I'm having a back and forth with a flat earther
Historical archive only. New interaction is disabled.
Original Question
My opponent disregards all arguments I make as illegitimate if they don't come directly from me
Also he will cleverly side step around questions and will act incredulously when I introduce concept he doesn't understand
In short, "I believe the world is flat, but I don't have to explain my position in detail because I'm a special kind of flat earther who doesn't claim to know all the answers, any evidence that the earth is a spinning ball will be met with fierce attack or character assassination"
For details see this blog (the first post that appears)
https://hesedyahu.wordpress.com/
Comments on Question
You are waisting your time, just as I did for many years debating flat earthers, creationists, climate deniers, and conspiracy theorists.
I even went to a beach resort and bought a room 6 floors up to film the cruise ships leaving the inlet. I videoed and photographed 200ft tall ships sinking bellow the curvature of the earth. I even made a gif out of it for easy viewing. They did not accept that evidence either, dismissed it as waves (when it was clearly flat) said I was a lier, or I photoshopped it, or they blamed it on perspective and atmospheric lensing etc.
I even showed them how to take photos of the ISS and the response I got was, "thats not the ISS, its Satan up there in the form of the ISS to deceive us." I kid you not...
I showed them seismic S and P waves from earthquakes forming a spherical pattern as they moved across earth.
Doesn't matter, they will view you as the enemy as its a tribalistic us vs them mentality. "Its easier to fool a man than it is to convince him he's been fooled" due to ego.
Answers
3Will your opponent acknowledge any physical reality? Mass, volume, dimension? Any coordinate system to allow up, down, left, right, forward, backward? How about top and bottom, front and back?
Will he accept the idea of going around something? If so, will he accept that one can go around something that's small and something that's large, and something that's enormous and in doing so, gain the same type of information about the thing?
===============================
Suppose the Earth is flat. Propose a test ...no, ask him for a test that can only be true if the Earth is flat.
===============================
Some years ago, I was trying to find a new job using the services of my company's outplacement system. The secretary kept making mistakes with an app on her desktop and I got tired of fixing the problem, so I stopped by to make a personal appeal, knowing she was very sensitive to criticism and cautiously suggested that I could help her to learn to use the program better. Her response that she did not want to learn more, that she did not want my help was a teachable moment for me .
There are such people in the world.
If your opponent is one, there is no point in back and forth, imo, regardless of a state of boredom.
Essentially the most common Crux of flat-earthers are their inability to transition from living what they commonly see as a 3D life within a higher dimensional 2D being on a separate 3D scale sphere so large that you can't see the edges. And in order to do that they must learn how to think 4D, which is easier said than done.
I'd maybe say it's like False Perspective perhaps? Just another bizarre Conspiracy Theory
My opponent disregards all arguments I make as illegitimate if they don't come directly from me
I don't get this... so if the argument was made before by someone else you can use it? Flat-earth mentality :) This is a Genetic Fallacy .
Also he will cleverly side step around questions
act incredulously when I introduce concept he doesn't understand
Not quite sure I understand that, but perhaps Argument from Incredulity
Master Logical Fallacies Online
Take the Virversity course and sharpen your reasoning skills with structured lessons.
View Online Course
I admire anyone who tries a unique approach to any issue. But FE's are a special type of "wacko". You're not gonna exercise your mind with this issue. The existence of time with a physicist is more beneficial for your logic skills....try it, if you have the time...hehe