So, if the Earth is flat, is it a disc with no width at all?
Leveling with the Geographers
Charles K. Johnson is president of the International Flat Earth Research Society, an organization of 1500 members,
many of whom are doctors, lawyers, and other professional and educated people.
He holds that scientific evidence supports the flat earth hypothesis, and, like creationists, appeals to "well known" and "easily observable" facts. One sample bit of observable evidence for his position is the flatness of water.
Anyone can see that water is flat. Therefore, if you expand on what you see right in front of you, the only possible conclusion is a flat earth!
Experimental evidence for this disc shaped plane also abounds. For example, when Columbus sailed to America (and Columbus is one of the heroes of the flat-earthers), he didn't fall off like his men thought he would.
This is because the earth is not a globe.
Johnson's wife, Marjory, comes from Australia, and Johnson declares, "She's sworn out an affidavit that she never hung by her feet in Australia. She sailed a ship over here, and she did not get on it upside down and she did not sail straight up.
She sailed straight across the ocean. We consider that a very important proof that the world is flat."
To further complicate matters, Johnson sees the flat earth idea as a religious issue too.
No doubt he can quote chapter and verse to show that the Bible, properly understood, supports his position. "The Bible is a great tangle of history and corruption and so forth," he says, "but the aim of it all is a one-world, flat-Earth society, for honesty and decency and that sort of thing."
Certainly his view could be mentioned in comparative religion.
Although Johnson isn't hard at work lobbying or fighting court cases, he has gotten his view heard in the public schools.
For example, he addressed students at Beverly Hills High School on at least one occasion, and with the continuing good press he is getting he is likely to have other opportunities. NBC and the National Enquirer, not to mention local radio talk shows and newspapers all over the country have given his Society coverage.
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The reason why so many believe the world is a globe, Johnson notes, is because science is promoting "a fraud to keep the common people in the dark."
The Apollo moon program was just a movie. "Arthur C. Clarke wrote it and directed it. But he knows the Earth is flat."
It seems the only redeeming feature of the globular theory is that it provides jobs.
To get the truth out, Johnson publishes the Flat Earth Quarterly "with the objective to restore the world's sanity." "We consider this the world's most superstitious age," Johnson states. "We try to get people to use their minds logically." (Schadewald, 1977; Ashland Tidings, 1978.)
Why Creationism Should Not Be Taught As Science