Homestar Runner Wiki Forum

Now, I know all of us believe in a round earth (at least I hope so), so of course this isn't going to be a debate over whether or not the earth is flat. But a Flat Earth Society does in fact exist, although I'm sure its membership is very small.

What's interesting and illustrative about it, though, is that it's impossible to win a debate with these people. However, believe it or not, they don't resort to the usual "la la la la la I'm not listening" method of not losing an argument. They always find a way to try to make the evidence fit their point of view, even though it always involves some gross violation of the scientific method, not to mention Occam's Razor.

Check out their FAQ, for example. Utterly ridiculous ideas, of course, but there's a lot more subtlety than there appears. We know, of course, that Antarctica is not really a 150-foot high wall of ice that surrounds a circular planet, but how can we prove that without flying over it, and without space photos that theoretically could have been doctored, etc.?

Their FAQ has a severely weak answer to one of the questions, though. It claims that sunrises and sunsets are caused by perspective: as the overhead sun moves further and further away, it appears to disappear. So I posted (fully expecting to "lose" any debate) asking how this could be possible because the sun doesn't appear to shrink. The response I got was "The effect is due to Sun-Aether Refraction." Naturally, this is something that google has never heard of except from that forum. Surprise, surprise...

I think all this proves that we need the scientific method and Occam's Razor to have any kind of sanity at all in the world. If you ignore them, it's too easy to arrive at all sorts of crazy conclusions. I just thought that this was interesting... though I do hope to dear God (should he exist) that not very many people think the earth is flat.

- Kef

_________________
404 sig not found

Four Elephants and a turtle.

Hrmmm.....
Kinda like this?

_________________

The last time I checked into the Flat Earth Society, I kind of felt the same way as Magna: they're not serious, but are an attempt at satire.

Besides, we all know the earth is banana shaped.

_________________

Thread over, Cola wins.

_________________

Guys, it even says in their FAQ they're not a joke.

Come on now.

_________________

I think whether or not it's meant to be satire is 1) impossible to prove, and 2) aside from the point. What intrigues me is the sort of arguments that these guys put forth and yet it's so difficult to disprove them, even though we know they're wrong.

- Kef

_________________
404 sig not found

...or do we?

For all I know, EVERYTHING around me is just an elaborate hoax perpetrated by, of course, JoeyDay.

I love the argument about airplane pictures.
Perhaps I didn't really fly somewhere. Hmmm....

_________________
If you can't fix it with a hammer, you have an electrical problem.

I am a dog. This is not a joke. I am an actual dog who can type. This is absolutely not satire of the naiveté of another poster: I am a typing German Shepard.

This is obviously a joke, but Kef brings up a good point. Without the ability to call "fallacy!" and "wait, what are you talking about, you realize that's a little convoluted, right" anything can go. Luckily, we live in a world where most educated people can make conclusions based on the evidence given to us. After all, drawing reasonable conclusions is a survival skill that every living thing has: the thing with pointy teeth running towards you may just be trying to give you a hug. But probably not.

_________________

I forget whether the FES was a joke that got a bunch of real crazies, or a crazy society that got a bunch of joke posters. Either way, I'm pretty sure there's a healthy mix of each now.

_________________

They make the most fundamental mistakes in their reasoning (If they are in fact, not a joke).

For example: They say the government is guarding the ice wall. Why would the government do this? Why would they pay thousands of employess on snowmobiles (From a link on their FAQ) to guard it? And, most of all, how did they manage to discover the wall with no one knowing about it?

Comlumbus knew about the new world before the government that sent him...

_________________

Everything you know is a lie. Only the wiki truly exists. Only the wiki is the truth.

On topic:...that site seems satirical. Even though it says its not a joke. Is there a difference between satire and a joke?

_________________

Its Real.

_________________

Then again, it could still be a joke. If it is, it's a very good one. I've always wondered about how great it would be if someone made up all sorts of information, posted it in random places to be listed as "sources", then started a wikipedia article about it.

_________________

I can see it now: we start a conspiracy about socks (or something else stupid) being the direct cause of global warming. We'll call it the SEOL Society. (Socks Eliminate Ozone Layer)

_________________

Put it in 9 blogs, a small site with a .org extension, and get our scientist friend to put it in his blog (Reffered to as a journal, becuase he is a scientist, of course), and there you have it: Enough sources for wikipedia.org.

Paint that toast. And the toast is flat.

_________________

Problem is, you might be able to MAKE such a good argument. If you claim that the materials needed to produce socks create too much CO2 and greenhouse gases, and that, to be perfectly honest, we don't NEED socks thanks to the creation of shoes, that we need to abandon socks once and for all. Socks are too weak, they are consumable, they are utterly useless. Do people in Africa wear socks? NO! Why should we?

End this demand for luxury! Make sacrifices to save the future!
****
I think the Flat Earth Society is real. To think that it is fake and that the person just created all those sources is too big a conspiracy theory for me, akin to believing that the Moon Landing is all a hoax.

If it's all a joke, then these guys must be VERY good at persuasion and making valid arguments. If not...

_________________

Kef, I hear you're a mod at that forum.

Care to explain?

_________________

Eh? No, I've only made a few posts there. I had a debate that didn't go very well mostly because the other round-earthers refused to stay focused, so I gave up and locked the thread. You're allowed to lock your own threads without mod powers at that forum, so maybe that's where the confusion comes from.

- Kef

_________________
404 sig not found

_________________

I find that thread hilarious for some reason.

Of course, it could just be the remnants of that quart of cerveza I had at the Mexican restaurant just now.

_________________

Debe de ser la cerveza.

("Must be the beer.")

_________________
404 sig not found

Ha, I knew your life wasn't all "Peaches and Creme." You get Sloshed every once in a while too.

_________________

I also find it hilarious too. Just something about "throwing out all previous knowledge and starting fresh with new experiments and using your intuition to figure out the earth is flat."

_________________

I meant specifically the thread discussing Kef's mod status over there.

_________________

I'll refer you to Romans 3:23.

It was a quart of beer, Cola. I'd hardly use the term "sloshed" to describe it.

_________________

That just made my day.

_________________
http://s3.bitefight.org/c.php?uid=34919

Great answer.
Nice and direct.

What would be the the point of the Government spending all this money to prove the Earth is round, when it's not?
Idiots.

_________________
Guten tag, Johann, du riechst ganz richtig. Danke schon, Heidi. Und du auch. - A Bit of Fry and Laurie

They've spent a lot of money on dumber things.

_________________
If you can't fix it with a hammer, you have an electrical problem.