Is it Possible that the Earth is Flat?

No! Of course Earth isn’t flat why would you even open the link and start reading this post!?

However, I thought it would be fun today if we could look into the Flat Earth Theory and see what ‘flat earthers’ are arguing.

We shall start this post by introducing the Flat Earth Theory and highlighting the main points of argument, before talking about NASA and more precisely the rubbish that comes out of NASA’s mouth. Let me just get this out there… I do generally think NASA is full of shit. I think at least some photos are fake and at least some videos are fake. I am sceptical of NASA missions and the moon landings, but my scepticism of NASA and space exploration in general does not make me more inclined to think that the Earth is flat. So let’s talk about NASA and then we’ll get on to the real hardcore flat earth stuff- mainly discussing the horizon, the sun, the moon and stars, and after that you may be scratching your head thinking “wow maybe it is true! Maybe Earth is actually flat”. And then I will bring you back to reality by explaining how the earth is round, again by primarily using the horizon, the sun, the moon and the stars, which is where you’ll be thinking “wow can’t believe I actually thought Earth might be flat”.

The UN logo is a flat Earth

So, you might think the Flat Earth Theory has overtime lost ground due to an ongoing expansion into the realms of science and technology. But more people today believe in a flat Earth than ever before. You also might assume that the Flat Earth Theory derives from religion and the bible, however philosophers were debating the flat Earth/round Earth argument in ancient times long before Christianity existed, and there are verses in the bible which imply that the Earth is spherical.

The founder of modern-day Flat Earth Theory is arguably Samuel Rowbotham who we shall talk about more shortly, however Wilber Glen Voliva was the first advocate of modern day Flat Earth Theory; him being a devout Christian who governed the community of Zion, Illinois at the start of the 20th century; teaching the flat Earth doctrine through local Catholic schools. Voliva famously offered anyone $5000 who could prove that the Earth was a globe, and the main proponent of his argument was the fact that the Sun was only 3000 miles from the Earth’s surface, rather than the 92 million miles we have been taught to believe.

A billboard erected by Wilber Glen Voliva in Zion, Illinois

The Fact that flat-earthers believe that Earth is a flat disc means that there isn’t a north and south pole, therefore they think that everything on Earth surrounds the arctic circle and Antarctica is a giant ice ring which surrounds Earth.

The ‘ring of Antarctica’ is also in fact a giant ice wall 150 feet high, which of course stops people falling off the edge of Earth. The Antarctic ice wall is guarded to stop people exploring the area- by whom is up for debate. Some Flat-earthers say NASA guard the ice wall, some say its guarded by joint trans-national government agencies. The only consensus regarding the ice wall is the fact that all the world governments know about the Antarctic ice wall and they work together to protect it from ordinary citizens.

The Flat Earth Theory also involves a dome shape over the Earth in which the Sun and Moon are inside rotating within the dome. There is argument as to how far away the dome actually is from the surface of the Earth, because let’s not forget that if the Sun really is 3000 miles like Wilber Glen Voliva says, then the dome that covers our flat earth must be further away than that, although Flat-earthers do try and provide evidence of a dome covering the earth which would suggest that the dome is much closer than that and the sun and moon are in fact outside the dome, as seen with the video below:

The Flat Earth Dome

NASA
The Dome Theory brings us on to NASA and the potential lies of NASA, because obviously if there really was a dome covering a flat Earth then Earth would be a closed system and space exploration would be impossible. Let me just say I think that the first ever moon landing with Neil Armstrong was more likely to be fake than real. But let’s not get into that that’s a whole other conspiracy theory altogether. We’ll start off with fake images.

Image taken from the International Space Station in 2014. Conveniently there are no clouds 

Its the size of America in 2012 that gets me

Maybe I am being a bit gullible maybe there is genuine scientific reason for the differences in the NASA images of Earth. I suppose the type of camera and photography used will definitely have varied over the eight photographs. Is the distance of the camera from Earth the same in all eight of those photographs shown above the same? Does an increase in pollution over time contribute to changing colours? I’m starting to sound like I’m debating myself now but I still stand by my opinion; all the images of Earth above look fake and someone needs to prove me wrong…

However, you can’t deny that these are fake…

The image of Pluto July 8th, 2015 appears to show the outline of Disney cartoon character…Pluto! Its almost as if NASA are taking the piss

Yes I apologize I know I have gone way off track this is supposed to be about the Flat Earth Theory. I just get too excited when it comes to conspiracy theories.

However, the reason I talk about ‘NASA lies’ in this post is because Flat-earthers manipulate the bullshit given to us by NASA and use it to back up their theory of flat Earth. Fortunately people like me who have sense can see past that and be right in the middle… just because I generally believe NASA is fake and I do not trust them does not mean I believe in a flat Earth.

Flat Earth- Horizon

So, when it comes to flat Earth, Flat-earthers believe that the horizon is flat and our planet has no curvature. What about boats that go over the horizon at sea you might say? Well Flat-earthers argue that boats do not go over the horizon they just in fact move so far away that they can no longer be seen with the naked eye (so if I buy a powerful enough telescope I will be able to see Mount Everest?).

