Spare of facts claim flat land before 2024 Eclipse
A total solar eclipse is expected to cross the United States on April 8. This does not prevent some skeptics from believing that the earth is flat.
Humans have known The earth is round for more than 2,000 years, but a movement question this fact has reached the corners of American politics.
People involved in politics in Alabama, Georgia and Minnesota drew attention to their links with the flat movement of the earth, although their beliefs and their reasoning vary.
For some, beliefs have a spiritual link. Others say they have a healthy skepticism of a scientific consensus.
Data from a New Hampshire University survey in 2021 shows that almost 10% of Americans think that the land is flat, indicating how the theories of the pseudo-scientific conspiracy widespread emerge in the United States
Meanwhile, political observers have encountered the emergence of certain beliefs of flat earth in politics with a mixture of alarm and apathy.
Political candidates who believe that the land is flat and other similar beliefs are “in accordance with the decrease and the current anti-intellectualism of America”, declared James TaylorProfessor of political science at the University of San Francisco. Taylor said these theories prospered mainly due to the Internet and social media compared to 20 years ago.
Flat presence of the land in politics
In Alabama, there is Dean OdleA pastor who lost when he presented himself to the post of governor in 2022, and is now looking to become a lieutenant-government next year. Odle, who describes himself as the “anti-establishment republican”, told USA Today that he became “a believer of the earth and the biblical earth” in 2015, even attending the first International Conference on Flat Earth in 2017.
He quotes his 2019 self-published book, entitled “Like clay under the seal“To say his conviction that the earth is flat initially as a” spiritual download of the Holy Spirit “. Odle said that he was aware of the Flak that he obtains for his beliefs, but that will not prevent him from presenting himself to functions to try to improve the status of education at a low row of the State and to prevent the second amendment from being attacked.
“I generally refer to article VI, section 3 of the American Constitution, which says that no religious test should be put on a person as a qualification or disqualification to stand in the elections,” said Odle. “This means that we are all going to have different beliefs, but it does not mean that we are unfit to protect the constitutional rights given by God from all Americans and residents of Alabama.”
In Minnesota, Bret BusAn army veteran who became president of the republican party of the minnesota congress district in March, would have publicly shared Videos on social networks explaining why he believes that the earth is flat. Which includes a 2024 publish Facebook Entitled “5 reasons why I believe in the flat earth (and you should also!).”
When asked for his convictions by the Minnesota reformer In April, Bussman said: “You can print what you want. I spent more than 20 years in the army defending this right, but if you do this, there would be no chance of talking to me in the future.”
(USA Today contacted Bussman to comment.)
And in Georgia, Kandiss Taylora former candidate for the Republican Governor of Georgia and current state President of District 1 GOPannounced that she presented herself for the congress in 2026. She was examined after interviewing Two prominent flat -earth believers On a podcast two years ago, saying at one point:
“Everywhere, there are globes. It’s constant … and that’s what they do to wash the brain,” said Taylor. “For me, if it is not a plot, if this is the case, you know,” real “, why do you grow so hard? Wherever I go, each store, you buy a globe, there are globes everywhere – each film, each television program, the information media. Why? It doesn’t make sense.”
Taylor has since said that she did not believe that the earth is flat, but that it remains skeptical.
“I would clearly say that I just don’t believe anything I have seen for myself,” Taylor said in a statement sent by e-mail to USA Today. “That being said, I gladly take one of these 11 -minute rocket flights to the stratosphere (as Katy Perry has done) and report to people what I see.”
What do terrors believe flat?
In general, most The flat terrains believe The earth is a flat object similar to a hockey covered with a dome, sometimes called firmament, with walls of ice around the edges of the dome. The flat terrains believe that they can prove it because the seas appear at the level, not curved, and say that it is not possible to see the earth curvature of the aircraft horizon.
They also dispute the photographic evidence of space, saying that one cannot trust and that the landing of NASA Moon was a hoax.
Flat land in politics: What does that mean?
Although some believers of the flat land have been active in politics, there is no evidence of a movement organized flat in American policy, political experts said in USA Today.
“It is unlikely that you have candidates by saying openly that they think that the earth is flat because it looks like a more clumsy position and a less widely retained belief,” said John CluveriusProfessor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. “I hesitate to consider this as a conspiracy theory as much as an anti-science belief that can be a country with scientific evidence.”
When did people know that the earth is a sphere?
There is a common error of the flat earth, popularized in the 19th century, suggesting that before the beginning of the scientific study in the 17th century, most people thought that the earth was indeed flat.
However, the ancient Greeks understood that the earth was round About 500 BCAnd it was commonly accepted by academics, navigators and cartographers Since.
The belief of the flat earth as a conspiracy theory has further increased The mid -1800s in England. The Flat Earth Society was founded in 1956.
Then the flat lands had Resurgence in the 2010s While the rise in social media has become a portal for conspiracy theorists, as mentioned James Taylor, the political scientist of San Francisco.
Contribution: Elizabeth Wiese, Doyle Rice, USA Today