How to debate a flat-Earther

[Admin]

Some people around the world believe our planet is flat. Here's the (surprising) truth about debating them.

How to debate a flat-Earther : Read more

 

[rod]

An easy and important statement in this article on showing Earth is round. "You might not be able to mount such a scientific investigation to your nearest mountain peak. But there is something you can do to witness the curvature of Earth in the comfort of your own backyard. You just have to be lucky. During a lunar eclipse, Earth passes between the sun and the moon, allowing Earth to cast its shadow on the moon. That shadow is always, always, always a circle, no matter where you are on the planet, no matter the timing of the eclipse. Always. The only way to always cast a circular shadow is if the thing casting the shadow — in this case, Earth — is a globe. It's a matter of geometry."

Folks who use binoculars or even better, telescopes will easily see this, especially observing the Moon during a lunar eclipse. You can watch the circular shape of Earth's shadow move across the Moon and fill in various craters (especially cool during a a total lunar eclipse using a good telescope). Using flat earth geometry, the Sun and Moon both move above the same flat side of Earth so no shadow from Earth can be cast on the Moon. What is happening then according to flat earth? Black Sun or Rahu is doing this

 

[Helio]

IIRC, Aristotle used the curved shadow upon the Moon during a lunar eclipse as one of his objective arguments for a spherical Earth .

Neil Tyson, in the past, has tried to claim that Flat Earthers would claim the Earth is a round disk instead. This couldn’t possibly be true given every lunar eclipse produce a round shadow regardless of time of day this happens.

Better, perhaps, is that in 240 BC, Eratothenes learned that in June there was a day when the entire bottom of a well in Syene, Egypt had no shadow, yet, in Alexandria, there was about 7 deg. of shadow. He gave us our first somewhat accurate spherical dimensions for Earth.

So whether one looks up or down, the spherical evidence is there!

I suspect FEers just want to push back on buying too much into science. This feeling likely has, unfortunately, increased due to all the warranted controversy currently in the science of medicine.

 

[rod]

Helio, in post 3 said, "Neil Tyson, in the past, has tried to claim that Flat Earthers would claim the Earth is a round disk instead. This couldn’t possibly be true given every lunar eclipse produce a round shadow regardless of time of day this happens."

What Neil said is correct. All the flat earth videos I watched back in 2016-2019 uniformly show a 2D flat disk shape for earth. The problem I saw, none showed the Sun on the opposite side of the 2D flat disk earth casting a shadow of the 2D flat disk earth on the Moon. The Sun and Moon were always shown moving above the same side of the 2D flat disk earth, thus Black Sun must be used to explain lunar eclipses.

 

[rod]

FYI. I had some friends who were into flat earth teaching and videos. After I retired in early 2016, I received numerous emails and FE videos to review. At first I thought it was a practical joke but after reviewing dozens of the videos, I realize these folks are serious in their belief.

 

[Helio]

Rod,

That’s not surprising, but a serious view would need to explain multiple occurrences. This disk clearly isn’t tidally locked to the Sun, so it’s silly, IMO, to suggest perfect rotations to always present the disk in this orientation. A spherical Earth is far more logical and another example favoring the use of Occam’s razor.

I say “silly” because it’s only when one sees an opinion as such that it would become discardable.

iPhone

 

[rod]

Rod,

That’s not surprising, but a serious view would need to explain multiple occurrences. This disk clearly isn’t tidally locked to the Sun, so it’s silly, IMO, to suggest perfect rotations to always present the disk in this orientation. A spherical Earth is far more logical and another example favoring the use of Occam’s razor.

I say “silly” because it’s only when one sees an opinion as such that it would become discardable.

iPhone

Helio, what I found is most if not all FE folks reject gravity so speaking about tidally locked means nothing in that *model*

 

[Helio]

Do they bother to explain how every lunar eclipse has a round shadow? It’s not as if every lunar eclipse takes place only at midnight.

 

[rod]

Do they bother to explain how every lunar eclipse has a round shadow? It’s not as if every lunar eclipse takes place only at midnight.

This is what I see at the FE society, The Flat Earth Society Wiki | The Lunar Eclipse Using MS BING Search I found, "A Flat Earth eclipse is a hypothetical name assigned to the lunar eclipse by the Flat Earth society, and according to them, the phenomenon transpires when a mystery satellite of the sun (called the shadow object or the anti-moon) finds its way between the sun and the moon, thus blocking sunlight from illuminating the lunar surface."

I will make the assumption that the shadow object discussed is round

 

[Helio]

They’re like the Babylon Bee (satire) at this point.

 

[monitorlizard]

"How to debate a flat earther TruFan"

Step 1. Walk away
Step 2. See Step 1.

 

[Helio]

"How to debate a flat earther TruFan"

Step 1. Walk away
Step 2. See Step 1.

THE APOCRYPHAL [Mark] TWAIN: “NEVER ARGUE WITH STUPID PEOPLE. THEY WILL DRAG YOU DOWN TO THEIR LEVEL AND BEAT YOU WITH EXPERIENCE.”

 

[billslugg]

Simply point out to the Flat Earthers that cats would have pushed everything off the edge by now.