The modern rise of conspiracy theories in the West and particularly the United States is a fascinating phenomenon. Though it is true that they have existed in the minds of people throughout history – conspiracy theories about Jewish people being one of the most prominent – it wasn’t until the rise of the internet where a platform for discussion and propagation emerged on an enormous scale. The presence of conspiracy theories on the internet has become so widespread that a subculture of sorts has developed alongside a worldview that sees a battle against the forces of evil. The individual, self-identified “truther” (a term commonly used by conspiracy theorists to label themselves) are the beacons of light exposing the nefarious designs of the elite who conspire to create a new world order.

No other conspiracy theory has warranted as much attention in recent years from the outside than the Flat Earth theory (or theories), and understandably so. No other theory flies as much in the face of our understanding of the world than this one. It just simply appears utterly unbelievable for anyone in the modern era to hold such ideas and take them seriously, given all of the evidence provided by scientists and others for thousands of years. As far as conspiracy theories go, a shadow government puppeteering the leaders of the world to diabolical ends is a much easier pill to swallow than the idea that everything in cosmology has been a lie.

This isn’t going to be a debunking post, that’s been done enough and doesn’t appear to be changing anyone’s mind. Instead, I want to suggest, as the title of the post hints, that Flat Earthers aren’t just a bunch of contrarian nut-jobs who are desperately clinging onto a Biblical view of the world. There is value in how they see the world, but this doesn’t lie in their concrete ideas and theories, but rather the spirit in which they (at least originally) pursued their search for truth.

The attitude in which they approach science is of the very essence of scientific enquiry in the first place. It is as simple as this: Question everything. Don’t accept the views of authority. Just because authoritative powers said something is the way it is, doesn’t mean that’s the truth of the matter. Maintaining a sceptical attitude to established knowledge and authority is fundamental as it allows gaps to be found, and brings about growth as well as new insights about the universe. Some of the greatest breakthroughs of science have been the result of questioning established knowledge. One only needs to think of Darwin and Galileo.

Flat Earthers have done this. Watch any video on YouTube and questioning the authority of scientists and those with power is one of the first things they will do. They make a point when they question where exactly did the public get their knowledge of cosmology, since for most of us, that largely comes from being told at school how the world is, rather than our own investigations into the matter. This doesn’t appear to be too shocking. People don’t seem to have an issue when questioning the government, but when it comes to questioning science that’s a whole different ballpark, even though both fields are comprised of flawed and limited human beings. Science has received a somewhat unquestionable reverence about it in the last few hundred years, so it’s not surprising that questioning it is often met with ridicule and rejection by the general populace.

In this vein, Flat Earthers question that most unquestionable of institutions and claim that most of our evidence for a round earth comes from a handful of sources, namely NASA, and do not think they are particularly reliable for a number of reasons. Being partly rooted in the “fake moon-landing” conspiracy, which (at first glance at least) makes some seemingly valid points, they believe there is reason enough to suspect that NASA and other space agencies have a less than benign agenda. Since Flat Earthers have never seen the curvature of the earth with their own eyes, why should they accept the views of an organisation which they find less than virtuous?

This leads to my second point. With Flat Earthers, there is a reassertion of the paramount value of subjective experience from personal consciousness. I haven’t seen this too explicitly stated, but their behaviour suggests as much. An overall problem in the pursuit of modern science is the devaluation of personal experience to such an extent that it is considered a hindrance rather than a possible fount of knowledge. Instead, highly abstracted models of the universe have been created that bear little resemblance to the world we actually experience. And although this has led to unfathomable gains in the understanding of the universe, it has also taken the human, the passage through which everything we know has come from, and tossed it aside. As a result, this may lead to unintentional gaps in our knowledge and understanding of the world. Abstractions are ultimately, in the final analysis, only representations of reality.

An additional point, which could be for better or worse, is that Flat Earthers represent a democratisation of science and a flourishing of an independent pursuit of truth, in a sense. When you look at Flat Earthers, they are often regular people, who have tried to figure out the truth of reality on their own, conducting their own experiments (although many are highly misguided) rather than relying on others to do so for them. The ethos is one of individual enquiry and this should be applauded to a certain degree rather than outright mocked.

Problematically, however, when it comes to Flat Earthers (and conspiracy theorists) is that they have questioned authority to such an extent that they forgot to question themselves as well as others who aren’t considered traditional sources of power. After questioning and rejecting so much established knowledge, a vacuum emerges that can be filled by anything. Extreme scepticism can only go so far, and will inevitably lead to nihilism where nothing is true. As a result, the mind becomes more malleable as it desperately tries to find a perspective to give it meaning, becoming more susceptible to ideologies and theories that are incomplete, i.e. the general “conspiracy worldview”. Consequently, the Flat Earther succumbs to that which he originally set himself against. He begins to blindly accept the authority of YouTubers and any who can provide him with an alternative worldview, one that suits his biases and temperament.

The problem, as always, is that a certain perspective or approach has been taken to the extreme and subsequently becomes so warped from reality that the individual is willing to believe anything from the existence of a tiny universe characterised by a flat earth with a sky dome, to a satanic cult that runs the whole world. Sadly, the sceptical attitude can be destructive when taken too far. Authority, despite its frequent abuse in history, has become authoritative, particularly in areas of knowledge, at least for some good reason. Utter rejection means the eventual replacement of a different kind of authority, often on much shakier grounds. The extremes taken by Flat Earthers have also manifested in the idea that direct subjective experience is the only reliable source of knowledge, as well as the democratisation and individualisation of the scientific endeavour. It needn’t be elaborated as to why these can be taken too far.

Despite the problems with their approach, next time one wants to laugh at a Flat Earther, maybe consider some of the reasons as to why they have these beliefs in the first place. These people, albeit in a misguided way, are really only trying to be what we’ve been encouraged to be in the modern era – sceptical and suspicious of authority. They’ve just taken it a little too far.

Further Reading:

Think for Yourself, Question Authority

Image taken from:

https://www.livescience.com/62454-flat-earthers-explain-pac-man-effect.html