Love it!

I had been thoroughly convinced that these people couldn't actually believe this stuff and that the whole business was just a show, until ... until I ran into one at a conference during Astronomy Week 1985. I was presenting a series of talks on meteors, meteorites, and impact mechanics as well as running a meteorite display. I was approached by a fellow whom I guessed was in his late thirties to early forties. He was a ... Flat Earther. He was serious. He wanted to regale me with his 'proofs', and I was completely fascinated with his total lack of embarrassment.

I walked him through a series of easier mathematical/physical things anyone can perform to determine that the Earth is curved. I went through some basic pure physical experiments that would show any normal person the fallacy of the flat Earth concept. He would have none of it. I hadn't had even the slightest impact on him and I'm sure he went away thinking I was just another cog in the conspiracy machine.

Until we can get people away from the kind of thinking that produces these odd ideas, I don't think there is much that can be done to get the general populace of the world on the track to advancing our society to that next level of the Type I civilization. I hope it happens before we destroy ourselves.

I wonder if the members of the Flat Earth Society went to public school, or didn't bother with school?

There is no rational explanation for such chosen ignorance.