Posted by:
Backseater
(
)
Date: November 23, 2019 01:33PM
In 1969 when the Apollo 10 mission was orbiting the moon and sending back breathtaking pictures, some enterprising reporter in England interviewed the president of the British Flat Earth Society. This worthy individual stated that it was interesting that the Earth "appeared" to be round from some vantage points in space--but he knew better, of course.
I couldn't find anything current on the British Flat Earth Society, but there are now several national societies--including Canada and Italy--and at least one international. The international one originated in Britain and may be the one I remember; or a later development or spinoff.
"The Flat Earth Society's most recent planet model is that humanity lives on a disc, with the North Pole at its centre and a 150-foot (45 m) high wall of ice, Antarctica, at the outer edge. The resulting map resembles the symbol of the United Nations, which Johnson [the society president] used as evidence for his position. In this model, the Sun and Moon are each 32 miles (52 km) in diameter."
Perhaps not surprisingly, Flat-Earthers are also often involved with various biblical literalism and conspiracy movements.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_flat_Earth_societiesAlso it's well known that the great detective Sherlock Holmes did not know the Earth went round the Sun until Doctor Watson told him, and then immediately resolved to forget it because it had no relevance for his profession.
Cheers.