As a sailor and navigator, I’ve been noticing the proliferation of the “Flat Earth” mania. I admit I’m curious how flat earthers find their way here and there in the world where all the books that explain how to do that presume a globular earth. By far the most interesting part of the phenomenon is the manner of its most visible proponents, who appear bent on shaming, belittling, and making fun of those who don’t buy their assertions.. To me this speaks worlds about their miniature egos and their fantasies of superiority.
Still, to give the devil his due, I’m issuing the following challenge to the flat-earth crowd. If you competently fit one of the 40 descriptions below, please contact me at once. I have some questions for you. Perhaps you can shed some light on just what it means to say the earth is flat.
Aeronautical Engineer
Aerospace Engineer
Air Almanac Writer/Editor
Airline Logistics Engineer
Antarctic Explorer
Antarctic Researcher
Archaeologist
Astronaut
Astronomer
Astrophysicist
Aviator / Air Navigator
Military
Commercial
Amateur
Cartographer
Civil Engineer
Roads
Canals
Bridges
Electronic Beacon Engineer
Expedition Logistics Professional
Geographer
GPS Engineer
LORAN Engineer
Mathematician
Military War-Gamer
Nautical Almanac Writer/Editor
Orbital Flight Engineer
Paleontologist
Physicist
“Practical Navigation” (Bowditch) Reader
Science teacher
Sextant maker
Ship officer
Captain
Mate
Able seaman
Surveyor
Tanker Logistics Engineer
Volcanologist
World traveler
Yachtsman
Professional
Amateur
If you are a flat earth proponent but you aren’t on the list, I rather imagine you are laughing your ass off at the gullible fools who believe your nonsense. Prove me wrong. Bring me a flat earther who is on the list who is prepared to answer some probing questions intelligently. I will consider failure to do so to be an admission of fraud, in the form of baseless attention-getting. Bring it on!
Example: According to public records there are over 45,400 commercial ships plying the oceans today. So allowing for at least 3 navigation-savvy crew members on each ship, there must be some 136,000 reasonably capable navigators out there. Based on these numbers, it seems reasonable to me that there must be over a million individuals whose careers appear on the list above. I’ll be amazed if even 1 of them supports the flat earth hypothesis. We’ll see.
