# Flat Earth Society? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 13, 2000, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-society/41007 "2000-11-13T15:25:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MadHatter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@MadHatter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadHatter)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2000, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-society/41007/1 "2000-11-13T15:25:32Z")
I read about this in another thread, thinking it was a joke. I have found this: [http://www.flat-earth.org](http://www.flat-earth.org) Are these guys for real? Surely this is a parody site. One of the things on their FAQ says that “The earth could be riding on a big turtle” and that “Australia probably doesn’t exist”. This isn’t a SERIOUS site is it? ---
**Author:** ![don\_Jaime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b4bc9f/32.png) [@don\_Jaime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_Jaime)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2000, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-society/41007/2 "2000-11-13T16:59:58Z")
That site appears to be fake, but there really is a Flat Earth Society. They are the most extreme of creation scientists, holding that the Earth is disc-shaped in keeping with the account in Genesis. There aren’t many of them. I believe they’re based out of San Diego. ---
**Author:** ![jmullaney](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85e7bf/32.png) [@jmullaney](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jmullaney)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2000, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-society/41007/3 "2000-11-13T18:23:32Z")
I think they are real. Cecil mentions them in a number of his articles, such as here: [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2\_087.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_087.html) ---
**Author:** ![jmullaney](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85e7bf/32.png) [@jmullaney](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jmullaney)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2000, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-society/41007/4 "2000-11-13T18:29:09Z")
I think they are real. Cecil mentions them in a number of his articles, such as here: [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2\_087.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_087.html) I also think they are just devout skeptics, not religious radicals but I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2000, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-society/41007/5 "2000-11-13T19:05:46Z")
Indeed they are real. That site you mention is a parody, but there is a group called the Flat Earth Research Society that does hold the Earth is flat. Here’s an good [article](http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/fe-scidi.htm) about them. I also believe the [talk.origins](http://www.talkorigins.org) archive has some info on them, too.’ ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2000, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-society/41007/6 "2000-11-13T20:33:29Z")
The “earth riding on a big turtle” has a basis, though. It’s the belief of a primitive religion located in…um. Ah, I forget, but it is real. (The belief, not the turtle.) This was, of course, the basis for Pratchett’s Discworld novels. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2000, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-society/41007/7 "2000-11-13T21:25:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JSexton \* > The “earth riding on a big turtle” has a basis, though. It’s the belief of a primitive religion located in…um. Ah, I forget, but it is real. (The belief, not the turtle.) _Nevertheless . . . the Turtle Moves!_ I’d understood that the earth turtle was a belief among the early Hebrews and probably some other peoples as well. As far as that flat earth website, how many people here remember this guy: Bret Jolly (Bo’-ret Tro Ly) Mathemagus LA Platygaean Society I wonder what happened to him… ---
**Author:** ![Freyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freyr/32/5763_2.png) [@Freyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freyr)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2000, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-society/41007/8 "2000-11-13T22:18:01Z")
I don’t recall where I read it, but somewhere, there’s one of these “Flat Earth” societies that take it a step farther into the incredible. They believe that the earth is hollow and the whole universe exists **INSIDE** this sphere that’s some 8000 miles in diameter. The “surface” of (the inside) of this sphere is our planet earth, but going “up” or towards the center is heading out into space. _shrug_ I don’t understand how they explain doppler red-shift and how the Universe is expanding, but this is what they believe. I’ll try to find a cite or a webpage for these people. ---
**Author:** ![Freyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freyr/32/5763_2.png) [@Freyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freyr)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2000, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-society/41007/9 "2000-11-13T22:25:08Z")
Here’s a link to an old _Omni_ article that covers it. Pretty weird if you ask me! 🙂 [Hollow Earth](http://home.uchicago.edu/~narusso/m/hollow.html) ---
**Author:** ![andygirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@andygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andygirl)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2000, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-society/41007/10 "2000-11-13T23:10:50Z")
I was actually going to join that society just for sheer entertainment value, but they charge membership dues that I couldn’t afford… I bet that a lot of their membership is made up of people who enjoy reading the schlock they put out for the humor value. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2000, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-society/41007/11 "2000-11-14T01:24:16Z")
A number of years ago, maybe 12 or 15, I had a student who became fascinated with the idea. She poked around and found an address from Newsweek magazine, and contacted them. “They” were a guy who sent out a newsletter that, as I remember, was full of pseudoscientific sounding stuff, mixed with fundamentalist religious claptrap. It was also riddled with grammatical and mechanical errors. The society based its claims on biblical references, plus “obvious” scientific evidence such as the fact that the water in the oceans is clearly flat, so the earth can’t possibly be round. The politics of the society were also reactionary (duh!) in resonnance with the scientific theories they promoted. But it was, indeed, a real organization. In a letter that accompanied the newsletter, the guy cautioned my student to be careful of folks like teachers who might try to change her mind. (Little did he know that the kid already had a mind of her own and wasn’t about to succumb to his bizarre notions.) ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2000, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-society/41007/12 "2000-11-14T01:43:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Freyr \* > \*\*I don’t recall where I read it, but somewhere, there’s one of these “Flat Earth” societies that take it a step farther into the incredible. > > They believe that the earth is hollow and the whole universe exists **INSIDE** this sphere that’s some 8000 miles in diameter. The “surface” of (the inside) of this sphere is our planet earth, but going “up” or towards the center is heading out into space. _shrug_ > > I don’t understand how they explain doppler red-shift and how the Universe is expanding, but this is what they believe. I’ll try to find a cite or a webpage for these people. \*\* I believe the original proponent of this worldview was Cyrus Reed Teed. Martin Gardner trashed him rather harshly (said Teed was terrified at the thought of an infinite universe and so turned the entire world into a giant womb) in his first anti-psuedoscience book, _Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science_. Definitely a good read. –sublight