Flatworlders!?!?

[jpmcwjr]

I think the conspiracists - No moon landing; JFK killed by the mob; WTC hoax, etc.- believe in that stuff.
I HOPE and think most flat-earthers speak ironically and really know the earth is ellipsoid. Kind of a protest against anything they don't like about today's world.

 

[mso489]

Science education is weak. Most think science serves to prove what you already believe to be true. To the contrary, good science usually presents contradictions that require a whole rethinking to figure out what is really going on in nature. Most college graduates have no feel for what it means to design a study -- well or poorly -- nor what it takes to evaluate the data once a study is done. Much science education is just a cursory history of science. The fun grammar school exploding volcano teaches nothing about science. No wonder people don't believe scientific conclusions are useful, not knowing at all what science is.

 

[briarbuck]

Yes, we are increasingly impoverished, stupid and illiterate, as almost no one values reading. writing and analytical thought.

Pot Kettle

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Apparently he's our man through 2022.

2022? ::

 

[davet]

 

[aldecaker]

"2022?"
Yes, after the Reichstag allowed him to combine the positions of Chancellor and President, he unilaterally extended the term to six years. I heard about it on CNN just yesterday. :rofl:

 

[crashthegrey]

You guys have never skipped rocks across the primordial ooze off of the edge of our flat Earth in your youth? You really missed out.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

If there really was an edge to the Earth, the Emergency services would be constantly rescuing all of the Scandinavian Death Metal groups that we would be going there to get promotional band pictures made. ::

 

[mso489]

Peer review in serious science publications is a process by which a group of your critics and competitors get to analyze and criticize and edit. This is harrowing and takes a lot of time, and it keeps publications from being blind to fundamentals of what has been done before on the subject. Credit is given later for the number of other scientists who reference your work in their peer reviewed published papers. It is a human process and hence not flawless, but can attain a high level of tough analytical thought. Unfortunately journalism tends to cover science as if every well-published study is a discovery, which is seldom true. Thousands of studies go toward a therapy for a single kind of cancer, for example. So lay coverage is often a lot of speculation.

 

[prairiedruid]

You guys are scaring me and I'm running out of tinfoil.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Unfortunately journalism tends to cover science as if every well-published study is a discovery, which is seldom true.

NPR did a piece about science in the news. There was a study that cited in the news that drinking wine was great for your heart and helped you live longer, but the study that was cited wasn't even about the benefits of wine, and was hack science at best. But, the news ran it as if it were gospel.
One study, one experiment, nor one bit of proof never makes something true. In science, it takes decades of publications to change the consensus of scientists. They related that it was akin to changing the direction of a ship by throwing pebbles at it, and each study is a pebble.
Thus, if the news ever reports that science has found... what follows is most likely BS. ::

 

[jeff540]

It's pretty sad for certain slivers of society to cite the Bible as written proof of any argument verbatim, as if the King James Version were faxed directly from God. Graduating from a college that had a strong religious bend and curriculum, I learned just how much we don't know about the major modern monotheistic religions. Thus, I usually dismiss as fools those people who quote scripture as absolute but can't read or comprehend the meaning of the languages in which the earliest versions are recorded. Ask a Rabbi to translate the Ten Commandments, as scribed by Moses (who, IIRC, by account of his brother Aaron was illiterate), then discover there are some finer points or differences from those printed as bumper stickers.
Sorry if the above is too strong, these situations just really get under my skin.

 

[mikethompson]

Well, politics and religion too.

 

[workman]

Coverage is what feeds the flat earth groups and all others like it. The spaghetty monster jerks and others. If they were ignored, they wouldn't exist. But they make good clickbait.

 

[crashthegrey]

Next thing I know you are going to tell me that all plume is mold.

 

[anthonyrosenthal74]

If there really was an edge to the Earth, the Emergency services would be constantly rescuing all of the Scandinavian Death Metal groups that we would be going there to get promotional band pictures made. ::

This is probably true. :rofl:

 

[wolflarsen]

One thing I can promise you all is that Sasquatch/Bigfoot is as real as it gets. I once saw him smoking a pipe on youtube so it must be true.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyDUio4Yzkg

 

[fordm60]

I love the comments and this has stayed in the non locked realm I am quite pleased. I have to agree that showing the leader of the Flatwarlders the boat/line experiment that proves the world is round did nothing to change his or his followers minds. I agree with mso on peer reviewed experiments and findings.
When I was at University I had the opportunity to work on a paper dealing with rural doctors. The entire process from putting together your funding paperwork, parameters, questionnaires, mailing, interviewing, collecting, tabulating, interpreting the findings, statistics, (never believe stats unless you can look at how they did them lol), finally pen to paper lads. Then once done you go crazy again trying to find any errors or misstatements etc. Finally you publish and everyone tries to tear it apart. It is very stressful but it feels amazing when they basically find nothing and agree with you!!
I agree the Flatworlders are nuts period. They are insignificant at this time and probably forever. But it bothers me a ton that that even exist in this day and age! I love the discussion here, thank you all as I figured it would be locked by now.

 

[jvnshr]

Politics, religion... Gotta do my job.