Amazingly, despite the fact that Americans have been to the moon and NASA’s space probes and telescopes have captured footage of the earth and all surrounding planets, there are far too many people who continue to believe in a 15th-century scientific myth.
Here’s a breaking news detail: Our planet is round not flat. It’s never been flat. It’s always been…round.
And that long-established fact has just been proven again — as though it really needed to be — by a high-rise balloon that was sent to a height of 165,000 (31.25 miles) above the earth to capture footage of the “Great American Eclipse” of 2017.
As reported by the UK’s Daily Mail:
While millions of people in North America watched the 2017 solar eclipse from the ground, a weather balloon captured the stunning display from space.
Engineers launched a high altitude balloon fitted with a series of cameras 165,000 feet into the stratosphere, recording the exact moment of totality.
The cameras attached to the balloon also gathered footage showing the Earth's curvature, the black void that is space and the thin blue line of the Earth's atmosphere on the horizon.
As you can see from the photos accompanying the story, the earth is very round (and colorful).
Not flat.
In fact, the tens of millions of people who watched that eclipse saw a very round sun blocked out by a very round moon. Because heavenly bodies are … round.
So, what is it with these Flat Earthers? What do they believe and why do they believe it?
According to an October 2012 Live Science report, Flat Earth Society members believe that because the earth looks and feels flat as they walk on it, they believe space-based photography showing the spherical shape of the globe is fabricated.
“The belief that the Earth is flat has been described as the ultimate conspiracy theory,” Live Science reports. “According to the Flat Earth Society’s leadership, its ranks have grown by 200 people (mostly Americans and Britons) per year since 2009.”
Crazy.
Bottom line: Believing in this nonsense is really pretty harmless
The problem is, these people really do believe the Earth is flat. (Related: Is the idea of meeting aliens really just science fiction? Expert lays his case to prove it’s NOT.)
According to the FlatEarth.org website:
— Any and all space-based photography is written off by these folks as faked — a Hollywood fabrication. That is especially true of any space-based pictures of Earth, but also other space-related photography.
— NASA has never been to the Moon. That, too, was faked — created by Hollywood and staged using actors.
— Pictures and video of ships vanishing over the horizon are held up as “proof” and “evidence” that the Earth is flat, not round (even though the same ships are always seen steaming in to port later).
— The Flat Earthers also claim that an 1892 map “proved” the Earth was flat.
— The same group has put out videos claiming that there is “proof” the Earth is flat, and then use those same videos as “evidence” of their claims.
These are some of the most delusional people on our very round planet — right up there with people who believe President Trump is a Russian agent working on behalf of the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin.
And yet, they’re very serious. Worse, they simply cannot be convinced of how wrong they are. It’s almost as if they believe what they believe like its a religion — impervious to any evidence that questions your faith or your beliefs.
But this kind of baseless nonsense is relatively harmless. The only people really harmed — and there isn’t much actual “harm” involved, other than to their own minds — are the Flat Earthers themselves.
Bottom line: If they want to live their lives under the illusion that somewhere, sometime, they will “fall off” the planet, so be it.
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