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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday August 13 2017, @10:17AM   Printer-friendly
from the how-does-that-even-happen dept.

Mic has an article on the upcoming Solar Eclipse across the USA, focusing on one particular group of observers: Flat Earthers, who believe that the sun and moon rotate around each other above the Earth's surface.

...astronomers (both professional and amateur) aren't the only groups excited for this once-in-a-lifetime event. Another, more controversial community believes the upcoming eclipse could provide overwhelming evidence to support their cause. These people are flat Earthers, and they believe the solar eclipse will prove once and for all the Earth is not a sphere.

The article describes some of the proposed arguments from the newly resurgent, and apparently quite serious, flat earth community.


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by requerdanos on Sunday August 13 2017, @12:15PM (5 children)

    by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Sunday August 13 2017, @12:15PM (#553204) Journal

    I always wonder how these people explain time zones.

    Their answer for this is not very well developed, but boldly assertive - From the "Flat Earth Society FAQ [theflatearthsociety.org]":

    The sun simply illuminates only a portion of the earth at a time.

    So, basically, in their world, it's convenient to claim that the sun is more like a tightly focused spotlight than like a sun.

    An important note; be careful reading this FAQ--It can actively make you dumber by encouraging the short circuit of thought. Besides the above, it also contains gems such as "Gravity as a theory is false. Objects simply fall." and "Astronauts have been bribed or coerced into their testimonies."

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 13 2017, @02:07PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 13 2017, @02:07PM (#553257)
    And somehow Russia, China etc are all in on the conspiracy as well :). Similar for the Apollo man on the moon stuff, the Russians were fooled into thinking it was the real thing or they were part of the conspiracy.

    FWIW I'm one of those who's suspicious of the official accounts of the 9/11 incident in the USA, but the flat earth stuff is too big a stretch to consider :).
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 14 2017, @06:02AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 14 2017, @06:02AM (#553514)

      Agreed. There is a huge difference between a 9/11 'conspiracy' or cover up and something like a moon landing or a non-flat earth being faked. Theoretically 9/11 may have been a CIA/GOV operation where only half a dozen people know the truth and need to keep quiet, while everyone else just sees the result. Whereas with these other things, the 'conspiracy theorists' are denying overwhelming evidence that is contrary to their belief, and vast numbers of people would need to be continually and intentionally faking things. With 9/11 there isn't sufficient evidence either way about the motivations of the dead people involved. We know the outcome, but the 'consipiracy theory' on that one is about the motivations that caused it.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 13 2017, @05:39PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 13 2017, @05:39PM (#553315)

    Ok given that, wouldn't that result in a very long night-time while the Sun was underneath the Earth?

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by requerdanos on Sunday August 13 2017, @07:02PM (1 child)

      by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Sunday August 13 2017, @07:02PM (#553328) Journal

      wouldn't that result in a very long night-time while the Sun was underneath the Earth?

      They believe the sun can't go underneath the earth because the Earth extends infinitely in all directions; the "known earth" has the north pole at its center, and Antarctica as a big icy ring around the parts we know and have mapped. Then just snowy, icy nothing forever in all directions.

      I swear, I am not making this up.

      Their model has the pinpoint-spotlight sun just moving around pointing at different parts of the Earth to make it day where it's shining and night where it isn't.

      They also mention that, sure, you can see satellites in the sky, but they are all fake, placed there to "fool us."

      • (Score: 2) by Fluffeh on Monday August 14 2017, @05:41AM

        by Fluffeh (954) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 14 2017, @05:41AM (#553503) Journal

        I swear, I am not making this up.

        I totally believe you, it would be difficult to make up this sort of shit on the fly without really having to think about how it is fricken possible without contradicting other statements - not to mention contradicting common sense heh.

        There's so much in flat-earth that just doesn't even pass a half-assed logical thought that it is scary that people are still in that sort of mental state to believe this.