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The Flat Earthers Are Still With Us

Posted by timothy on from the until-the-end-of-days dept.

narcberry writes "The BBC reports on a scientific community still holding to flat earth theories. From their article: 'Are there any genuine flat-earthers left? Surely in our era of space exploration — where satellites take photos of our blue and clearly globular planet from space, and robots send back info about soil and water from Mars — no one can seriously still believe that the Earth is flat? Wrong. Flat earth theory is still around. On the internet and in small meeting rooms in Britain and the US, flat earth believers get together to challenge the 'conspiracy' that the Earth is round.'"

21 of 578 comments (clear)

  1. Scientific community? by Aardpig · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well, that's obviously not the right thing to call them...

    --
    Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
    1. Re:Scientific community? by unfasten · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The more correct thing to call them would be a co-host on The View.

    2. Re:Scientific community? by pxlmusic · · Score: 5, Insightful

      what's more fcuked up is that these idiots are breeding.

      --
      "If for any reason you're not satisfied with our service, I hate you."
    3. Re:Scientific community? by dmoen · · Score: 5, Funny

      Do you have any evidence to support your assertion that Flat Earthers have the ability to get laid?

      --
      I have written a truly remarkable program which this sig is too small to contain.
    4. Re:Scientific community? by Yvanhoe · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Someone tells these humorless Americans that humor can take many faces. What flat-earthers are doing is quite admirable in fact : they take the challenge of defending a view that is contradicted by almost every fact of normal life and try to create a coherent if convulated theory about it.

      --
      The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
    5. Re:Scientific community? by nasor · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I actually went to their web page, and it seemed pretty clear that it was a tongue-in-cheek joke. Although I'm sure they're all having a BIG laugh at how worked up everyone is getting over the whole thing.

    6. Re:Scientific community? by deadmantyping · · Score: 5, Funny

      The Earth is flat, just within a curve space. Oh snap! Did I just blow your mind!

    7. Re:Scientific community? by Jonny_eh · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sometimes I wonder if the creationists are an elaborate parody too. Have you ever heard their arguments?

    8. Re:Scientific community? by FishWithAHammer · · Score: 5, Informative

      The Flat Earth Society was created as a big joke in the first place. Most of the people posting there (myself included) are doing so as a tongue-in-cheek joke.

      Yeah, there are a few nuts in there who actually believe it, but you'll get stupid beliefs anywhere.

      --
      "You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
    9. Re:Scientific community? by StormReaver · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "Someone tells these humorless Americans that humor can take many faces."

      When the crackpots (such as the creationists) invade your school systems, you'll lose your sense of humor, too.

    10. Re:Scientific community? by houghi · · Score: 5, Funny

      Flat and round earthers can live together in harmony. The earth is both flat and round. Just like a pizza.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    11. Re:Scientific community? by ale_ryu · · Score: 5, Insightful

      We should do to them exactly what they did to our guys 500 years ago, burn them, hang them, etc., at least we have proof we're right :P

      Now, seriously speaking, it's obvious these guys are trolling, and they've put a lot of effort in it. Considering most of the slashdot community actually got angry at them I'd say they have succeded. Yep, these guys are successful trolls :P

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    12. Re:Scientific community? by rhyder128k · · Score: 5, Funny

      This flat earth nonsense is easy to disprove. Just get an illustrated bible and look at Genesis. The Earth is clearly round in many modern editions that I have seen. They'd probably get around it by claiming that those versions of the bible were reinterpreted by human beings and different from other versions of the bible. Yeah right, that logic would prove that every existing bible is false. But that's just how whacky a flat-earther can be.

      --
      Michael Reed, freelance tech writer.
    13. Re:Scientific community? by jagdish · · Score: 5, Funny

      There is no light. The Sun sucks dark. In fact it sucks dark so hard that the friction of the dark moving to the Sun causes the Sun to be very hot. The flow of dark towards the Sun interrupted by the Earth causes the side of the Earth away from the Sun to accumulate dark, thus causing Night. As the Earth rotates the dark caught on the night side can then be pulled off, this causing the absence of dark known as Day.

      What we call light bulbs are truly dark suckers as well. That is why light bulbs are hot, just like the Sun. When a light bulb is full of dark and won't suck dark any more, it cools off. If you look in old light bulbs you can even seen the accumulation of dark.

      Dark is also heavier than water. This can be seen in the oceans where the deeper you go the darker it gets.

      (Source unknown)

  2. Wow.. Just Wow by Namors · · Score: 5, Funny

    Cue the Turtles

    --
    Dual Century Programming: Yeah I know ... But it sounds Good
  3. Yeah, the Earth is flat! by xayide · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My Uncle belonged to this society when he was in college in the 1970's. He likened it to the SCA. I love these guys because they will never, ever admit to the joke.

  4. I still have my BIG doubts... by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How do we know it's not a club of pranksters who want to fool the world into believing flat-earthers still exist?

  5. Re:Duh! by dada21 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Personally, I believe the earth is flat. I also do believe that the Internet is a myth. The Internet was created in an instantaneous moment when an Eliza program on a BBS gained self-recognition. What you read, right now, is really just this Eliza application that is creating exactly what you want to see. Since the software has gained so much knowledge, it is giving you the impression that you're actually talking to others, when in fact you're not.

    The dilemma is whether or not I am real, or if I am just another creation of Eliza, the creator of all things web. You should be impressed that Eliza has taken such a strangehold on your life: forums do not really exist other than your own posts, and neither does FTP or ssh. All are just creations that Eliza has performed for you, and only you.

    Makes you change your stance on how much time you're spending on slashdot with "us," doesn't it?

  6. Re:Duh! by What'sInAName · · Score: 5, Funny

    How does believe the earth is flat make you feel?

  7. Re:Not Necessarily News by xayide · · Score: 5, Informative

    You can prove the Earth is round by looking at a lunar eclipse. Educated people have known the shape of the Earrh for thousands of years. I have no idea why they teach us as children that everyone thought Chris Columbus would sail off the edge of the earth.

  8. Fake, fake and fake. by k33l0r · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think someone is pulling a great prank. Just read this section in their FAQ:

    Q: "What's underneath the Earth?" aka "What's on the bottom?" aka "What's on the other side?"

    A: This is unknown. Some believe it to be just rocks, others believe the Earth rests on the back of four elephants and a turtle.

    That's straight of of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.