Yes, very much so. It has not had massive funding poured into it like Ftlat Earth theories, but is still found commonly among certain sections of UFOlogy. "Iron Sky: The Coming Race" is a film which parodies many of these concepts.
It is BS of course, but it is a lot more interesting than flat Earth is.
I don't think the "Hollow-Earth Theory" ever gained much currency among leaders of the Mormon church; I certainly wouldn't call it a doctrine. However, there is some evidence that early church authorities believed that the "Lost Ten Tribes" were living at or above the north pole on a large lobe or sphere protruding from or floating above the main body of the earth.
Some current members of the church certainly do accept the Hollow-Earth Theory, however. I bought a book several years ago (for kicks and giggles) at Deseret Book Store published by a Mormon author who believed the earth is hollow and that a massive government conspiracy was hiding that fact from the rest of us. Lotta fun.
There are a lot of stories online about the hollow earth. Some of which come from the 1800s. I've heard stories of children being kidnapped by a large hairy wild-man creature and taken into a deep cave. Then after a few days the monster lets the child go. And there are numerous stories of pilots getting lost in storms around the north pole and coming out in unfamiliar places and times.
Then there are the even older stories from Scandinavia of little men or fairies. They supposedly live in the earth.
Also a few years ago on Coast to Coast there was a man who said he had a hole on his property that went on forever. Perhaps a portal to Hell? He would throw objects into the hole and they would never hit the bottom. And he started throwing all kinds of things in, but it would never fill up. Then one day he called the authorities about it and a secret government agency confiscated the property. And no one has been able to get back to the Hell Hole again.
just left me feeling empty. That's why I choose to believe in a fully stuffed earth.
Like the flat earth, hollow earth is a fun idea. I kind of wish one of them would turn out to be true, just because it would be a blast to have a huge paradigm change. The reality of spinning balls in outsy space that you can't get to without billion dollar rockets and space suits that will inevitably get holes in them, leading to an excruciating demise in the vacuum of space...well...that paradigm just doesn' excite me. But that's why I suspect it's real. Reality usually isn't as much fun as fiction.
In my view, you're half right. Hollow Earth is a fun idea. Flat Earth is just boring. As conspiracy theories go I can understand why a hollow Earth might be hidden but not why a flat Earth would be - too complex. I believe in neither though.
The masses of the planets are calculated from their orbits. The gravitational “constant” is measured in labs. So if they are hollow then their shells would be impossibly dense. But why trust math and science when you have the Mouthpiece of God?
A "World Weekly News" (remember Batboy?) type of "news" article which appeared from time to time was the hole bored down to Hell. It was usually "sourced" from Siberia. The Russians drilled a hole, deeper than anybody had ever done before, until it reached some kind of cavity, deep down. They then lowered a microphone, which picked up the voices of people screaming.
caffiend Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > A "World Weekly News" (remember Batboy?) type of > "news" article which appeared from time to time > was the hole bored down to Hell. It was usually > "sourced" from Siberia. The Russians drilled a > hole, deeper than anybody had ever done before, > until it reached some kind of cavity, deep down. > They then lowered a microphone, which picked up > the voices of people screaming.
The real hole was in the Kola Peninsula nearer Finland than Scandinavia. In fact it is Finland Irredentia.