Modern flat Earth beliefs

The Flat Earth Society was an organization based in England and later in Lancaster, California that advocated the belief that the Earth is not a sphere but is flat (see flat Earth). No other modern religious fundamentalists have published support for this belief, and scientists universally reject it. This exposed the society to much outside ridicule and made it a popular metaphor for dogmatic thinking and pseudoscience or bad science, with the term "Flat-Earther" coming to refer to anyone who promotes a counterscientific idea considered to be outlandish.

Origins of the Flat Earth Movement

The modern flat earth movement was originated by an eccentric English inventor, Samuel Birley Rowbotham (1816-1884), who was motivated by his religious convictions that certain passages in the Bible are meant to be taken literally. In 1849 he published a 16-page pamphlet, which he later expanded into a 430 page book expounding his views. According to Rowbotham's system, which he called Zetetic Astronomy, the earth is a flat disk centered at the North Pole and bounded along its southern edge by a wall of ice, with the sun, moon, planets, and stars only a few hundred miles (kilometers) above the surface of the earth.

Rowbotham and his followers gained notoriety by engaging in raucous public debates with leading scientists of the day. One such clash, involving the prominent naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, led to several lawsuits for fraud and libel.

After Rowbotham's death, his followers established the Universal Zetetic Society, published a magazine entitled The Earth Not a Globe Review and remained active well into the early part of the 20th century. After World War I, the movement underwent a slow decline.

In the U.S. Rowbotham's ideas were taken up by a religious cult, the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church. Founded by a Scottish faith healer, John Alexander Dowie, in 1895, the church established the theocratic community of Zion, Illinois on the shore of Lake Michigan forty miles (seventy kilometers) north of Chicago. In 1905, Dowie was deposed as leader of the cult by his lieutenant, Wilbur Glenn Voliva. Voliva ruled his some 6000 followers with an iron hand, ruthlessly exploiting their labor in the church-run corporation, Zion Industries. The flat earth doctrine was exclusively taught in community schools. Voliva was a pioneer in religious radio broadcasting. Listeners to his 100,000-watt (0.1 MW) radio station were treated to thundering denunciations of the evils of evolution and round earth astronomy. Voliva died in 1942 and the church disintegrated under a cloud of financial scandals. A few die-hard flat earth supporters persisted in Zion into the 1950s.

Flat Earth from Space

In 1956, Samuel Shenton, a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and the Royal Geographic Society, revived the UZS as the International Flat Earth Society. With the advent of the space program, the Society found itself confronted with pictures of Earth made by orbiting satellites and, eventually, by astronauts who had landed on the moon. When confronted with the first NASA photographs of earth from deep space, Shenton reportedly remarked: "It's easy to see how a photograph like that could fool the untrained eye." The society took the position that the Apollo Moon landings were a hoax, staged by Hollywood and based on a script by Arthur C. Clarke, a position also held by some others not connected to the Flat Earth society (see Apollo moon landing hoax accusations).

Charles K. Johnson: The Last Flat-Earther?

In 1971, Shenton died and Charles K. Johnson became the new president of the Flat Earth Society. Under his leadership, over the next three decades, the group grew in size from a few members to about 3,000. Johnson distributed newsletters, flyers, maps, etc. to anyone who asked for them, and he managed all membership applications together with his wife, Marjory, who was also a flat-earther. Membership inquiries came from several countries, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, and India.

The last world model propagated by the Flat Earth Society holds that we live on a disc, with the North Pole at its center and a 150-foot (50 meter) high wall of ice at the outer edge. Curiously, the resulting map resembles the symbol of the United Nations, something Johnson used as evidence for his position. In this model, the sun and moon are each a mere 32 miles (52 km) in diameter.

A newsletter from the society gives some insight into Johnson's mindset (all errors original):

Aim: To carefully observe, think freely rediscove forgotten fact and oppose theoretical dogmatic assumptions. To help establish the United States...of the world on this flat earth. Replace the science religion...with SANITY

The International Flat Earth Society is the oldest continuous Society existing on the world today. It began with the Creation of the Creation. First the water...the face of the deep...without form or limits...just Water. Then the Land sitting in and on the Water, the Water then as now being flat and level, as is the very Nature of Water. There are, of course, mountains and valleys on the Land but since most of the World is Water, we say, "The World is Flat". Historical accounts and spoken history tell us the Land part may have been square, all in one mass at one time, then as now, the magnetic north being the Center. Vast cataclysmic events and shaking no doubt broke the land apart, divided the Land to be our present continents or islands as they exist today. One thing we know for sure about this world...the known inhabited world is Flat, Level, a Plain World.

