Flat Earthers and Skepticism

When does skepticism veers into the ridiculous?

This pops up in my news feed. The flat earthers are back!

The perturbing thing about the article, aside from the comment that the flat earthers conferences are growing, is the line that flat earthers are generally curious and hyper-skeptical. They question things; they perform experiments to prove or disprove their ideas. Generally, curiosity and independent thinking is a good thing, but this article shows that there is a line where it becomes ridiculous.

So that brings me to how do we practice independent thinking without getting into the sublimely fantastical?

I don’t have the answer but I would think a first stab would be to listen to scientists, especially if you were not particularly strong in school or in the sciences. They’ve got the training; they got the intellectual heft. If your experiments do not prove the earth is round, that doesn’t mean the earth is flat. It could mean that your experiment might have been wacky (“spirit levels”? are you kidding me?) or not conducted in a suitably scientific manner or just didn’t address the question.

Also, consider your sources when researching. I think some of these people get caught up in flat earth theories or other conspiracy theories through the internet or YouTube. In other words, they are listening to people who do not have the credentials or the intellectual heft to be addressing these questions.

And don’t look to YouTube or Facebook for answers to scientific questions. Unless you are well versed in scientific theories, you might get sucked into rabbit holes that you can’t reason out of.

So, we all probably need a mandatory course on critical thinking for the digital world we are facing, including myself.

Read the article and weep. It is staggering that one out of six Americans “are not entirely certain the world is round”.

“The community merely believes that space does not exist, the world sits still and the moon landing was faked.”

CNN, “The flat-earth conspiracy is spreading around the globe. Does it conceal a darker core?”, Rob Picheta, November 17, 2019.

Ah, geez.