Almost everyone knows that the Earth is a sphere. Someday, we’ll be able to  drop the “almost” from that sentence.  Unfortunately, today is not that day. Two different flat Earth societies have now raised enough money for billboards.  First, “The Infinite Plain Society” put up a billboard outside of Philidelphia that says “Research Flat Earth”. Soon afterwards, “The Flat Earth Society”, which somehow has over 80,000 likes on Facebook, probably not all of which are ironic, put up a billboard in Oklahoma that asks the question “Is the Earth flat?”

Just to be clear, the answer to this question is a very definitive “no”.

At UYBFS, we have written about the flat Earth people before. However, the billboards are a distressing new twist to this sad story. The folks at The Flat Earth Society are even claiming to be “persecuted” for their beliefs. “We get accused of being idiots, of doing it for money,” lamented Bob Knodel, a flat-Earther from Denver.

Everyone in this country has the right to “believe” what they want and flat Earthers have the right to talk about their theory too.  However, I think persecuted is the wrong word here. Flat Earth is not a religion, a way of life, or value system. It is a statement of implied fact: “I believe the Earth is flat.”Continue reading…     Share