BY EMERSON LAYNE

Ever since grade school, people have known the Earth is round, or more accurately an oblate spheroid. But, a small group of people believe the contrary, believing the true shape of the Earth is a flat disk. With mountains of evidence proving the Earth is round, why would people believe it is flat? Well, there’s different reasons for it.

According to the general populous of Flat Earthers, the Earth is a flat disk covered by a dome and surrounded by an ice wall, i.e. Antarctica. The Sun and the moon are basically projections or disks themselves that go along the dome over the Earth, creating day and night. Most Flat Earthers don’t believe that other planets and space exists, that all stars and planets visible on Earth are projections on the dome over the Earth. Whatever is beyond the dome over the Earth, Flat Earthers don’t know. The more religious Flat Earthers believe that beyond the dome is Heaven.

Flat Earthers actually draw their conclusions from real scientific observations and equipment to “prove” their theories, but mainly they say their feelings prove the Earth is flat. Most of this “proof” contradicts what Flat Earthers believe, but Flat Earthers ignore, outright reject, or spin the evidence they themselves gathered to prove the Earth is flat. One man, Mike Hughes, in his documentary Rocketman: Mad Mike’s Mission to Prove the Flat Earth attempted to build a rocketship to prove the existence of the flat Earth. Sadly, a failed flight test ended up killing Hughes in 2020. Others state that the government or NASA is hiding the truth from the public, or that easily gathered scientific evidence is faked or misinterpreted optical illusions of a curvature. Flat Earthers state that their own sights and feelings of their surroundings dictate what is true and false. By that logic, everything you cannot see doesn’t exist, but when contradictions and inconsistencies are pointed out, even when Flat Earthers unintentionally point it out themselves, they are brushed off as illusions or fallacies. 

Flat Earthers have a great distrust of the government and NASA, believing that they are constantly lying to the public. While it is understandable to have some distrust with your government, especially when politicians lie quite often, it’s a complete stretch to use that distrust to prove a false theory. When asked why the government and NASA lie about the Earth being round, Flat Earthers believe they are unintentionally lying by simply not understanding the facts given to them. 

Many of Flat Earthers’ statements can be easily proven by just traveling. You can travel in international waters and never find an ice wall. You can travel to Russia from the US by going West. You can go to one of the highest mountains in the world, Mount Everest, and see the curvature of the Earth at the highest point. There are a few commercial flight paths that fly over Antarctica. Some Flat Earthers also believe that pictures of Earth taken from space are Photoshoped, when there are photos of Earth from space or the moon long before Photoshop or the internet was even invented; some photos of Earth were taken in 1947. 

Flat Earthers are not dumb, not by any means. Even Mike Hughes wanted to test his theory on flat Earth, knowing he could be proven false or even kill himself trying to prove it. Flat Earthers subconsciously want to prove a bias that is rooted in the distrust of others and authoritative figures. Flat Earthers beliefs fall under gullibility rather than stupidity. Even if Flat Earthers distrust the government, they actively distrust educated scientists and researchers who’ve spent years researching and gathering information by their own hands. It’s understandable to distrust a large authoritative figure that is controversial at best, but why distrust scientists, who at most, get government funding for researching things that benefit and are proven to be ultimately true? Simply put, Flat Earthers don’t want to hear another viewpoint, especially when it clashes with their own.