Prove or Disprove Flat Earth Theology

[Samantha Rinne]

So ummm, I took a trip to China in like 2005. I noticed that rather than going from LA to China directly east to west, we instead flew directly north through the Arctic Circle. The official reasoning behind this is that planes need to be near land in case of emergency, but c'mon, this is 2019 and seaplanes were invented during the Midway campaigns of WWII. Pretty sure a water landing is safer than a crash landing in the ice.

However, when you look at one of those overhead maps of the Earth, it suddenly makes sense, as you're flying overland in a mostly straight line.

 

[Rival]

Flat earth belief is not a 'theology'.

 

[Terry Sampson]

 

[Twilight Hue]

Flat earth belief is not a 'theology'.

That and the maps are not Google Earth.

 

[ChristineM]

Of course the earth is not flat, if it were all the cats would have knocked everything off the edge by now.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

Of course the earth is not flat, if it were all the cats would have knocked everything off the edge by now.

now THAT's an argument I hadn't thought of yet!

 

[Rival]

I'm sad that flat earth nonsense has made it onto RF.

Don't give this funny ratings, I mean I'm genuinely sad.

It's topics like this that ensure we have trolls.

 

[ChristineM]

It's topics like that ensure we have trolls.

Don't be sad, it is after all a belief, one of the stranger beliefs for sure (and i have heard of some very strange beliefs). But take heart, the flat earth society, at their 2018 AGM boasted members from all over the globe.

And comedians.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

Planes fly the actual shortest route in 3-dimensional space. On a planet like earth, which is a slightly oblate spheroid (not a perfect sphere), that shortest route between any two points is called a geodesic, or a "great circle." When you look at these routes on maps, which are flat, unlike the surface of the earth they are intended to depict, these routes look distorted, because the map is distorted. For many, many routes in the northern hemisphere, these great circles include polar or near-polar approaches. But they actually do save time and distance (and thus fuel).

 

[Rival]

Those silly Mediaeval and Early Modern people!​

 

[viole]

Flat earth belief is not a 'theology'.

Why not? Prima facie it does not look much less plausible than what people call “theology”.

Ciao

- viole

 

[Subduction Zone]

So ummm, I took a trip to China in like 2005. I noticed that rather than going from LA to China directly east to west, we instead flew directly north through the Arctic Circle. The official reasoning behind this is that planes need to be near land in case of emergency, but c'mon, this is 2019 and seaplanes were invented during the Midway campaigns of WWII. Pretty sure a water landing is safer than a crash landing in the ice.

However, when you look at one of those overhead maps of the Earth, it suddenly makes sense, as you're flying overland in a mostly straight line.

How timely, this video just came out today and it addresses your video:

And you do realize that your map is a flat projection of a globe. It is not a globe itself. To see why a flight from Texas to England crosses Canada take a globe and a string. Stretch the string from Texas to England and note its path.

 

[exchemist]

Of course the earth is not flat, if it were all the cats would have knocked everything off the edge by now.

Quite.

And another thing: if the Earth were a ball, the people in New Zealand would be upside down. Well, I've been there and I can tell you, they are the right way up. So.

 

[crossfire]

Here's a screenshot of the Pacific Ocean from the interactive 3D Earth Globe e-Chalk to give you an idea of just how vast the Pacific Ocean really is.
3D Interactive Earth Globe

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

New So ummm, I took a trip to China in like 2005. I noticed that rather than going from LA to China directly east to west, we instead flew directly north through the Arctic Circle. The official reasoning behind this is that planes need to be near land in case of emergency, but c'mon, this is 2019 and seaplanes were invented during the Midway campaigns of WWII. Pretty sure a water landing is safer than a crash landing in the ice.

No, the official reason is that the shortest distance between two points on a globe is a great circle route. Here's the great circle route between LA and Beijing:

Great Circle Mapper

Notice that it skirts the Arctic Circle ear the Aleutian Islands.

If you don't believe me, go get a globe and measure. Flying way north is the shorter route.

 

[Subduction Zone]

No, the official reason is that the shortest distance between two points on a globe is a great circle route. Here's the great circle route between LA and Beijing:

Great Circle Mapper

Notice that it skirts the Arctic Circle ear the Aleutian Islands.

If you don't believe me, go get a globe and measure. Flying way north is the shorter route.

Great circle routes tend to arc towards the nearest pole. At least when they are projected on a standard flat map. One needs to remember that neither a Mercator Projection or the U.N. Map accurately represent the real world.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

Another matter, having to do with landing a jetliner: trying to land anywhere that is NOT a relatively wide and flat surface is by no means easy, and landing neither on ice nor water is safe--there are planes that can, but they are designed SPECIFICALLY to be able to do so...and airliners are NOT.

 

[Skwim]

source

.​

 

[Samantha Rinne]

I'm sad that flat earth nonsense has made it onto RF.

Don't give this funny ratings, I mean I'm genuinely sad.

It's topics like this that ensure we have trolls.

I have extracted pictures from Pinterest that may be of interest.

