REVELATIONS IN SCIENCE: Should We Trust Old Man Hottabych?
Art Design: huxley.media via Photoshop inspired by René Magritte’s painting «Portrait of Stephi Langui», 1961
I believe most of you smiled at that part in Old Man Hottabych where Volka Kostylkov, following the advice of the uneducated genie, tells his geography teacher: «India, O most revered teacher, lies at the very edge of the Earth’s disk…»
We all know that the Earth is not a disk but a sphere! Moreover, it seemed to us that all opposing viewpoints had been debunked in the distant past, and adults making such claims in modern times would typically be under the watchful eye of attentive, caring, and rather physically strong orderlies. However, reality paints a different picture!
A whole cohort of completely grown-up, fully capable, and legally sound individuals believe otherwise.
In their eyes, all notions of a spherical Earth are a cunning deception orchestrated by some mysterious malevolent forces, perpetuated through falsifications and unrestrained propaganda. Think such people merely need a well-explained truth backed by an abundance of evidence? Not so fast! To them, the Earth is flat — end of discussion!
EARLY VICTOR
It’s easy to assume that people originally believed the Earth was flat — after all, you walk and walk, there’s a valley beyond the mountain, but overall, the surface seems quite level. Many ancient mythologies clearly supported this hypothesis — for instance, Hinduism and Buddhism described the Earth as a flat island surrounded by a salty ocean. Norse mythology told a similar story about the Earth. Evidence suggests that even in ancient Babylon, the cradle of numerous sciences, similar views were prevalent.
However, quite early on — well before the rise of Greece — an alternative perspective emerged in the ancient world. Not everyone agreed with it, of course. For instance, the great Democritus, who was the first to theorize the existence of atoms, believed the Earth was flat, as did his teacher, Leucippus. Plato thought the Earth was a cube, Anaximander described it as a cylinder resembling a game piece, Xenophanes envisioned it as something akin to a tree stump with many roots, and Thales of Miletus, the first to predict an eclipse, considered it a flat disc similar to the Hindu concept of the Earth.
Yet Pythagoras, who lived about a century earlier, was already convinced the Earth was a sphere. Later, Aristotle attempted to prove this idea, pointing out that when observing ships on the horizon, their sails become visible first, followed by the hull — something that wouldn’t occur if the Earth were flat, as both would appear at the same time.
By the beginning of the Common Era, the spherical view of the Earth had triumphed and become widely accepted. In fact, 200 years earlier, Eratosthenes had even calculated the Earth’s circumference — and with remarkable accuracy.
FAITH MAKES ADJUSTMENTS
The fall of the Roman Empire brought countless calamities, among them a devastating decline in science and the transfer of much of its authority to religion. Consequently, even in matters like the shape of the Earth, the opinions of church figures became decisive, with little concern for actual facts.
The first to seemingly advocate for a flat Earth was Lactantius, a highly influential theologian of the 3rd century AD (did I miss a space after the third letter?). Not long after, Cosmas Indicopleustes, a merchant and traveler who had explored much of the world, became convinced that the Earth wasn’t round but rectangular, covered by a dome, with the heavens located above — something akin to a chest.
When confronted by those pointing out the circular shadow seen during a lunar eclipse, Cosmas dismissed the argument with ease. He claimed the shadow wasn’t cast by the Earth, but by another round celestial body, and as to what that might be, he left it to others to figure out rather than bothering him with trivialities. Arguing with Cosmas was challenging — after all, the Bible mentions the «four corners of the Earth» at least three times. Where are those corners on a sphere?
Several church figures countered his views, pointing out that the Bible also uses the term «circle of the Earth» in a few places. Their counterargument was simple — a pancake is also round! Meanwhile, some Islamic scholars had their own unique reasons for supporting a flat Earth. For instance, they argued that in the polar regions, where the sun doesn’t set for extended periods, a round Earth would create problems during Ramadan. If daytime fasting prohibits eating, what are Muslims supposed to do there? Starve to death?
COLUMBUS AND MAGELLAN
Nevertheless, silencing the proponents of a spherical Earth proved impossible. Practical sailors who believed in a flat Earth often didn’t return home — perhaps they fell off the edge of the Earth? Who knows? Moreover, disputing Aristotle, who asserted that the Earth was a sphere, was forbidden even by the Holy Inquisition — so figure it out as you will.
In Dante’s Divine Comedy, the Earth is also depicted as a sphere, so it’s incorrect to assume that everyone in the Middle Ages believed the Earth was flat. Instead, many uneducated people simply had no opinion on the matter at all.
Professional geographers, on the other hand, had few doubts. The first globe was created back in ancient times, and it wasn’t just Christians who knew about it — by 1267, a globe had been presented as a gift to Kublai Khan. Christopher Columbus also firmly believed the Earth was a sphere. In fact, 18 years before his famous voyage, the geographer Toscanelli wrote to him suggesting that one could reach India not only by sailing west but possibly even faster by going east, as Toscanelli believed the Earth to be much smaller than it actually is.
Columbus’s journey to India was interrupted by the Americas, but soon after, one of the five ships in Magellan’s expedition returned to its home port, having sailed continuously eastward. After this, few knowledgeable individuals doubted the Earth’s roundness. Its size was measured with reasonable accuracy, and it was even determined that the Earth isn’t a perfect sphere but slightly flattened, like a mandarin.
From then on, being unaware of the Earth’s round shape became almost embarrassing. So, the question was settled, right? As it turned out — not for everyone…
THE FIRST SOCIETY
In the early 19th century, Samuel Birley Rowbotham briefly alarmed geographers. He measured the curvature of the Earth along a nearly straight 10-kilometer stretch of the Old Bedford River and concluded that the Earth in this location was completely flat!
