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The Flat Earth

by Donald E. Simanek

Early Ideas About the Shape of the Earth.

The ancients had many novel ideas about

the shape of the earth. The Babylonians
thought the earth was hollow, to provide
space for their underworld. The Egyptians
thought the earth a square, (with four
corners) with mountains at the edge
supporting the vault of the sky.

Aristotle argued for a spherical earth, for

these reasons:

1. The gradual disappearance of ships

over the horizon, the tops of the sails
disappearing last.
2. The shape of the curved shadow of
the earth on the moon during Egyptian cosmogony.
eclipses.
3. The variation of the sun's elevation with latitude. (This was the basis of Eratosthenes'
measurement.)
4. The variation of a star's elevation with latitude. The fact that one sees new stars as one moves
north or south on the earth's surface.
5. Matter tends to form into drops or globs, and the earth, in forming from chaotic matter, did the
same.
6. Proof by elephants: When one travels west from Greece, one finds elephants (African). When
one travels east one finds elephants (Asian). Not realizing that these elephants are different
kinds, he thought that one was traveling to the same lands by going in opposite directions.

The last two are obviously (to us) irrelevant, but the others represent valid arguments based on
observations of nature.

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Flat earth. [George Gamow] Round earth. [George Gamow]

The early Christian Church accepted Aristotle's spherical earth. But a few malcontents within the
Church pointed out that the Bible speaks of 'the four corners' of the earth. In the 5th century CE the
monk Cosmas Indicopleustes, in his Christian Topography, described a square earth with a heavenly
vault, much like the Egyptian model. Tertulian also was a flat-earther.

Science writer Robert J. Schadewald gave me permission to quote the following paragraphs in which
he summarizes the Biblical evidence which flat-earthers use to justify their position. He wrote this to
a geocentrist fundamentalist who was arguing that the Bible supports a fixed, non-moving earth, with
the all the rest of the universe moving around us at about one revolution per day. Bob, of course
agreed that the Bible does support that view, but wonders why this particular fundamentalist did not
also accept the idea that the earth is flat, since that has basis in the Bible also.

...The Bible is, from Genesis to Revelation, a flat-earth book. ...While the Bible nowhere
states categorically that the earth is flat, numerous Old Testament verses clearly show that
the ancient Hebrews were flat-earthers. This comes through more clearly in modern
translations such as the New English Bible, but it's clear enough in the King James
Version. The Genesis creation story says the earth is covered by a vault (firmament) and
that the celestial bodies move inside the vault. (See Genesis 1:6-8 and 1:17. Note that, even
in KJV, while there are waters "above" the firmament, the celestial bodies are "in" it.) This
makes no sense unless one assumes that the earth is essentially flat.

That the Hebrews considered the sun and moon to be small bodies near to the earth is clear
from Joshua 10:12, which gives specific localities [geographic] in which they stood still.
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Isaiah 40:22 says that "God sits throned on the vaulted roof of earth, whose inhabitants are
like grasshoppers." In the book of Job, Eliphaz the Temanite says God "walks to and fro on
the vault of heaven.'' (Job 22:14. The KJV translators copped out on the last two verses,
but in both cases the implications are clear.)

That the earth was considered essentially flat is clear from Daniel, who said, "I saw a tree
of great height at the centre of the earth; the tree grew and became strong, reaching with its
top to the sky and visible to the earth's farthest bounds." (Daniel 4:10-11) Only on a flat
earth could one see a tree reaching the sky (dome?) from "the earth's farthest bounds."

The New Testament also implies a flat earth. For instance, Matthew 4:8 says that "The
devil took him [Jesus] to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the
world in their glory." From a sufficiently high mountain, one could see all of the kingdoms
of the world"but only if the earth were flat. The same applies to Revelation 1:7, which says
that at the second coming, "Every eye shall see him." Finally, Revelation 7:1 refers to "the
four corners of the earth," and corners are not generally associated with spheres.

Actually, if you want a good picture of the hebrew conception of the earth, look in a
Jewish encyclopedia under "cosmography." You might also want to read the so-called
"Ethiopic" Book of Enoch, written perhaps 150 B.C. While not canonical, it's paraphrased
or quoted a couple of times in the New Testament, so it was highly regarded in those days.
Its flat earth implications are even stronger.

