(Last updated by The Cognitive Man 2020-01-08)
Ok. Maybe flat-earthers aren’t afraid to fly. But they sure seem “comforted” by the notion that there are no direct flights in the Southern Hemisphere.
Now, I don’t think they are actually afraid of planes, or flying in general. But I think flat-earthers are afraid of what the implications are if they ever actually acknowledge that these non-stop flights in the southern hemisphere actually take to the air and land, and actually do so in the amounts of time they say they do.
Because if they do (as I’m willing to bet my life they do) then their whole flat-earth model goes out the window.
NO DIRECT FLIGHTS IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE: WHY THAT IS SO TROUBLING.
I do think there is a very real “fear factor” for the flat-earther if it turns out we are just floating on a big ball, after all. In fact, I’ve written about this aspect of their thinking before. Perhaps the title of the other article is a little harsh; but it goes beyond normal when these people, at best, do not want to answer any of the questions I ask them when we have a chance to interact; and, at worst, accuse me of being antichrist.
I BELIEVE IN A GOOD CONSPIRACY, TOO.
Firs of all, my “flat-earth believing friend,” I’m on your side. I really, really am. I honestly think it is likely that I believe in a lot of the conspiracies you do. Let’s run a list here, just to give you a better feel that I’m not a liberal and I’m not the enemy here.
- One-world government? Check. I believe “they” have been working on it for a while, and it’s only a matter of time, I expect. But they don’t always get what they want.
- 9/11 an inside job? Not sure. Some pretty convincing evidence out there. By the Illuminati? Freemasons? Don’t know. But I’m open to suggestions.
- Crop circles? I know there are a lot of fakes out there. But they can’t all be fakes.
- Aliens? Of course. Too much evidence to deny it. But I’m inclined to believe a lot of them aren’t “extra-terrestrial” but “extra-dimensional” (read that “demonic manifestation”).
- Are “they” hiding things from you? Hell, yeah. Let me give you a few examples: Hebrew inscriptions on the cave walls where the Indians lived in the Grand Canyon?
- 12 to 16 foot skeletons found and scooped up by the Smithsonian, never to be displayed again? Hell, yeah. Sign me up. LOTS of credible, intelligent people with too much evidence to deny it.
Do you see where I am going with this? My point is that I hear you when you cry “foul” about much of what is presented to you as “science” and “fact.” I really, really feel you.
BUT YOU HAVE TO KNOW WHEN TO QUIT
I’m sure things are never quite the way they seem. And I’m willing to bet that there is a lot that the government is keeping from us; a lot about which they are trying to distract us. The “powers that be” want to stay in power, and so I’m willing to bet that many of them conspire to keep things out of the media, force things into the educational agenda and the like. But every conspiracy theory has its limits before it simply falls down.
Like this notion that flat-earthers have about non-stop flights in the Southern Hemisphere.
YES, VIRGINIA. THERE ARE NON-STOP FLIGHTS IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE
Well, there are, depending on who you ask. But if you ask anyone who says, “of course there are non-stop flights in the Southern Hemisphere,” the flat-earthers will tell you they don’t know what they’re talking about. Just ask them.
You see, if you think about it, if the earth is really a ball (and the flat-earthers are quick to point out that the bible describes it as flat – like the U. N. map shows it) then non-stop flights in the Southern Hemisphere – say, from Sydney, Australia to Santiago, Chile, for instance, would quickly prove the point. Because, as you can imagine, if the earth were flat, then at an air speed of say, 600 MPH, it would take you about about 25 hours, give or take, to fly from Sydney to Santiago. So if the airlines could pull it off, they’d have to fly about 2,500 MPH to do that. And we all know airplanes don’t fly that fast.
So for flat-earther, the case is proven.
They claim the reason there are no non-stop flights in the Southern Hemisphere must be because it is impossible to do it.
Now anybody else would just go to Google and look for “Non-Stop Flights In The Southern Hemisphere” and quickly discover that the first items to come up are all the commercial listings – airlines and such, listing options to try to quickly sell you tickets to fly in the southern hemisphere.
BUT….. the flat-earthers would quickly say, “they’re not real.”
The knee-jerk reaction from the flat-earth crowd is that they’re staged: these flights don’t exist. The authorities are in on it.
Look. I get it. With all the other stuff they’re hiding from us, why not this, too?
By flat-earth theory, the government, in an effort to keep the word from getting out, has commandeered the airline industry and forced them to list flights on their websites that do not really exist, to give the appearance that they actually run these flights.
There is a problem with the level of human and government control and “conspiratorial machinery” that is required to keep all this going.
This would require such a vast array of so many sections of the population to keep this conspiratorial train running that after a while, the wheels all come off.
