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This is how Day 1 of Canada’s first flat earth conference begins. About 250 people registered to attend, the majority of them dedicated to the false proposition that the Earth is flat.

I went with two actual scientists, brothers Jason Schultz and Ryan Schultz. To be clear, neither think the Earth is flat. Both have degrees in physics — Jason an undergrad, Ryan a masters. They registered on a lark to see how long they could stand the conference.

But Ryan Schultz also had altruistic motives: he wanted to better understand flat earth adherents. How do you talk to people who are so fact averse?

‘Ridicule and name calling’

Edmonton

The two-day conference has all the trappings of a professional gathering — name tags, media lists, merchandise bags.

Towering over it all is organizer Robbie Davidson, a 46-year-old from Edmonton who fell into flat earth three years ago. Something happened in 2015, he says, the year when many people on the internet became flat earth adherents. In 2017, he organized a flat earth conference in North Carolina, which he said was the first of its kind.

The events are about bringing flat earth into real, physical space. “I knew that it wouldn’t become real to a lot of people until it moved off of online into buildings,” he said. “You could say, ‘Oh it’s just a bunch of crazy people online.’ The minute it (starts) moving into buildings … things are going to change.”

In the lead-off speech Thursday, Davidson said flat earthers are standing up against “ridicule and name calling.” He tells the story of being ostracized from two churches over his flat earth beliefs. He knows people who have allegedly lost their jobs for being flat earthers. Pretty much every speaker talks about how thinking the Earth is flat is hard on relationships.