The Biblical cosmos model derives from Egyptian sources, which had a flat earth covered by a
rounded sky vault supported at the four corners of the earth by high mountains. The 'waters above and
the waters below' in the book of Genesis refer to the Babylonian notion that the waters were divided,
and some remained above the sky vault. The vault was like a leaky roof and some of that water falls
down as rain.

Astonishingly, some present-day 'biblical creationists' now argue that this water above the sky was the
source of the flood in the time of Noah. They realize that if the waters did cover the earth to the
highest mountain tops, there just isn't any source of that much water in the earth or in the atmosphere!
So it must have come from somewhere else, they argue, in their pathetic attempt to make creationism
appear 'scientific'.

The Round Earth.

Eratosthenes (c 276 to 195 BCE) was

probably the first to accurately measure the
size of the Earth. He knew that at summer
solstice the sun was directly overhead in
Syene (now Aswan, Egypt). On that day,
vertical sticks or poles cast no shadows,
and sunlight fills the bottom of wells. The
town of Alexandria is directly north of
Syene (on the same meridian), and on that
same day vertical poles do cast shadows,

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because the sun is then 7.2° from the

zenith. Eratosthenes assumed this to be due
to the earth's curvature.

Knowing the distance between these cities

to be 5000 stadia (from land surveys), he
calculated the earth's circumference to be
250,000 stadia. [1 stadium was 1/8 of a
Roman mile, or 220 yards in modern
measure.] That's a circumference of a little
over 24,662 miles, which is nearly the
modern value of 24,900 miles. This value
was considered too large by most of
Eratosthenes' contemporaries, who
preferred the smaller value worked out
later by Poseidonius (18,000 miles). The
latter value was accepted by Ptolemy (and
Columbus, much later).

Note that Eratosthenes made the Eratosthenes measures the earth.

assumption that the sun was far enough
away from the earth that the incoming solar rays are parallel.

Popular histories give the impression that Columbus had to contend with flat earth believers who
warned that he'd sail right off the edge of the earth. It is even said that he set out to prove the earth
was round. That's myth.

Geometry of Eratosthenes' measurement of the earth.

Most educated persons in Columbus' day accepted a round earth. But there was difference of opinion
about the earth's size. Columbus made the mistake of relying on Ptolemey's value for the size of the
earth, which was much too small. Columbus therefore underestimated the length of the proposed
voyage. (He wanted to reach the Orient, but America got in the way.)

There were even some who accepted a round earth, but misunderstood gravity. They thought that if
you went too far you'd roll off. In fact, they had to postulate some sort of mountainous wall around
the known world to keep the oceans from spilling off.

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Revival of Flat Earth Theories.

Bob Shadewald, who researced the flat earth idea to a greater extent than I have, tells me that the flat
earth idea was revived in the 18th century by the followers of a eccentric English sectarian and tailor,
Lodowick Muggleton. I have been unable to independently confirm this. Origins of eccentric ideas are
usually difficult to pin down. In any case, from the 18th century to the present day the flat earth belief
is bound up with religious fundamentalism.

By 1800, Zetetic societies were flourishing in England. 'Zetetic' means 'seeker' or 'skeptic'. The flat-
earthers took this name to symbolize their skepticism toward orthodox scientific views of the shape of
the earth.

However, their skepticism was limited to science. Then, and now, the flat idea goes along with
religious fundamentalism, and a literal interpretation of the Bible. I have yet to hear of a flat earther
who is not also a Biblical literalist.

Samuel Birley Rowbotham (1816-1884), a 19th century religious fundamentalist, headed an Owenite
colony, and promoted the flat earth philosophy. He's a shadowy figure for historians. He had a
reputation of cynical dishonesty, and some think he didn't really believe what he promoted. He was an
itinerant lecurer, and wrote under several pseudonyms: Tryon, S. Goulden, Parallax, and Dr. Birley.
His major work was Earth Not a Globe written in 1849.

