By Benjamin Minch, Staff Writer
Is the earth really round, or is everything that you have been taught all wrong? Can the earth be one giant flat disc floating by itself in the universe? According to the 50 students surveyed at Fountain Valley High School, it is highly unlikely that this could occur, as 100% of the students did not believe in a flat earth.
The flat earth hypothesis claims that the earth is flat because of details such as being able to see so far in the distance, and the alleged fake moon landing. Some flat earth theorists also believe that stars and other planets are simply projections in the sky by the government, and that none of them are actually real.
The flat earth theorists attack simple commodities asking, “Why are shoes flat if the earth is round?” They also try to disprove basic foundations of physics such as gravity and the coriolis effect.
This absurd theory however, has many famous people backing it, such as Kyrie Irving, a basketball player from the Boston Celtics. This support of the theory is causing more and more people to fall into the trap of the flat earth.
Many may be asking at this point, “How can they think that the earth is flat if we have pictures of the earth being round from space?” The answer is that most flat earth theorists think they are fake, and that many of the satellites are fake as well. Some extremists go as far as to say that they are space lasers that the government is covering up by calling them satellites.
Like many conspiracy theories, the flat earth theory is caused by a very damaging way of thinking. Many want to make the world and the events that occur in it, their own reality. If something goes against their pre-dispositioned beliefs, it is wrong… and this thinking is stunting world growth. Flat earth theorists fall into this category as they are going backwards in science, questioning stars and gravity, instead of making new relevant discoveries to new fields of study. These people that devote themselves to proving their worldview aren’t contributing anything to society as a whole.
While I was in Amboy on a camping trip, I saw the epitome of this behavior. I stumbled across a stuntman in the middle of the desert about to launch himself up to 500 miles per hour, 1,800 feet in the air in a homemade rocket to prove that the earth is flat. This man was willing to risk his life to try and prove that the earth is flat. Many would call him crazy, and yes, he is very crazy. Luckily, the government shut him down because he was launching it on public land, but I don’t think this is enough to stop his attempts.
The flat earth theory will always be a pain in our heels until space travel becomes a more common excursion. People will continue to be ignorant to the natural way of the world, believing that everything once known as fact, is baloney.
