Soundly Proving the Curvature of the Earth

[Dan_Eastwood]

@Michael_Callen

How do they explain the existence of magma? I guess, further to that, why would lava flow? What would supply the pressure?

It does solve the problem of where all the water went after the Genesis Flood; it all fell off the edges!

[Intjer (Jacob)]

I am not at all a surprised that they like “density.”

[PdotdQ]

@Dan_Eastwood

It does solve the problem of where all the water went after the Genesis Flood; it all fell off the edges!

Let me tell you my favorite argument from a Flat Earther:

Is the Earth Flat? Certainly, because:

1. Christianity is true
2. If Christianity is true, then the Bible is true
3. If the Bible is true, then there is a world wide flood
4. If the Earth is a Globe, then the water will spill during the flood
5. Because the flood happened, certainly the Earth is flat!

They were completely serious with this argument.

[T_aquaticus]

@PdotdQ

• Some of them claim that the Sun does change shape through the entire day. You can go to Youtube to see these purported “evidence”
• Some of them claim that the air magnifies/demagnifies the apparent size of the Sun as it travels so that it keeps about the same observed size. See this: Magnification of the Sun at Sunset - The Flat Earth Wiki
• Some of them claim that the air causes the Sun to be unresolved, and similar to the unresolved stars, it doesn’t matter what the actual angular size of the star is as they all look the same size
• Some of them claim that the Sun is not a ball of plasma in the sky, or perhaps not even an object in the sky at all, but rather some unknown thing that is currently beyond human knowledge and understanding (this one is the most ridiculous but the most logically consistent)

That’s the point where I lose patience. For a group of people to claim that they arrived at a conclusion because of empirical observations, and then completely ignore empirical observations . . . I just can’t hold back. To top things off, I have a really bad poker face so I doubt I could hide the look of disdain in any public debate.

So once again, a tip of the hat to those who have the patience that I lack.

[AllenWitmerMiller (Semi-Expired Professor & Minister.)]

@PdotdQ

They were completely serious with this argument.

If anyone thinks that you are exaggerating with the 5-point argument, I can attest that one such Flat Earther told me that “Globe-heads are foolish. If the earth were a sphere, the water piled up in the Atlantic Ocean would immediately drain over the Americas and Europe. Everyone would have drowned.”

[evograd (Blogging Graduate Student)]

I’ve heard more than a few flat earthers say that rivers flowing in a northerly direction disprove the globe - after all, they would have to be flowing uphill!

[AllenWitmerMiller (Semi-Expired Professor & Minister.)]

The Dunning-Kruger Effect yet lives.

[DarrenG]

While I was looking up Anti-intellectualism in American Life I saw a reference to a book I had never heard of; Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality Basically it is a rational thinking textbook disguised as a fanfiction Harry Potter story. Its free to read. I reckon if more young people read this there would less gullible people for Flat earthers and YECs to prey on.

[Dan_Eastwood]

Confession: In a mischievous moment, I once posted a Flat Earth video in a YEC forum on Facebook, asking them how they would disprove it. There was strong agreement that the FE was incorrectly interpreting the Bible, but nothing about why the FE interpretation was wrong.

The last I looked, MOST YEC forums on FB now have rules against posting Flat Earther materials. Go figure?