On September 28, 2002, a 46-year-old American named Mike Huges achieved a remarkable world record. He performed an exceptionally long jump while seated in a limousine, specifically covering a distance of 103 feet. The limousine, weighing 3,000 kilograms, made this feat even more impressive, earning the record for the longest limousine ramp jump. However, Mike didn’t stop there. Twelve years later, in 2014, he soared 1,300 feet into the air using a rocket he built in his own garage. Although the rocket crashed and Mike was injured, he was still not satisfied. In 2016, Mike devised a plan to attempt to reach outer space by launching a rocket to an altitude of 32 kilometers. In America, he is known as “Mad Mike” because only a daredevil would undertake such dangerous stunts. To fund his endeavors, Mike started a campaign to raise money that named as Kick Starter, asking people to contribute Donation so he could continue his ambitious rocket projects.
To pull off this stunt, $100,000 was needed so that people could show more interest in it. Otherwise, they could only raise $310, with only two people donating for it. However, after some time, Mike said something that led to thousands of dollars in donations. Mike stated that he doesn’t believe in science and only trusts what he can see with his own eyes. His real purpose for doing this stunt was to go into space to determine whether our Earth is flat or not. This statement greatly impacted the Flat Earth community. Mike directly stated that he believes in the Flat Earth theory.
In a 2021 survey, only 10% of Americans believed that the Earth is flat rather than round. The newer generations, like Gen Z and Millennials, tend to believe in it even more, but this conspiracy theory is not limited to America. In the UK, only 3% of people believe that the Earth is flat. In Brazil, 7% believe in a flat Earth. In Bulgaria, only 8% believe in it. In Tunisia, a geology PhD student tried to submit a project claiming that the Earth is flat.
So, the question is: How does the Earth look—flat or round? In today’s world, where we have the internet, airplanes, and spaceships, there are countless ways to prove that our Earth is indeed a sphere. Interestingly, thousands of years ago, people already had an idea that the Earth was round. Around 500 BC, the ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras observed the Moon and the Sun and intuitively concluded that the Earth must also be spherical. Later, around 350 BC, he noticed that during a lunar eclipse, the Earth’s shadow falls on the Moon, and he also observed that when ships are seen from afar on the horizon, the top of the ship appears first and gradually the middle and then the bottom, which indicates that the Earth is curved and round.
In 200 BC, Eratosthenes conducted an experiment where he placed two sticks in the ground and observed their shadows at noon. He placed one stick in one location and another stick 1 kilometer away. He noticed a slight difference in the shadows and based on this observation, he calculated the Earth’s circumference to be between approximately 37,500 and 50,000 kilometers. Later, it was found that the actual circumference is about 40,075 kilometers.
By the 1600s, Isaac Newton’s work had made it widely accepted that the Earth was spherical, and there was no significant doubt about it. However, in 1865, a significant figure emerged—Samuel Rowbotham—who wrote a groundbreaking book titled Zetetic Astronomy: Earth Not a Globe. This book is considered a classic by the Flat Earth community.
In his book, Samuel Rowbotham presents several key arguments. He claims that whenever he looks out over the ocean, the horizon always appears flat. If the Earth were round, the horizon would appear curved. Additionally, he argues that the water level in oceans remains flat and does not curve, and objects, no matter how distant, always remain visible. Therefore, he concludes that the Earth is flat, not round. He termed his approach “Zetetic Astronomy,” which relies on observation with the naked eye.
Rowbotham’s theory suggests that the Earth is flat with the North Pole at its center, and that Antarctica is surrounded by high mountains. According to this theory, if one were to cross the mountains of Antarctica, they would fall off the edge of the Earth. Believers in this theory argue that the mountains of Antarctica are endless and extend infinitely.
In the Flat Earth model, there is also an interesting explanation for the Sun and the Moon and how day and night occur. According to this model, the Sun and the Moon move in circular paths above the Earth, and their light acts like a spotlight, illuminating only a specific area. The Flat Earth community in America has proposed a model where the Moon and the Sun are only 50 kilometers in diameter and are positioned 5,500 kilometers above the Earth’s surface.
