This is by no means directed solely at Christians. I am including belief in reincarnation (particularly those of New Age spiritualism), ghosts, psychic mediums who communicate with the dead, etc.
I know this probably comes off as me trying to be edgy or controversial, but bear with me a second. It’s a bit of an old chestnut at this point, but the way that belief in spirits/souls distances people from the real, physical world seems to me unhelpful at best and dangerous at worst. Maybe that distance is a necessary coping mechanism for many people to exist in a universe that is random and dangerous, but it also enables people to retreat away from the physical world as something that is inconsequential (or, at the very least, secondary), just a temporary moment in our infinite existence. The irony here is that our desire to escape from the cruel indifference of reality creates new problems for us (religious conflict, anyone?), and blinds us to the possibility of collective solutions that could make the physical world a safer, less random place.
I compare belief in souls to belief in a flat earth or a geocentric universe because, in my view, they are all intuitive beliefs that have ultimately been disproven by scientific inquiry. To someone that doesn’t know any better, it seems like the sun moves around the earth. It seems that the earth is flat when you’re standing on the ground. It seems that humans have souls because we have internal mental experience, and we want/need to make some sort of sense of that experience. I also compare belief in souls to these beliefs, in particular, because while flat earthers are widely mocked and there is little to no discussion of a geocentric universe, ask any ten people you know and I’m positive at least a few of them believe in souls. Probably a majority. And here we find another irony, because while flat earthers are no doubt stupid, they haven’t really ever hurt anyone. We know that belief in eternal souls and the places they go to, on the other hand, have been at least partly responsible for a lot of terrible acts in our species’s history.
So, yeah, convince me that belief in souls is not just a form of denial to cope with our mortality—one that ultimately creates more problems than it solves. Or, at least, explain to me why people are so reluctant to give up the ghost in the shell, so to speak (I couldn’t help myself).
Are there really people out there who think the earth is flat? Some of those who claim to be flat earthers seem to be in it for other reasons - notoriety, funding....
I think they'd be philosophers, poets, craft jewels, singers,...
I understand the topic is hugely debated with people in the past being executed like Galileo Galilei
And the Muslim scholars being sneered for their teaching that the world is shape like an ostrich egg.
But with modern science, isn't this already a fact?
That the world is not flat.
When and how did the believe reemerge?
Or is this simple satire that I took seriously?
If so how can I join?
As someone with an avid interest in physics and astronomy, I think I have a lot to contribute to cutting edge research in flat earth theory.
If it doesn’t exists, who wants to create one together?
They fear that the social distancing measures could push people over the edge.
Now to be specific, I am defining non-Earth, as any setting that is not this planet. So, Middle Earth, Westeros, any setting that may look like Earth, but isn’t, counts.
Make sure to give your rationale!
Reposted because I messed up on the title.
By "ancient", I'm mostly referring to people around the time of ancient Greece, give or take a thousand years or so.
Eratosthenes very famously estimated the Earth's circumference to a very accurately by measuring the difference in shadows in Alexandria and Syene, and this was around 240 BC. It's also well-known that mariners understood that the top of a ship's sails could be seen on the horizon before the ship itself could be seen, indicating the world is round.
My question is were things like this well-enough understood by common people across the ancient world to where most people knew the Earth was round, or were these just things that were understood by the scientific elite at the time but not widely-held opinions?
The reason I ask is because just looking up at the shape of the moon or sun seems like it would be enough proof that the Earth is round, but perhaps I am taking for granted what I already know and not appreciating potential ambiguity from the fact that these shapes, although visible, would nevertheless appear as 2D shapes.
First good thing Bezos have done in that case
They fear social distancing measures will push someone over the edge.
But they have members all around the disk.