Rowbotham concocted the fiendishly clever idea of light refraction in curved paths to 'save the
hypothesis' of the flat earth, to account for what he called the 'optical illusions' of sunrise and sunset.
Rowbotham is the first flat-earther to give the size of the sun: 32 miles in diameter, a figure accepted
by flat-earthers today. However, he gave the distance to the sun as 700 miles, a figure hard to
reconcile with his value for its diameter.

John Hampden (1819-1891) vigorously promoted the flat earth idea in England. He founded the
Truth-Seeker's Oracle and Scriptural Science Review in 1876. In 1870 Hampden made a bet with
naturalist Alfred Wallace on the outcome of a test of the flatness of water in the Old Bedford Canal.
Both sides claimed the test confirmed their view, and flat-earthers to this day assert that "water
surfaces have been proved to be flat."

Hampden was known for his piety, and his abusive language. Feeling he had been wronged in the
Bedford experiment, he buried Wallace in a blizzard of vitriolic pamphlets and letters to the editor. He
even resorted to abusing by letter, as this letter to Mrs. Wallace shows.

Madam

If your infernal thief of a husband is brought home some day on a hurdle, with every bone
in his head smashed to a pulp, you will know the reason. Do you tell him from me he is a
lying infernal thief, and as sure as his name is Wallace he never dies in his bed.

You must be a miserable wretch to be obliged to live with a convicted felon. Do not think
or let him think I have done with him.

John Hampden
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Hampden thought the sun only 600 miles away, and 32 miles in diameter. These numbers derived
from Rowotham, and added nothing new to flat earth theory.

After Rowbotham's death in 1884 his followers carried on the crusade. The Universal Zetetic Society
(UZS) was founded in 1890, publishing a journal titled The Earth Not a Globe Review which had
1000 subscribers. The UZS remained active well into the early 20th century, but slowly declined after
World War I.

Other flat-earthers were active at this time. William Carpenter emigrated to Baltimore and wrote One
Hundred Proofs that the Earth is not a Globe in 1885. Lady Blount, wife of Sir Walter de Sodrington
Blount, promoted flat earth ideas. She founded and edited a journal Earth from 1900 to 1904.
Scotsman John Alexander Dowie (1847-1907) studied at Edinburgh University, then established a
pastorate near Sydney Australia, and included flat earth dogma in his theology.

A digression on measurements.

In the last decades of the 19th century diverse models of the earth and heavens were actively
promoted. Isaac Newton Vail proposed an annular theory to account for the formation of the earth and
planets, but assumed a convex earth. The Gillespian theory put the earth and sun in fixed positions,
allowing the earth to rotate. A "conic" theory modeled the shape of the earth as something like a cone,
its base being the North polar region, and its apex at the South pole. There was even a small
publication titled The Square World promoting an earth shaped as an inverted soup bowl, the
Northern hemisphere being about as we know it, but with the Southern Hemisphere flaring out to a
larger rim. It's a mystery why the author describes it as "square", but it has something to do with the
Biblical reference to "the four corners of the earth".

The New Bedford canal experiment inspired others to measure the flatness of water surfaces.
Alexander Gleason, a civil engineer from Buffalo, NY, tested the flatness of the surface of lake Erie.
He published Is the Bible from Heaven (1890) and Is the Earth a Globe? (1893).

But not everyone who measured water's flatness got the same result. In 1896 Ulysses G. Morrow
made such a test on the Old Illinois Drainage Canal, He found the water surface concave upwards.
Morrow considered this "the most unmistakable evidence of the water's non-convexity." But he wasn't
surprised, for he was already leaning to the view of Cyrus Reed Teed that the earth was hollow, and
we lived on its inside surface, with the entire universe also inside.

Morrow made similar sightings in 1896 from the shore of Lake Michigan at the World's Fair Grounds.
Seven other sightings were made from Roby, Illinois in 1896, with similar results. These experiments
of both flat and hollow-earth advocates were easily dismissed by critics as simply due to atmospheric
refraction. Morrow sought a more convincing method for measuring water surfaces, one that would
not use light. In 1897 he did the famous Naples experiment in Florida, measuring a nearly 4 mile N-S
water surface using a method that did not depend on light. He concluded that the earth was concave,
with a radius of a bit over 4000 miles.

