# What is the point to flat earth? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 31, 2017, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-to-flat-earth/787748 "2017-05-31T00:57:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-to-flat-earth/787748/21 "2017-05-31T04:57:49Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > **BWIWA!** > > Is that the translation of 'yod heh vav heh"? BWIWA commands that you answer! I Am That I Am And That’s All That I Am, I’m Yahweh The Four-Letter Man, _Toot Toot!_ ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-to-flat-earth/787748/22 "2017-05-31T05:10:48Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Interesting side question: as I listened to Neil step onto the surface of the moon, everyone in the world at the time had been born before men had walked on the moon; as I watched the rover’s camera show the Apollo 17 lunar module blast off, everyone born thereafter was born after men walked on the moon; are there now more people alive born after the end of the Apollo moon program than those born before it? [Definitely.](http://www.indexmundi.com/graphs/population-pyramids/world-population-pyramid-2016.gif) ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-to-flat-earth/787748/23 "2017-05-31T05:13:52Z")
> [@Weisshund](#): > > Tell the moron that if you tie a toy plane to a string by the landing gear and spin it around in a circle, the plane will always remain level with relative to the center of the circle, it will be RELEVELING itself constantly every point of the way so to speak. > > And it is traveling a ROUND path, not FLAT. > > The real plane tracks its attitude using a string called gravity, which pulls towards… > > wait for it The center of the round earth. :smack: > > If you have the plane follow a laser beam, which has no normal choice but to be straight, the plane will fly off into space (granting said plane has the engines to do so) > > Im old and tired and worked all day, if i can grasp that concept… > … well i will let you guys pick a catch phrase. > > I’m heading for a nap on my flat bed on the round earth. Yet wherever you position your bed on this so-called ‘round earth’ it remains flat!!! I’ll bet if you had a spirit level in there with you it would show exactly the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![sbunny8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@sbunny8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sbunny8)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-to-flat-earth/787748/24 "2017-05-31T07:29:38Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Interesting side question: as I listened to Neil step onto the surface of the moon, everyone in the world at the time had been born before men had walked on the moon; as I watched the rover’s camera show the Apollo 17 lunar module blast off, everyone born thereafter was born after men walked on the moon; are there now more people alive born after the end of the Apollo moon program than those born before it? Heck yes. We passed that milestone around 2001, when the [median age of humans on Earth was 26](http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/), ergo half of them were born in or after 1975. Now in 2017 the median age is around 30. More than half of humans alive right now were born after [Bart Simpson first appeared on television](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Simpsons_shorts). ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-to-flat-earth/787748/25 "2017-05-31T10:35:29Z")
[This meme](http://imgur.com/a/3sXKX) sums up the position, as I see it. Flat Earthers think that having the Earth at the centre of all creation, designed for humans, makes them special, whereas having humans evolve by chance on one small planet circling a frankly rather mediocre star in the unfashionable western spiral arm of a rather dull galaxy etc etc, means they are not that important. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-to-flat-earth/787748/26 "2017-05-31T12:20:23Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > For a picosecond, imagine that the FEs were correct, that the Earth is indeed some sort of flat thing: what then? What do they hope to gain or change by proving a flat Earth? Dude. Think about us Dopers. We will spend hours posting to show that someone who is wrong is wrong. If one imagines what you ask us to imagine, ie that FE’s are correct, then it isn’t the slightest bit surprising they would advocate for it. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-to-flat-earth/787748/27 "2017-05-31T13:48:46Z")
The Earth looks flat on paper … notice all the photographs they took of Earth during the fake Moon landings show it to be just a flat disk … every one … Haha … carpenter’s levels don’t work in orbit … EAT: Flat Earth has no points … you’re thinking Tetrahedral Earth /// ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-to-flat-earth/787748/28 "2017-05-31T14:56:53Z")
This guy was off-base in trying to do this experiment with a level, but it could be done with a gyroscope. ---
**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:** [May 31, 2017, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-to-flat-earth/787748/29 "2017-05-31T15:06:00Z")
**Colophon** , that might be the thinking, but really, you could swap any of the sentences in those two “arguments” and the whole thing would make just as much sense. ---
**Author:** ![Weisshund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba8739/32.png) [@Weisshund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weisshund)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-to-flat-earth/787748/30 "2017-05-31T17:39:55Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > Yet wherever you position your bed on this so-called ‘round earth’ it remains flat!!! > > I’ll bet if you had a spirit level in there with you it would show exactly the same thing. Level is a relative term. it is level in relation to a line from it to the center of the earth. it is level in relation to gravity. and if the idiots understood as much about gravity as i do (which is probably less than zero) they would see that gravity does not make flats, it makes rounds ---
**Author:** ![Weisshund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba8739/32.png) [@Weisshund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weisshund)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-to-flat-earth/787748/31 "2017-05-31T17:51:26Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > This guy was off-base in trying to do this experiment with a level, but it could be done with a gyroscope. No, it could not. What i mean by that is HIS experiment was to prove the earth is flat The gyroscope would show that the plane is actually changing attitude with reference to a fixed point in space, which would show that the plane is traversing a sphere (or at least a cylinder) and would show the earth is NOT flat. This is not Narnia, and we don’t float to the edge off into Aslan’s country to visit the Emperor beyond the sea. That wouldn’t make his day ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-to-flat-earth/787748/32 "2017-05-31T18:07:14Z")
I like the argument that the earth cannot be flat because if it were, my cat would have knocked everything off it by now. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-to-flat-earth/787748/33 "2017-05-31T18:47:49Z")
