After perusing the websites for several flat earth society supporters, I was struck by one question: Are these people serious? I doubt that this is anything more than a misguided attempt at attention. So I pose the question, does anyone really still believe that the earth is flat?
http://www.alaska.net/~clund/e_djublonskopf/Flatearthsociety.htm
Here is The Flat Earth Society’s webpage, and I, too, cannot tell if they are serious. It seems pretty sincere, but read the small print at the bottom of the screen, and then application. Favorite jelly bean flavor? Radioactive Isotope? It seems a little too joke-y.
In the spirit of cross-discipline multitasking, I feel the real question is, if you put the earth on a railroad track, does it (a) derail the train, or (b) get flattened. Personally I’d tend towards (b), as another nearby thread indicates that there’s crap falling on the line all the time anyway. Actually, now I come to think of it, this facetious and sleep-deprivation-inspired response has led me to an unusual conclusion: perhaps the flat-earthers don’t actually believe that the earth IS flat, but propose that it SHOULD be, and that we set about rendering it flat as soon as possible.
“It’d certainly make chartered accountancy a much more interesting job”
- Eric Idle
But really, practically speaking, the earth is flat. It goes up and down, mountains hills and so forth, but for 99.99% of what you have to do in life, the earth is pretty flat. And the sun goes round the earth.
I know this doesn’t answer your question, I don’t know anybody who really thinks the earth is flat. If I had to guess though, I would say that they get a sense of independence and probably power from realizing that you can live a perfectly normal life and never have to agree at all on what is pretty much an academic point.