During the last decades of the 19th century the flat-earthers and hollow earthers paid close attention to
each other's experiments, read their opponent's publications, and even corresponded, through the
letters sections of their newsletters.

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The earth was flat in Zion.

In 1888 Scotsman John Alexander Dowie (1847-1907) brought these ideas to America, where he
founded the Christian Catholic Church in Chicago. Dowie was a faith healer, and the journal Leaves
of Healing was the official publication of the church. The church grew rapidly, and Dowie realized his
dream of founding a christian community in 1901, the Zion community located on the Lake Michigan
shore, 40 miles north of Chicago.

Alexander Dowie
Alexander Dowie.
drawing by Champe.

As the community grew and prospered, Dowie moved away from the simple life he had earlier
advocated. He resided in a 25 room mansion, and designed for himself magnificent ecclesiastical
robes, modeled after those worn by Aaron, the High priest, described in Leviticus. Community
members thought he was putting on too much 'style' and his wife was criticized as too extravagant. In
1906, after suffering a stroke, Dowie was forced to resign his position.

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Dowie is rebuked.

Wilbur Glenn Voliva (1870-1942) took over

leadership of the Church, which became the
Christian Catholic Apostolic Church in Zion.

Voliva kept tight control on his 6000 followers,

which made up the community. The church schools
taught the flat earth doctrine. His 100,000 watt radio
station broadcast his diatribes against round earth
astronomy, and the evils of evolution.

In its early years, Zion was a one-religion

community. A Scottish lace industry and a bakery
were established. Zion brand fig bar cookies and
White Dove chocolates originated there.

In the town of Zion a strict code of morality was

imposed, by law, on all persons who set foot inside
city limits. Irving Wallace, in his book The Square
Pegs, tells of his childhood memories of Zion.

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There it was unlawful for women to wear short

dresses, high heels, bathing suits or lipstick. Ham,
bacon, oysters, liquor and tobacco were banned, as
were drugstores, medical buildings and movie
theaters. A ten o'clock curfew was rigidly enforced.
You could be arrested for whistling on Sunday.
These laws were enforced by Voliva's police force,
called the Praetorian Guard, whose helmets carried
the word 'PATIENCE' and whose sleeves bore
images of doves. Policemen wore Bibles and clubs
on their belts.

Irving Wallace interviewed Voliva in 1932. Voliva

declared that the Bible was his entire scientific
library. Astronomers were 'ignorant fools'. The sun,
he said, was only three thousand miles away, and
only thirty-two miles in diameter. When asked why
he thought the sun so near the earth, he said, "God
made the sun to light the earth, and therefore must
have placed it close to the task it was designed to
do. What would you think of a man who built a
house in Zion and put a lamp to light it in Kenosha,
Wisconsin?"
Wilbur Glenn Voliva.
The Zion communal industries were mostly ruined
in the depression. Rival churches made special efforts to send missionaries to Zion to break Voliva's
religious monopoly. His political control of the town of Zion was finally broken as well. Voliva died
in 1942, and Zion now has pork, lipstick, pharmacies and physicians, and you can safely whistle on
Sunday.

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Voliva's flat earth map. Modern Mechanics and Invention, October, 1931.

The church's power declined in the 40s and 50s, partly due to financial scandals. But the church itself
still exists, a pale shadow of its former glory.

The White Dove, symbol of Patience. Seal of Zion.

Zion today.

I visited Zion in the summer of 1992. It's a small lake shore community of middle class homes and
pleasant parks and beaches. One immediately recognizes the town's history and heritage in the street

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signs, for the north-south streets are named for people and places from the Bible: Gideon, Jethro,
Galilee, Gilead, Gilboa, Gabriel, Ezra, Ezekiel, Enoch. When I was there the police cars still carried
the town seal, an emblem of the Zion church. A lawsuit had been brought against the town because of
this inappropriate use of a religious symbol. Several residents and church members I talked to were
very indignant about this attempt to separate church and state.

