Glen Branch - National Center for Science

Crisis center for dealing with ideological attack -defend integrity of science education

• evolution
• climate change

1924 only time flat earth challenged science education

Flat earthery in the news a lot lately

• rapper B O B
• basket berry

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

• people fascinated with his views but not agreeing

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

• Pliny the elder said it was the consensus

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”

• the impossibility of a globular world

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

• science collects facts through observation - uncontaminated by theory
• theories of idle speculation

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

• in 1895 he abandoned flat earthery
• became spokesman’s that we inhabit the inside of a Round earth.

Lady Blount - “The earth not a globe review”. - wrote a novel to advance the cause

• inerrancy of bible
• new Bedford canal - returned for new experiement

1956 international flat earth research society

• tried to stress the scientific issues
• flat earth backed as a fact by the word of the Bible

Williard Glen Boliva

• Town of Zion Illinois
• owned his own radio station
• spoof talk with John Glenn featuring a compromise

After shenten death, society was relocated to Mohave desert

• Johnson brought into faux baconianism
• flat earth society

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

• not until 2011 for systematic defense in video
• John C. - “it is he that sitters upon the circle of the earth”

“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

• surveys affected by choice of words, and words vs. pictures

YouGov asked “do you believe that the world is round or flat?”

• 2 - 1.3% of americans
• britons - 1 in 5, but n = 2039, 1%

worry about the polls

• are people just trolling the posters? Or seeking attention?
• other evidence says trolling just incidental

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?

• North Pole explored first
• repeating each other’s talking points

what does the rest of the world, muslim world, Asian world, African world say about this flat earth stuff?

• most scholarship on flat earth has been Anglo-American because the movement is mostly Anglo-American
• in Netherlands and South African, Protestantism is similar, things go similarly.
• president of South African, Paul Kruger, thought earth was flat. A traveler had some interesting conversations. Joshua Slokum - very interesting conversations
• dont know what is happening in Islamic world

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?