Do you believe the Earth is flat?

Although the idea the Earth is flat has been scientifically discredited, there seems to be a growing belief in the conspiracy theory. A third of Americans polled by YouGov believe the Earth is flat. Picture: Getty Images

What does it mean to be flat earther?

“Look, flat earthers’ are actually employing Cartesian doubt; this a philosophical idea that the world outside the self is subject to uncertainty,” Dr Beckett says, referring to a method of sceptical thinking popularised by René Descartes, the French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist.

Is the UN logo actually a flat Earth map?

Many flat earthers endorse the idea that the UN logo is actually a flat Earth map, for example. But Ms Jayasuriya adds its appearance is the result of a way of ‘projecting’ a 3D sphere onto a 2D plane.

Is the Earth an ‘oblate spheroid’?

So why, despite overwhelming scientific evidence that the Earth is an “oblate spheroid” – a sphere that’s squashed at its poles and swollen at the equator – is the flat-Earth movement gaining traction in the 21st century?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg71tqpsVXY

Can a PhD student defend a flat-Earth model?

In 2017 the website Jeune-Afrique reported that a geology student in Tunisia was intending to submit a PhD defending her work on a flat-Earth model. It would be easy to dismiss flat-Earthers as simply being misguided due to a lack of education.

Do flat-Earthers have low levels of scientific literacy?

While there are indications that those susceptible to such views have low levels of scientific literacy, Landrum at Texas Tech says that flat-Earthers aren’t necessarily people who don’t believe in science. “It’s not really an education thing,” she says.

Are flat-Earthers genuinely flat?

McIntyre knows first-hand how sincerely flat-Earthers hold their views: he attended the 2018 Flat Earth International Conference in Denver, Colorado. Asheley Landrum, a psychologist from Texas Tech University who was also at the Denver meeting, agrees that flat-Earthers are genuine, and not goofing around.