Just this past 2014, modern Flat Earth cultists have become an outspoken social media movement pushing for an outdated conspiracy theory.
We've been taught for several centuries to believe that the world is round (Copernicus) and not flat (Ptolemy). A book by Eric Dubay called The Flat Earth Conspiracy, is one among plenty of books among the revival of modern flat earth theory that is also gaining a worldwide social media cult. They call themselves the Flat Earth Society and are pushing for a conspiracy theory about the Earth being a flat circular plane as literally inferred from the Bible. This phenomenon has piqued the interest of everyone. President Barack Obama even joked about the Flat Earth Society as gathering to protest about non-existent climate change.
Is NASA and other nation's space agencies really a worldwide conspiracy to convince us that the Earth is a blue marble? Or are Flat Earth cultists just the latest fad among conspiracy theorists who grab on anything to support their delusions and reject clear evidence to the contrary? We have seen tens of You Tube uploads listing each supposed proof that the earth is a flat plane--a circular one that is enclosed by a rim of ice known as Antarctica. Is the Earth really as it is supposedly depicted in the Bible as a flat plane with plenty of other land masses beyond the Antarctic?
Old World Flat Earth maps.
Here are some of the most popular ideas touted by Flat Earth Society for a Biblical, circle plane world:
The horizon is just a vanishing point and that if the Earth were really curved by the measures given by scientists, we would not see a distant boat with binoculars or a telescope from the same plane because it would go "over the horizon."
The United Nations logo is actually the true flat earth map on a circular plane and several iterations of this are seen in the logos of NASA and other organizations.
An ancient Chinese map that was discovered by Jesuit missionaries during their trips to China (since the 1300s) which supposedly reveals 33 other continents or land masses hidden beyond the Antarctic rim wall.
There are only 2 "actual" photographs of the Earth as seen from outer space. A 1972 image called "the Blue Marble" taken from the Apollo spaceship. Plus a 2002 image from a Terra satellite. All others shown on the NASA website are purportedly Photoshopped images or digitally created composite images. Flat Earth Society claims that NASA fakes all their space images and video footage including the Apollo landing on the moon.
Image Credit: NASA
The mechanical gyroscope on passenger airplanes never tilts to show a change in orientation of the plane as it moves across the skies, indicating that it is actually flying across a flat surface.
When one places a time lapse camera to videotape the nightsky and record the movements of the stars as the earth supposedly rotates, the video will show the stars moving around in perfect circles.
GPS signals do not function properly in the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth for no reason at all.
All these facts spouted by Flat Earth Society believers may in one way or another seem true if you are a lay person with a weak understanding of science and false logic claims. To balance out the controversy of the Flat Earth belief resurgence, here are the counterproofs that are given by most who disdain the Flat Earth idea as an elaborate hoax given life by gullible and desperate anti-establishment anarchists bent on a crusade to remove the respect and authority of scientific fact and evidence:
The sextant is a mechanical device that was created and used to accurately navigate the oceans using the stars as one's guide to travel over a curved Earth surface.
Planes actually fly over Antarctica from South America (Santiago, Argentina) every week on their way to Australia and New Zealand in a 9 hour or 11 hour flight, so there is no wall of ice border rim where all nations are guarding access.
If the sun were just hovering around the land masses at the size and luminosity it is said to possess, the light would still be visible all around the flat earth horizon.
Etched in ancient civilization's rock and cave drawings (Aboriginal, Sumerian, Easter Island) are accurate representations of the Solar System. The Great Pyramids in Egypt have the measure of the distances to the Sun, moon and even planet sizes encoded in it's own structural physical measurements and this is called Sacred Geometry by advocates of the sacred cubit and the Music of the Spheres theorists.
Satellites would not be able to be maneuvered into orbiting planets in our Solar System if they could not slingshot off the Earth's gravity if the planet were a flat circular plane. Live footage from the International Space Station and Hubble telescope images are not faked.
As fascinating as the Flat Earth Society is at their delusions, there are some intriguing facts about NASA that call out inquiring minds' attention like why isn't flybys over the north pole allowed to be directly video taped from the International Space Station (hollow Earth theory peeve) and why does NASA constantly have to Photoshop or submit digitally remastered or faked images of the Earth including one touted by Flat Earth Society about the Voyager or Pinoeer spacecraft taking a timelapse photo of the Earth but with the cloud cover not moving and staying static?
There are still many unanswered questions that may continue to provide the next zealous conspiracy theory groupie more fuel to cook up social media movements like the modern Flat Earth theory.
