At a flat-earth gathering, faith trumps reason
EDMONTON— Faith took centre stage at Edmonton’s Fantasyland Hotel this week as 250 people packed in for the Flat Earth International Conference.
Flat-Earthers from around North America came to listen to speakers such as Indiana radio host Rick Hummer, who told them to pull their kids out of public schools and ignore the consensus of the scientific community.
“If I were you, I’d get them out of the schools, because they’re not learning the truth,” Hummer told the crowd. “I believe there’s a movement by the Almighty and his hand is all over this (flat-Earth movement). Because things are being revealed in the last days.”
Presenter Matt Long, a YouTuber from Texas, said he has a “healthy obsession with the Bible and truth” and claimed the Bible is “unequivocally a flat-Earth book.”
Many flat-Earthers believe the Earth is a disc, despite overwhelming scientific and photographic evidence that it is spherical. Most who subscribe to this idea believe humans have not stumbled over the edge of the Earth because it is encircled in a wall of ice, making ground travel impossible, and pilots are too scared to make the trek. Many still believe the other planets in our galaxy are round.
YouTuber Mark Sargent, who spoke and took questions from the audience Thursday, thinks the universe is a planetarium with man-made projections of a fake moon and stars. He spoke derisively of scientists, none of whom were among the presenters at the conference.
“We are the new scientists, and we’re heading straight for you,” Sargent said. “We’ll take the cities, we’ll take the suburbs, we’ll take the countryside.”
Many who attended the conference came to believe in a flat Earth through other conspiracy theories, and were convinced by YouTube videos and articles they read on the internet. Several said their journey into skepticism started with the debunked theory that humans have never actually walked on the moon. In most cases, it was an unwavering faith in God that seemed to make the flat-Earth theory fit their world view.
Lindsey Clark from Saskatchewan said the flat-Earth concept seemed simple for her because she doesn’t believe that we “came from monkeys.”
Attendees shelled out at least $150 for a two-day pass, and some paid $300 for VIP passes that include front-row seating in the ballroom and a special speakers’ dinner.
There was plenty of merchandise for sale in the foyer, including T-shirts, posters with flat-Earth maps, and stickers with slogans such as “Space is Fake.”
But not everyone was buying in. Matthew Rolheiser, who has a science degree and an education degree, said he came to the conference out of curiosity to understand how flat-Earthers think. He empathized with the other attendees on some level, and concluded that the scientific community needs to do a better job reaching out and explaining its expertise in ways the average person can understand.