# The spherical\* Earth conspiracy **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 3, 2017, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-spherical-earth-conspiracy/776226 "2017-01-03T13:34:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-spherical-earth-conspiracy/776226/101 "2017-01-08T02:24:00Z")
> [@Weisshund](#): > > . . . And revelations, which is highly figurative . . . But so many centuries after Isiah, Genesis, et al, that the comparison isn’t really fair. John had exposure to Greek philosophy; the authors of the earlier works (almost certainly) did not. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-spherical-earth-conspiracy/776226/102 "2017-01-08T04:16:21Z")
> [@Weisshund](#): > > Not really, people still use the same phrases today “… **standing** at the four corners of the Earth”? Don’t recall anyone using that phrase. Not about standing at those corners. > [@](#): > > And revelations, which is highly figurative Right. The Bible is literal except when it’s inconvenient. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-spherical-earth-conspiracy/776226/103 "2017-01-08T07:21:13Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > There’s actually [more than that](http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Four-Corners) in the Bible about 4 corners of the Earth. Since everything in the Bible is true, obviously the Earth is a four-cornered circle… Which, strangely enough, [is not impossible](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ineO1tIyPfM). (If anyone has a non-video link describing the concept, I’m sure some Dopers would appreciate it.) Still, **Flyer** is correct that those other verses do not even on their own indicate that the Earth is a flat disk, even if you are a literalist. The Matthew comment only requires that all the kingdoms of the world be localized to a smaller region than the whole globe. As for Isaiah, even literalists recognize that prophesy is symbolic. The idea is just that anything not given as metaphor is literal. Similarly, most of Jesus’s Parables didn’t literally happen. But, even if you do take it literally, it doesn’t say there’s not also a tent on the other side, or what shape the tent actually is. I know way too many literalists who have no problem with a round Earth. I’ve never even seen a version of Creation that doesn’t show a round Earth. Biblical Flat Earthers are a subset of a subset. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-spherical-earth-conspiracy/776226/104 "2017-01-08T07:25:48Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > “… **standing** at the four corners of the Earth”? > > Don’t recall anyone using that phrase. Not about standing at those corners. > > Right. The Bible is literal except when it’s inconvenient. No, the belief is the Bible is literal except where it clearly indicates it isn’t. Revelation flat out says it is a vision seen by a prophet: Rev. 1:1-3 :The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, [2] who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. [3] Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near. Sure, a literalist believes the prophet literally saw this. But they also know of Joseph interpreting dreams, showing that said visions are not literal glimpses of the future–and nothing in scripture contradicts this. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-spherical-earth-conspiracy/776226/105 "2017-01-08T07:33:37Z")
[BTW, the flat earth wouldn’t work the way you think it would work.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNqNnUJVcVs) And do note that even structures you can see have to take the round earth into account. The Golden gate bridge is used in the video. Also some history of Flat Earthers in there, including a guy from Zion, Illinois. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-spherical-earth-conspiracy/776226/106 "2017-01-08T10:07:06Z")
I’m not going to discuss this anymore. This is the wrong forum to be arguing about Biblical literacy. I didn’t bring the subject up, but I shouldn’t have joined in on it. Let’s just drop it. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-spherical-earth-conspiracy/776226/107 "2017-01-08T14:34:09Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Aha, the elusive picture (proof) of Columbus’ mysterious fourth ship, sailing off the edge of the earth. Welp, ::cracks knuckles:: time to kill another thread: Columbus’s four ships were the Niña, the Pinta, the Santa and the Maria. The Santa disappeared, so CC fudged the bills of lading and claimed there were only three ships. The Maria had “Santa” painted on the stern (historically said to be a really crappy job). The Santa ended up at the North Pole (the center of the disk?) and visits us every year with some fat person in a red suit at the helm–Spiderman (he’s let himself go). ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-spherical-earth-conspiracy/776226/108 "2017-01-08T17:15:34Z")
> [@Weisshund](#): > > A ball is also a circle though > And one problem with using the good old KJV is it is in english. > it loses a lot in translation from a language that has not been spoken in the biblical form for quite a long time. You’ve heard of the King James Only movement? > **[King James Only movement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_James_Only_movement)** > > The King James Only movement (also known as King James Onlyism or KJV Onlyism) asserts the belief that the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible is superior to all other translations of the Bible. Adherents of the King James Only movement, mostly members of certain Conservative Anabaptist, traditionalist Anglo-Catholic, Conservative Holiness Methodist and some Baptist churches, believe that the KJV needs no further improvements because it is the greatest English translation of the Bible which ... Basically, they regard the King James Version as divinely inspired, sometimes even superseding the original manuscripts, on the theory that even the originals aren’t the actual original versions, but are translations of the real original divine manuscripts in heaven. So arguing that the KJV has problems isn’t likely to get you very far with a biblical literalist. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-spherical-earth-conspiracy/776226/109 "2017-01-08T19:38:00Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > [BTW, the flat earth wouldn’t work the way you think it would work.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNqNnUJVcVs) > > And do note that even structures you can see have to take the round earth into account. The Golden gate bridge is used in the video. Also some history of Flat Earthers in there, including a guy from Zion, Illinois. Psst, check out post 8. ---
