Flat Earth Society

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The Flat Earth Society is an organization first based in England and later in Lancaster, California that advocates the belief that the Earth is not a sphere but is flat (see flat Earth). No modern scientists or religious groups have published support for this belief. This exposed the society to much outside ridicule and made it a popular metaphor for dogmatic thinking and unreasoning adherence to tradition, with the term "Flat-Earther" coming to refer to a person who rejects changes in the scientific consensus, and by extension one who lives in the past.

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[edit] Origins of the flat Earth movement

Although there is a popular misconception that the belief in a flat earth was widespread in the Middle Ages, the idea that the earth is round originated in ancient times, was popularized by Pythagoras and Aristotle, and was accepted by virtually all educated people by the time of Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD. Although a few early Christian writers had some theological objections, by the early Middle Ages all mainstream Christian groups espoused the idea of a round earth. The myth that Christopher Columbus finally convinced Europeans that the earth is round by his voyage to America is a fiction invented by the writer Washington Irving and has absolutely no basis in fact, given that Columbus never circumnavigated the globe.

The modern flat earth movement originated when an eccentric English inventor, Samuel Birley Rowbotham (1816-1884), based on his literal interpretation of certain biblical passages, published a 16-page pamphlet, which he later expanded into a 430 page book expounding his views. According to Rowbotham's system, which he called Zetetic Astronomy, the earth is a flat disk centered at the North Pole and bounded along its southern edge by a wall of ice, with the sun, moon, planets, and stars only a few hundred miles above the surface of the earth.

Rowbotham and his followers gained notoriety by engaging in raucous public debates with leading scientists of the day. One such clash, involving the prominent naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, led to several lawsuits for fraud and libel.

After Rowbotham's death, his followers established the Universal Zetetic Society, published a magazine entitled The Earth Not a Globe Review and remained active well into the early part of the 20th century. After World War I, the movement underwent a slow decline.

In the United States Rowbotham's ideas were taken up by a religious cult, the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church. Founded by a Scottish faith healer, John Alexander Dowie, in 1895, the church established the theocratic community of Zion, Illinois on the shore of Lake Michigan forty miles (seventy kilometers) north of Chicago. In 1906, Dowie was deposed as leader of the cult by his lieutenant, Wilbur Glenn Voliva. Voliva ruled his some 6000 followers with an iron hand, allegedly exploiting their labor in the church-run corporation, Zion Industries.[citation needed] The flat earth doctrine was exclusively taught in community schools. Voliva was a pioneer in religious radio broadcasting. Listeners to his 100,000-watt (0.1 MW) radio station were treated to thundering denunciations of the evils of evolution and round earth astronomy. Voliva died in 1942 and the church disintegrated under a cloud of financial scandals. A few die-hard flat earth supporters persisted in Zion into the 1950s.

[edit] Flat Earth from space

In 1956, Samuel Shenton, a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and the Royal Geographic Society [citation needed], revived the UZS as the International Flat Earth Society. With the advent of the space program, the Society found itself confronted with pictures of Earth made by orbiting satellites and, eventually, by astronauts who had landed on the moon. When confronted with the first NASA photographs of earth from deep space, Shenton reportedly remarked: "It's easy to see how a photograph like that could fool the untrained eye." The society took the position that the Apollo Moon landings were a hoax, staged by Hollywood and based on a script by Arthur C. Clarke, a position also held by some others not connected to the Flat Earth society (see Apollo moon landing hoax accusations). In a March 2001 message to a friend, Clarke facetiously responded to the society's claims as follows: "I've written to [former NASA director] Dan Goldin saying I was never paid for this work and unless he does something quickly he'll be hearing from my killer lawyers, Geldsnatch, Geldsnatch & Blubberclutch."

[edit] Charles K. Johnson

In 1971, Shenton died and Charles K. Johnson became the new president of the Flat Earth Society. Under his leadership, over the next three decades, the group grew in size from a few members to about 3,000. Johnson distributed newsletters, flyers, maps, etc. to anyone who asked for them, and he managed all membership applications together with his wife, Marjory, who was also a flat-earther. Membership inquiries came from several countries, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, and India.

The last world model propagated by the Flat Earth Society holds that humans live on a disc, with the North Pole at its center and a 150-foot (~45 meter) high wall of ice at the outer edge. The resulting map resembles the symbol of the United Nations, something Johnson used as evidence for his position. In this model, the sun and moon are each a mere 32 miles (52 km) in diameter.

A newsletter from the society gives some insight into Johnson's mindset:

Aim: To carefully observe, think freely rediscover forgotten fact and oppose theoretical dogmatic assumptions. To help establish the United States...of the world on this flat earth. Replace the science religion...with SANITY
The International Flat Earth Society is the oldest continuous Society existing on the world today. It began with the Creation of the Creation. First the water...the face of the deep...without form or limits...just Water. Then the Land sitting in and on the Water, the Water then as now being flat and level, as is the very Nature of Water. There are, of course, mountains and valleys on the Land but since most of the World is Water, we say, "The World is Flat". Historical accounts and spoken history tell us the Land part may have been square, all in one mass at one time, then as now, the magnetic north being the Center. Vast cataclysmic events and shaking no doubt broke the land apart, divided the Land to be our present continents or islands as they exist today. One thing we know for sure about this world...the known inhabited world is Flat, Level, a Plain World.
We maintain that what is called 'Science' today and 'scientists' consist of the same old gang of witch doctors, sorcerers, tellers of tales, the 'Priest-Entertainers' for the common people. 'Science' consists of a weird, way-out occult concoction of gibberish theory-theology...unrelated to the real world of facts, technology and inventions, tall buildings and fast cars, airplanes and other Real and Good things in life; technology is not in any way related to the web of idiotic scientific theory. ALL inventors have been anti-science. The Wright brothers said: "Science theory held us up for years. When we threw out all science, started from experiment and experience, then we invented the airplane." By the way, airplanes all fly level on this Plane earth.

