Glen Branch - National Center for Science
Crisis center for dealing with ideological attack -defend integrity of science education
1924 only time flat earth challenged science education
Flat earthery in the news a lot lately
Picture: three stooges in science lab. Have rocket will travel
Assessing the latest developments
Prevalence and increase in belief in flat earth among general population
Will not be rehearsing evidence earth is a sphere. This evidence should be familiar, clear, and convincing - illustration from 1924 popular science
Far side on flat earth
More precise to say earth is spheroid
Charles Johnson, 76, proponent of flat earth - obituary in the times in 2001
flat earth society - supposedly founded when Moses split the Red Sea
Living in relatively flat area, look around in all directions what do you see? Fog apparently
But you see a flat disk. So pre-scientific cultures assumed a disk.
From observation to a whole cosmology.
Waters above the firmament - firmament of the sky, doll, columns of the earth. Surrounded on all sides by the mighty ocean.
Not unscientific
It doesnt survive a systematic attempt to describe the world
Philosophers argued about shape of the earth
350 BCE, Artistotle, writing “of the heavens” - abundant evidence of spherical earth
Columbus voyage
More important is the myth of medieval flat earth gained popularized in the 19th century, seeking to weaken church authority
“Earth not a globe” writing under name parallax
“The anti-Newtonian”
Fascinated by flat earthery - it was a basis for parallax
In its regency ornate subtitle - longitude found by shadow - solution to longitude problem
Longitude - the true story of a lone genius who solved
Got in touch with the board of longitude - their papers in digital form
The sun to be the moveable body - same phrase in anti-Newtonian - from a Mr. James Fosbury
What did Fosbury think about the earth
The North Pole is at the center -
Fosbury made a proposal of a 4th dimension
Epistemological
Faux baconianism
Biblical inerrancy
Room for doubt about parallax sincerity.
Zetetic Astronomy - Earth Not a Globe
A genius character who enjoyed dispute - he won converts
The popularity of error / the unpopularity of truth
William Carpenter - early student of parallax - theoretical astronomy - examined and exposed
New York Zetetic Society
One hundred proofs the earth is not a globe.
John jasper - former slave turned preachers - 250 times delivered most powerful sermon - Joshua sun still - “the sun do move”
Ulysses Gene Morrow - successor
Lady Blount - “The earth not a globe review”. - wrote a novel to advance the cause
1956 international flat earth research society
Williard Glen Boliva
After shenten death, society was relocated to Mohave desert
creationist Duane Gish - compared creation research society to flat earth society
Gerald Jospeh Dodelin - 1905 - 1988
19th & 20th century - flat earthers were isolated. Expensive to interact
Internet changed all of that.
Daniel Shentin - resurrected the flat earth society as an online discussion forum. Thomas Dolby was the first honorary member due to song “they blinded him with science”
Flat earthers started making videos
“do not trust anything beyond your direct experience”
“The globe model attempts to deceive the public”
Documentary: Behind the Curve
Is Flat Earth rising? Increased availability on the internet
Of 30 attendees at a flat earth society, 29 say YouTube videos were key in their convincing
Three studies in the last decade
Government psychology studying how children form their theories about the shape of the earth
YouGov asked “do you believe that the world is round or flat?”
worry about the polls
1-2% dont accept a round earth 27% dont accept heliocentric 485 dont accept commons descent Large percent dont accept Big Bang
“According to astronomers the earth is round” - no one has asked this.
Ideology must be doing the heavy lifting
New school flat earthers seem to be Christian fundamentalists
Significant difference with respect to conspiracy thinking
Motivation to believe is not from belief in bible, but belief in conspiracy theory.
Old school flat earthery only hangs on barely even with charismatic leaders
Without a deep shared commitment to a text, the flat earthery will fracture into factions. This is in fact happening
Flat earthery shares with other pseudo sciences - it is canary in the coal mine
“National Center for Science Education”
Questions for Glenn
Why North Pole in center, and South Pole at the periphery?
what does the rest of the world, muslim world, Asian world, African world say about this flat earth stuff?
Correspondence between northern hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere flat earthers on difference of stars - not resolved to anyone satisfaction
Guy with steam rocket, is a flat earthers?
What about GPS?