Is The Earth Flat?
I, like many others, have noticed there has been an
increase
in the belief that the earth is flat over recent years. Yes, there are people
who believe the earth is a disk, not a globe, which shows that even in this day
and age, no amount of evidence will change someone’s perception, no matter how
absurd. Just think about that for a second. You come up with a myriad of
reasons, scientific explanations and just basic logic as to why the earth is a globe and not a flat disk. Well, you would be wrong because, believe me, they
have an answer for absolutely everything. Obviously, the answers are not viable
as they are ludicrous, but here we go…
Astronomy and Space
Let us start at the beginning, most sane place. We have been
to space, you can see that the earth is a globe. You can observe the earth
spinning on its axis and you can see global curvature. It’s there, it is
obvious. However, wherever something has scientific reasoning; an idiot will
have motivated reasoning. There is a website set up entitled: The Flat Earth Wiki (or FEW for short) and here is what they have concocted for the science:
“The most commonly accepted explanation of this is that the space
agencies of the world are involved in a conspiracy faking space travel and
exploration. This likely began during the Cold War’s ‘Space Race’, in which the
USSR and USA were obsessed with beating each other into space to the point that
each faked their accomplishments in an attempt to keep pace with the other’s
supposed achievements. Since the end of the Cold War, however, the conspiracy
is most likely motivated by greed rather than political gains, and using only
some of their funding to continue to fake space travel saves a lot of money to
embezzle for themselves.”
When the words ‘conspiracy theory” pop up, then well, it’s
clear there is no actual evidence for their claims. There is no evidence for a
conspiracy theory, but there is ample for the earth being spherical (I have written these
blogs and similar blogs for years now and even I cannot believe that I have had
to write, as well as say, that last sentence). What they are suggesting is that
all the space agencies in the world are collaborating in the exact same
conspiracy. Given that many of the political waters are murky at the moment
between countries, would other countries not have called out another for making
up an entire space programme for funding? How many people would have to be in
on this conspiracy? Astronomers? The whole thing cannot hold its own weight,
that many people and not one has spoken about it? I think not.
Faking moon landings is one thing, but what about the other
roles the space agencies have? Putting satellites into orbit for one thing.
Yes, orbit. Mapping, Visualising, Signalling, all relying on physical orbits of
satellites – of which, would not work if the earth was a disk. So how do you
propose that this is being set through the ethos of the web?
Gravity
A good scientific theory, and one of the first basis for the
earth being a globe, is gravity. With a flat earth, the gravity would pull the
disk into a sphere. That’s science. That is fact. ‘No, no, no’ say the flat earthers, not if gravity doesn’t exist.
“The earth isn’t
pulled into a sphere because the force known as gravity doesn’t exist or at
least exists in a greatly diminished form than is commonly taught. The earth is
constantly accelerating up at a rate of 32 feet per second squared (or 9.8 meters per second squared). This constant acceleration causes what you think of
as gravity.”
Go back a couple of paragraphs and read the bit about
orbiting again. Orbiting requires gravity, otherwise it would sit there, and
given that the earth is apparently accelerating up at a rate of 32 feet per
second squared, wouldn’t we just crash into all these satellites? Then what would be
the point in sending them up there? Not to mention, would we not eventually
crash into other planets? Or are they accelerating at the same rate and
direction? It is harder to actually understand their logic than the actual physics proving that it is pseudoscientific bullshit.
Is it Night or Day?
My first thought when I heard this insane theory was ‘what
about day and night? What do they propose happens within an earth cycle?’ Well,
they have solidly (easily) answered this question.
“Day and night cycles are easily explained on a flat earth.
The sun moves in circles around the North Pole. When it is over your head, it’s
day. When it’s not, it’s night. The sun acts like a spotlight and shines
downward as it moves.”
Okay…but wouldn’t the sun still be visible at all times from
the earth? Their suggestion here is that it circles around one pole, that’s not
exactly a spotlight. What they are suggesting, is that when the sun isn’t
directly over you, it is invisible. What about moon phases? Eclipses? Just plain
logic? What on earth is forcing the moon into those cycles with the absence of
gravity?
Then we come to the most obvious part of this; what about
the sunrise and sunset? If you thought, ‘ahh, they can’t explain that, surely?’
Well, think again:
“… by relying on ones
own senses to discern the true nature of the world around us. The world looks
flat, the bottoms of clouds are flat, the movement of the sun; these are all
examples of your senses telling you that we do not live on a spherical heliocentric
world… Although the sun is at all times above the earth’s surface, it appears
in the morning to ascend from the north-east to the noonday position, and
thence to descend and disappear, or set, in the north-west. This phenomenon
arises from the operation of a simple and everywhere visible law of
perspective.”
So everyone who has seen a sunrise or sunset is just some
form of illusion? No, the sun rises and sets in accordance with the earth’s
cycle upon a 24 hour axis. We have science to actually back that up.
The End
Okay. Let’s assume all this is real, remove your brain for a
second. Switch off. We live on a disk, you go for a walk in a straight line,
for miles and miles. Suddenly you fall, you are in the eternal bliss of death
as you have fallen off of the earth. Nope, that will never happen. Here is why:
“Along the edge of our local area exists a massive 150 foot Ice Wall.
The 150 foot Ice Wall is on the coast of Antarctica. The Ice Wall is a massive
wall of ice that surrounds Antarctica. The shelf of ice is several hundred
meters thick. This nearly vertical ice front to the open sea is more than 50
meters high above the water's surface… Beyond
the 150 foot Ice Wall is anyone's guess. How far the ice extends; how it
terminates; and what exists beyond it, are questions to which no present human
experience can reply.”
Anyone else have an image of ‘The Wall’ from game of thrones
stuck in their head? Anyway, yes. A 150 foot ice wall surrounds the earth, we
are unsure if Donald Trump has built this wall to keep those pesky aliens out.
But it sounds like a good wall, a great wall, he has seen some walls in his
time, but this is the wall. I mean, what the hell? Who’s guarding the wall so
that people cannot either climb it or fly over it? This is just clearly something
they have thrown up. There is of course, no wall. They do have this image on
the site:
How on earth are they taking that from so far up? Presumably
in some form of helicopter or plane…just fly over it and you can then answer
those “questions to which no present
human experience can reply”. If you look a little deeper, you'll understand its actually just an ice shelf.
Conclusion
Does this need a conclusion? The earth is spherical.
Btw: I literally just did this before posting. How some people remember to breathe is beyond me.