The original Zion church, a wooden structure, burned in 1937, and has been replaced by a church with
modern architectural design. Also gone is the Elijah Hospice, built in 1901. It was considered to be
the largest wood frame building in the world, with 350 rooms, dining rooms and parlors. It became
the Zion retirement hotel and nursing home. Despite efforts to save it as a historical site, it was torn
down in the late 1980s and replaced with a modern brick hospital. Zion now has over one hundred
churches of an astonishing variety, including many one-of-a-kind churches. There's even a nuclear
power plant adjoining city limits.

Shiloh House, a 25 room mansion built as the residence of John Alexander Dowie. The roof tiles have a
zig-zag pattern in yellow green and brown, symbolizing the power of God. [Photo by Donald Simanek.]

Shiloh House, the home of Alexander Dowie and later of Wilbur Voliva, still stands. It may be visited
only on weekends, when the local historical society gives public tours.

The flat earth in the late 20th

century.

Back in England, in 1956, Samuel

Shenton, a sign painter and a Fellow of the
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Royal Astronomical Society and the Royal

Geographic Society, revived the UZS,
changing its name to The International
Flat Earth Society.

A brochure from the IFS forthrightly states

its position.

The International Flat Earth Sociey

has been established to prove by
sound reasoning and factual evidence
that the present accepted theory that
the Earth is a globe spinning on its
axis every 24 hours and at the same
time describing an orbit round the
Sun at a speed of 66,000 m.p.h, is
contrary to all experience and to
sound common-sense.

In ancient times the Earh was

regarded as plane, and this is
expressed in all literature up to a few
hundred of years ago. The theory has
fallen into disfavour, owing mainly to
the dogmatism of modern science and
popular education in schools, which
leads to prejudice in favour of the
globular theory from the start.

It is always a pity to allow false

theories to pass unchallenged, and it
is hoped that the Flat Earth Society
will do much to undo the harm that Flat Earth Society brochure.
has been caused. Remember that the
truth of the plane figure of the Earth can be shown by irrefutable evidence, and anyone
who is interested in becoming a member is asked to contact the President or the Organising
Secretary. In future it is hoped to hold regular meetings of the Society.

December 20th, 1956.

The society received quite a bit of publicity when Shenton was shown photos of the 'round' earth
taken from space. At first he wasn't impressed, saying "It's easy to see how such a picture could fool
the untrained eye." [Indeed, a "bug-eye" wide-angle camera lens can produce a similar effect.] Later,
some reports said he admitted that the Flat Earth Society might have to "reassess its position." But,
after a brief period of uncertainty, he concluded that the space photos and the entire space program
was faked by scientists desperately trying to save face by concealing the true nature of the shape of
the earth.

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Shenton died in March 1971. His wife helped choose a successor. The most enthusiastic potential
leader within the organization seemed to be Charles K. Johnson of Lancaster, California.

Samuel Shenton, illustrating earth's flatness.

So Johnson became president of the Flat Earth Society in 1971 and 'inherited' a large portion of
Shenton's valuable library of books on flat earth history. Johnson put out a newspaper called The
International Flat Earth News. Its masthead declares its purpose: 'Restoring the World to Sanity.'

Johnson used Biblical authority to assert that the

earth is a flat disk with the North pole at the center
and a wall of ice in the Antarctic regions,
surrounding the whole perimeter of the earth disk. In
his universe the sun and moon were about 32 miles in
diameter and only 3000 miles away. They, too are flat
disks. The stars are a mere 4000 miles away.

Where did Johnson get these figures? You won't find

the calculations in his newspaper. They may have
originated with Carpenter and Robotham in England,
and are accepted without question as authoritative by
flat-earthers today.

Rethinking Eratosthenes.

One can reconstruct the origin of these numbers by

doing a little geometry, starting from a flat earth
hypothesis. Remember the experiment of
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Eratosthenes, who measured the angular elevation of

the sun at two latitudes in Egypt? He assumed that
the sun was effectively infinitely far away (or at least
so far compared to the earth's size that the actual
distance didn't matter). Then he calculated the
diameter of the earth using a second assumption: that
the earth was spherical.

