If the world is spherical, why does it appear to be flat? Should we believe everything that NASA tells us? These are the type of questions posed by the millions of Americans who believe that the world is flat, based on another belief: that space exploration is a lie.
AN OLD IDEA
The idea that the Earth is flat was prevalent until around two thousand years ago, when scientists began to demonstrate that the Earth is spherical. However, there have always been people who have remained unconvinced. One such person was the 1800s English writer and inventor Samuel Rowbotham, who is credited with popularising the modern belief in a flat Earth.
NOT A GLOBE
Rowbotham wrote a book titled Zetetic Astronomy: Earth Not a Globe, in which he proposed that the Earth was a flat disc centered at the North Pole, with a wall of ice at its perimeter, and with the Sun, Moon, planets and stars only a few hundred miles above. He also founded a society and participated in public debates in which he ‘successfully’ defended his position.
NEW PLATFORMS
After Rowbotham died, his followers continued to promote his views, which often persisted because of a literal interpretation of religious texts, reinforced by a mistrust of government. But it is the internet, and in particular social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, that have provided a plat-form for the flat Earth movement to
gain popularity.
DIVERSITY
A 2018 survey found that 2 per cent of Americans — which equates to more than 6.5 million Americans — firmly believe that the Earth is flat. However, other studies have found that ‘flat earthers’ often disagree on the exact nature of the Earth and the universe, and trust only their own observations and not those of others… even other flat-earthers!
scientific proof?
One of the main arguments flat earthers use is basically visual: if the Earth is round, then how come that when a boat goes over the horizon it does not disappear over the curve of the Earth? According to their calculations, if the Earth is a sphere with a circumference measuring 24,900 miles (40,000 km), there should be a drop on the horizon of eight inches (20 cm) per mile. So, according to flat earthers, a human using a telescope should not be able to see a boat 10 miles away, since the drop at that distance would be of about 35 feet (10 m). And yet, we can still see things that should have been hidden by the curve of the Earth. That would prove, they claim, that the Earth is flat.
on a different planet
Contemporary trends like fake news and a general mistrust of official sources have given rise to conspiracy theories, some of which may seem absurd, old-fashioned or even dangerous: the anti-vaccine movement or climate change denial among them. Wendell Walton is convinced that the world is flat. Calling himself a “biblical cosmologist” or a “biblical flat earther,” he also believes that he can prove it. Not only does visual evidence show that there is no curve to the Earth, says Walton, but the Bible itself offers documentary evidence: there are about two hundred different verses in the Bible that support a flat Earth, he says. A flat Earth with a dome over it. Speak Up met with Walton. He began by saying that the science and eventhe NASA images behind the curved Earth concept just don’t make sense.
Wendell Walton (American accent): You really need to start to scratch the surface of some of those arguments. You know the iconic Earth rise picture, where you see the Earth rising over the Moon? Well, if you take that photo and take it into a program like Photoshop and you turn up the luminance on it, you can see that there’s a box around the Earth. In other words, it was cut and pasted into that photo. Now, the level of technology is at a place now where it can all be faked. So it’s really hard. You have to go back and look at some of the original footage to see that. Now, that said, we also, as our technology increases, we become more savvy. But now we’re an educated audience, so if you go back and look at some of the first space walk footage, you say, ’Well wait a minute, that’s stop animation! I know that!’ So it’s laughable.
THE LONG COLD WAR
So why would NASA lie to us?
Wendell Walton: First of all, NASA is a government agency and it’s part of the military. Back during the Cold War, maybe they thought that they could go to the Moon, and when they figured out that they couldn’t, they just faked it ’til they made it, but they never really have. So there’s [are] pieces of data along the way that are pieces of the puzzle that don’t fit. There’s another photo where you can see shadows in two different directions. Well, wait a minute, if the Sun is coming from one point, there should only be a shadow travelling in one direction, and yet there’s an official NASA photo that shows two different shadows travelling in opposite directions.
a big budget
And, Walton believes, it all comes down to money.
Wendell Walton: When you lie about something, what’s motivating you to come forward? You’re going to perpetuate that lie. NASA, they spend like $56 million a day. Their budget is $380 billion –we’ll have to look at the numbers on that. So it’s a big cash cow. Where is all that money going? And we still haven’t gone back to the Moon — we never went there to begin with! — but what do we have to show for our money? I believe they only have been to low Earth orbit, so not out, you know, anywhere beyond that. Because in the biblical model, the dome of the Earth covers everything. It’s kind of like The Truman Show; we’re in a little terrarium of sorts.
MORE LIES
With the truth increasingly out there, belief in a flat Earth is becoming more prevalent — particularly in the US. We asked Walton what percentage of Americans believe the theory.
Wendell Walton: It’s growing, it’s definitely growing. However, what’s happening is that there is a lot of disinformation. There’s a disinformation campaign going on right now. For example, I’ve been interviewed before and it all seemed like it was above-board, but then they take certain sound bites out and it’d be a hit piece and make flat earthers look like we’re foolish… They say that we deny science. No, I don’t deny science, I embrace it. They say that we’re dangerous. That’s the latest one. Oh, we’re dangerous because I guess we’re taking things back into the Stone Age, or whatever.
REBEL SCIENTISTS
And, he says, many intrepid scientists are dedicating themselves to providing proof.
Wendell Walton: There’s a gentleman by the name of Dr. John D. He has a PhD in spectral optics and he’s done some experiments over in Britain. There’s another group called FECore. It’s a group of engineers and they are setting up like a microwave experiments. They’ve also done some laser experiments as well. So there is a growing number of professionals who are coming out, but coming out comes with a cost because people have lost their jobs because of it. So if you work for JPL or SpaceX or NASA and you start to question these things, then you could very well lose your job. So there’s probably a lot more people who are investigating flat Earth than what would come out publicly and admit it.