We maintain that what is called 'Science' today and 'scientists' consist of the same old gang of witch doctors, sorcerers, tellers of tales, the 'Priest-Entertainers' for the common people. 'Science' consists of a weird, way-out occult concoction of gibberish theory-theology...unrelated to the real world of facts, technology and inventions, tall buildings and fast cars, airplanes and other Real and Good things in life; technology is not in any way related to the web of idiotic scientific theory. ALL inventors have been anti-science. The Wright brothers said: "Science theory held us up for years. When we threw out all science, started from experiment and experience, then we invented the airplane." By the way, airplanes all fly level on this Plane earth.

Charles Johnson died on March 19, 2001, leaving the fate of the Flat Earth Society uncertain.

The Flat Earth Society Today

There is a Web site devoted to the Flat Earth Society, ostensibly owned by "Flat Earth Society, Inc.", although it is clearly a hoax. Its slogan is "Deprogramming the masses since 1547" and various tongue-in-cheek or deliberately offensive explanations of the flat-Earth position are featured. There is also a page devoted to "current events" with a list of unbelievable, undated items. The online membership form is equally quirky. No postal address for the alleged organization is revealed anywhere on the site. The homepage bears a copyright date of 1998.

Currently active, however, is The Flat Earth Society Forums—a Web site collecting Flat Earth and Flat Earth Society information in an attempt to reestablish the organization. It is primarily devoted to discussion boards but also features Flat Earth Society newsletters from the 1970s and 1980s.

The Flat Earth Society in Pop Culture

California-based punk band Bad Religion include a song entitled "Flat Earth Society" on their 1990 album, Against the Grain, written by Brett Gurewitz. A prominent feature of the song is the repetition of the words "lie, lie, lie" throughout, indicating a denouncement of the society and its mentality. The band has produced many such songs criticizing what it views as pseudoscience movements.

Musician Thomas Dolby's official website is called "The Flat Earth Society", partially in reference to his 1984 album, The Flat Earth. The form to join Dolby's mailing list reads "If you truly believe the Earth is flat you are eligible to become a member, thus receiving information about the society", though it is clear from the context that this is intended ironically.

Thomas Friedman uses the metaphor of a "flat earth" to describe the leveling of the world economic stage in his best-selling book, The World is Flat.

Sources and Links

Earth Not a Globe Online text of Samuel Birley Rowbotham's 1881 treatise on Zetetic (Flat Earth) Astronomy.
The Flat-out Truth: Earth Orbits? Moon Landings? A Fraud! Says This Prophet by Robert J. Schadewald. Science Digest, July 1980. A very detailed look at the Society and its leader. Schadewald was president of the National Center for Science Education and an expert on alternative earth movements.
Looking for Lighthouses by Robert J. Schadewald, Creation/Evolution #31 (1992). This article explains the use of lighthouse data by Samuel Rowbotham.
Scientific Creationism, Geocentricity, and the Flat Earth by Robert J. Schadewald, from the Skeptical Inquirer, Winter 1981-1982. Describes the movements leading to the Flat Earth Society and discusses parallels with creationism.
The International Flat Earth Society. By Robert P. J. Day, 1993. Documents the full Flat Earth Society newsletter. Part of the Talk.Origins archive on the Evolution/Creationism archive.

Holding, James Patrick, 2000. Is the ’erets (earth) flat? TJ 14(3):51–54.
Russell, Jeffrey Burton, 1997. Inventing the Flat Earth : Columbus and Modern Historians ISBN 0-275-95904-X
Russell, Jeffrey Burton, 1997. The Myth of the Flat Earth (summary of above book).

External links

The Flat Earth Society web site — a site collecting Flat Earth and Flat Earth Society information in an attempt to re-form the Society. Includes discussion forums and Flat Earth Society newsletters from the 1970s and 1980s.