But suppose you abandon Eratosthenes' two

assumptions, and adopt instead the assumption that
the earth is flat. Then, triangulation from the same
data gives the distance to the sun: 3000 miles! See
how a simple change of assumptions can drastically
alter the entire cosmos? However, the round earth
was more than an arbitary assumption for
Eratosthenes, for he and his contemporaries, had
other very good reasons for knowing the earth was
round. [Textbooks sometimes mislead by suggesting
that his experiment was designed to prove the earth
was a sphere. It was not, it was only intended to
measure the size of the sphere.] Charles Johnson.

Distance of sun from a flat earth, using Eratosthenes' method.

Finally, the angular size of the sun is 0.5°. Using this fact with a distance to the sun of 3000 miles,
gives the sun's diameter: 32 miles. It therefore appears that the flat-earther's figures are based on sun
elevation data at just two particular latitudes, perhaps even Eratosthenes' values. I speculate that flat
earthers may have picked these out of some book, and when the calculation was finished, they looked
no further. For if they had done the calculation with a variety of latitudes, including large latitude
differences, conflicting results would have been obtained.
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The left diagram below shows that for two towns having latitudes within about 30° of each other,
reasonably consistent results are obtained. But when larger baselines are used, the triangulation gives
a much smaller distance to the sun. For a 70° latitude difference the distance to the sun comes out less
than half that for a 10° difference.

Still, one could save the hypothesis

by assuming that light refracts in a
peculiar way. Modern flat-earthers
do indeed assume that refraction is
at work. They attribute the
disappearance of the ships over the
horizon to a refraction effect, and
even point out that with some
atmospheric conditions, ships,
icebergs, and distant mountains
have been observed to rise above
the horizon, and even turn upside
down!

The diagram at the right shows how

this works. The angle that the rays How light refracts near the earth.
strike the earth's surface is correct, Left: conventional physics. Right: flat-earther's physics.
matching the left diagram.

To complete their path from the sun to the earth the rays must curve to strike the earth at the correct
(observed) angle. The curvature of the rays for latitude differences of less than 50° hardly shows on
the diagram. Of course this result can be obtained in various ways. The curvature could be confined to
the region near the earth, even within the atmosphere. The diagram shows circular arcs, but other
shapes might be used as well.

Lame answers to other objections to the flat earth idea.

And what about airliners going around the earth?

What about earth satellites? They are merely
traveling in loop orbits. What makes them do this?
Johnson doesn't say. Flat-earthers shun any form of
gravitational force. They consider gravity to be a
mystical or occult idea. Things fall, they say, simply
because they are heavy—no other explanation is
needed.

What about the moon flights and the pictures from

space showing a round earth? Johnson wasn't about
to be taken in by such nonsense. It's all a hoax, he
proclaimed, an elaborate movie production written by
Arthur C. Clarke, filmed on Hollywood sound stages

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and the Mohave desert. "Neil Armstrong stepped on a How airplanes and earth satellites
paper moon," Johnson asserted. orbit around a flat earth.

Johnson says his mission is to restore sanity to the world. He was proud that the United Nations
accepts his idea, for they put a map of his flat earth on their flag. He rejected mystical forces like
gravity, accepting the Aristotelian notion that things fall naturally downward—no explanation is
needed. Who could be perverse enough to deny one's senses by doubting it?

Johnson also cited the testimony of his wife Marjory, who came from Australia. "She's sworn out an
affidavit that she never hung by her feet in Australia. She sailed a ship over here, and she did not get
on it upside down and she did not sail straight up. She sailed right straight across the ocean. We
consider that a very important proof that the world is flat," Johnson says.

Johnson claimed his flat earth society had 1600 members

worldwide, but admits some haven't kept up their dues. The
society was always struggling financially. There were
probably less than 100 hard core members.

By now you may be thinking that this is an elaborate joke.

Not so. Read a few issues of his newspaper, and you will see
that he is deadly serious. He put out the newspaper at a
financial loss, and lived with his wife in isolation and
poverty at the edge of the Mohave desert. He was quite
sincere, and indignant at those who would make a joke of
the flat earth idea.

