Flat Earth Theory
Sounds like a joke, right?
No. It isn't.
The first time I heard about it was when NBA superstar Kyrie Irving's name was being associated with the term "flat earther." I initially dismissed it as fake news because I really couldn't believe that someone from this day and age, especially someone so famous, could believe that the Earth was flat. But sadly, it was true. "The Earth is flat." Kyrie actually said it himself while being interviewed in a podcast. I was outraged. I googled the Flat Earth Theory more and apparently, rapper B.o.B. was also an outspoken flat earther. This is bad because thousands of people, especially kids, look up to these individuals. Promoting that the Earth is flat is just plain wrong.
The Flat Earth Theory has quite a following. And their numbers are steadily increasing day by day. So why is this theory gaining popularity even if it sounds so damn ridiculous? Well, I did some research and here's what I found out.
What is the Flat Earth Theory?
As the name suggests, it is a theory that the Earth is flat, not an oblate spheroid. The Earth apparently is shaped like a disk with the North Pole in its center, and a wall of ice (Antarctica) around it which holds the oceans back.
According to the Flat Earth Society (FES), NASA and most of the space agencies around the world are involved in a conspiracy to fake space exploration. They claim that it all started during the Space Race, a competition that started in the 1950s between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. to reach outer space first and prove superiority over the skies. Both countries allegedly faked their accomplishments to keep at par with each other's supposed technology. The Flat Earth Theory is so elaborate that flat earthers actually explain how a disk-shaped Earth can have night and day, seasons, magnetic fields , and how the earth is positioned in outer space.
You can check it all out in their website at https://www.tfes.org/. They also go into detail about how all the pictures of the Earth as a globe are apparently illusions and that there is no true picture of the Earth. According to the Flat Earth Society, photographic evidence can easily be forged so they do not give much credence to these "fake" pictures. The Flat Earth Society says that evidence of the Earth being flat is all around us. For example, cloud bottoms are flat, the world looks and feels flat and that the movement of the sun evidently hints to the fact that the world is indeed, flat. The best proof that they have is the Bedford Level Experiment, an experiment performed multiple times on a six-mile stretch of water that proved the surface of the water to be flat.
Circumnavigating around the world was seemingly a hoax too according to them. You just have to move around a great circle around the North Pole.
What is their goal?
Well aside from spreading false information (hahaha), they aim to convince people that the Earth is, without a doubt, flat. They also promote self-research. Common ground among flat earthers is if you have been believing the lie that the Earth is round for all of your life, you could easily be lied to about anything.
Because of the theory's rising popularity, famous science communicators Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson have been quick to condemn the seemingly obtuse theory. Like most people, they have been baffled by the amount of people who actually believe that the earth is flat.
There should absolutely be no contest about the Earth's shape. There is irrefutable evidence that the earth is round. The pictures are not fake, the pull of gravity, the setting sun on a horizon, all the other planets in the solar system are round are just some of the evidence which proves that the Earth is round. And for chrissakes, THE EARTH IS ROUND, FLAT-EARTHERS!
