Neil deGrasse Tyson: A Lunar Eclipse flat-Earthers have never seen.

[Nevernose]

15. Biblical literalists and conspiracy theorists

The Bible says the earth is flat and the universe is geocentric (or at least suggests it)? Then by God the Earth is flat and the sun moves around us. A test for the truly faithful or some shit. Of course literalists always seem to be incredibly selective about what’s literal and what’s figurative, making the Bible an interesting tool for them. Kind of like a combination carpenter’s hammer/psychiatric diagnostic tool. They can build their world uniquely while we get amazing insights.

All religion sounds insane to me, however. I’m not sure how Christians feel so confident dismissing the Alien Lizard People as lunatics, but are happy to accept talking serpents and virgin births and sacrificial demigods. However, to 90% of the most devout Christians I know, it sounds crazy to them sometimes, too. My wife, for instance, is a devout Christian, but would be first in line to admit it all sounds silly sometimes. Whatever. Doesn’t hurt me and makes her happy.

The related but different subset is the Conspiracy Theorists. Some of them are quite bright and often well educated. But they like, more than anything else, to have secret knowledge that the rest of the world doesn’t see. It makes them superior, much the same way that religious nut jobs usually love feeling simultaneously oppressed and superior to their peers.

Then there’s the clearly insane ones, like that rocket guy who wants to get all the way to 1500 feet to prove the earth is flat. Second attempt after massive injuries the first time. Apparently hadn’t thought to put a camera in a model rocket (complicated, but simpler than building a people-rocket), nor to put gas in his truck and drive to one of the many fine mountains in his area, all of which are higher than 1500 feet.

So far I’ve resisted making fun of him.

I feel sad for him. No one loves him enough or even cares enough to stop him. He’s clearly a threat to himself, if not others, and is clearly not thinking clearly. Or at least, in the categories of “cares” and “not stupid enough to think the world is flat and/or batshit crazy,” there’s no one who falls in the middle of the Venn diagram.