A picture taken on zoom of a ship that had appeared to have gone over the Horizon with the naked eye

As mentioned in the introduction, Samuel Rowbotham was the first advocate of Flat Earth Theory and he conducted the first ever Bedford Level Experiment; a test carried out along a 6 mile stretch of the Old Bedford River in Cambridgeshire. Rowbotham first did this in 1838, however the test has been carried out many times since on the 6 mile stretch of the Old Bedford River with differing results.

Old Bedford River, Cambridgeshire

Below is a video of a recent Bedford Level Experiment carried out by modern day Flat-earthers in 2016.

When it comes to air travel, flat earthers believe that if the Earth was a sphere, pilots would have to dip the nose of their aeroplanes at least every 5 minutes to keep in line with the Earth’s curvature. Last year a well-known nutcase amongst the flat Earth community, D. Marble, had one of his many videos go viral after he took a spirit level on a plane and carried out his own little experiment. Bless him.

As for flight paths, well Flat Earth Theory states that the flight paths aeroplanes take prove that Earth is not a globe. If you look at Google Earth, it does seem odd that the Johannesburg-Perth flight refuels at Dubai, the Johannesburg-Santiago flight refuels at Senegal and the Santiago-Sydney flight refuel in L.A.

Stars and Satellites

The Flat Earth Theory in all fairness hardly has anything to say with regards to stars, the endless hours I have spent watching flat Earth videos on YouTube primarily focus on the horizon and also the sun and the moon, although stars are thought to be a mere 3100 miles above the Earth’s surface, rather than the assumed 310,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, miles distance from Earth we are taught to believe. I did find one page on the Flat Earth Society’s * website claiming that stars rotate around Earth’s central point (North Pole) like the Sun and Moon-  https://wiki.tfes.org/Stars
Flat-earthers have more to say with regards to satellites however, because they think satellites are a hoax. There are supposedly nearly 5000 satellites orbiting the Earth, most of which are dead but some used mainly for communicational purposes. Flat-earthers argue that all the functions in which satellites fulfil are in fact carried out by various stations on ground level. “Why do these 5000 satellites never crash into each other?” is one of the frequent questions we hear along with “How come we never see satellites when looking at the sky with telescopes?”

Sun and Moon

Flat Earth Theory involves the Sun and Moon circling on the imaginary red line above Earth

With the Sun and Moon supposedly only being 3000 miles above ‘our flat Earth’ they are both allowed to do one full rotation above the Earth in a 24 hour period.

We have come to understand with our spherical Earth that the Sun’s distance from Earth can vary slightly pending on the Globe’s tilt, which is why we have seasons. So how do Flat-earthers explain seasons? Well one popular theory is that the Sun circles above the Earth closer to the centre in Summer before gradually spiralling outwards for 6 months so that the Sun circles above Earth closer to the Antarctic ice ring, then the ‘outward spiralling’ is reversed for the next 6 months after that. This would also explain why seasons are opposite in the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere and also the Equinox.
As for the moon, Flat-earthers believe that the fact that we only ever see one side of the moon backs up their theory as well as cool moonlight. Experiments carried out by Flat-earthers (videos on YouTube) find that objects that lie in moonlight are actually cooler than objects lying in the shade, and because moonlight is supposedly a reflection of sunlight on the moon then surely objects on Earth in moonlight would be warmer than in the shade. There is differentiation amongst Flat-earthers about what the Moon actually is. Some say it is a flat disc in the sky, some say it is a light in the sky shining from Earth, and some say it is a hologram.

Spherical Earth- Horizon

Now that we have gone through the key arguments of Flat Earth Theory we shall now go through the key counter-arguments of spherical Earth and likewise we shall start with the horizon. First of all, I cannot exaggerate to you enough how big Earth actually is. This means that the horizon will always look flat where ever you are! 40,000 feet high is how high you need to be to even start to see the Earth’s curve, so even on a commercial airline which generally flies at 36,000 feet the horizon will always look flat. This is not because Earth IS flat, this is because Earth is bloody massive.

Horizon still looking pretty flat from 30,000 feet

It is important when talking about the horizon to talk about mirage effects because this is something the Flat Earth Theory blatantly ignores. When cold air is near water it can create a mirage because temperature differences will cause light to bend. Flat-earthers unfortunately do not realise this, or like I said they blatantly ignore, because one of their big arguments is that certain skylines can be seen over water which should not be able to be seen, for example the Chicago Skyline over Lake Michigan. This obviously means to them that Earth is flat.

Stars and Satellites

The opposite of what you would call the Flat Earth Model (Geocentric Model) is the Heliocentric Model and the Heliocentric Model is taught to us in education as being scientific fact. It is the idea that every planet in our solar system orbits around the sun, rather than the Geocentric Model where every planet as well as the sun and other stars outside of our supposed ‘solar system’ orbit around Earth. One advantage the Heliocentric Model has over the Geocentric Model is that future events can be predicted, such as eclipses.

