Off course earth isnt round its spherical if its round its a flat circle!

Robin Bobcat - 08 November 2008 08:07 PM

Flat-earthism takes a rather sort of *deliberate* ignorance, doesn’t it? I mean, you have to really, *really* work at it.

Yup.  You have to deliberately ignore tons of astronomical evidence that you can see for yourself.  You have to keep your eyes closed whenever you’re in an airplane, out at sea, or on some high point with a wide view.  You have to intentionally not acknowledge the matter that when you travel halfway around the world, what was midnight is now noon.  You have to put aside so much common sense, basic physics, history, navigation, and all sorts of other stuff.  You need to keep from putting your beliefs to the test and looking for yourself.  Which just goes to show how much people will lie to themselves in order to believe what they want to believe.  Fortunately for them, “it’s all a huge conspiracy!” is a handy catch-all for all sorts of weird theories like this.

Crafty Dragon - 08 November 2008 09:25 PM

But what about the ones on the bottom of the sphere, like Smerk and Nettie?  Why don’t they fall off?

Why do you suppose that Smerk evolved those long pointy talons?

Personally, I believe the world is square…..either that, or a parallelepiped.

“And that, my lord, is how we know the Earth to be banana-shaped”
“This new learning intruiges me. Tell me again how sheeps bladders may be employed to stop earthquakes.”

Robin Bobcat - 08 November 2008 09:49 PM

*shrip*shrip*shrip*
“G’day, Bruce!”
“Owarya, ‘ary?”
“Oh.. bit crook. A goanna’s glue came off. Bloody thing flew up, bashed me good on the chin before flinging off into space.”

To go on about historical notions. Columbus was actually considered a fool by many, not because he thought the earth is round instead of flat, but because he either underestimated its size or overestimated the size of Asia. Large navigational maps of coastal regions were based on the assumption of a certain curvature of the earth. Something any sailor could see. It didn’t matter whether the earth was spherical, there was nothing (attainable) of interest there, and it would take way too long to actually go around it. Columbus was just lucky he bumped into an entirely new continent before his supplies ran out.
And if you take a look at theological maps from before 1500 (and some after), the earth is represented as a single continental mass. See: O-T maps. Which most scholars assumed lay on a spherical earth, divided in climate zones and so on.