Faith and politics part 3 : Flat earth and other theories

 

Flat Earthers and beyond

Yes this view is making a comeback - despite the earth as a globe being proposed centuries before Christ –an idea proposed by Pythagoras (6^th century BC) and affirmed by Plato (4^th century BC) and Aristotle suggested empirical evidence. Whilst around 240 BC the Greek Eratosthenes made a very accurate estimate of the circumference of the earth, by comparing shadows in different cities.

I confess that I was surprised about how early this understanding was, in my imagination it was a medieval insight linked to Copernicus – but it seems his addition was about the planets circling around the sun rather than Earth being the centre of the universe. The globe earth was well established among the learned and through the Middle Ages the churches and emerging universities took a globe world as a given fact.

It was in the 19^th century that stories arose that claimed the middle Ages European view was of a flat earth. And it was linked to the development of the myth of conflict between faith and science. In Britain Samuel Rowbotham (1816–1885) published theories of a flat earth and was a charismatic speaker. Others took up the baton in the years that followed. Things subsided although in 1956 The International Flat Earth Research Society was formed, in the face of the space race and images from orbit the claims of conspiracy and deception began.  In was under new leadership in the 1970s that the membership of the society grew to several thousand. Decline in the 1990s has been followed by another resurrection in the internet age with youtube channels focused on flat earth theories – fed by and feeding into to the rise of both anti science and anti government worldviews.

Of course the number of those committed to the flat earth viewpoint will still be small, more widely though the rate of conspiracy believers seem to be higher, with QAnon as a movement that seemingly binds together a wide range of different groups that were once seen as extreme. And when a former president makes unsubstantiated claims of massive voter fraud, and followers storm Congress, then this conspiracy becomes widely accepted and encouraged by key right wing communicators, and invites people into other conspiracies – especially in the uncertainty of covid times.