Globe versus "flat Earth"

An old saying goes: “Once an idea or ideology is out in the world, you can’t get it out of the world again.”

This saying fits the flat-Earth worldview very well. Since around 2015, the resurgent topic of a flat and stationary Earth has, on the one hand, become ever more popular, while on the other it meets with disbelief or even confusion among many people.

Followers of the flat-Earth theory believe that the Earth is flat and that above it there is a kind of dome or vault, referred to as the sky or firmament. The edge of the world is said to be surrounded by a wall of ice that holds the oceans in place. One might think that this worldview should long since be regarded as outdated, but a closer look at the history of the flat Earth makes it clear that this worldview has in fact never entirely disappeared and still has a large following today.

When it comes to the flat Earth in particular, however, there are very often only vague conjectures, theories, other claims or alleged proofs. Basically, many of these theories or claims are merely what is usually called “dangerous half-knowledge”. Regarding the term “dangerous half-knowledge”, it should be noted above all that it refers mainly to the fact that false information is apparently being circulated deliberately, which on the one hand misleads people who seriously engage with this theory, and on the other simply exposes the whole subject to ridicule. In addition, false proofs are apparently put forward deliberately, only so that these proofs (for the flat Earth) can then be refuted. To make matters worse, a verbal conflict appears to have broken out between some globe supporters and some flat-Earth supporters. This, too, makes it difficult for many people to engage seriously with the subject.

Looking at the subject historically, one finds that until about 500 years ago all the cultures of the world held a flat-Earth worldview. All the ancient cultures also had the worldview of a flat Earth – for example the peoples of the ancient Near East (the Babylonians, the Egyptians), the Hebrews, the Maya, the Inca, the Navajo, the Greeks, the Romans, the Hindus, and also the Christians (the Bible). As recently as 500 years ago it was clear to Europeans that the Earth is flat. Over the last 150 years it was above all people such as Samuel Rowbotham and the Zetetic Astronomy Society who brought the flat-Earth worldview into the public eye. In the present day it is above all Eric Dubay who has been propagating the flat-Earth worldview since 2015.

But what is really behind it – is this all just nonsense, or is there perhaps a grain of truth in the story after all? In fact, the matter is not as clear-cut as one might at first assume, because flat-Earth supporters have plenty of arguments that cannot simply be brushed aside. In recent years in particular, a great deal of circumstantial evidence and even proof has come to light that apparently refutes the globe model completely and, more importantly, physically.

Furthermore, it is generally said that the curvature of the Earth can be clearly seen or observed at Lake Constance, for example. But this is wrong, because at Lake Constance – as in countless other places on Earth – you can see distant areas and buildings that you should not be able to see if there were a curvature.

It is also generally postulated that, because the Earth is a sphere, an observer on the beach can only see about 5 km “to the horizon”. But reality looks different. Observations of – suitably large, of course – objects at distances of up to 200 km and more are easily possible from sea level.

DIE ZEIT wrote about this in issue 40/2016, 22 September 2016:

From a very great height this curvature is visible; we know that from photos taken from the International Space Station, which flies at an altitude of a few hundred kilometres. (…) Despite all these limitations, the experts, above all physicists and pilots, are remarkably unanimous: no one has ever seen the curved horizon from the Earth, not even from the highest mountain.

Added to this is the fact that there is not a single image of a spherical Earth taken by satellites. For all of NASA’s images of the Earth are demonstrably just composite CGI graphics (computer-generated imagery).

On 21 July 2015, N-TV wrote the following:

NASA has repeatedly published such images in recent years, but these were always pictures that had been assembled from several images using software.

A further point is that there are said to be inconsistencies in the NASA images. One can read that the continents supposedly change in size over the years, or that old alleged satellite images are simply recoloured and passed off as current photographs.

But there is also a lighter side to the flat Earth. One person who has turned the whole “flat-Earth story” into music is the “Conspiracy Music Guru”, also known as “The Flat Earth Man”. In his songs he takes up many of the clues and alleged proofs of the flat Earth – very cheerfully, almost humorously.

FLAT EARTH MAN WEBSITE YOUTUBE CHANNEL YOUTUBE CHANNEL

We are merely offering arguments and examples here. The subject is widely discussed in many places on the internet. The “History Research” documentation “Die Geschichte der flachen Erde” (The history of the flat Earth; PDF, 120 pages) that we previously offered here is no longer available.