Edward Abbott Abbott's novella "Flatland: A romance of many dimensions" talks about a 2D dimensional world where women are simple line segments and men are polygons narrated by the protagonist, a square. All though it was a satirical novella on hierarchy and class systems in the society, we recognize it as a classic piece of fictional writing. But it would be shocking to know that there is still a group of people in the world who believe in a real flat earth.They do not consider themselves as polygons or line segments but they strongly consider the notion of our earth being a flat disc rather than a spherical object.
International Flat Earth Research Society, first of it's kind was founded by Samuel Shenton in 1956,but the hypothesis of a flat earth was put forward by a English writer Samuel Rowbotham based on his calculation from Bedfort Level Experiment. Even though the experiment later concluded the shape of the earth to be spherical, the society is still active with theory. These 'Flat Earthers' claim that earth is a flat disc centered at north pole with Antarctica lying at the egde.
International Flat Earth Research Society, first of it's kind was founded by Samuel Shenton in 1956,but the hypothesis of a flat earth was put forward by a English writer Samuel Rowbotham based on his calculation from Bedfort Level Experiment. Even though the experiment later concluded the shape of the earth to be spherical, the society is still active with theory. These 'Flat Earthers' claim that earth is a flat disc centered at north pole with Antarctica lying at the egde.
The society even uses the UN flag to support their claim.Most of the early evidences put forward by the flat earthers where literal Interpretation of the Bible.You can find the website hosted by the group and they have a rather different way of explaining everything from circumnavigation to theory of gravity in their FAQ page.This is inspite of the scientific evidences proving the curvature of earth by the famous Eratosthenes in 1st century BC to satellite images taken of the earth few years back. The fact that you can see two sunsets when you lie down and observe and then later stand and observe is in consistent with curvature of earth.
To be complete, I have to mention that earth is not a perfect sphere but a geoid due to variations in radius' at different latitudes. But still why do people believe in flat earth in this age where men like Felix Baumgartner have jumped to the earth from the edge of space. Clearly he would have seen that earth is indeed curvy. A description from one of the society pages have pushed me thinking this might also be an attempted satire on the contemporary world politics just like the 'Flatland', and i quote
"The Flat Earth Society mans the guns against oppression of thought and the Globularist lies of a new age."
Is this only about shape of the earth? In a world where most governments are secretive in their action and are ready to create a new reality for its citizens, we must be ready to question what is being presented to us. It is necessary to keep our senses open and be ready to think beyond while respecting the common knowledge provided by science.
check out :
http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/home/index.php/faq
https://www.tfes.org/
"The Flat Earth Society mans the guns against oppression of thought and the Globularist lies of a new age."
Is this only about shape of the earth? In a world where most governments are secretive in their action and are ready to create a new reality for its citizens, we must be ready to question what is being presented to us. It is necessary to keep our senses open and be ready to think beyond while respecting the common knowledge provided by science.
check out :
http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/home/index.php/faq
https://www.tfes.org/
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