Flat Earth Theory

The Flat Earth theory is one of the most commonly believed conspiracy theories in the United States. Proponents of the theory believe that Earth is not a spinning globe but instead a flat disc. While there are many different sub-beliefs within the ideology the core belief remains the same; the Earth is flat and NASA has been lying to us all. The website will explore some of the scientific activity within the Flat Earth movement to determine if their observations and experiments are truly scientific or pseudoscientific.

Evaluation Framework

The Flat Earth “proofs” will be examined through multiple metrics. Though Karl Popper proposed that a hypothesis’ ability to be falsified is a strong measure of its scientific validity, that is not enough in this case. Many Flat Earth claims have and can be falsified but they are still pseudoscientific. Instead of relying on just falsification, I will also look at whether the proofs only include cherry-picked results that confirm the Flat Earth bias and if the experiments have built-in subterfuge ensuring that regardless of the outcome the theory is confirmed. These metrics are outlined in the Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.