| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Maxwell Smart |
The Earth is Flat!Do these people really exist?http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7540427.stm |
||||
| Slim |
They need to climb higher mountains, see the curvature for themselves... | ||||
| Chez |
I think that's wonderful. I'm going to change my belief system from Flying Spagetti Monsterism IMMEDIATELY. | ||||
| JB |
They'll just tell you that light is subject to gravity creating an apparent horizon, or that it's an optical effect, or that it's a delusion caused by lack of oxygen. Never underestimate the power of wilful ignorance! |
||||
| Maxwell Smart |
Or look out the window when flying... But what I don't understand is how people can cross/circumnavigate the south pole if it is really never ending and has a diameter of whatever ten thousand miles... |
||||
| Sarah D |
Brilliant; I've been waiting for something like this to show to MrD - thanks! | ||||
| Chez |
Because he's a flat-earther? Or just for a laugh?  .
|
||||
| Sarah D |
........because I'm a flat-earther, and now I know I'm not alone. 
|
||||
| Maxwell Smart |
And you've never seen the curvature of the earth from a plane? I won't get into the south pole yet.... 
|
||||
| Sarah D |
Nope  I've never been in a plane.
|
||||
| bagpuss |
but even when people allegedly believed the earth was flat they didn't really | ||||
| wellington womble |
Does it really matter? to most people, I mean. Surely in the context of most people lives, whether its true that smoking kills or it's a legal requirement to tax your car is more important to nit pick about! | ||||
| bagpuss |
I suppose the issue with holding that belief is that is is easy to prove wrong empirically so these people aren't holding a belief which is simply up for debate or unprovable but a belief which is contrary to all basic knowledge Certainly it isn't the end of the world for people to hold this belief but it is bewildering that given the easily observable evidence that they do |
||||
| Slim |
"The Church says the Earth is flat. But I know that it is round. For I have seen the shadow on the moon. And I have more faith in a shadow than in the Church." | ||||
| Maxwell Smart |
Do most of the things matter that get debated on DS? |
||||
| Slim |
Do most things matter?
|
||||
| wellington womble |
Does it matter that it matters? 
It just seems a bit pointless to me, to argue about something that patently makes no difference at all to day to day life. But then I generally feel like that about important things! Clearly I am small things person! If I weren't on holiday, I proabably wouldn't be in here at all! As you were.......... |
||||
| Azura Skye |
yeah I think that is more important - does it matter?
I think it does matter, when someone tells you that you are wrong, then you can't remain believing the same once you have seen the evidence, right? I think it's a very churchy outlook, very male. All in nature is cyclical, round etc. The church with its cross, and spires is all about lines - hard up. I think to believe the earth is flat is to be against nature - in some ways. Of course, proof that the world is round from nasa photos isn't very natural either! |
||||
| Shane |
Okra aren't round. They're kind of star shaped. | ||||
| cab |
Does truth, in itself, have value? I'd say that it does. |
||||
| jema |
I still can't quite convince myself that this is not an odd form of joke rather than a real belief.
As a belief I would find it scary as I do any single minded fanaticism in the face of irrefutable fact, but on that score there are a lot more scary people out there.... |
||||
| JB |
Of course it's a joke. There is no rational way someone could attempt to refute all the available evidence without either wilfully ignoring it just to wind people up or being so mad (I considered politer terms but that one's accurate) that arguing with them is a waste of time. For the first set arguing with them is a waste of time as I suspect the point of the joke is too see how much of a rise they can get out of people. | ||||
| Sarah D |
Different folks believe different things; everybody views the world differently. | ||||
| JB |
No, they all view the world in the same way. They may interpret it differently or choose to represent it differently but the observation is the same. |
||||
| Sarah D |
That's nit picking if ever I saw it.............
Ah well. I know how I view the world, I know what I believe, and in the process I haven't been rude or disparaging about anyone else's beliefs or way they see the world. Each to their own.
|
||||
| Maxwell Smart |
Agreed. But can I ask how you come to your conclusion that the earth is flat? This is a question in genuine interest which I would like to understand - since as others point out there is fairly irrefutable evidence that the earth is round such as the shadow across the moon or the view of the horizon from altitude. |
||||
| Jonnyboy |
I believe in a flat earth, And I think that all downsizer's should club together to send me up in Branson's new rocket ship, so that I can be proved wrong once and for all. Hallelujah! | ||||
| tahir |
Is it chapatti shaped or more square? And what's on the underside? |
||||
| cab |
While everyone may have different viewpoints, sometimes people are demonstrably wrong. Someone tells me that the pencil I'm holding levitates when released, if I drop it and it falls down every time then they're proven wrong. Someone insists that the world is flat, the evidence from people circumnavigating the globe proves them to be wrong. Or, in other words, everyone is entitled to believe whatever they like. Doesn't mean that their belief is in any way correct. |
||||
| Jonnyboy |
Four elephants
I wonder how satellite navigation is explaned away? Actually, this is fun. We get to dream up a whole new set of theories for everything. |
||||
| JB |
and therein lies the basic problem with a flat earth. While I suppose it wouldn't be impossible to create a consistent world view in which the earth is flat it would be so convoluted that a view in which the Earth is round is a lot simpler and more plausible. |
||||
| Andy B |
Why do they disbeleive all the evidence that shows they are wrong, whats the point? | ||||
| cab |
Therein lies one of the problems. Sometimes a theory is so ludicrous that my first temptation is just to point and laugh. But that doesn't always make it go away; so many ludicrous theories are now very widely believed, to the point where adherence to them works to the detriment of sound education, good sense and even the health and welfare of people. Flat earthers are unlikely to get sufficient credibility that this would be the case. But stranger things have happened. |
||||
| cab |
I suspect that the psychology of conspiracy theories is a very interesting field. Although it is of course entirely faked and made up in order to control people. |
||||
| Maxwell Smart |
I read that something like 60-70% of the American population believe in creationism and disbelieve in the theory of evolution. |
||||
| Behemoth |
I think some Flat Earthers choose to believe as a way of reminding them to challenge a lot of 'givens'. | ||||
| Erikht |
I would like to remind you that the "Round Earth Theory" is just a theory, like the so called "Flat Earth Theory", the "Theory of Evolution" and the "Intelligent Design Theory".
The point is that we are victims of a discal conspiracy! |
||||
| tahir |
Just corrected that for you, where's me white suit and platforms? |
||||
| Erikht |
Ohhh... Scary! |
||||
| Behemoth |
So the revolving disco floor is actually a sublimimal image of the earth's true form? | ||||
| Maxwell Smart |
It is true that the earth isn't round... it's more of a geoid and changes shape according to tides, gravitational forces etc etc |
||||
| Erikht |
And they say we come from monkeys! |
||||
| Maxwell Smart |
And some of us still are... |
||||
| Erikht |
What, do you think this should be taken seriously? |
||||
| Spitfire |
I wouldn't mind if the Earth turns out to be flat, as long as someone can prove it before I have to do another one of
these... |