Flat Earth Society

[bilateralrope]

You know, the site justifies the government not shutting it down by saying that nobody really takes them seriously, but that they might get suspicious if the site were to be taken down.

So what the true FE believers could do is to post messages online and hard copies of their mission to travel to the edge of the Earth, get a bunch of private planes and try making the trip. If the government stops them and kills/detains them, then the forum would mysteriously go dead and several people would mysteriously go missing, thus provoking serious suspicion.

But the government, knowing this, would hack the forum so they can take over and pretend that everything is fine.</conspiracy nut>

[PeZook]

Moved to Off topic. There is a slight amount of substance other than inane spam here, which IMO does not make it deserving of an autodelete.

[Eagle1Division]

It must be a troll. Normally when people believe stupid shit it is at least understandable: religion gives people hope for something better after death, conspiracy theories give the comforting illusion of living in a world that is not fundamentally cold and uncaring; but what is the point of believing the world is flat? I can't see any psychological need it fills.

It's just another conspiracy theory, and you can't actually argue someone is wrong because they have a psychological reason for believing what they do; everyone does, assuming your and my minds also follow the rules of psychology
Wait... Did you just call religion "Stupid Sh*t"? Oh dear, which forum does my response belong to?...

You could disprove flat Earth because of aeronautical navigation. If I fly 42* North-East from Kennedy Space Center, how the heck do I end up in Australia? Or over the Middle-East?
Better yet, if I fly 90* East from the KSC, a rough guesstimation says I'll end up somewhere over South Africa/Madagascar/Indian Sea. So how the heck does that happen if the Earth is flat?

Any distortions they have to mathematically produce, will in fact mathematically make the Earth identical to a sphere. So then they have to argue that for some reason the Earth follows the Mathematical spatial and geometric equations of a sphere, but isn't a sphere...

I think a neat point to learn from this is that people can really convince themselves of anything.

[Darth Tedious]

I'm surprised noone asked why the Earth projects a round shadow during lunar eclipses.

Sure, bendy light, but the maths they'd need to pull out of their arses for that one would be amazing!

EDIT: Oh, someone did.

Q: "What about Lunar Eclipses?"

A: A celestial body, known as the antimoon, passes between the sun and moon. This projects a shadow upon the moon.

Seems to contradict the whole "Sun and moon are spotlights" thing...

[Serafina]

I'm surprised noone asked why the Earth projects a round shadow during lunar eclipses.

Sure, bendy light, but the maths they'd need to pull out of their arses for that one would be amazing!

Answered in their FAQ - it's not actually the Earths shadow that causes the lunar eclipse, but rather a secondary moon or somesuch which we can't observe for some reason

Edit: Oh, looks like you found that entry. Yes, it's hillarious how they contradict themselves.

Incidentally, the earth could just as well be a flat, round plane, the roundness of the shadow is not the problem. The actual problem for them is that they do not believe that the Sun orbits the Earth, so the Earth can not be between the Sun and the Moon to cast a shadow.

[Darth Tedious]

I'm surprised noone asked why the Earth projects a round shadow during lunar eclipses.

Sure, bendy light, but the maths they'd need to pull out of their arses for that one would be amazing!

Answered in their FAQ - it's not actually the Earths shadow that causes the lunar eclipse, but rather a secondary moon or somesuch which we can't observe for some reason

Edit: Oh, looks like you found that entry. Yes, it's hillarious how they contradict themselves.

Incidentally, the earth could just as well be a flat, round plane, the roundness of the shadow is not the problem. The actual problem for them is that they do not believe that the Sun orbits the Earth, so the Earth can not be between the Sun and the Moon to cast a shadow.

Mmm, hence the secondary moon.
The 'sub-moon' controlling the tides was also rather amusing.

However, I think their worst (non-)answer was to the question of Coriolis effect. Complete evasion.

[evilsoup]

It must be a troll. Normally when people believe stupid shit it is at least understandable: religion gives people hope for something better after death, conspiracy theories give the comforting illusion of living in a world that is not fundamentally cold and uncaring; but what is the point of believing the world is flat? I can't see any psychological need it fills.

It's just another conspiracy theory, and you can't actually argue someone is wrong because they have a psychological reason for believing what they do; everyone does, assuming your and my minds also follow the rules of psychology
Wait... Did you just call religion "Stupid Sh*t"? Oh dear, which forum does my response belong to?...

You misunderstand. I'm not saying that conspiracy theories etc. are wrong because they flip certain psychological switches; I'm saying that people believe in (for example) the JFK assassination conspiracy because, in spite of available evidence, it makes them feel safer (after all, if any fool with a gun can kill the President of the United States, then how can the rest of us feel safe?). I can't see what emotional hole the flat-earth stuff fills, and so I conclude that it's an elaborate troll.

[Rabid]

^And so you elaborate your own conspiracy theory to explain another conspiracy theory.

Lies within lies ?

[Luke Skywalker]

I'm surprised noone asked why the Earth projects a round shadow during lunar eclipses.

Sure, bendy light, but the maths they'd need to pull out of their arses for that one would be amazing!

There have been Round Earther's who have posted ridiculous monetary rewards for any Flat Earther who could post a working formula for bendy light. Apparently, all the FE'ers don't need any more money.

[Darth Tedious]

They wouldn't want to provide too much evidence to support themselves, lest they get 'silenced' by the Government.