# Flat Earther's looking for converts in Milton Keynes **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 1, 2019, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earthers-looking-for-converts-in-milton-keynes/839557 "2019-09-01T16:15:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2019, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earthers-looking-for-converts-in-milton-keynes/839557/1 "2019-09-01T16:15:44Z")
Any one else come across these people in real life? These nutters had a display up and were handing out flyers outside McD’s where the ‘Jesus Saves!’ preacher guy often does his thing. I will check these out just in case it’s a joke…(broken links) www [globelie.co.uk](http://globelie.co.uk) www [festart.co.uk](http://festart.co.uk) I stopped to pick up a flyer, and to gawp at their display/wall (which included a portrait of Newton - I didn’t notice how he fitted in to their arguments).While I was staring one of the believers asked me what I thought and if I’d seen “this”(the Flat-Earth concept) before, I said “Of course, I think its hilarious”. This seemed to piss him off a little (actually, quite a lot), I think his (brief) rant included _“Haven’t you seen the internet?” “We’re being lied to”, “the world is not a spinning globe”_ and something about _“water is flat”_. Thing is, I hadn’t said anything to “defend” the scientific consensus, I’d just said that I found their display amusing (if it was an absurdist piece of public art, it would count as a success). But he immediately took an angry tone, got in my face and started to bring up some ridiculous arguments as to why the Earth is (obviously) flat. (If this was performance art he was a frigging good actor). I walked away. Here is some of the _why the Earth must be flat_ reasoning from the flyer: [ul] [li]Large bodies of water are always level[/li][li]Earth rotation (sic) cannot be scientifically detected[/li][li]Scientists have never proven the existence of gravity, and still remains a theory[/li][li]How can you prove the distance to the sun, moon, planets or stars[/li][li]Gyroscopes prove planes fly level and do not dip their nose to maintain level flight[/li][/ul] Bloody obvious explanations left as a exercise for the reader (though feel free to post any cleverer ones here). ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2019, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earthers-looking-for-converts-in-milton-keynes/839557/2 "2019-09-01T18:52:30Z")
“large bodies of water are always flat”? Take 1 telescope, 1 large body of water with moving ships, 1 clear day. Observe which parts of the ships you can see and how that changes with distance and relative motion. draw sensible conclusions. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2019, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earthers-looking-for-converts-in-milton-keynes/839557/3 "2019-09-01T19:07:03Z")
> [@Small\_Clanger](#): > > Large bodies of water are always level For certain values of “large”, “water”, and “level”, I’ll agree. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2019, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earthers-looking-for-converts-in-milton-keynes/839557/4 "2019-09-01T19:24:56Z")
> [@Small\_Clanger](#): > > Large bodies of water are always level. Yes, if _level_ is defined as being equal distant from the center of mass of the earth. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2019, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earthers-looking-for-converts-in-milton-keynes/839557/5 "2019-09-01T19:25:48Z")
nvm ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2019, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earthers-looking-for-converts-in-milton-keynes/839557/6 "2019-09-01T19:31:52Z")
[quote=“Small\_Clanger, post:1, topic:839557”] [li]Earth rotation (sic) cannot be scientifically detected[/li][/QUOTE] Well, I guess those Foucault pendulums I’ve seen are hallucinations then. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2019, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earthers-looking-for-converts-in-milton-keynes/839557/7 "2019-09-01T19:55:05Z")
[quote=“Small\_Clanger, post:1, topic:839557”] [li]Scientists have never proven the existence of gravity, and still remains a theory[/li][/QUOTE] You might encourage them to try jumping out of an upper-story window. Gravity might just be a theory but the broken bones won’t be. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2019, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earthers-looking-for-converts-in-milton-keynes/839557/8 "2019-09-01T19:57:44Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Well, I guess those Foucault pendulums I’ve seen are hallucinations then. And [this](https://twistedsifter.com/videos/visualizing-earths-rotation-with-timelapse-of-milky-way/) is fake, too. ---
**Author:** ![Kimera757](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimera757/32/3765_2.png) [@Kimera757](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimera757)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2019, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earthers-looking-for-converts-in-milton-keynes/839557/9 "2019-09-01T20:06:01Z")
Viral misinformation is one of the worst 21st Century diseases humans suffer from. It’s often resistant to treatment, and is even somewhat contagious. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2019, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earthers-looking-for-converts-in-milton-keynes/839557/10 "2019-09-02T07:38:21Z")
Modern-day Flat Eartherism is basically just Young Earth Creationism with a new coat of paint on it. The common thread amongst most Flat Earther arguments is that round-earth model was created by Evil Atheists who run the world and hate God (you see, they do believe in God, they’re just mad at him because they want to be able to sin whenever they want) in order to convince people that the Earth is just one of many worlds like it and it doesn’t have a special place in the cosmos, so that they’ll lose faith and not rebel against their evil atheist masters. There are a good number of YouTube channels that exist mainly for the purpose of taking the piss out of flat-earthers. Sci Man Dan and Sir Sic, for example, are among the more amusing ones. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2019, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earthers-looking-for-converts-in-milton-keynes/839557/11 "2019-09-02T07:42:57Z")