1. A domed flat Earth with closed (frozen) edge like this can hold water. I want you all for homework to inflate a globe-print beach ball, and try to get the ball to hold water. And tell me how it went.

(Yeah, it's easy to write me off as a troll, but I figured out that a sphere doesn't hold water, and you're still struggling with this)

Let's suppose for a second that the reason water doesn't fall off into outer space with a rounded surface, constant spinning, and everything else is that gravity magically holds everything in place. Two new questions must be asked: (1) why do we feel a breeze of 25 mph and in fact get knocked off the ground at above like 90 mph yet feel absolutely nothing of this extremely fast spin? And don't tell me biological adaptation, bookcases also stay put while the substantially lower force of an earthquake knocks them clean over. My mom gets motion sick easily. She should be in constant agony. (2) If gravity is such a strong force that it hold the sky and the clouds in place without a firmament, and also hold water from rising out of the sea, why then is it really very easy to overcome gravity with magnetism? I was at a rock museum, and those magnetite or hemitite or whatever stones, I managed to stack about 15 or so to each other and to a metal table for several minutes straight. Upside down.

These things, btw can both be explained by air bouyancy and density without invoking gravity. A feather flies when air pushes it because it is only slightly more dense than air and can override it. The same for metal with enough magnetism. A bookcase, is much heavier and generally will not lift. Water stays in place because it is contained, and we do not feel anything because the Earth is not rotating. Originally, all religions believed this, not only "backward" Muslims still challenge it. Everyone else is brainwashed to the point of not even understand their own cognitive dissonance.

2. Two areas on opposite eastern/western and norther/southern hemispheres at the same time (given time zones), should not both be able to see the moon. One should be full and the other new, if in fact they are on opposite hemispheres. However, they took this shot on the same night and...

(For that matter, in a round Earth, the eastern and western hemisphere ought to matter nearly as much as the southern and northern. However, northern and southern are seasonally inverted and have different constellations, as I found out when in South Africa their cold months were in the US summer. There however is no discernible difference between east and west)

3. Yeah, uhhh gravity isn't magic. Also, you've been brainwashed.

4. How do compasses work? And how do sundials work?

5. And lastly, this curvature of the Earth thing is just stupid. See below.

Lemme ask you something. You know those laser pointer things? You expect them to be level, and not curve. Enough so that people actually use them to build houses. If you point them in any direction, a curve would begin to show, that is, if there were one to be had. If all light curved with the curve of the Earth, you would not be able to trust a simple flashlight to light your way on a flat hill. It would constantly be curving in an odd line. Yet, if we are expected to believe that somehow a light that very clearly shines in a straight line is straight enough to measure angles for building but is somehow curving, yeah...

The atmosphere is domed, yes. We can figure this one out fairly easily with angles. But all of these things show issues with the surface also being rounded.

On last thing. Here is the Richmond Science Museum. This globe is intended to "prove" the earth is round, by pushing water up it. But you notice what's happening on the bottom? I think since then, they've got it to rotate more vertically. It still drips off. Round Earth... doesn't hold water. (I'm gonna chuckle at that terrible pun all night, btw)

 

[Subduction Zone]

I have extracted pictures from Pinterest that may be of interest.

1. A domed flat Earth with closed (frozen) edge like this can hold water. I want you all for homework to inflate a globe-print beach ball, and try to get the ball to hold water. And tell me how it went.

(Yeah, it's easy to write me off as a troll, but I figured out that a sphere doesn't hold water, and you're still struggling with this)

2. Two areas on opposite eastern/western hemispheres at the same time (given time zones), should not both be able to see the moon. One should be full and the other new, if in fact they are on opposite hemispheres. However, they took this shot on the same night and...

(For that matter, in a round Earth, the eastern and western hemisphere ought to matter nearly as much as the southern and northern. However, northern and southern are seasonally inverted, as I found out when in South Africa their cold months were in the US summer. There however is no discernible difference between east and west)

3. Yeah, uhhh gravity isn't magic. Also, you've been brainwashed.

4. How do compasses work? And how do sundials work?

5. And lastly, this curvature of the Earth thing is just stupid. See below.

Lemme ask you something. You know those laser pointer things? You expect them to be level, and not curve. Enough so that people actually use them to build houses. If you point them in any direction, a curve would begin to show, that is, if there were one to be had. If all light curved with the curve of the Earth, you would not be able to trust a simple flashlight to light your way on a flat hill. It would constantly be curving in an odd line. Yet, if we are expected to believe that somehow a light that very clearly shines in a straight line is straight enough to measure angles for building but is somehow curving, yeah...

The atmosphere is domed, yes. We can figure this one out fairly easily with angles. But all of these things show issues with the surface also being rounded.

On last thing. Here is the Richmond Science Museum. This globe is intended to "prove" the earth is round, by pushing water up it. But you notice what's happening on the bottom? I think since then, they've got it to rotate more vertically. It still drips off. Round Earth... doesn't hold water. (I'm gonna chuckle at that terrible pun all night, btw)

Please don't troll with strawman arguments/