The Earth is Flat – I Didn’t Want To Believe it Either
According to the rapper BoB, the Earth is flat. His recent tweeting activity included this insight as well as pictures to prove he was right.
Also, how does one explain this?
Or this?
BoB is not alone, though – there is, of course, the Flat Earth Movement who agree with him.
Hell, they go one . Further, they have VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE.
200 ‘proofs’ of a flat earth here people.
If that won’t convince you then maybe this better-edited one will:
This video even has the great insight that while the scientists ‘claim’ that the water is subject to gravity, that’s not what we see.
Has anyone seen gravity? Anyone? Anyone at all?
And the conspiracy theories involving Freemasons and NASA aren’t far behind. What is missing, however, is how the Ancient Greeks came to the idea of a spherical earth. No doubt there is a time travel conspiracy there too.
Those people who genuinely believe that group work on the internet is a good way of learning, supporting the supremo charlatan Mitra, might want to think about how children will be able to filter out good and bad ideas. Or are they to ‘make up their mind’?
I suspect, unfortunately, that the answer to the last question will be yes. A belief in equality seems to have morphed into a conviction that all ideas have worth and are equally valid. One can’t say that an idea is wrong because it might hurt someone’s feelings.
Tough. While everything should be open to discussion, let us not pretend that the evidence for some ideas and theories is not overwhelming. The bar to disprove the Earth is spherical is incredibly high due to the accumulated evidence. As teachers, we owe it to our pupils to explain this explicitly and with examples, as well as debunking some of what is on the internet.
The need for knowledge is there regardless of the web. But given the Internet, the need is in many ways greater. Future generations need to know to cut through the misinformation there. What questions to ask about sources, why some are more valid than others. And I do believe that we should start as we mean to go on, at primary level. I don’t believe that any primary child should be researching on the internet until at least Year 5 and even then they should have a bank of websites they know are reliable (e.g. BBC) which they know to turn to.
It highlights the importance of the fact that if we are going to allow children to use the technology, we also need to teach how it can and is abused to propagate bad ideas and how these can be countered and avoided.
Human beings are capable of shedding bad ideas and theories. We need to teach when, how and why we do this so that they can build on past achievements rather than going round in circles regarding ideas that have been thoroughly debunked.
January 26, 2016 @ 2:15 pm
Reblogged this on The Echo Chamber.
January 26, 2016 @ 4:43 pm
I don’t think the world is flat, but I’m not 100% sure. I only know we’ve landed on the moon because they say we have and because of that excellent footage which they don’t seem to show anymore. It is an excellent idea to question what we are told (about teaching pedagogy). It is also reasonable to question evolution (which some people teach as fact)
January 26, 2016 @ 4:51 pm
Which is where the whole idea of evidence and reliable evidence has to be taught. The pictures that BoB presented as ‘evidence’ are not because they don’t show what he thinks they show.
As for evolution. It is the theory that makes the most sense, has fossil evidence and dna evidence to support it. You are welcome to challenge all of this but I don’t accept a ‘I say it so it holds weight’ school of thought. To convince me of a different theory, I need to see evolution debunked. No one has come close to it, except those espousing conspiracy theories which are pure paranoia.
January 26, 2016 @ 5:49 pm
I wrote my comment before watching the videos which I’m half way through. FES has seriously upped its game. I used to think it existed purely to challenge people. Most people just believe what their told. Anyway never mind about NASA. If you start telling too many people that groupwork isn’t what it claims and that FFT data is dodgy you could be hunted down. They haven’t made the education version of the film Capricorn One yet. Best wishes
January 26, 2016 @ 6:37 pm
I really don’t think we are on the same planet here!! I don’t believe everything I am told but equally I am not into conspiracy theories of any kind – that way lies paranoia and darkness. See you when you come out of the tunnel buddy.
January 26, 2016 @ 7:03 pm
🙂 also their = they’re in my comment
February 1, 2016 @ 6:00 am
B.o.B.s “analysis” includes “….per mile squared”. What?
Surely this is just more evidence of dumbing down, plus the arrogance of yet another “I don’t need no education” celebrity.
I could claim that 1 + 1 = 145. How dare you say it is 2! I am right because I got more “likes” than you, so there! In a completely innumerate society that would seem to be a reasonable and democratic argument.
I remember listening to Lord Melvyn Bragg interviewing a mathematician on Radio 4. The mathematician proposed a thought experiment: imagine I toss a fair coin 100 times and get 100 heads. Does that mean my chances of getting a tail on the next toss are greater than 50/50? Lord Bragg thought it would.
People like B.o.B. have a lot in common with people like Lord Bragg. Both have a very weak grasp of physical reality, but a remarkably strong grip on “social reality”. This appears to be what our society wants.
To quote Marx (Groucho): “include me out”.
February 12, 2016 @ 6:17 am
Re per mile squared, I recently corrected someone for saying gravity of 9. 8 was a speed. I felt bad about correcting this but I couldn’t resist it was a chink in their case. They were probably a globe believer so it works both ways.
February 12, 2016 @ 6:21 am
Re coin toss ( I am not a troll honest) 100 out of 100 is SO unusual that…..
It would be better to just assume that 10/ 10 is no evidence for a deviation from 1/2
February 12, 2016 @ 6:24 am
To teachwell
I am still in the the ‘tunnel’ (and greatful to you for putting me onto this)
I am trying to believe in a globe but …
February 12, 2016 @ 9:01 am
It’s just too hard? The flat earth theorists are right about the illuminati/global conspiracy theory stretching back to the Crusades and Renaissance? Or maybe just some evidence to refute the evidence the Ancient Greeks used in the first place might help? I wonder why that doesn’t happen?
February 16, 2016 @ 11:21 pm
grateful -how embarrassing