Flat Earth
{{topicon:Bronze-level article}}Template:Conspiracynav Flat Earth, or Flat Earth myth and various similar formulations, is the belief that the earth - which the vast, vast majority of the population imagine in their heads as this big spherical thing (or oblate spheroidal thing, pedants) we're standing on thanks to numerous pieces of evidence, not least pictures of it from space - is actually flat.
Flat history
On certain length scales, the Earth certainly is flat - the floor of a room certainly doesn't follow the curvature of the Earth. As a result of this common sense interpretation, belief in a flat Earth was quite common in the very early days of humanity. Very early Egyptian and other middle Eastern civilisations portrayed the Earth as flat land suspended in an ocean. A very primitive tribe not venturing much further than a few miles from a central village, or one that lived mostly on a large plain would reach this flat conclusion as "common sense" fairly readily. However, the idea that the entire world really was flat quickly began to be discredited the moment it was properly considered and looked at and had faded by the time of Classical Greek philosophy. Pythagoras suggested that the Earth was round, and Aristotle provided convincing evidence for it in Ancient Greece. By the Middle Ages, even the Catholic Church's most beloved of scientific theologians, Thomas Aquinas, was advancing the Earth's roundness as a fundamental of logic.
Isaac Asimov's The Relativity of Wrong made use of the idea of a flat Earth. He described that notion of a flat Earth as wrong, but similarly the idea of a spherical Earth is also wrong, as the Earth is in fact an oblate spheroid. Asimov went on to mention how these theories aren't equally wrong (and believing such a thing is wronger than wrong) but that they do have use. An architect working on a small building site would have no use for "Spherical Earth Theory" and would assume the ground is flat, a designer of novelty globes wouldn't need to compensate for the oblateness of the Earth, but those sending satellites into orbit do (in fact the distortion has quite a dramatic effect on inclined orbits).
The modern myth
The idea that people used to believe that the Earth was flat, mostly due to the influence of religion, is essentially a complete myth. This is often brought up as an example of how secular enlightenment has triumphed over unfounded religious dogma; indeed, some theories state that this is the reason the myth is so popular. The myth is believed to originate with the novel The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus by Washington Irving, which perpetuated the idea that Columbus sailed around the globe to prove that it was round. In reality, all that was at stake with Columbus' journey and those of his contemporaries was the size of the Earth - it was Columbus' egregious underestimation of the Earth's size that led him to theorize that reaching Asia from the west was feasible. The Spanish Court's reluctance to fund his voyage was based on an estimate of the Earth's circumference that much more closely agreed with modern measurements, but was substantially larger than the figure Columbus had come up with.
Modern "Flat-Earthers"
Given this history, it should come as a surprise to anyone that any human being existing in the developed world right now should still consider the idea of a flat Earth probable. Since the mid-1800s, though, modern pseudoscientists have been trying to prove that the Earth is flat. As evidence (such as the fact that we can now orbit the planet and view it from a distance or travel around it in aircraft and see that it curves) continues to mount against the Flat Earth, the idea is beginning to take a turn for the silly.[1]
Q: "Why do you guys believe the Earth is flat?"
A: Well, it looks that way up close. [...]
English inventor Samuel Rowbotham (1816–1884) published a 16-page pamphlet, which he later expanded into a 430-page book, Earth Is Not a Globe, expounding his views based on his literal interpretation of several Biblical passages. After his death, his followers founded the Universal Zetetic Society which published a magazine Earth Is Not A Globe, however the society slowly declined after World War I.
The Flat Earth Society (also known as the International Flat Earth Society or International Flat Earth Research Society) was founded by Englishman Samuel Shenton in 1956.[2] Shenton initially accepted the globe theory of the Earth, and indeed suggested his own innovation on how to make use of the Earth's rotation.[3] This involved raising an airship into the sky and then holding it stationary. After a few hours of the Earth's rotation, the airship would be over America. It could then be lowered, making transatlantic transport extremely fast and cheap, in one direction at least. He went as far as to write to the British government, urging them to use this method. The inevitable ridicule and indifference that he received convinced him that the Earth could not be rotating and that there was a conspiracy (for no defined reason) that hid the fact of the Earth's flatness.
