Lad,
One thing that keeps me from believing FE is that I look at all the things that FE's have to put forward in order for their theory to be true. There would not have to be just one conspiracy about the shape of the ground, but LOTS of cօռspιʀαcιҽs, by millions of people, over many centuries about each and every aspect of FE that differs from the current opinions. I understand that if the current opinion is not correct, they must come up with an explanation for these issues, that makes sense. What doesn't make sense is that each separate issue would have it's own VAST conspiracy. This is something I just can't grasp. I can grasp shadow governments ruling, moon landing hoax, JFK assassination, etc... The most important conspiracy, the eclipsing of the Catholic Church by a false Church, with it's own false hierarchy appearing to be Catholic. FE has way too many issues involved for it to be a believable conspiracy for me. To truly think about what it entails is mind-numbing. Just something to think about.
Just a few of the enormous cօռspιʀαcιҽs that would have to take place:
- Hiding an Ice wall
- Sun and moon are flat Disks and REALLY close
- Dome over the Earth
- No gravity
- Eclipses aren't what we think they are
- Stars, planet, other galaxies aren't real or not what we think they are
- NASA and every space agency (the entire org.'s) are in on it
- Every amateur astronomer or ametuer science lover that gets the results of mainstream science is in on it
- CGI's for every picture that proves them wrong
- There's not two poles
- Australia is fake
- Antarctica is fake
etc.....
These are all separate issues to varying degrees and require their own enormous conspiracy.
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You have summarized many of the general categories here.
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It would seem that to be a devoted flat-earther one would need to be at least borderline schizophrenic.
Thinking the world is out to get you, to deceive you, to pull the wool over your eyes.
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I would add a few more, some more general, some more specific:
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If the earth were really "flat" and we're all really "being lied to" then:
13. Astronomical observations anyone can make would have to be all wrong.
14. NO ONE should be able to track the stars, sun and moon with ONE axis of rotation, but everyone CAN.
15. The Pythagorean theorem which is easily verified with basic geometry would have to be a huge HOAX.
16. Euclidean geometry would have to be a great DECEPTION, perhaps the greatest deception of all time.
17. All the star charts, astrolabes, tables of latitude and longitude would have to be all wrong.
18. Celestial navigation which has gotten ships and planes to their destinations for centuries must have been pure luck.
19. All the international satellite projects with diverse countries spending enormous sums of money would have to be false.
20. Your GPS (or any of several other systems worldwide) receiver would have to operate by sheer magic.
21. No one would be seeing the same phases of the moon every day from all over the world, but they in fact do.
22. We would see a dark shadow underside on the full moon every month but we never see that.
23. Parallax seen in sightings of the sun against the stars 6 months apart would be consistently incorrect.
24. Laser distance measurements of the moon from earth would have to be somehow always wrong by the same amount.
25. HAM radio signals that can reflect off of the atmosphere all around the world would have to be an illusion.
26. All radio transmissions would be able to do what those HAM signals do, but in fact they can't.
27. You should be able to magnetize an iron dinner plate the same way as is earth's magnetic field, but you can't.
28. The north dip pole has been moving for decades now but that would be impossible on a "flat" earth.
29. Volcanoes would be impossible on a "flat" earth which has no great reservoir of molten lava in its core.
30. Earthquakes would be impossible on a static, solid, "unmovable, flat" earth.
31. Time zones would not predictably occur as they do, in naturally straight lines from north to south.
32. The haversine formula would be useless for computing distances on a "flat" earth, but it's used quite a lot, actually:
33. Great Circle routes would not be approximated with rhumb lines by aircraft navigators every day but they are.
34. Commercial flights that traverse the southern hemisphere near Antarctica would have to be all fake.
34. Direct flight distances over the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific southern oceans would have to be all wrong.
35. The annual round-the-earth boat race that uses southern oceans would have to be a HUGE illusion.
36. Ferdinand Magellan must have been an urban legend and his arrival in the Philippines must have been fake.
37. The Philippines being named after King Philip of Spain must have been sheer historical falsehood.
38. Why the Philippines became Christian and largely adopted the Spanish language would be a complete mystery.
39. Ocean currents and patterns of tropical storms would make no sense to meteorologists on a "flat" earth.
40. The aurora borealis would be impossible and inexplicable on a "flat" earth.
41. The worldwide and omnipresent jet stream would have no rhyme or reason if the earth were "flat."
42. Shadows of the earth falling on the moon during a lunar eclipse would sometimes have to be straight, not curved.
43. We can identify all major bodies near the earth (moon, sun, asteroids) but flat-earthers' ghost bodies we can't.
44. Ships disappearing from the bottom up towards the horizon for centuries must have been all made up stuff.
45. Ships arriving from beyond the horizon seen sails first, then deck, then hull, must have been sailors' dreams.
46. I mean, sailors made up MERMAIDS so they could have made up other stuff, like sea monsters, y'know.
47. And y'know, like, sailors thought they'd fall off the "flat" earth but they TOTALLY didn't know the ICE wall!
48. Fer sher, fer sher. Okay fine. She's a flat-earther and there is no cure.
49. Nos. 46 through 49 are just special for Ladislaus so he can have something to complain about.