I’m not the only one who thinks this notion is paranoia on steroids. Check out this video, for instance:
I wonder if it ever occurred to these people how much more difficult it would be to keep every airline pilot, every ship’s captain, every employee at every company who builds this navigation equipment dumb and/or silent about this great conspiracy.
You have to realize that a conspiracy this big would have to keep a lot of people silenced, or dumbed down, or paid off or something. There’s no accounting for how far a predisposition to want to believe something will take you.
How open are you really to the idea that if this theory is true, it requires some real scrutiny of the facts and not just an excitement from the adrenaline rush of thinking you’re part of the “small, in-the-know” crowd?
I’m sorry to have to say it, but my experience interacting with many who hold to these theories is that they often seem a little short on in-depth knowledge of the sciences. That isn’t a put-down. But it is a fact.
THE FLAT EARTH SOCIETY IS RICH WITH THEORIES OFF THE CUFF
I found this, one of the most amusing conversations on the topic, at One of the less-conditioned in their midst, at the Flat Earth Society website. They have a forum, and one of the issues that came up on this forum was a conversation by one of the fairly recently-initiated with some of the more “enlightened” members of the group.
To my fellow flat earthers, we might have a problem:
Flat-Earther questioning non-stop flight from QuantasI found this problematic flight for our theory, in that from Sydney(Australia) to Santiago(Chile) this direct flight only takes 12 hours and 30 minutes, which seems in line with the spherical earth theory.
Please help me out, because I can’t find an explanation for this, although I am still convinced of the earth being flat. The curvature formula vs. the photos and videos proves to me that the earth is flat, but this flight (the only one in contrast with our theory) poses a problem that we need to solve.
This, too, seems to confirm that the flight takes as much time as it can only take with a spherical earth:
I mean, we do have a problem. The amount of shills on this forum seemed to confirm to me the flat earth, but now I realize that they may all be people who love science and enjoy arguing. Or people who like ganging up on minorities. But… we do have a problem.
The curvature formula (when compared to existing pictures and videos) still proves flat earth, but we definitely need to debunk this flight.
And if we cannot debunk this flight, and these flights do exist and they go as fast as they claim, flying over the path they claim, then we need to revise our official flat earth map:
Now, this fellow is downright concerned about this, and I can see with good reason. Like most flat-earthers, they were raised with a concept of a spherical planet. When they first come into this “new knowledge” of the earth being flat, and the corresponding notion that the powers that be are lying to them about it, it opens a whole new world of espionage with a corresponding bit of intrigue and inside knowledge which often makes them feel more “enlightened” and, I believe, (sometimes) just a wee bit smugly superior to all of the rest of us dopes that still believe what has been taught to us in school.
But this fellow got the kind of response to his honest inquiry that I often get when I try to help these people see that maybe they’re missing something.
Listen to these responses:
First, this one, from a humble flat-earther:
Acenci, the problem is that we don’t know what the real map looks like. Consequently, we can’t estimate any distances within the FE model. This doesn’t mean that the Earth is not flat though. The RE map is also wrong, and it is blatantly clear in its most common flat version which is based on a projection. On a globe allegedly everything matches with reality, but who exactly uses globes for navigation. What I am saying is that it is all relative, and it is true that the FE’ers don’t have a very solid argument as to how exactly it all works and there are many holes in the theory. However, because we don’t know how exactly it works and what it looks like doesn’t mean the Earth is a sphere or spins. Of course, that is debatable, and if you haven’t been to space you can’t personally be 100% sure, I guess.
But that does not seem to be an adequate explanation for our humble inquirer. He publishes a bunch of corraborative data, including various videos of the flights in question, newspaper posts about people getting sick on these 13 hour flights (which seems to support the idea that it really is a non-stop flight on a planet that has to be a ball for it to happen on schedule) and pushes the point with his fellow believers:
Flat-earthers, this flight seems to exist and so our mainstream flat-earth map must be wrong. Let us quickly address this problem and find a solution. Please someone answer me. This is not acceptable. And the famous UN map, which supposedly represents the real flat earth map, must be wrong, too.
Now, if the flight exists, and if it does fly at the regular cruising speed, then how does this fit into the [flat earth] map?
I acknowledge a real sincerity here.
It seems like an honest question, and he seems to have a need for honest information.
And there is no end to the ad-hoc speculations about how everyone plays to the conspiracy. Like this gem: a well-meaning flat earther who decides to offer the explanation that planes will maybe actually be able to fly much faster than they let on, even if the flight is real:
…in addition, pilots will want money too. we aren’t told the full capabilities of their planes, and they adapt the speed they fly at accordingly. if they’re so reliable, why would there be any delays or early arrivals? simply, they make human error in how much they accelerate.
You know – as if these puppies maybe actually CAN fly at about 2,000 MPH when they have to put on the glitz to pretend the earth is round, but they usually just fly about 1/3 of full speed just to keep it hidden so the secret doesn’t get out. Can’t blame a guy for trying.