Charles Johnson died on March 19, 2001, leaving the fate of the Flat Earth Society uncertain.

[edit] The Flat Earth Society today

http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/ is a forum devoted to the flat earth society and theories that states its goal is

"to be to promote the free discussion of The Flat Earth Theory as well as the free discussion of and debate of any topic of interest to our members that do not contradict Forum Rules."

In an FAQ on the site it states that the site is genuine, but it is patently satirical (notwitholding the possibility that any genuine flat earth believers would have motivation to 'gravitate' there). Another website (also satirical) purporting to be of the Flat Earth Society, is

http://www.alaska.net/~clund/e_djublonskopf/Flatearthsociety.htm.

[edit] The Flat Earth Society in popular culture

  • California-based punk band Bad Religion include a song entitled "Flat Earth Society" on their 1990 album, Against the Grain (as well as their compilation album All Ages), written by Brett Gurewitz. A prominent feature of the song is the repetition of the words "lie, lie, lie" throughout, indicating a denouncement of the society and its mentality. The band has produced many such songs criticizing what it views as pseudoscientific movements.
  • Musician Thomas Dolby's official website is called "The Flat Earth Society", partially in reference to his 1984 album, The Flat Earth. The form to join Dolby's mailing list reads "If you truly believe the Earth is flat you are eligible to become a member, thus receiving information about the society", though it is clear from the context that this is intended ironically.
  • In Thomas Pynchon's "V." the cosmetic surgeon Dr. Schoenmaker uses the Flat Earth Society as an analogy to defend himself against (from his point of view scientifically outdated) accusations that his surgeries on Jewish girls' noses would turn these girls into WASPs: "[...] every photograph from a rocket over White Sands or Cape Canaveral is against the Flat Earth Society. Nothing I do to a Jewish girl's nose is going to change the noses of her children, when she becomes, as she must, a Jewish mother."
  • In the '80s, talk show host Wally George often sparred with and ridiculed members of the Flat Earth Society on his show Hot Seat. Australian talk show host Don Lane also had Flat Earth Society advocates on his show.
  • California Indie band Wilderness Survival release a song entitled "Flat Earth Society Gala" on their 2005 debut "Stereotypes and Types of Stereos." With a chorus that includes the phrase "a banquet of fools" the song title refers to the tight knit group tendencies of drug addicts.
  • In Stephen King's short story "The Mist", main character and narrator David Drayton dubs those refusing to believe in the bizarre, murderous monstrosities within the mist as "The Flat Earthers."
  • British band Carter USM's song Senile Delinquent on the album Worry Bomb features the line "I'd become a fully paid-up member of The Flat Earth Society"

[edit] Sources and links

  • Archival documents: The Papers of the Flat Earth Society, University of Liverpool Library, Special Collections and Archives, reference GB 141 FES. The collection comprises in 31 boxes and folders the papers of the Flat Earth Society during Samuel Shenton's involvement with the society (1956-1971). The material includes incoming and outgoing correspondence, promotional material such as leaflets and posters, magazines, manuscripts, lecture material including maps and diagrams, photographs, press cuttings, notes, books on astronomy and the Earth, and various other ephemera.
  • Earth Not a Globe Online text of Samuel Birley Rowbotham's 1881 treatise on Zetetic (Flat Earth) Astronomy.
  • $5,000 for Proving the Earth is a Globe, Oct. 1931 article from Modern Mechanics and Inventions about Voliva and his flat earth cosmology.
  • The Flat Earth Professor Donald Simanek's web page on the history of flat earth movements.
  • The Flat-out Truth: Earth Orbits? Moon Landings? A Fraud! Says This Prophet by Robert J. Schadewald. Science Digest, July 1980. A very detailed look at the Society and its leader. Schadewald was president of the National Center for Science Education and an expert on alternative earth movements.
  • Looking for Lighthouses by Robert J. Schadewald, Creation/Evolution #31 (1992). This article explains the use of lighthouse data by Samuel Rowbotham.
  • Scientific Creationism, Geocentricity, and the Flat Earth by Robert J. Schadewald, from the Skeptical Inquirer, Winter 1981-1982. Describes the movements leading to the Flat Earth Society and discusses parallels with creationism.
  • The International Flat Earth Society. By Robert P. J. Day, 1993. Documents the full Flat Earth Society newsletter. Part of the Talk.Origins archive on the Evolution/Creationism archive.

[edit] Further reading

  • Christine Garwood (2007). Flat Earth: The Extraordinary History and Modern Revival of an Ancient Idea, Macmillan, 140504702X.
  • Robert Schadewald (1981). Scientific Creationism, Geocentricity, and the Flat Earth, Skeptical Inquirer, vol 6, #2, Winter 1981-82, 41-48.
  • Ted Schultz, editor. (1989). The Fringes of Reason: A Whole Earth Catalog, Harmony Books, ISBN 0-517-57165-X, pg. 86, 88, 166.

[edit] External links

  • The Flat Earth Society web site and forums — a site collecting Flat Earth and Flat Earth Society information in an attempt to re-form the Society. Includes discussion forums and Flat Earth Society newsletters from the 1970s and 1980s.
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