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MythosRattus

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Post: 73961327_46 created on Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:10:13 +0000
Posted: Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:10:13 +0000

Cassio 101

Generation after generation, mankind found proof, and then even more proof that the earth is round.
So, please, somebody tell me why there are people who refuse to believe in facts.

Because of a story written by Washinton Irving. I do not kid. The guy behind The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle also wrote a dramatic historical fiction short about Columbus discovering America. Historical fact wasn't quite exciting enough to make a good read so he spiced it up with a bit about the Church attempting to condemn Columbus for saying the world was round when the Church taught that it was flat; so the story ended up being a telling of how Columbus set off to prove the world was round, rather than what actually happened (he set off to try to find a shorter trade route to India).
Except that the church, to my knowledge, has never thought that the world was flat. There's an old historical reference map (not really a geographical map but more of a visual encyclopedia) that starts with Adam and Eve and goes all the way to Rome and Alexander the Great and above the whole thing is a depiction of God holding in one hand a blue sphere which is meant to represent the world.
There has been contention between science and religion over many issues but the world being round has never been one of them in actual fact but irving's story was apparently popular enough that it entered the collective consciousness of society and people stopped remembering where they heard the whole 'the church has always taught the world is flat' thing, just that they heard it and remembered it being very important information, and so just started citing it as actual history.

Honestly, I don't know what's worse: people believing an oft debunked idea or people believing a completely false idea that was never actually thought true by anyone in the first place.
It'd be like people believing the Lord of the Rings or Narnia were non-fiction.

Sir_Catherine

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Post: 73961327_47 created on Sun, 22 Jan 2012 02:10:34 +0000
Posted: Sun, 22 Jan 2012 02:10:34 +0000

It's fun to say "what if" and read the weird theories. It's some of the best fiction out there. They say "truth is stranger than fiction" and what some people believe certainly is stranger than much sci-fi that I read.

Though, one question I keep wanting to ask "flat earthers" is WHY? Why would the notion of a flat earth be a conspiracy? Why not just a fact like a round earth? The video speaks of religion and connection to other conspiracies, but it still seems so far fetched. Really, truth is often the most logical explanation for the facts and in this case, a round earth is the most logical explanation.

...a minor note. Video says some think the water that falls off a flat earth returns as rain because the earth is drifting down in a cycle. Ah, how slow does that water fall and how fast does the earth drift to have it fall, and then have us catch it again falling from above as rain? And if we're drifting down that fast, how can the water fall in the first place? Or, if it does fall, how can it then fall more slowly than we're drifting down? No sense at all.

Zaraxis