# Gravitists vs Downists **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 5, 2000, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravitists-vs-downists/35758 "2000-10-05T12:59:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Phobos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Phobos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phobos)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravitists-vs-downists/35758/121 "2000-12-06T22:07:16Z")
I recently read an article that disproves everything everyone has said here. But I forget what the reference is. But take my word for it anyway because I’m right. ---
**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2000, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravitists-vs-downists/35758/122 "2000-12-07T00:38:00Z")
I agree. ---
**Author:** ![bagkitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ab992/32.png) [@bagkitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bagkitty)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2000, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravitists-vs-downists/35758/123 "2000-12-07T00:44:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Phobos \* > > As for everything else, it’s all irrelevant to a Great Debate because humans are the center of the universe. \*\* Phobos: I hate to disagree with you (not), but it is already crowded enough here at the centre of the universe with me and all these damn cats. Don’t be dragging all the humans here too!!! ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2000, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravitists-vs-downists/35758/124 "2000-12-07T01:14:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bagkitty \* > Phobos: I hate to disagree with you (not), but it is already crowded enough here at the centre of the universe with me and all these damn cats. \*\* Oh, good. Test subjects. We’ll use 'em this weekend when we all gather to settle this debate once and for all…at the Golden Gate Bridge. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2000, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravitists-vs-downists/35758/125 "2000-12-07T04:07:19Z")
Gravitist theory claims we are drawn by thier mysterious “force” (Oh, yeah, its the “force”, sure, you bet) toward the center of the Earth. However, if you read thier so-called “textbooks” they further aver that once you arrive at the center of the Earth, that “force” doesn’t operate because you’re at the center! (cite:_My Big Golden Book of Science_, Bird, _et al._) _Que’elle croque du merde_, as Sarte once said. If there is no “gravity force” at the center of the earth, then all the “gravity force” above it will **pull the Earth inside out!!!** like the eyelids of that creepy kid at school who used to lick his arm and then smell it. You know the one. ---
**Author:** ![Fogglethorpe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@Fogglethorpe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fogglethorpe)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2000, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravitists-vs-downists/35758/126 "2000-12-10T15:58:02Z")
Dexter, I don’t think your theory carries any weight scientifically, but I do think you’re a very down to earth person. ---
**Author:** ![cptredion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bc79bd/32.png) [@cptredion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cptredion)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2001, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravitists-vs-downists/35758/127 "2001-02-13T19:32:40Z")
I am getting tired of these so called scientific principles being discussed as truths. I can feel myself being “forced” (you can’t prove if it’s pushed or pulled) towards the ground (I resent the assumption that the ground is down). My experience has led me to believe that the Earth IS round and spinning and that we are being pushed up towards it as we are standing on the Earth’s inner surface. Anyone who disagrees is a moron. ---
**Author:** ![Ace\_Face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/858c86/32.png) [@Ace\_Face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace_Face)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2001, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravitists-vs-downists/35758/128 "2001-02-13T20:08:56Z")
I once had a girlfriend who wasn’t a Downist, but she expected me to be a Downist once or twice a night. Hypocrite. ---
**Author:** ![Phobos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Phobos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phobos)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2001, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravitists-vs-downists/35758/129 "2001-02-14T13:35:58Z")
…a year later and I’m still right about this (I’m still looking for that reference though)… ---
**Author:** ![71-Hour\_Achmed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/7/57b2e6/32.png) [@71-Hour\_Achmed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/71-Hour_Achmed)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2001, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravitists-vs-downists/35758/130 "2001-02-15T09:09:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tomndebb \* > \*\*All right. If Gravity is only a theory. How do Downists explain airplanes and birds flying? Gravity provides a clear explanation of Flight using the principle of Static Gravity, which, when one overcomes it, allows one to go Up. > > Nothing in the (faith based) speculations of Downism can accurately explain why anything is allowed to go Up. […] If left to the politics of the Downists, the Wright brothers would have spent their final years in prison for having the temerity to demonstrate that one can overcome gravity (which the Downists refuse to even recognize as a force). > \*\* You people have clearly never studied the Kadownah. The fundamental principle behind flight is that the things which fly are forcing other things down faster. This results in a net up force on the flying object, but when considered as a whole, the entire system is moving down as required in an orderly universe. Watch a bat or bird. Its wings force other things down as the bird or bat is forced up. An airplane uses fuel (the fractions of which are likely pterodactyl-derived, IMHO) to force other things down as it in turn forces itself up. Observe the ungainly helicopter: when it stops forcing air down, the helicopter itself drops like the steel brick that it is. The Wrights merely studied the ancient truths and had the luck and timing to be around at a time when power-to-weight ratios had dropped enough to allow sufficient Downthrust to be generated to slip the bonds of Earth and touch the sky. This is not magic, it is simply the practical verification of Downism in our daily lives. Open your eyes! ---
**Author:** ![WhiteRaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8dc957/32.png) [@WhiteRaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhiteRaven)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2001, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravitists-vs-downists/35758/131 "2001-02-18T11:02:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pantom \* > \*\ ***CKDextHavn** : > > > [@](#): > > > > \<\< Why do they call it the “law” of gravity, like it’s been proven? You can’t see gravity, can you? Huh? Huh? Can you? \>\> > > > > Well, the Indiana state legislature (along with its law that pi = 3) also passed a bill enforcing gravity, hence the … um … law of gravity. However, it’s only operative in Indiana. > > Didn’t you mean Kansas? Or did I miss something? > > \*\* Of course not, if gravity was a law in kansas, Dorthy’s house would never had gotten off the ground…think before you post these things!! Sheesh ---
**Author:** ![SterlingNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@SterlingNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SterlingNorth)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2001, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravitists-vs-downists/35758/132 "2001-02-18T12:01:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by 71-Hour Achmed \* > You people have clearly never studied the Kadownah. The fundamental principle behind flight is that the things which fly are forcing other things down faster. This results in a net up force on the flying object, but when considered as a whole, the entire system is moving down as required in an orderly universe. > > Watch a bat or bird. Its wings force other things down as the bird or bat is forced up. An airplane uses fuel (the fractions of which are likely pterodactyl-derived, IMHO) to force other things down as it in turn forces itself up. > > Observe the ungainly helicopter: when it stops forcing air down, the helicopter itself drops like the steel brick that it is. > [And assorted Kadoweenie mishmash] Sad, sad indeed. Another sucker of the Kadownah crock. Did they make you pay, for that misinformation? Everybody knows that airplane propellers and jets don’t point down. Therefore, they can’t be forcing nothing down. Sheesh, our educational system is in taters. Or course, our overreliance on the aircraft is causing dire climate changes. Their used to be a day where families could live their lives in peace in the moble home. Now not a day goes by where some trailer park somewhere **isn’t** hit by a tornado or huricane or a typhoon. These planes are destroying our way of life. Like my mom said, “If God meant for us to fly in jets, He’d strap turbines to our asses. They we’d could fart our way to LA if we wish.” But then, this ain’t got nothing to to with the scam of Gravity. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravitists-vs-downists/35758/133 "2001-02-19T18:39:20Z")
\<\< Sheesh, our educational system is in taters \>\> You mean the whole educational system has moved to Idaho? Or, if the entire educational system was standard, tepid, ordinary, it would be a commen-tator? OK, I’m leaving now, I saw what happened the last time I started something. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravitists-vs-downists/35758.md?page=6)