This conspiracy blossomed to include everyone in every government, pilots and/or GPS manufacturers, everyone in every communications industry, everyone in the southern hemisphere (the difference between the currently-accepted globe and Flat Earth map are so massive below the equator that they would be difficult to ignore) and anyone using an odometer on a trip between any four landmarks. Also included in the conspiracy are thousands of supersoldiers keeping ordinary citizens from witnessing the Ice Wall, which surrounds the Flat Earth.
The FERS is now defunct, but was still active in 1980.[4]
Motives for advocating a flat over a round earth earth despite evidence to the contrary are not clearly known. Even young-earth creationists who think it's 6000 years old don't go so far as to say that it's not round.
The conspiracy theorist bluff, everyone on the planet calls it...
The flat earth theory can be falsified on any clear night an hour or two after sunset by observing satellites in the sky.[5] Unless governments around the world are launching one-shot satellites every night to maintain the conspiracy, a flat earth simply won't support a constellation of orbiting objects. They'll fall right over the edge, giving you nothing but blurry images of a stack of turtles.[6]
Flat earth according the Qur'an
Sura Al-Kahf (18:47)
And (remember) the Day We shall cause the mountains to pass away (like clouds of dust), and you will see the earth as a levelled plain, and we shall gather them all together so as to leave not one of them behind.
Sura Taha (20:53)
Who has made earth for you like a bed (spread out); and has opened roads (ways and paths etc.) for you therein; and has sent down water (rain) from the sky. And We have brought forth with it various kinds of vegetation.
Sura Az-Zukhruf (43:10)
Who has made for you the earth like a bed, and has made for you roads therein, in order that you may find your way.
Sura Az-Zukhruf (43:38)
Till, when (such a one) comes to Us, he says [to his Qarîn (Satan / devil companion)] "Would that between me and you were the distance of the two easts (or the east and west)" a worst (type of) companion (indeed)!
Sura An-Naba (78:6)
Have We not made the earth as a bed,
Sura An-Naziat (79:30)
And after that He spread the earth;
These verses would only be applicable to a flat earth belief
Sura An-Naml (27:61)
Is not He (better than your gods) Who has made the earth as a fixed abode, and has placed rivers in its midst, and has placed firm mountains therein, and has set a barrier between the two seas (of salt and sweet water).Is there any ilâh (god) with Allâh? Nay, but most of them know not.
Sura Al-Kahf (18:86)
Until, when he reached the setting place of the sun, he found it setting in a spring of black muddy (or hot) water. And he found near it a people. We (Allâh) said (by inspiration): "O Dhul-Qarnain! Either you punish them, or treat them with kindness."
Sura Al-Kahf (18:90)
Until, when he came to the rising place of the sun, he found it rising on a people for whom We (Allâh) had provided no shelter against the sun.
Sura Yasin (36:38)
And the sun runs on its fixed course for a term (appointed). That is the Decree of the All-Mighty, the All-Knowing.
Sura Yasin (36:40)
It is not for the sun to overtake the moon, nor does the night outstrip the day. They all float, each in an orbit.
See also
- Hollow Earth Theory
- Cellular Cosmogony
- Modern geocentrism
- Terry Pratchett
- Science of Discworld
- Fun:Scientific Geoterrapinism
- Time Cube
External links
- Zetetic Astronomy. Earth not a Globe by Samuel Rowbotham, full text at the Internet Sacred Text Archive
- Flat Earth Society Forums
- The International Alliance of Flat Earth Groups
Footnotes
- ↑ Flat Earth Forums FAQ
- ↑ SF Hub -The Flat Earth Society Archive
- ↑ Flat Earth - The History of an Infamous Idea, Christine Garwood, MacMillan (2007)
- ↑ http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/fe-scidi.htm
- ↑ A handy way of knowing when and where to look for them is Heavens Above or any other website or software supporting satellite tracking.
- ↑ See the scientific version