The Earth Is Flat. We Never Landed On The Moon.

I love this weather. One reason for that is there's just nothing cuter than seeing everybody bundled up like astronauts that are attempting to avoid the harsh environment of outer space. Which reminds me (okay, this is a bad transition); I caught a little PBS before I went to bed last night and they were covering our initial landing on the moon, which in turn reminded me of some conspiracy theory I once heard about the moon-landing being staged as a resort to upstage the Soviet Union in the race to outer space. Then I went back to do some more reading and research on this topic. Why would anybody adamantly devote so much time and energy to disproving something such as our landing on the moon? What incentive / value-added benefit would come of it?

Then it became all too clear. When something doesn't mesh with a person's beliefs (especially religious beliefs), they have at least three options. They can 1) scrutinize the new information then possibly accept that what they've believed is wrong and accept the new information, 2) insist that the assertions are actually wrong and manufacture an opposing theory and parade it as fact, or 3) discredit the person who promulgated the information in the form of an ad-hominem argument.

The Flat Earth Society, (which you might not be all too surprised to learn was formed in the 1800's) in my opinion, fits the mold of # 2. Sadly, you'll see this a lot when people take literal interpretations of the bible and defend it tooth and nail. This is because their thinking is since the bible is the infallible, literal word of god, anything that would contradict any portion of it is obviously wrong and if there is no tangible proof to back this up with, one must be manufactured. Although this may not be the view of some of the followers, this is certainly the premise for this movement. Why do I believe this to be true? Here is some talk from the president, Charles Johnson, in a 1980 interview:

Johnson's beliefs are firmly grounded in the Bible. Many verses of the Old Testament imply that the earth is flat, but there's more to it than that. According to the New Testament, Jesus ascended up into heaven.
"The whole point of the Copernican theory is to get rid of Jesus by saying there is no up and no down," declares Johnson. "The spinning ball thing just makes the whole Bible a big joke."
Not the Bible but Johnson's own common sense allowed him to see through the globe myth while he was still in grade school. He contends that sensible people all over the world, not just Bible believers, realize that the earth really is flat.
"Wherever you find people with a great reservoir of common sense," he says, "they don't believe idiotic things such as the earth spinning around the sun. Reasonable, intelligent people have always recognized that the earth is flat."

Funny that Copernicus was mentioned. Yes, the man that had went against the grain of the church and believed that the Sun was at the center of the universe; not the Earth. This brings to mind the travesty of Galileo's house arrest by the pope for touting the heliocentric views of Copernicus which stated just that-- that the Earth is not the center of the universe and/or solar system, but the sun is. Since this conflicted with scripture, he might as well should have signed his own death warrant.

In 1633, Galileo was placed under house arrest for his Copernican views that the Earth was not, in fact, the center of the Universe. The pope then places Galileo under house arrest for his 'heretic' views. It took until 1983 for the Vatican to issue a formal apology. In 1983, the commission concluded that Galileo should not have been condemned. In 1984, at the commission's recommendation, the church published all documents related to Galileo's trial. In 1992, Pope John Paul II publicly endorsed the commission's finding that the church had made a mistake in condemning Galileo.

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Psalm 93:1, Psalm 96:10, and Chronicles 16:30 state that "the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved." Psalm 104:5 says, "[the LORD] set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved." Ecclesiastes 1:5 states that "the sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises."


However, probably moreso because he was aware of the implications of his views he still...

[...] claimed [the heliocentric model] was not contrary to those Scripture passages. He took Augustine's position on Scripture: not to take every passage literally, particularly when the scripture in question is a book of poetry and songs, not a book of instructions or history. The writers of the Scripture wrote from the perspective of the terrestrial world, and from that vantage point the sun does rise and set. In fact, it is the earth's rotation which gives the impression of the sun in motion across the sky.

This is a very sad trend I've witnessed a lot of lately, even in more modern times. This assault on scientific facts still continues today. If ever you see anybody going against scientific facts, you can almost always guarantee it's because of some sort of agenda on the ultra, fundamentalist religious front. I was raised in a very active, Christian household. I practically lived at church. I understand that the variety of Christians you meet are just as different as any other kind of people you meet. You meet the understanding ones that aren't judgemental, then you are exposed to the uber-legalistic hateful bigots. I have respect for religion in certain senses, but it's always those who are so steadfast in their unshakable fundamentalist views that place their ideologist goals in front of our childrens' education (and common sense); and that's where the line is crossed.

Now the reason I believe that people are saying that the moon-landing is a hoax and why I believe its grassroots beliefs are tied to those of the Flat Earthers? Well, after we finally made it into space and had actual photo
s of the spherical Earth, they surely didn't want to 1) scrutinize the new information then possibly accept that what they've believed is wrong and accept the new information, so instead they 2) insisted that the assertions of the spherical Earth are actually wrong and manufactured an opposing theory and paraded it as fact. Now it might not be that all Flat Earth theorists have a religious agenda in mind because it seems to have taken on a life of it's own. Human nature has a way of making things their own, where it evolves and they cultivate it to their liking. (For instance; the skinhead movement that began in the sixties wouldn't have had the connotations of violence/hatred that is now associated with them today.) I guess I'll call this the 'bandwagon effect.' People that join a group sometimes don't see the full-scope of their belief and join a group with a blind cult-like mentality. I digress.

I think religion should remain a personal conviction. If it helps you out in any way, and grounds you, and revitalizes your spirit then nobody should be able to deny you of that. But there's also a point where it can become a poison and consume you. It can cause more harm than anything else and infringes on the civil liberties of others. If you have faith in something so much, and if new information you hear conflicts with the literal interpretation you have of the bible, then that's your personal battle. It may become a test of your faith. For instance - take this passage from the bible: The psalmist wrote (103:12), "Farther away than the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us," but only on a flat earth are east and west at the points of maximum separation. From any point on a globe, the point of maximum eastness and the point of maximum westness are the same point. (Therefore if the bible is to remain inerrant, then the world must be flat-- unless, of course you still insist on taking a literal interpretation and want to believe that what the bible meant to convey is that God does not remove our transgressions from us at all, therefore--Jesus' death on the cross loses it's stated purpose, and the the groundwork that Christianity is based upon crumbles, based alone on that one example of errant scripture.

The fundamentalist Christians accept the bible as the literal, inerrant word of God, which sets them up to have no other choice but to believe that the Earth is flat Earth and we never landed on the moon. Why cause an injustice to our children and fellow human beings by manufacturing false truths to make sense of the world around you so that it coincides with your beliefs? Afterall, maybe I'm the one with the warped views of the world and I'm the one that needs help. Maybe the Earth is, in fact, in the center of our universe. Maybe it's flat. Does this mean one would be more inclined to be a devout, practicing Christian? No more than it should deter a man from believing what he believe when the opposite of those statements are actually true.



Related links:

• BadAstronomy.com debunks the myth that we've never landed on the moon
  
• The Inconsistency of Round-Earth religionists (satire)
  
• Flat Earth Society
• Explanation of flat Earth
• Moon Landing Hoax
• Creationism Museum
• Creationism museum article

If you want to read a book that covers the topic of a marriage between science and religion (in the form of a religious scientist who was murdered for this reason), you might like to read Angels & Demons. It was written by Dan Brown before The Da Vinci Code, but I still think it's the better of the two.