It is 100% physically certain that the flat earth model is false. This is because, in the most basic and fundamental elements of its design, it posits numerous events that are physically impossible.
The FE model is as certainly false, as it is certain that a rock thrown into the air will fall back to the ground.
Firstly, it is physically impossible for a moving object to move in a circle unless there is a force continuously drawing it towards the center of that circle to overcome its inertial momentum that makes it move in a straight line. Yet the FE model posits that the sun and moon move in a circle in the air above the earth. While the globe earth models all posit the heavenly bodies moving in a circle around the earth, the sun, or other things, this is because of the gravitational pull of the earth (sun) that is the force drawing the orbiting body continuously towards the center of its orbit. But FE proponents vehemently reject the notion of universal gravitation and assert that the only such force is that which pushes objects towards the surface of the earth. Thus, they posit that the sun and moon move in a circle with nothing to keep them off a straight line as they move, which is impossible.
Secondly, flat earthers claim that the sun and moon move across the surface of the earth, without positing any explanation for this movement. This is likewise against another observable law of physics, which is that an object does not move unless it is caused by something to move.
Thirdly, FE states that the sun and moon move through the atmosphere, and have been doing so since the beginning of time without the slightest loss of speed even due to air resistance. This is because FEers likewise vehemently deny the existence of any vacuum in outer space, in fact deny outer space as a whole. But any object that moves through this atmosphere is subject to air resistance and to continually slowing down. And yet over 6,000 years of human history the sun and moon have not slowed down to even the slightest degree, which proves that they are not moving through the air nor subject to air resistance, as flat earthers claim.
Fourthly, FE claims that sun moves in a spiral orbit on a yearly basis to cause the seasons. But they have no explanation for what pushes the sun outwards in its path towards "Antarctica", nor for what causes it to come back towards the north pole, nor why whatever is causing it to move towards Antarctica, for example, doesn't push it all the way out of our atmosphere completely, and why that force stops and even reverses on the solstic/equinox, and then reverses back again six months later. All of these things are impossible in themselves.
Fifthly, FE proponents (actually, just a few people who make YouTube videos) claim that a magnifying lens in a camera, telescope, or pair of binoculars is able to make something visible which was previously hidden behind another object. They claim that when the bottom of a ship's hull is hidden behind a mass of water, that a lens will make it visible. This is impossible because a magnifying lens only takes an image already visible and makes it larger; it does not reveal something blocked from view by another object. And yet it is an observable fact that ships' hulls do disappear behind the surface of water as they disappear. Thus, the simple explanation of these YouTube videos is that they simply take a video of a ship at a great distance, where it is visible to the naked eye but too small to be visible in the footage, and then magnify the image in the footage so that it looks like it appeared from nowhere. It's really bizarre to see those videos of people denying something that human beings have been observing for as long as ships have existed, and seek to explain it away by proposing something even more preposterous, which is that a ship that has the lower half hidden behind water will become entirely visible with the help of a lens. The same thing goes for the sun setting over a body of water, when the lower half of the sun is hidden by the surface of the water while the upper half is visible and gradually sinks behind the water. FE asserts that the water is somehow blocking the observers' view of an object (the sun) that is actually a great distance above the water; this is impossible.
To most of these contradictions of the laws of physics, FEers often just reply that there must be some explanation for this that we don't know about. But this is false and absurd. Going back to my example of throwing a rock in the air and knowing it's going to fall back down because that is an observable law of physics, it is false to say that we don't know whether a rock will fall back to the ground because probably some unknown law of physics will kick in at the top of the rock's trajectory, causing it to remain suspended in the air forever, or causing it to suddenly start moving parallel to the earth's surface. Yes, we can and correctly do say that it is certain that a rock will fall back to the ground, and we can dismiss the fundamental elements of FEism in the same way, that they contradict the most basic facts of observation.
The FE theory explains the universe about as much as the theory of Santa Claus explains how children get presents on December 25th every year. It explains one simple fact, i.e. that children get presents, but must concoct a vast system that is physically impossible in order to do so. So, the FE theory explains why the earth looks flat when we look at it, but can only do so by inventing a vast tissue of absurdities that its proponents usually don't even try to defend.
Topic: % Confidence in Earth's Shape (Read 68216 times)