In reality, we know that the Sun is about 150 million kilometers away from Earth, and the Moon is approximately 400,000 kilometers away. In the Flat Earth community’s model, the Sun and the Moon are depicted in such a way that they explain the occurrence of summer and winter. Mark Sargent, who is a prominent figure in the Flat Earth community today, suggests that sunlight is warm while moonlight is cold. The supposed proof for this is quite interesting: it is claimed that during the day, the indoor temperature rises due to the Sun, while at night, if you compare indoor and outdoor temperatures, the outdoor temperature drops because of the Moon.
These types of theories are problematic because they lack logical consistency and are not verified. The issue arises when people accept such ideas without questioning or verifying them, leading to problems.
If we return to Samuel Rowbotham, he was not alone in his time. The modern Flat Earth movement began in the 1800s, and a famous book titled “One Hundred Proofs that the Earth is Not a Globe” was published in 1885 by William Carpenter. These individuals relied heavily on religious support to validate their claims. They intentionally interpreted Bible verses to support their arguments. For instance, in Revelation 7:1, it is written, “After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree.” The term “four corners” is interpreted metaphorically by these proponents, suggesting that the Earth has actual corners and implying that it is a square or rectangular shape.
In 893, a map was created depicting the Earth as a square with four angels at its corners. Additionally, Genesis 1:6 mentions, “And God said, ‘Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.’” These individuals interpret “waters above” as referring to the sky and “waters below” as the ocean, proposing that there is a dome separating these two. Hence, they created a model where the Earth is depicted as a dome. In 2016, a book titled “The Firmament: Dome of the Earth” was published, reflecting this belief. Today, 70% of Flat Earth adherents believe in this dome theory. They think that the Earth is covered by a dome-like firmament, and they also seek to prove this theory by interpreting similar concepts from the Quran to support the Flat Earth theory.
In Quran Chapter 71, Verse 19, it is written, “And Allah made for you the earth like a carpet spread out, so that you may walk through it by roads and channels, and He sent down water from the sky.” Those who want to misinterpret this claim that “spread out like a carpet” means that the Earth is completely flat. However, more reasonable interpretations suggest that “spread out” means the Earth is extensive and accessible from all sides. This is why, by the 9th and 10th centuries, most Muslim and Christian scholars accepted a spherical Earth, although there were a few who believed in a flat Earth.
In a 2015 article, a Saudi Arabian Muslim cleric claimed that the Earth is stationary and asserted that NASA never landed on the Moon. A common factor among those who believe in Flat Earth theory is that they also tend to subscribe to other conspiracy theories. For example, they may believe that vaccines contain microchips, that NASA and other space agencies are fraudulent, that gravity does not exist, or that dinosaurs never existed. These individuals argue that if you look at the United Nations logo, it depicts a flat Earth. However, it should be pointed out that any depiction of a spherical object will appear as a two-dimensional representation in a flat image. Drawing a spherical shape accurately in two dimensions is not possible.
Now, let’s discuss whether the Earth is round or not. Countries like America and Russia, which are often at odds with each other in many matters, suddenly began working together to prove that the Earth is round. The first photograph of Earth was taken on October 24, 1946, when America launched a V-2 rocket that reached an altitude of 104 kilometers. Then, 20 years later, on May 30, 1966, another photograph was taken by a Soviet communications satellite, which captured a full-disk image of Earth. It’s noteworthy that despite their rivalry, America and Russia were collaborating on solving this matter of whether the Earth is round.
According to Flat Earthers, the NASA rockets and satellites were supposedly trying to deceive people by showing images of a round Earth. They believed that these space missions were part of a conspiracy to conceal the true flat nature of the Earth.
It is quite normal to lose trust in the government, but it is foolish to dismiss what scientists and the government are saying. Take Mad Mike, for example, who initially raised around $8,496 for his Flat Earth campaign. In 2018, he reached an altitude of about 18 miles and safely parachuted back down. He was gradually making progress towards his goal, but his final flight on February 22, 2020, proved to be fatal. On this flight, his homemade rocket malfunctioned: the parachute tore away, and he got trapped inside the rocket as it plummeted from a great height, resulting in a tragic death.
After Mike’s death, it became clear that he never truly believed in the Flat Earth theory. He was merely a stuntman looking to push the boundaries of what was possible, pretending to be a Flat Earther to deceive the community, extract money from them, and complete his stunt. Consider this: if a stuntman can easily fool people for money, is it really plausible that a complex and sophisticated conspiracy could be designed to mislead people about something as fundamental as the shape of the Earth.