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« on: December 27, 2009, 01:38:37 PM »
Q: "Why do you guys believe the Earth is flat?"
A: They think it looks that way up close, even though a massive sphere would look the same. Samuel Rowbotham et al. performed a variety of experiments over a period of several years that show it must be flat, however when these were repeated by others they showed the earth was not flat at all. They are all explained in his book, along with a lot of other gross inaccuracies and misunderstandings of basic physics and optics.
Q: "What is the circumference and diameter of the Earth?"
Circumference: 24,900 miles
Diameter: approx 7926 miles at the equator.
The flat earthers believe different figures but are unable to explain where their numbers come from.
In John Davis's model, the Earth is an infinite plane and is 9000 kilometers deep. He has no evidence for there being anything beyond Antarctica and the 9000 km number is just a random number plucked out of nowhere.
Q: "What about the stars, sun and moon and other planets? Are they flat too? What are they made of?"
Now there's a can of worms. We'll start with the Sun:
Flat earthers have no explanation for how it generates its light and heat that is consistent with observation. They have no explanation that makes sense for its composition. They believe the Sun is at an arbitrary distance of 3000 miles up, but no evidence on why this distance is more viable than any other. Some believe it is a flat disc, even though it appears circular no matter where it's viewed from (there is no explanation for this). In the model of flat earth that has Antarctica round the rim, there is no explanation of how one sees the sun circle right round the horizon during the summer. In the flat earth model with Antarctica as a distinct continent, the path of the sun's illumination accounts for that but makes no sense from other parts of the world.
As for the Moon: They have no explanation for how it generates light that is consistent with observation. Some believe it is self luminous even though lunar eclipses disprove this. Some believe it is a flat disc even though observing its libration disproves this. Some believe it is covered with migrating luminous critters that scuttle back and forth to explain the phases, even though close observation of the moon through a telescope disproves this, as there are isolated lit patches that dwindle without moving anywhere (mountain peaks). Other FE'ers think the phases are due to weather patterns, despite the moon having virtually no atmosphere and no weather pattern anywhere ever being observed to be that predictable. There is no FE explanation of how someone watching the moon rise sees the same side of it as someone in another part of the world watching it set.
They think other planets are tiny and have no real explanation of what controls their movements.
Q: "Please explain sunrises/sunsets."
A: They can't explain them in any manner that fits with what is observed.
Q: "What about satellites? How do they orbit the Earth?"
A: Annoyingly for the FE'ers, satellites won't work on a flat earth so they have had to make up alternative explanations for where the signals come from. This is basically broadcast towers and invisible high altitude stationary aircraft. Nobody has ever seen these aircraft, even though there'd have to be hundreds of them hovering in the sky. See the section on the Conspiracy.
Q: "Do you have a map?"
A: Not one that works. It is impossible to produce a map of a flat earth without distorting some of the continents to shapes we know they do not have. Furthermore, the RE map is known to be correct as it can be used to predict viewing locations of solar eclipses with 100% accuracy. The RE map is incompatible with a Flat Earth: therefore any FE map has to be incorrect, and by extension, the earth cannot be flat.
The two most common maps advertised by the FES are one with Antarctica as a big ring round the edge, which is incompatible with both the measured distance round Antarctica and flight times between places in the southern hemisphere. The other has Antarctica as a seperate continent but that map is incompatible with how people navigate across such places as the Pacific Ocean.
Note there is no reason ever given with the first map why Antarctica is a ring round the edge and the North pole in the centre rather than vice versa.
Q: "Exactly what shape is the Earth if it's flat? Square or circle?"
A: Since the FE'ers claim nobody has any knowledge of an accurate map layout and that nobody knows exactly where the edge is, the flat earth could be a prism of any shape - hexagonal, square, triangular etc.
Q: "Why doesn't water run off the Earth?"
A: They claim there is an ice wall of an arbitrary height of 150 feet keeping it in. Nobody has ever seen this wall so the height figure is purely made up. There is no evidence of its existence.
Q: "Wouldn't the atmosphere be diffused into space?"
A: Yes.