You have to ask, though: what would be the motivation here? What about the business interests that would be served if you could fly anywhere at 2,500 MPH?
Maybe I digress too fast. But it is something to think about.
Anyway, back to the flat-earth website. Not everyone was so civil to this well-meaning inquirer. Like this (understandably, I think) frustrated flat-earth doubter:
So now pilots are in on the conspiracy, who isn’t in on it at this point? And if you are fed up with airline delays, why don’t you start an FE airline, always on time because FE pilots ‘think for themselves’. Oh, wait, there is not a single FE pilot in the world.
Personally, I can’t blame him for being frustrated.
BUT SEE WHAT A GOOD FLAT-EARTH THEOLOGIAN CAN DO
Here is a case where the true colors of some of these people come out. Their belief is held with religious zeal. And when someone pushes the questions, there is always the trick (ironically, usually employed by the liberals) to attack the messenger with the honest question.
I don’t think you were ever an flat earther. You tried to get some chops as an FEer, and are now slowly loosing all your own arguments. It is a pretty obvious RE attempt to subvert from the inside. Nice try, but I don’t approve, it muddies the water.
Wow. That was harsh. And knee-jerk. The poor guy is just asking honest questions. He is going through the experience of a little bit of cognitive dissonance. But he gets jumped on because he is rocking the boat.
A worthwhile here for my flat-earth friends (and, actually, for everybody else, even including me) is this: if I ask a question for which you don’t have an answer, please don’t have the audacity to automatically assume that I’M THE ONE who is unteachable.
I’m just asking questions maybe you should have been asking, too. If you can swallow your pride, you MIGHT even realize I just did both of us a favor. But your honesty might require you to have to accept you need yet another change in world view. Don’t shoot the messenger.
MAYBE FLAT-EARTHERS ARE JUST AFRAID TO FLY.
Ok. I’m kidding.
And I won’t deny that it’s HARD to find non-stop flights in the Southern Hemisphere. I have to admit that, compared to the vast number of flights in the Northern Hemisphere, there aren’t that many direct flights between continents in the Southern Hemisphere.
But the flat-earthers seem to not want to be able to find any non-stop flights anywhere between Africa, South America and Australia.
But they exist. There are answers for the problem they seem to find. Things like airline profitability and “supply and demand.”
The trouble is, the flat-earthers don’t seem to want to hear them. And when you suggest real and reasonable explanations for why they are wrong, you become the antichrist. I’ve had them swear at me and call me a fool. I even had one on FaceBook call me antichrist. How upsetting. I was crushed. ;-))
If you truly believe the earth is flat, I appreciate your zeal in trying to prove it.
I admire the fact that you want to find a way to be able to accept the authority of scripture and not have it conflict with your world view. But you can’t bend truth to suit your preconceptions.
God’s word will never contradict the truth of His creation. But His word may very well contradict your concept of His creation if your concept of His creation is wrong.
The problem is that if you apply a literal requirement to some of the passages that were written as poetry, you end up with conflicts, too.
If you have to go here now, check out the problems that come up with inconsistency with your literal filter on scripture on passages that were meant to be taken seriously but NOT to be taken literally. (But if you can, please read that article after this one. I don’t want to lose you.)
First of all, though we may disagree for the moment on how to interpret these passages, can we at least agree on this?
Bending truth to suit your presuppositions is not thinking. It’s simply re-arranging your prejudices.
And it’s not helping your witness. It distracts from the major issues in this world about which all Christians agree: Jesus came into this world to save sinners.
You know, I’m on the PlaneFinder web site (the one referenced in the first video, above) as I write, watching a flight or two, tracking them as I sit here, seeing them fly on routes that would take much longer if the earth were flat than it does in reality (because it is spherical).
And while I do this, I’m struck both by the technology that we have in place to see all this stuff in real time and how small this world really is when you can traverse it so quickly, so easily. We can be halfway around in a day, in a different culture you’ve never seen before. It’s an amazing world. And it’s also a world full of people who don’t know Jesus.
Flat earthers, as I’ve said before and written about elsewhere before, I know your hearts are good. You appreciate the scriptures as God’s revelation to us. You want to maintain the integrity of that in people’s minds.
But you’re not helping your cause when you have your minds made up that everyone who thinks this world is spherical is out to get you, and you don’t have the humility to acknowledge how much you really don’t know. And you aren’t willing to exercise the patience to learn from those who have studied this for years, some of whom know and love the same saviour you do, and who know a whole bunch more that you need to know before you even begin to realize how much you don’t know what you are talking about.
Let’s stop worrying about something that wouldn’t make a wit of difference even if it were true. Because flat or round, this earth is covered with billions of people, many of whom will not be in eternity with their Creator when they leave it. And we need to worry about THAT.