This feels like it should be a Pythons sketch. It might be the words “Milton Keynes” that are having this Pavlovian effect on me… ---
**Author:** ![ticker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2019, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earthers-looking-for-converts-in-milton-keynes/839557/12 "2019-09-02T09:16:10Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > There are a good number of YouTube channels that exist mainly for the purpose of taking the piss out of flat-earthers. Sci Man Dan and Sir Sic, for example, are among the more amusing ones. I must say I don’t quite get the runaway popularity of Sci Man Dan. He’s OK and quite personable, but there are funnier and more informative flat-earth debunkers out there. Like his content, his editing and delivery lack polish. I do enjoy the flerfers barely disguised jealousy at his \> 200k subscribers however. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2019, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earthers-looking-for-converts-in-milton-keynes/839557/13 "2019-09-02T12:02:55Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > And [this](https://twistedsifter.com/videos/visualizing-earths-rotation-with-timelapse-of-milky-way/) is fake, too. Eh, motion is relative so there is no reason to believe the Earth is rotating as opposed to the celestial spheres moving above us. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2019, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earthers-looking-for-converts-in-milton-keynes/839557/14 "2019-09-02T13:06:03Z")
At first I thought the flat earthers were trying to convert John Maynard Keynes, not an easy task. I would’ve responded to them with a variation on Sherlock Holmes’ retort when chided by Watson for failing to know that the earth revolved around the sun. _"What the deuce is it to me?” he interrupted impatiently; “you say that the earth is flat. If it was a sphere or a trapezoid it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2019, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earthers-looking-for-converts-in-milton-keynes/839557/15 "2019-09-02T13:27:28Z")
> [@Kimera757](#): > > Viral misinformation is one of the worst 21st Century diseases humans suffer from. It’s often resistant to treatment, and is even somewhat contagious. The internet managed to connect a person who wanted to eat someone with a person who wanted to _be_ eaten. Connecting a few people to form a Flat Earth Society seems tame by comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2019, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earthers-looking-for-converts-in-milton-keynes/839557/16 "2019-09-02T13:43:50Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > This feels like it should be a Pythons sketch. It certainly could have made for a _pointless (deranged) argument_, but debating with Flat-Earthers is surely pretty much the definition of futile. A friend of ranty-man was standing by with a video camera on his shoulder (what’s that about?), and I didn’t want to end up on youtube associated with these wakadoos. > [@](#): > > It might be the words “Milton Keynes” that are having this Pavlovian effect on me… Sigh. Yup, we have concrete cows and hundreds and hundreds of roundabouts, but it’s a nice place to live\* By the way, for anyone who hasn’t (for sanity’s sake) looked at the website(s). The Earth is _really_ a flat disc with the North Pole in the middle - and the South Pole all around the perimeter (smilie -\> rabbit caught in headlights of stupid). - Cite: Footnote from _Good Omens_ ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2019, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earthers-looking-for-converts-in-milton-keynes/839557/17 "2019-09-02T14:16:01Z")
There is only one remedy for these imbeciles; Carry a high school physics book in your bag, take it out and use it to beat them with it. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2019, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earthers-looking-for-converts-in-milton-keynes/839557/18 "2019-09-02T14:21:08Z")
While there are doubtless some crazies that actually believe it, we’re up against Poe’s Law, here. I’d wager that at least 90% of the people who profess to be “flat Earthers” are just saying it for the lulz. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2019, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earthers-looking-for-converts-in-milton-keynes/839557/19 "2019-09-02T14:29:26Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > There is only one remedy for these imbeciles; Carry a high school physics book in your bag, take it out and use it to beat them with it. Heh. Yah. I think and hope that most of them are just trolling for a response. But some do really believe for whatever value of belief. Well, it’s not so much belief, as an acceptance that what the don’t see, doesn’t exist. A very comfortable position when you think about it. If they can’t wrap their head around facts, just shoo them away. It is ignorance, but it’s more. It’s the inability to think beyond the horizon. Literally in this case. They really don’t deserve any attention at all. I have already given them too much with this post. ---
**Author:** ![Trancephalic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trancephalic/32/380_2.png) [@Trancephalic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trancephalic)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2019, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earthers-looking-for-converts-in-milton-keynes/839557/20 "2019-09-02T14:42:39Z")
I think rational people unwittingly help these jamokes by using the colloquial theory in random conversation, where it’s synonymous with hypothesis or conjecture. Scientific theory is almost antonymous with that; it doesn’t prove anything, but is a predictive model based on what could be considered proof. It’s like deliberately inferring “black lives matter” means black lives matter more than others when it means black lives matter just as much as anyones (which is true). It’s insidious how these sorts of people thrive on innocent ambiguity. I know I’m the last person who should criticise other’s grammar, but like I have a cognitive problem, what’s y’alls? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earthers-looking-for-converts-in-milton-keynes/839557.md?page=2)