Q: "What about Lunar Eclipses?"
A: A celestial body, known as the antimoon, supposedly passes between the sun and moon. This projects a shadow upon the moon. However there is no evidence that this object exists other than the shadow, which is exactly what one would expect to see if the earth was round. The antimoon is completely undetectable the rest of the time. It is not clear how the antimoon "knows" when it needs to pop out and cast a shadow exactly when RE orbital theory predicts the earth would be between the sun and moon. One can only speculate it reads astronomy magazines.
Q: "How come the travel time by air from South America to New Zealand, via the polar route, is SHORTER than the travel time going North first and then South again?"
A: The FE explanation is that "airline pilots are guided by their GPS. Remember that satellites don't exist. The replacement data given from pseudolites deliberately throwing distorting all the paths to make it the flights take different times. The curvature of these paths can add or subtract great distances without the overall turning being obvious to someone traveling it."
This is wrong for the following reasons:
1. Airline pilots are guided by more than just GPS, and for most of aviation history GPS wasn't even invented. They still managed to navigate great circle routes pretty well without it.
2. Claiming GPS is fed false data leads to the Bilocation Paradox, where a GPS unit being used by someone in the air would be showing a different location to a GPS unit being used by someone on the ground who can confirm their location is correct. Despite the fact that the GPS units would be receiving the same signals. No FE explanation to the Bilocation Paradox has ever been suggested.
3. Pilots would likely notice the sun being in the wrong place as they turned.
Q: "When traveling in a straight direction, you will always reach the same point on the globe from where you started. How can this happen if the world is flat?"
A: It can't.
Q: "If you go directly south won't you eventually fall off the edge of the Earth?"
A: Yes, you will. In order to get round this very obvious hole in their theory, FE'ers come up with a variety of excuses, among which are: "Nobody has ever been to Antarctica", "The Ice Wall is guarded and anybody who tries to fly over it is shot down and killed", "The weather eventually gets so harsh that people are forced to turn back". Despite these convincing claims, the FE'ers have no explanation for where on the disc the location of the south polar bases actually is, or why nobody has ever managed to go further south than 90 degrees.
Q: "NASA and other world space agencies have pictures of the Earth from space, and in those pictures the Earth is clearly a globe; in this day and age, hasn't it been proven beyond any doubt that the Earth is round?"
A: Yes, but because this would be the final nail in the flat earth coffin, the FE'ers claim that every single image and piece of data from every space program in the world has been faked. This involves a massive conspiracy, who are also the ones operating fake satellite aircraft. It doesn't take a genius to work out that this conspiracy would have to involve hundreds if not thousands of people.
Q: "What is the motive behind this Conspiracy?"
A: The FE'rs say it is to make money by keeping the cash given to them to make a space program. However, this is flimsy because not only do you have the cost of building all the very real space shuttles, rockets and so on that can actually be launched (and their support infrastructure), you'd also have to be paying everyone in on the truth a great deal to keep quiet about it. Given the huge sums that could be gained from leaking the story to the press multiplied by the number of people who would have to be conspiracy members, it's easy to see that it would cost more money to keep the conspiracy going undercover than it would to run a real space program.
Q: "No one could possibly pull off such a conspiracy successfully."
A: Damn right.
Q: "Why has this site not been shut down by the government?"
A: Because the government are not really running a conspiracy.
Q: "Are there any other holes in FET that they cannot explain?"
A: They have no valid explanation for why there appear to be two celestial poles moving in sync with each other. They have no explanation for why some rocks from the moon are completely different to terrestrial rocks. They have no valid explanation for why ships appear to gradually sink down over the horizon.
Q: "Don't they use bendy light for that?"
A: Bendy light has never been independently detected. It is only assumed when using the earth's surface as a component of the measuring system and making the assumption that that surface is completely flat. All observations of light using controlled and known variables indicate it travels in a straight path. There are no experiments or observations of light using controlled and known variables that indicate any degree of bending. A good equivalent example would be saying something was ten inches long by measuring it with a ruler on which you had drawn the inch markings by guesswork.
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