Only the Heliocentric Model can explain why different stars can be seen from both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. Despite the Earth spinning on its tilt over a 24 hour period and the Earth orbiting 1 full rotation around the Sun over a year period, the North Pole and the South Pole remain stationary in the same position all the time. This means that the big dipper for example can only be seen from the Northern Hemisphere, and that Sagittarius can only be seen from the Southern Hemisphere.

This graphic shows why people on opposite sides of the Globe see different stars

As for satellites, well the simple fact that 5000 satellites orbit the Earth is proof that Earth is a sphere. That is what NASA say which is why I’m personally a bit sceptical. I’m not saying satellites are a myth, but I need more convincing. However let’s just assume that there is no myth, therefore satellites in the sky prove that Earth is a globe.

Sun and Moon
When it comes to the Sun, Flat-earthers argue that the sun does not rise and set over the horizon, it merely moves too far away out of distance when supposedly “setting” so that people lose sight of the Sun as it circles above the Earth, which thus gives us night time. In my opinion this is the worst flat Earth argument and the least persuasive to anyone flirting with the flat Earth idea. If it was true that the Sun simply moved in and out of sight as it circled above the Earth, then we would see the Sun get distinctly bigger and smaller depending on what time of day it was. When night time came and the Sun set.. no sorry I mean when night time came and the Sun moved too far away out of our distance, surely the sun would get smaller and smaller until there was a vanishing point? However in reality the Sun always stays the same size morning until night. This also means that by flat Earth logic, we would be able to see the Sun with a telescope at night time.

The Sun does not shrink to a vanishing point on the Horizon

As for the moon, there are disputes amongst the flat Earth community as to what the Moon actually is, but in the common-sense community everyone agrees that the moon is spherical. For the Flat-earthers who think that the Moon is a flat disc, well they are wrong because no matter where you are on Earth or no matter where the Moon is in orbit, the Moon always looks circular. If the Moon was a flat disc then yes it would also be circular when directly above your head, but as it moved away during its rotation above our flat Earth it would become more and more elliptical. Fake news. The Moon would also shrink to a vanishing point over the horizon, just like the Sun, if it rotated above ‘our flat Earth’.

If you look close at the Moon’s craters towards the edge you will see that they are elliptical (oval shaped) meaning that they are on the edge of a curved sphere

As for the Flat-earthers who believe that the Moon gives off its own light, well the Moon’s craters debunk that argument. If you zoom in on the Moon with a telescope you will see that there are shadows in the Moon’s craters, meaning that light is coming from an external source. Probably the Sun.

Enter a caption

The reason we only ever see the same side of the moon is because the Moon rotates at the same rate as it orbits the Earth. Also because of the fact that the moon is so far away. If the Moon was as close to Earth as Flat-earthers believe; just a few thousand miles away, then people in Argentina and Canada for example; which are two countries in the same time zone, would see the Moon at the same time but see completely different sides to the Moon. That is simply not the case.

You can see on this distance-scale why everyone only ever sees one side of the Moon

Finally, when talking about both the Sun and the Moon, Flat-earthers fail to explain what force keeps the Sun and the Moon moving in a circular rotation above ‘our flat Earth’. Common-sensers know what force keeps the Earth orbiting around the Sun and what force keeps the Moon orbiting around Earth, and that force ladies and gentlemen is what you call gravity!

Conclusion
So I’ve made it quite clear that I do not believe in the Flat Earth Theory, however that does not mean that I think that the Flat Earth Theory is stupid or that individual Flat-earthers are dumb (even though D. Marble took a spirit level on a 2 hour plane journey believing that it proved the Earth to be flat!). I have only covered a small proportion of the flat Earth-round Earth debate, so if you have found this post interesting you should go divulge into the debate furthermore; there is so many videos to watch and material to read, and I think the Flat Earth Theory does sometimes propose a convincing argument which is why I do not dismiss it as being stupid.

Most of the Flat-earther arguments are later debunked, but not all of them. One clever analogy I have come across for the flat Earth-round Earth debate is that of a crossword puzzle, because sometimes answers from both sides of the argument are valid and they cross over each other.  However the fact is, if Earth really was flat there would have to be so many people lying to us right now it would be impossible to keep secret- not just world government officials but also pilots and scientists. Although remember, no matter how little you believe in a flat Earth or no matter how stupid you think the Flat Earth Theory is, don’t believe everything NASA is telling you.

 

*There is much scepticism amongst the flat Earth community regarding Flat Earth Society and most Flat-earthers appear to disagree with what the FES say, for example; the fact that ‘our flat Earth’ is constantly rising upwards which explains ‘the myth of gravity’. Some Flat-earthers believe that the FES was created by NASA or maybe even the Illuminati to purposely make the Flat Earth Theory look stupid