Ok, before you start laughing your ass off at the thought of a Flat Earth, this movement seems to be gaining ground over the last few months. But it seems to bring up more questions than answers, and unlike most of the videos you will find on Youtube, there is no 100% proof the world is flat.
Before we get started, we need to figure out what that Flat Earth Model is. This is no easy feat. I have seen dozens of videos on the topic and have read may web pages on certain topics. Here is Wikipedia’s description of the Flat Earth’s model.
Ok, before I get too far ahead, lets start off at the beginning. And I will pose my questions as they came to me. The first video I saw on the topic showed a model where the Sun and Moon (being only 3000 Miles above the surface of the earth) rotate on a fixed track. This brought up a couple of questions, if this was the model, how would it explain the seasons? The Moon’s phases (new moon, half-moon, full moon, etc)?, and how does it explain solar eclipses?.
Lets start with the first question. I did a search for Flat Earth Seasons, and I found the following explanation, that the sun wasn’t really on the fixed rotation the other videos had me believe. In fact it moved closer to the north pole during the summer, and further away during the winter. I will consider this “Bend #1”. By this I mean bending the model to suit the answer. There are several bends throughout, this being the first.
On to the second question, the phases of the moon. Which by the way is not a spherical object, but a flat object with its one source of light. Oh, I want to mention at this point, regarding the above quote from Wikipedia, the key point appearing in the last sentence, specifically “pre-scientific societies”. The flat earth model follows scripture, and is commonly known as “God’s Earth”, that which was created according to the Bible. With that said, I came across the following video:
To his defense, Rob does state that this is only a theory (something many flat earthers fail to mention, or even realize). However the thought that the Moon is self light seems odd to me, and the number one comment is that how could the moon be reflecting the Sun’s light. Rob mentions this as well stating he played with mirrors and magnifying glasses, and both those have reflective heat. However the moon is neither a mirror nor a magnifying glass. In fact it has a mat surface. Like a piece of paper (as an example, before the Flat earthers dive in and play with words, I am not saying the Moon is made of Paper, just saying its surface is not a mirror surface, but a mat surface)… you can reflect light off a piece of paper and you don’t get the same heat map as you would using a mirror.
None the less, lets take a look at the third question that came to mind, The Solar Eclipse. I did a search for this on the flat earth model, and came a cross the following video:
This video again brings forth the mention that the moon is its own light source. And how could you look at the moon if it’s a reflection of the Sun… again, it’s not a mirror and the brightness is dimmed due to the fact that it’s not a very reflective surface. And we can look at an eclipse, using different apparatuses such as a pinhole reflection… Now I am wondering, as a person who in the odd time does accidentally get a glimpse of the sun and then have a black spot in my vision for th next few hours… Has he ever looked Directly at the sun? If it can be done, has he? I personally know the effects of a fraction of a second glimpse…
The video also goes heavy into scripture, again citing God’s Earth and the creation of the earth according to the bible and the Book of Enoch.
Ok, so lets just say that these are clues to the idea of a Flat earth and that it supports the Flat Earth Theory, everything so far can be explained by both models. The Seasons, the Moon Phases, the Solar Eclipses now fit to both models. In fact almost everything you can think of that does not fit that perceived model of the flat earth, there is flat earther who will a bend of the model to fit the answer. Now the one thing that has to be emphasized is that a lot of their theories are not backed by Science, nor will they ever. It seems that most if not all Flat Earthers believe that science is a fraud, a way of controlling the masses. SO a lot of their theories seem very far-fetched.
With that being said I present a thought exercise. Take away the globe, the text books, everything we have been taught about the spherical model. Take away science, math, geometry, and everything man-made. From where you stand, looking up at the sky. Is there anything you can perceive/observe that can tell you whether or not the earth is flat. This concept can go back thousands of years to when scripture was written, to the times when people believed that lightning and thunder we the Norse god Thor (or Greek God Zeus) being angry… This is where stories are built to form the answers that we do not yet know or understand. To me, the flat earth is one said story, a story based on folklore that has since been proven wrong by Science, well for those of us that believe in it any way.
In Part 2, I will take a look at a few other points, like Rockets, The Space Station, the curvature of the earth, as well as the Stars. But for now, I have yet to see anything that can only be explained by one model. Which means none of these topics so far are proof of either a flat or spherical earth.
I hope to have Part 2 completed by next week as I continue to watch more videos on the subject.
Part two?
I know, I have been so busy with work lately… Hopefully tomorrow I can find some time to gather my thoughts on the subject.
Since Flat Earthers (or at least the majority) believe Earth doesn’t rotate, some simple Coriolis experiment can only be explained by a non-flat model