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An astronaut has incredibly shut down Flat Earthers with a simple gesture all the way from space.
Flat Earth theory was a common belief among ancient cultures until it was scientifically proven that the Earth is round.
In fact, Greek philosopher Plato was writing about a spherical Earth all the way back in the early fourth century BC.
Despite this, there’s been a recent resurgence in Flat Earth belief which has now morphed into a full blown conspiracy theory.
Many so-called Flat Earthers believe that NASA is trying to pull the wool over our eyes by supposedly lying to us that the world is a globe.
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But now, one astronaut has set the record straight once and for all.
In a video shared by TikTok account spacemanedu, who regularly shares footage that was taken by astronauts in space, an astronaut waves to the camera before flipping it around to show his view of Earth.
In the caption of the video, it reads: “Someone said Earth was flat”.
The arguments put forward by Flat Earthers must be particularly funny to astronauts, given the fact that they've seen our planet in its full spherical beauty plenty of times.
For anyone who's still (somehow) not convinced, NASA also regularly shares pictures and videos of Earth taken from space via their International Space Station and NASA Earth Instagram accounts.
So, why do some people believe that the Earth is flat?
Unlike historical civilisations who may have believed the Earth was flat because they had no evidence to prove otherwise, why does the conspiracy theory still prevail today, even though we have more than enough evidence to prove otherwise?
Modern flat Earth beliefs can be traced back to 19th century inventor Samuel Rowbotham, who claimed that his theory of zetetic astronomy proved that our planet was a flat disc centered around the north pole. His ideas would later be shared by prominent flat-Earthers of the time such as William Carpenter.
SUNY astrophysicist Paul M. Sutter previously argued in a piece for Space.com that the modern belief in a flat Earth stems from a “lack of trust” towards scientists and experts.
He went on to add: “By claiming that Earth is flat, people are really expressing a deep distrust of scientists and science itself.
“So if you find yourself talking to a Flat Earther, skip the evidence and arguments and ask yourself how you can build trust.”
