Recently one Mike Hughes launched himself off the earth in a rocket and, Icarus-like, he crashed back down and killed himself. He was what is known as a flat-earther. In ignorant medieval times, most people believe that the earth was flat; however modern Flat Earth societies exist today as well. These are people who believe that the earth is a flat disc.
Mike Hughes built himself a rocket to propel him into space so that he could ‘prove’ that the earth is flat. A previous such attempt in 2018 was also unsuccessful. However, at that time he had managed to deploy the rocket’s parachutes to return safely to earth. This death is terribly tragic of course, but it illustrates how dangerous irrational beliefs can be.
Flat earthers believe that that earth is a flat disc and that it is bounded on the sides by ice (presumably Antarctic ice). The North Pole is in the centre of said disc. They maintain that the idea of the earth as a sphere is an elaborate hoax of the scientific community. It is the ‘biggest lie ever’ and is designed to discredit religious belief.
Flat earthers typically proffer such ‘facts’ as evidence of their belief system: since the water doesn’t ‘fly off’ the earth, this is evidence of the earth being flat.
The flat earthers apparently believe that dinosaurs existed, but not that the earth is a spinning globe. In their world view, the dinos died because a meteor hit the earth and overturned it; and the poor prehistoric creatures just fell off. Or so the memes theorise.
Inevitably, the rather strange beliefs of flat earthers inspire a lot of memes. Someone envisioned how a lunar eclipse would be in this alternative universe.
There is also the fantastical earth-on-a-turtle’s-back-supported-by-elephants theory. Meme makers helpfully illustrate here, what the eclipse would look like it this was the case.
When presented with images of the earth taken from space and other evidence, believers of the flat earth theory refute it all. They aver that this is trick photography using a wide-angle lens; a terrible deception.
The whole idea of the earth being a sphere spinning around the sun is an elaborate hoax, say flat earthers. This conspiracy theory believes that this is the evil, worldwide design to replace religion with science.
In today’s virtual world, it is easy for people with similar belief systems to band together and validate each other’s beliefs, no matter how extreme or implausible.
The flat earthers are determined to believe what they do and nothing will change their mind. Poor deluded Mike Hughes even died trying to prove his delusions right. No amount of evidence to the contrary is will open the eyes of the willfully blind after all.
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