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Crazyfool
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16 Aug 2015, 12:11 pm

I recently came across a video on youtube that I used to just scroll past every time I saw it or any other related video lurking about. I finally gave into checking the topic out with no intention of believing there was any fact to the matter....actually I went into it assuming it was just some kind of joke, a topic that was existed exclusively for entertainment purposes.

The topic I'm referring to here is: "the flat earth theory". Sounds ridiculous I know, but I went ahead and watched that video, followed by a lot of thought and a lot more videos. The feeling I got was almost gut wrenching as my thoughts and believes around the very nature of our existence started to become shaky. However the more digging I do the more the evidence seems to support the unconventional theory.

I beg you guys give this video a serious look with an open mind so we could possibly have a mature and scientific discussion about this extremely controversial topic. Here's the link to one of the better videos I have watched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YQ0dMJEjsk



Crazyfool
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16 Aug 2015, 12:16 pm

For me the obvious fact that: even over bodies of water that stretch for hundreds of miles in every direction, the water does not bend, and the horizon remains completely flat. That doesn't make any sense when you take the supposed curvature of the earth into consideration....no sense at all.



eric76
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17 Aug 2015, 10:01 pm

Crazyfool wrote:
I recently came across a video on youtube that I used to just scroll past every time I saw it or any other related video lurking about. I finally gave into checking the topic out with no intention of believing there was any fact to the matter....actually I went into it assuming it was just some kind of joke, a topic that was existed exclusively for entertainment purposes.

The topic I'm referring to here is: "the flat earth theory". Sounds ridiculous I know, but I went ahead and watched that video, followed by a lot of thought and a lot more videos. The feeling I got was almost gut wrenching as my thoughts and believes around the very nature of our existence started to become shaky. However the more digging I do the more the evidence seems to support the unconventional theory.

I beg you guys give this video a serious look with an open mind so we could possibly have a mature and scientific discussion about this extremely controversial topic. Here's the link to one of the better videos I have watched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YQ0dMJEjsk


Why did you post this in Computers, Math, Science, and Technology?

Perhaps we need a Crackpots and their ideas forum would be appropriate for things like this.



Kurgan
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17 Aug 2015, 10:06 pm

As we all know, it's impossible to tell a parody of an extremist belief from an actual extremist belief. You can always find science to back something up (aided by a few fallacies here and there), regardless of what you believe. Moreover, the flat earth hypothesis is no more ridiculous than all those other conspiracy theories.


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18 Aug 2015, 8:48 pm

One of the things on my bucket list is to travel to a little town called Wendover, on the Utah/Nevada border, just off I 80. Just outside of this little town is a little hill with an observation platform at the top. If you climb to the top of the hill, and look out over the salt flats of western Utah, you can actually see the bend in the earth's surface. Supposedly it's one of the few places on earth where you can see it.

Also, the ancient Greeks realized that the earth was round because it casts a round shadow on the moon. Another thing is that handheld two way radios, for ham use or FRS/GMRS as it's called in the US, can only transmit for around a mile or so from handset to handset because of a curved earth. If the earth was flat, the signals would carry MUCH farther.

There were also plenty of Youtube videos that "proved" that the world would end on 12/21/12. It didn't. Be wary of believing anonymous jerks with Youtube accounts. The whole phenomenon of people believing any message delivered over a technologically new medium is something I call the "Welles Effect", after Orson Welles and his War of the Worlds radio broadcast in 1938 that sent people into the streets in a panic. Radio was as inscrutable to Americans in 1938-many of who had no more than a primary school education, if that-as the internet is to today's Americans. New media that seems to be magic and is perceived to be THE voice of authority. I really think that the Welles Effect should be better studied.

The Welles Effect was used by some slaveowners to control their slaves. As we all know, solar eclipses can be predicted. However, slaves in the Old South were deliberately kept uneducated. One effect of this is that owners used to make it appear that they had magical powers that could make the sun disappear. Perhaps the popularity of Voudoun (voodoo) and other such religions in the Black Caribbean are linked to slave beliefs that whites possessed magic powers, due to the Welles Effect. It's likely similar to the Cargo Cults in Polynesia.



zazen
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19 Aug 2015, 9:16 pm

There's a theory in Physics that the entire universe could be 2-dimensional and that the 3-dimensional world we perceive is simply akin to a holographic projection. It's not been proven, but it's entirely possible according to physicists given our current understanding. In a very real sense, if true, that would mean that not just the earth, but the entire universe is utterly and totally flat.

I don't waste much time thinking about it all, because the possibilities are endless and you can easily lose your sanity by indulging in speculation about the what-ifs. Though, it's very silly to think the way we currently perceive the world and universe is entirely correct, or even close to it.



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19 Aug 2015, 11:19 pm

Crazyfool wrote:
For me the obvious fact that: even over bodies of water that stretch for hundreds of miles in every direction, the water does not bend, and the horizon remains completely flat. That doesn't make any sense when you take the supposed curvature of the earth into consideration....no sense at all.