**Author:** ![Weisshund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba8739/32.png) [@Weisshund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weisshund)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-spherical-earth-conspiracy/776226/110 "2017-01-08T19:53:47Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > “… **standing** at the four corners of the Earth”? > > Don’t recall anyone using that phrase. Not about standing at those corners. When i was a kid, i remember hearing all the time on AM radio “Spanning the corners of the globe, Live World Sports” Which if you think about it, sounds really confusing if you take it literally, but you dont you take it for what it means, sports from all over the world. The entire english language is full of very strange figures of speech, american english has figures of speech that baffle the rest of the world and literally make no sense at all, but we understand them just fine for what they actually mean, not what the words on paper seem to say. Which brings up another point, when someone translates one of out figures of speech to another language, the meaning is lost (if the translator even understood the meaning to begin with) it may come out total nonsense but comical, it may come out total rubbish, it may even come out making sense per say, but not mean anything close to what it meant before translation. > [@](#): > > Right. The Bible is literal except when it’s inconvenient. Not really, it’s literal where it needs to be. Dont go murder your neighbor and hump his daughter, nothing hard to comprehend there, so plain simple and literal, no excuse to not get the concept. Something a bit harder to grasp or see the whole picture, maybe i tell it in parable so you can step back and see the whole thing, so you can see how it works without having to fight through it yourself. Something just impossibly hard to grasp, at least for the time? maybe i’d better try to show you in very figurative artistic vision so you can grasp the concept and understand the important parts. Also i do have to make it so you can actually write it down and that the next guy gets the gist of it too. Adults do this all the time when telling things to small children, children arent dumb but there are some things they are not going to grasp yet in a literal sense, so we tell it to them differently, in a way that sounds just stupid to another adult, but the child gets it, they get the concept, later they will understand it literally. ---
**Author:** ![Weisshund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba8739/32.png) [@Weisshund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weisshund)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-spherical-earth-conspiracy/776226/111 "2017-01-08T20:06:39Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > You’ve heard of the King James Only movement? > > [King James Only movement - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_James_Only_movement) > > Basically, they regard the King James Version as divinely inspired, sometimes even superseding the original manuscripts, on the theory that even the originals aren’t the actual original versions, but are translations of the real original divine manuscripts in heaven. > > So arguing that the KJV has problems isn’t likely to get you very far with a biblical literalist. No, never heard of that. I’ve never known an English King to be divinely inspired by anything I’d probably have to try very hard not to laugh if they told me this was a copy of a copy of a copy of the original written on ethereal parchment in heaven. The idea that God would have to actually write something down for himself sounds more like a George Burns movie. I also assume that God, in his infinite wisdom already knows that anything he has someone write down, is over time going to get somewhat botched in translations and so keeps the literals simple, and the concepts not overly complex, so if you can just stick to the general idea, we’re good. Also why he probably didn’t decide to inspire someone to write a definitive literally history of the world, bio engineering and cloning, nuclear physics, etc, cause you know how messed up that would be by now. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-spherical-earth-conspiracy/776226/112 "2017-01-08T20:38:45Z")
When I read stuff like this I’m always torn, do flatearthers really believe? Well this guy has convinced me he does: [- YouTube](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Du8N4bkfVLk) ---
**Author:** ![Weisshund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba8739/32.png) [@Weisshund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weisshund)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-spherical-earth-conspiracy/776226/113 "2017-01-08T20:53:13Z")
> [@White SIFL](#): > > When I read stuff like this I’m always torn, do flatearthers really believe? Well this guy has convinced me he does: [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Du8N4bkfVLk](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Du8N4bkfVLk) Question How does one of that persuasion explain this If i fly West from alask, i reach russia japan and china very easily If i fly East from NY, its a longer flight but given enough fuel, i arrive the same place and if i keep going i arrive in alaska again? Also if i fly north from say montana, i can visit siberia pretty quickly ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-spherical-earth-conspiracy/776226/114 "2017-01-08T22:23:52Z")
> [@Weisshund](#): > > Question > How does one of that persuasion explain this > > If i fly West from alask, i reach russia japan and china very easily > If i fly East from NY, its a longer flight but given enough fuel, i arrive the same place and if i keep going i arrive in alaska again? > > Also if i fly north from say montana, i can visit siberia pretty quickly If you look at what they consider [the map of the world](http://www.abodia.com/fe/images/flat-earth-map.png) to look like, all of those examples are not that far from how it is on a globe Earth. When you’re in Montana, and fly north, you’re headed towards the center of the flat Earth, then if you keep going, Siberia is on the other side of that. The problems are more in the southern latitudes. For example, the flight from southern South America to Australia on the flat Earth map is really, really far, and you’d have to start your flight heading mostly northward, which is the opposite of what really happens. ---
**Author:** ![Weisshund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba8739/32.png) [@Weisshund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weisshund)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-spherical-earth-conspiracy/776226/115 "2017-01-08T23:47:03Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > If you look at what they consider [the map of the world](http://www.abodia.com/fe/images/flat-earth-map.png) to look like, all of those examples are not that far from how it is on a globe Earth. When you’re in Montana, and fly north, you’re headed towards the center of the flat Earth, then if you keep going, Siberia is on the other side of that. > > The problems are more in the southern latitudes. For example, the flight from southern South America to Australia on the flat Earth map is really, really far, and you’d have to start your flight heading mostly northward, which is the opposite of what really happens. Thanks for the picture, i can visualize now but that still does not rectify this situation If i fly absolutely following the longitude line poking out the bottom of south america i will, for a fact, already been done, reach china and the north pole as well as the floaty bits on the way. I wonder how they rectify that fact in this belief? As well as the fact that going directly south (south per lonngitude lines, not some magical feat of imaginary magnetism) from south america AND austrailia both get you a ride to antarcticville? Is it possible they just make believe in this for fun? or are they really that wacko? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-spherical-earth-conspiracy/776226.md?page=5)