After plowing through the 200 ‘Proofs’ of a flat earth, I am really struck by the general dishonesty, lack of critical thinking, no basic logic, insane conspiracy mongering, and plagiarism. All but three of the points were a lie, baseless assertion, or paranoid ramblings. I have written and read technical reports, sometimes into the thousands of pages, and this ‘book’ might as well been written in crayon, with all the veracity and citations it used. I can sum it all up simply: Da wurld is flat cuz I thinks it looks flat and someone 160 years ago sayz its flat and I don t enderstands howz fisicks workz…and nasa suxs.
There were rampant spelling and grammatical errors. The ‘book’, except for the paranoid rants against NASA (and every other space agency, and every engineer alive today), was plagiarized en masse from Zetetic Astronomy Earth Not a Globe by Parallax (Samuel Birley Rowbotham) [1881] and 100 Proofs the World is Not A Globe. Neither is less than 130 years old!!! Did you really think no one would notice you plagiarized this book and pamphlet? I am not going to go through every point again; I am tired of reading this gibberish. If this ‘book’ was submitted a high school paper, it would of been an immediate “F” and almost certainly gotten you on academic suspension for plagiarism. Yes, it is that bad.
Finally, the whole Flat Earth crowd makes the least sense to me. Other baseless beliefs at least have a supernatural or unfalsifiable claim. I can’t prove gods, or unicorns, or fairies don’t exist, but I can sure as heck prove the Earth IS a spinning ball of rock, orbiting a star, orbiting a galactic center, and not a flat, immobile rock.. On top of that is the insane conspiracy that would be needed. Billions of people would have to be in on it…over millennia. People knew the Earth was round thousands of years before we went to space. The proofs are simple, and have been around for hundreds, if not thousands of years, and the world in no way looks flat. Maybe they are insane? Maybe they are looking for more advertisement clicks? Maybe they are just trolling people to see how gullible they are? Not sure of the answer, but this topic is boring me and I am moving on. Back to finishing the Bible, which at least has an excuse be being primitive and illogical.
Addendum 2: Looking even deeper into the Flat Earthers out there, now I get them. These individuals suffer from Delusional Disorder:
Delusional disorder is an illness characterized by at least 1 month of delusions but no other psychotic symptoms according to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5).[1]Delusions are false beliefs based on incorrect inference about external reality that persist despite the evidence to the contrary and these beliefs are not ordinarily accepted by other members of the person’s culture or subculture. Delusions can be characterized as persecutory (i.e., belief one is going to be harmed by an individual, organization or group), referential (i.e., belief gestures, comments, or environmental cues are directed at oneself), grandiose (i.e., belief that the individual has exceptional abilities, wealth, or fame), erotomanic (i.e., an individual’s false belief that another individual is in love with them), nihilistic (i.e., conviction that a major catastrophe will occur), or somatic (i.e., beliefs focused on bodily function or sensation). 1
Or, if they suffer from hallucinations as well, they suffer from:
Schizophrenia is a serious disorder which affects how a person thinks, feels and acts. Someone with schizophrenia may have difficulty distinguishing between what is real and what is imaginary; may be unresponsive or withdrawn; and may have difficulty expressing normal emotions in social situations.
Contrary to public perception, schizophrenia is not split personality or multiple personality. The vast majority of people with schizophrenia are not violent and do not pose a danger to others. Schizophrenia is not caused by childhood experiences, poor parenting or lack of willpower, nor are the symptoms identical for each person. 2
I believe Eric Dubay (from the Atlantean Conspiracy) and Jeranism, on Youtube, both have undiagnosed psychiatric conditions and have my complete sympathy. They, and other like them, should seek help. If, however, I am incorrect, and you two are nothing more than click baiting trolls, you deserve any derision slung towards you. In the case of Dubay, just reading a few articles on his website, or a watching a few minutes of this video, I am convinced he does believe in what he exposing and should seek help. With Jeranism, I am just not sure. He seems fairly rational, and worst case is suffering from Delusional Disorder. He appears talented in video production and could make a decent career in video production, if he did not waste so much time on Flat Earth/Conspiracy theories.
I hope others on the Internet and Youtube realize these people have a psychiatric problem, and not make fun of them. I am no longer commenting on their videos, and I hope they are not doing harm to themselves or to others in this pursuit.
Not my video, but a superb explanation of the psychology behind the Flat Earth true believers.
Addendum:
Looking a little deeper into the rabbit hole that is the Flat Earth ‘cult’ is the realization this is nothing more than blind faith into a model of the world that really doesn’t align with how the world really works. It really does not matter how many proofs you provide, their blind faith with always override what their senses are telling them. The nonsense, ad hoc explanations and obvious denial of reality is simply delusional thinking. It is an extension of young Earth creationists and NASA/Moon Landing/Space exploration denial. I have a lot sympathy for these individuals. They spend too much time on this topic and really do believe and have a faith based position on the shape of the Earth.
They will never be able to integrate into any technical field and this faith based flat world view will cause real harm to their life. I work in a very technical field where you would never make it past the first semester in college, where they introduce microwave and satellite based communications, both are based on the fact of a round planet. With comments on YouTube and message boards, you can get the sense these individuals are not that well paid. They will often say such and such flight is impossible, and the thought of actually booking such a flight does not cross their minds. Not to toot my own horn, but I could book any of those flights right now, without second cost to the expense. Yes, working in high tech fields really does positively impact your life. The median salary for an experienced electronics engineer, with just a bachelors, is over $90,000 a year. Can you claim the same for some warehouse worker who believes in a flat earth? You have my pity, and I hope you can rejoin society once you accept there is not multi generational, 1,000,000,000+ individuals conspiracy and you can look at a sunrise and sunset and realize a flat earth is just plain impossible.