It took more than 30 years before Alfred Russel Wallace, co-author of Darwin’s theory of evolution, repeated the experiment, this time accounting for the phenomenon of refraction (since the atmosphere is optically non-uniform, light does not always travel in a straight line). Wallace’s results confirmed once again that the Earth is round.
However, Rowbotham never accepted this. He wrote several books about his «discovery», one of which, Zetetic Astronomy, inspired Lady Elizabeth Blount to establish the first Flat Earth Society shortly after Rowbotham’s death. Despite periods of inactivity, the society has persisted to this day.
There was even a case where Glenn Voliva, the leader of a Protestant sect in the U.S., seized control of Zion City, Illinois, and banned globes from all city schools. At the city’s entrance, he placed a sign that read: «Only a vile scoundrel, a creature lower than the dirtiest dog — yes, lower than a skunk — would call the Earth a globe in Zion City»/
Naturally, the city declined under his leadership, and Voliva was eventually ousted — but it took over 30 years!
In the age of the internet, when it would seem that access to information could easily convince anyone of the Earth’s roundness, the number of flat Earth believers has only grown. They create websites, engage in debates, and are almost impervious to being persuaded otherwise.
HOW THEY SEE THE WORLD
In their view, the Earth resembles a flat pancake. Its center is the North Pole, and its edges are bordered by an icy wall akin to the one meant to keep out the White Walkers in Game of Thrones. There is no South Pole — Amundsen was a fraud, and Antarctic research stations are a hoax! Have you ever been there? No? Exactly…
Photographs of Earth from space showing it as a sphere? Photoshop. Spaceports? Elaborate Disneyland-like attractions where they only pretend to launch rockets. The Moon landing? That was filmed by Stanley Kubrick from a script written by Arthur C. Clarke. (Kubrick, out of curiosity, reportedly demanded a fee from the Flat Earth Society for his work — they, of course, didn’t pay.)
Astronauts? They’re military personnel who are simply following orders to say the Earth looks round from space or else face a court-martial. Gravity doesn’t exist — things just fall straight down. If the Earth were a sphere, all the Australians would have fallen off by now.
And who benefits from convincing everyone that the Earth is round? Obviously, the international conspirators are seeking to control the world. Their leader? George Soros, of course — or, as some believe, Bill Gates.
These shadowy figures control all governments, dictate what children are taught in schools, and print fake hemisphere maps. The «real» maps are given only to those in the conspiracy who dare not spill the secret for fear of severe punishment. Oh, and take a look at the UN emblem — you’ll see a map of the flat Earth right there, mocking us all!
Think you can convince them otherwise? Hardly. They won’t listen to you and will continue spreading their beliefs regardless of your reaction.
NOTABLE FIGURES
Advocates of a flat Earth are not exclusively people from ancient or medieval times. For example, renowned solo yachtsman Joshua Slocum, who sailed around the world in the late 19th century, was met with skepticism in Durban, South Africa, by advisors to President Kruger of the Transvaal. They claimed that Slocum was mistaken in saying he was the first to circumnavigate the globe — at best, they said, he had merely traveled across the flat surface of the Earth. It’s worth noting that Kruger proudly declared he had never read any book other than the Bible, so his perspective wasn’t entirely unexpected.
Even in modern times, flat Earth theories persist. In 2016, the well-known rapper B.o.B (Bobby Ray Simmons) publicly argued with renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, accusing him of rejecting flat Earth theories because Tyson was supposedly a secret Freemason. B.o.B even released a diss track directed at Tyson, accusing him of being part of the «NASA conspiracy». Tyson, showing his sense of humor, responded with a rap rebuttal performed by his nephew.
Spanish footballer Javi Poves also joined the flat Earth camp, calling for a debate with Spain’s only astronaut, Pedro Duque, whom he accused of lying about the Earth’s roundness. Duque wisely chose not to engage. Poves went even further, renaming the football club he presided over, Móstoles Balompié, to «Flat Earth FC».
AND WHAT SHOULD WE DO WITH THEM?
Where do flat-earthers come from in an age of universal secondary education? First, conspiracy theories allow them to believe anything they want — a conviction that mysterious enemies are hatching sinister plots against them and the rest of the world. Second, there’s a selective approach to facts — if they don’t like a particular fact, they simply declare it non-existent without bothering with evidence.
Third, they place their faith in false experts — people confidently spouting baseless nonsense to the point where hospitalization would likely be a relief for their friends and family. Fourth, they have unrealistic expectations of science. Rejecting proven facts, they are ready to believe all sorts of incredible pseudoscientific fabrications without requiring any evidence.
Finally, there’s their helplessness in logic — a discipline that was completely removed from school curricula in the USSR (possibly because Lenin’s graduation certificate showed his only «B» was in logic). Even outside the USSR, illogical thinking is hardly rare.
Given such challenges, should we simply steer clear of them since reasoning with them seems impossible? It would be nice, but it’s not feasible — people with this mindset are prone to believing in all sorts of dangerous ideas (just think of anti-vaxxers).
We must learn to communicate with them — calmly, without emotional outbursts, discussing rather than attacking, and without distorting their views. Show respect, making it clear that new facts won’t completely change their worldview but can adjust it. This is not easy, but the benefits far outweigh the alternative of trading insults.
LITERATURE
- A. Zhvalevsky. Reptiloids on the Flat Earth. Minsk, «Discourse», 2019, 258 pages.
- L. McIntyre. Science Deniers: How to Talk to Flat Earthers, Anti-Vaxxers, and Conspiracy Theorists. Moscow, LLC «Individuum Print», 2023, 402 pages.
