminds me of someone who believes their iphone has a temperature sensor inside.

They said they went from indoors to outdoors and the temperature on the weather app changed.

I said that as they'd wintessed the app updating just at that moment, they will never come to understand that truth.

And thus, they continue to believe (despite showing them many, many references online - even the technical manual for the iphone!) that their phone has a temperature sensor inside.

Should have told them to warm the oven to 100C, then hold their phone in it and see if it changes to 40C/50C. No chance.

edwin_m · 3 May 2018

Well there was a story a few weeks back about how older iPhones are deliberately slowed down in cold weather to reduce the demand on the battery. So perhaps they do have some way of sensing temperature, even if it's indirectly by battery performance.

Still, it would be nice if the weather got hot and sunny every time I put a phone in my pocket.

theblackwatch · 3 May 2018

AM9 said:
Those three on TV this morning need to go away and listen to David Icke.

He actually came to mind when I was reading this thread before and composing my earlier reply! I had a quick look at the Flat Earth Society's website earlier and was rather amused to see the secretary described as a 'flatist'. :lol:

61653 HTAFC · 3 May 2018

Up_Tilt_390 said:
If the earth was flat, then cats would just be pushing everything off the edge.

+1!
This post has put a huge smile on my face! :lol:

WelshBluebird · 3 May 2018

Why on earth are we still giving these idiots attention? (flat earthers, not the presenters!).

tbtc · 3 May 2018

I'd like to think that it's fairly obvious that the earth is a globe (not a perfect sphere, sure, before anyone gets pedantic) and that the moon landings happened, but it worries me that there are a lot of people out there desperate to believe in conspiracies - everything that goes against their viewpoint is dismissed as a "false flag" (rather than taking on board that there are some things that go against the way that they'd like the world to be).

Easy to dismiss this lot as loons but they seem to be symptomatic of a tide of ignorance where people refuse to accept realities that they don't like (whether that be a chemical attack in Salisbury or a war overseas).

Essan · 3 May 2018

Not only is the Earth flat, but it's also hollow (concentric rings all the way down!) and expanding from within (was much smaller when dinosaurs were around, so gravity was weaker and that's why they could grow so big) and was, of course, only made in 4004BC .... Oh, and the Moon is a hologram.

That's why they spray chemtrails you know, to hide the truth

Is the Earth flat?

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