What do you mean by the statement that over "hundreds of miles water doesn't bend"?

Even the ancient Greeks noticed that ships disappear as they approach the horizon hull first and with the top of the mast disappearing last because water DOES curve.



eric76
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23 Aug 2015, 3:14 pm

zazen wrote:
There's a theory in Physics that the entire universe could be 2-dimensional and that the 3-dimensional world we perceive is simply akin to a holographic projection. It's not been proven, but it's entirely possible according to physicists given our current understanding. In a very real sense, if true, that would mean that not just the earth, but the entire universe is utterly and totally flat.

I don't waste much time thinking about it all, because the possibilities are endless and you can easily lose your sanity by indulging in speculation about the what-ifs. Though, it's very silly to think the way we currently perceive the world and universe is entirely correct, or even close to it.


Not a theory. Maybe a conjecture. Very possibly not even that.



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23 Aug 2015, 5:31 pm

Crazyfool wrote:
I beg you guys give this video a serious look with an open mind so we could possibly have a mature and scientific discussion about this extremely controversial topic. Here's the link to one of the better videos I have watched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YQ0dMJEjsk


Disregarding loads of known empirical evidence for the sake of contrarianism isn't open-mindedness.


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Crazyfool
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28 Aug 2015, 10:35 pm

Spiderpig wrote:
Crazyfool wrote:
I beg you guys give this video a serious look with an open mind so we could possibly have a mature and scientific discussion about this extremely controversial topic. Here's the link to one of the better videos I have watched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YQ0dMJEjsk


Disregarding loads of known empirical evidence for the sake of contrarianism isn't open-mindedness.


I'm not disregarding anything, rather second guessing it, which would be openminded IMO. I think it's funny how bent out of shape everyone got about this, and I bet no one even looked into it.

I think disregarding anything that contradicts what your current belief structure is being close minded. What makes you so sure that everything you've been force fed through our petty educational system isn't skewed?

I never said I believed it but I'm considering it, I guess I have trust issues. You just keep being a mindless drone and never second guess anything that's spit your way....



izzeme
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31 Aug 2015, 3:46 am

seen it, thought about it, concluded it was crackpot.

as stated: ships sailing at the horizon are clear evidence of the curvature of the earth.
you can see the curvature at high mountains, sattelites orbit in all directions (including north-south), and planes follow that same pattern; neither of these are possible with a flat earth.

i must admit that the point of directional gravity would make a flat earth seem round, but (assuming the north pole is at the "centre") once you can move past the south pole and back north without turning around, at any altitude, your idea falls flat.



LilZebra
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31 Aug 2015, 7:42 pm

Crazyfool wrote:
I beg you guys give this video a serious look with an open mind so we could possibly have a mature and scientific discussion about this extremely controversial topic. Here's the link to one of the better videos I have watched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YQ0dMJEjsk


You can't 'beg' someone to watch or read something just by saying so. If that person genuinely interested or open to that topic then perhaps they'll have a peek.

What if you said that to someone in person? How would they react?

You can only suggest/recommend that they watch, not by 'begging' them. Doing so would be considered RUDE.


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naturalplastic
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02 Sep 2015, 6:35 pm

Watched it. Caught some errors in logic. For example he confuses normal timekeeping with sidereal time.

One of his arguments against this idea that the earth revolves around the Sun is that if the earth were rotating while it was revolving around the sun then every six months midnight and noon would trade places, and it would be darkest at noon, and brightest day at midnight ( and then go back again). But the fact is that it IS that way- if you're a professional astronomer because astronomers operate on sidereal time (in which the day is a tiny bit longer than the normal day). In sidereal time the length of the day is calibrated to the Earth's absolute position ( ie position relative to the stars outside the solar system). Normal time is calibrated to the position of the sun in the sky (which really means to the earth's orientation to the sun).High noon is 24 hours after the last high noon. So in conventional time keeping day stays day, and night stays night. But since astronomers need to study the stars they use sidereal time: in which the sun changes its position slightly day to day to day, but the background stars stay in the same place ( obviously the sun changes position in normal time due to the seasons as well- but Im giving a simplified explanation) and for astronomers every six months "day" and "night" do reverse.



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04 Sep 2015, 4:35 pm

Crazyfool wrote:
For me the obvious fact that: even over bodies of water that stretch for hundreds of miles in every direction, the water does not bend, and the horizon remains completely flat. That doesn't make any sense when you take the supposed curvature of the earth into consideration....no sense at all.


I've been in airplanes and looked out the window and SEEN the curvature of the Earth.

I've seen the same thing from photos taken from weather balloons sent up VERY high.

Flat-earthers have their point of view, but reality, facts, and observation shift things in the direction of the conventional.

The Earth is a sphere. Don't worry about it. What we've all been taught in school is real.


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