I was going to make a point that this is no proof as an plane in orbit making one rotation per revolution will always have its floor parallel to the tangent line(s) directly beneath it thus it is always level. But then I read this quote from the guy in the video [QUOTE=Flat Earth Idiot] The bubble doesn’t stay centered due to gravity. Understand that gravity is a still just a theory. Consider how gravity supposedly comes about…a molten metal core which somehow becomes magnetized. If that is the case, then metal foundries should all be magnetized…should they not? Also, how does magnetism effect an air bubble inside a glass cylinder containing a liquid more saline than water? [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-to-flat-earth/787748/34 "2017-05-31T18:55:36Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > The Earth looks flat on paper … notice all the photographs they took of Earth during the fake Moon landings show it to be just a flat disk … every one … > > Haha … carpenter’s levels don’t work in orbit … > > EAT: Flat Earth has no points … you’re thinking Tetrahedral Earth /// No, no…the Earth is round _and_ flat! ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-to-flat-earth/787748/35 "2017-05-31T19:02:22Z")
Like a tortilla not like matzos ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-to-flat-earth/787748/36 "2017-05-31T19:13:41Z")
Claiming the earth be flat has to do with mythology, not science. A person could be sincere in his or her beliefs, but one should suspect anyone conducting a “scientific” test of the curvature of the earth to be not so. After all, such experimentation smacks of heresy and witchcraft. If it is written in scripture that the earth is flat, that’s it, there is nothing to check. ---
**Author:** ![DieselkW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@DieselkW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DieselkW)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-to-flat-earth/787748/37 "2017-05-31T19:15:59Z")
Flat earth proponents should not try to use airplanes to prove their assumptions. I mean, what if the flight path got him from NY to Tokyo by way of the North Pole? Little hard to explain that sudden and immediate direction change from North to South without knocking over his level. What does a flat earth look like? A disc? If it’s a disc, is all of the known earth on one side of the disc, or can you take a shortcut from Omaha to Shanghai by digging? You know why a soap bubble is a sphere? Because it’s the most efficient shape it can be. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2017, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-to-flat-earth/787748/38 "2017-06-01T00:53:37Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > Claiming the earth be flat has to do with mythology, not science. A person could be sincere in his or her beliefs, but one should suspect anyone conducting a “scientific” test of the curvature of the earth to be not so. After all, such experimentation smacks of heresy and witchcraft. If it is written in scripture that the earth is flat, that’s it, there is nothing to check. This is the real answer. Any FE adherent proposing an experiment to prove it has already surrendered to what he thinks of as the Dark Side. “Believe because Bible” is the only internally consistent FE position. Accept no substitutes. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2017, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-to-flat-earth/787748/39 "2017-06-01T01:10:13Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > “Believe because Bible” is the only internally consistent FE position. Accept no substitutes. No, there are conspiry theorists out there that are flat earthers who pride themselves on not falling for what suckers fall for and aren’t particularly religious. Ever listen to the Joe Rogan podcast? Eddie Bravo is a seemingly intelligent guy that is a flat earther, Moon theory conspirathist, JFK conspirathist, chemtrail believer, Illuminati believer, etc. The rest of us fall for what we’re being fed. It’s pretty entertaining, though. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X9pszVRucs) ---
**Author:** ![Weisshund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba8739/32.png) [@Weisshund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weisshund)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2017, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-to-flat-earth/787748/40 "2017-06-01T01:29:40Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > But then I read this quote from the guy in the video > [@Originally Posted by Flat Earth Idiot](#): > > The bubble doesn’t stay centered due to gravity. Understand that gravity is a still just a theory. Consider how gravity supposedly comes about…a molten metal core which somehow becomes magnetized. If that is the case, then metal foundries should all be magnetized…should they not? Also, how does magnetism effect an air bubble inside a glass cylinder containing a liquid more saline than water? Wait what? Molten core is Yes, how we generate a magnetic field that saves us from being microwaved, but it has little to do with gravity. If our core cooled and went solid, we might all be fried alive by radiation, but no one would float off the earth Mars has gravity, it has no molten core it went solid eons ago, same with the moon. Any object of sufficient mass will display appreciable gravity, even a cosmic ball of play-doh. And a flat earth can not have a molten core, not the way the explain it existing :smack: And iron foundries do generate magnetic fields. And magnetism does not affect the bubble (Not in the sense of what this guy is saying) The “Theoretical” gravity does. :smack: Im not sure if these people are frustrating or funny? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-to-flat-earth/787748.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-to-flat-earth/787748.md?page=3)