[Beyond Borders]

(05-19-2014 08:16 PM)Kabal Wrote:  

When I was in grade school, The Flat Earth Society was proffered as the archetypal example of people clinging onto an outmoded opinion in the face of overwhelming, countervailing evidence.

It was held up as the ultimate allegory for blind faith vs. science.

The same education system would then go on to try and indoctrinate us with notions such as there could be no cognitive differences between different human population groups, and that there could be no differences between the sexes--all without a hint of irony.

I'm not repping the flat earth theory, but whoever was teaching your class in grade school seems pretty far off the money to me.

Because in our time, Flat Earth Society is not an example of people holding on to an outmoded opinion in the face of evidence at all. It's extremely radical, out-of-the-box thinking that challenges everything that their society tells them. It may be seriously out there, but it's not like they were raised in a society where the earth was considered flat and then they clung to the idea when science presented something different.

Rather, they were raised in a society where the world is round but decided they see something else in the science (or don't see anything in the science at all).

I'd also be very hesitant about dismissing a lot of conspiracy theories as blind faith and ignorance. They are usually rooted in pretty convincing logic and observation, and every piece of "evidence" presented in this thread that should make it obvious (to us) that the Earth is round has no doubt been discussed and challenged, convincingly, at great length by these people.

Not saying they're on to something, but go have a read of what they say, and you might be surprised at how convincing they are. I've never read them, but this is my experience with seemingly whacked-out theories.