It is shocking how many people these days still think the earth is flat? and their saying nasa is lying about the earth being round???
I had assumed that Flat Earthers were the equivalent of Pastafarians, so I played along with the joke. I was not aware of people who genuinely believed in a flat earth until I came to this site, and engaged with one of them! I was, quite frankly, stunned when I was accused of having a 'closed mind' on the subject. Once I told her that I'd spent a good portion of my career in satellite ops and space launch, I never heard from her again!
My take on it is that this sort of 'mentality' is indulged in by people who have never come to terms with the modern 'scientific' world that they find themselves in. So they get into creating their own fantasy world that confirms to their own imaginings which is often based on a fundamentalistic Biblical world view.
what, the earth is round? last time i looked it was three-dimensional, meaning it was approximately (not perfectly) spherical! it's an oblate spheroid. if it was round, we'd all be paper dolls!
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The oblate spheroid shape is hardly noticeable when the Earth is seen from a great distance. It looks like a perfect sphere.
@genessa Of course it does. A classic example of what it looks like may not be the same as what it actually is on a far larger scale. And that is the 'nub' of the problem with this 'flat earth' idea. These 'flat earthers' don't seem to be able to comprehend the massive scale of things compared to the human scale of things.
It's not just about NASA. There is enough evidence out there that proves the Earth is curved. Foucault's pendulum, some bridges are long enough that you can see the curvature, some buildings are big enough that the sun sets noticeably earlier at the bottom and at the top, and on and on and on. There is more to it than just not believing NASA or "the elites". It's about gullibility, not questioning your own believes and dismissing what goes against your worldview.
Man< there are folks out there that believe all kinds of crazy shit>
My opinion is they don't really believe it they just want attention
no, i have met them and they really do believe this stuff. they aren't necessarily stupid, although this type of belief is stupid (and yes some of the people are ALSO stupid). people compartmentalize. frank zappa was one of the most brilliant human beings of his time, and he was an absolute moron when it came to tobacco. he wasn't one of those "yeah i know it's bad but i just can't quit" guys. he was one of those "this is harmless and the government is lying when it says tobacco kills" guys, right up until the day tobacco killed him. it's an amazing phenomenon.
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@genessa huh oh well you can't fix stupid
@Drsmash253 um i think you missed my point, somewhat.
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@genessa I don't think so all these people seem to want to fly in the face of logic and reason to me that's kind of stupid
@Drsmash253 my point was that people compartmentalize and some, like zappa, are smart in some ways and stupid in others. that is the point you missed. you may disagree with it, certainly, but your comment didn't indicate disagreement. it indicated that you just plain missed it.
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@genessa yeah I think this is one of those most respectfully agree to disagree moments
@Drsmash253 quite possibly!
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