It truly boggles my mind that in this day and age anyone would actually believe that the world is flat.
IMHO they would have to be delusional in a psychiatric manner. What other explanation could there be?
Not much different than those who believe in Conspiracy, Religion and Sprituality, Gods, Rapture, Reincarnation, Heaven, Hell, Hollow Earth and so on and on the list goes...
This article from a website I rather like is a good read about an Australian bloke called John who is a Doctor and now believes the Earth is Flat and his wife Gemma who is a Clinical Psychologist and believes the Earth is Round... It explains how he was drawn into believing this and how things fell into place for him once he did belive it.... Some inserts from the article below and the comments after the article are interesting too:
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Peter Ellerton, founding director of the University of Queensland Critical Thinking Project. Peter's written extensively on why people believe in a flat earth, but believes the answer is relatively straightforward. It's simply the narrative people write for themselves. Once that narrative has been established, it's near impossible to rewrite.
'The psychology of why they believe what they believe isn’t wildly different from the reasons why we believe what we believe," explains Peter. 'It just so happens that these people have written a strange story.'
Peter's view: human beings like to tell stories. Stories are what allow us to understand and interpret the world we inhabit. Stories define our reality. These stories can be constructed based on scientific consensus or built upon existing narratives in religious texts — either way, they're created in much the same way. And they're equally as rigid. It's difficult to convince a lifelong anti-vaccer to vaccinate their children. And it's difficult to convince flat earthers that the earth is round. It's tough to untie that knot.
But the knot that is Flat Earth Theory is unique: it involves the rejection of our most fundamental understanding of the world and how the universe works. The earth is a spherical planet that revolves around the sun: that's a belief most would consider absolute. Peter believes there's a cognitive dissonance at play; it takes a certain level of arrogance to reject scientific expertise, but there's also a simple pleasure in it.
'Flat earthers feel crappy because they don’t understand a lot of this stuff," Peter believes, 'so they find a way to minimise the stuff they don’t understand.'
By rejecting the established science, flat earthers place themselves in a position of power.
'Suddenly they feel like they’re the experts, and that’s a good feeling. Why wouldn’t you want to maintain that feeling?'
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She remembers one moment. John standing in the kitchen, telling Gemma he felt estranged from humanity, that he was 'existentially lonely'.
'He said: 'no-one thinks the way that I think. People aren’t comfortable with my ideas. There's no-one I can connect with and talk to'.
'That's sad.'
But there's a dichotomy. Gemma recognises that. John feels lonely, but that loneliness makes him feel special. There's a comfort in that loneliness, in believing you're enlightened one.
'I love him,' says Gemma, finally. 'He's a highly intelligent person and worthy of respect, but this is fucking mental. It's crazy.'
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On a certain level it's easy to be seduced by the idea of a flat earth. It draws you in; a tractor beam of alluring ideas and concepts. A flat earth: it all but confirms the concept of a creator, our collective hope for something more than this. It places us — humanity — back at the centre of the universe. No longer hurtling through the void of an infinite universe beyond our measure and comprehension. No longer at the mercy of physical forces beyond our control. No longer Carl Sagan's pale blue dot.
No longer insignificant. There's a comfort in that. John is correct: there's a beauty in that.
Because now John looks at the stars — we sit in hushed awe, daunted and humbled by the scope of the universe and our place in it — but John's stars move differently. He sits on his porch. He watches the sun set; a sun we no longer orbit. He is comforted, perhaps resolute.
In the place where he sits, in this precise moment in time, John's stars revolve around him.
The Men Who Believe The Earth Is Flat