A rival theory. United Nations Flag.

A flat world order.
Johnson was infuriated at any mention of the Canadian, Leo
Ferrari, head of an organization simply called The Flat Earth Society. Ferrari taught in the philosophy
department of St. Thomas University. I'll give you a few gems from his promotional brochure:

We believe in terra firma, and the more firmer the less terror.
All science, like all philosophy and all religion is ultimately metaphorical and...reality is
essentially mystical and poetical.
Our aim is to restore man's faith in Common Sense... Seeing is believing. ...Man has been
blinded by metaphysics, brainwashed by popular fallacies and bullied into denying the evidence
of his very own eyes!

The cover of his brochure says "We're on the level." He once said, in an interview, that he had
traveled to the edge of the earth, which he defines as the edge of what he can see: Fogo Island, off the
coast of Newfoundland. There he gazed over the edge into the 'abysmal chasm'. "It was a horror," he
said. "I managed to grasp a stone for support." He carried that stone back with him, which he calls
'The Sacred Stone'.

I do not know to what extent Ferrari's efforts

were parody. But since the internet has made it
so easy for people to reach a worldwide
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audience, several websites of flat earth

organizations have appeard, almost certainly
intended as satire.

Postscripts

March 2006.

Much has changed since I wrote the above

account. Bob Shadewald brought me up to date,
by supplying the following information. In late
September 1995, the Johnsons' home caught fire.
Charles managed to pull Marjory, by then a
semi-invalid on supplemental oxygen, to safety,
but everything else in the house was destroyed—
their personal possessions, the Flat Earth Society
library and archives, the membership list,
everything. Having no fire insurance, the
Johnsons were unable to rebuild. A dilapidated
old house trailer, bought as a storage shed,
survived the fire, and they took refuge there. A
few months later, Marjory fell and broke a hip.
She survived hip replacement surgery but never
recovered her strength. On May 16, 1996, she
died.

Charles Johnson immersed himself in rebuilding

the membership roster. Publication of the Flat
Earth News, in hiatus since 1994, was to resume
with the December 1996 issue. But I have no
confirmation that it did. Flyer of The Flat Earth Society.
Leo Ferrari, Canada.
Charles Johnson died in 2001. I hear rumors that
some efforts have been made to find a new leader to revive the organization, but I've seen no evidence
that it has happened.

June 2015.

Eric Dubay seems to have revived the International Flat Earth Research Society. His website recycles
the classic arguments for an unmoving flat earth, and "refutes" arguments for a spherical, rotating
earth. He rejects gravity, and is clearly of the opinion that the round earth is a vast conspiracy to
delude everyone, promoted by Freemasons and NASA. He gives no convincing answer to the
question "Why would anyone go to that much trouble to promote any particular view of the cosmos?"
He admits he has no understanding of the mathematical arguments of conventional physics. He relies
instead on "common sense" analogies. Read his ebooks, web postings, and watch his videos as fine
exaples of "arguments from ignorance."

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3/25/2021 The Flat Earth.

I still would like to see a debate between hollow earthers and flat earthers on the subject of the shape
of the earth. It would, I think, demonstrate how alike they are in the methods they use to support their
belief, and how they can use misinterpreted data and flawed arguments to arrive at mutually
contradictory conclusions.

Sources:

Cohen, Daniel. "Is the earth flat or hollow?" Science Digest, Nov. 1972, p. 62-66.
Cook, Philip. John Alexander Dowie's Theocracy. Zion Historical Society publication, Series 2.
1970. (pamphlet)
Darms, Rev. Anton. Life and Work of John Alexander Dowie. (pamphlet)
Davenport, Walter. "They call me a Flathead". Collier's, May 11, 1927.
DeFord, Charles S. A reparation: universal gravitation a universal fake. Fairfield, Wash., Ye
Galleon Press [1992] 62 p. illus., port. QB283.D44 1992 Reprint of the 3d ed. (New York,
Fortean Society, 1931), with a new introduction by Robert J. Schadewald.
Fiske, John. A Century of Science and Other Essays. Houghton, Mifflin, 1899. XIV. "Some
Cranks and their Crotchets." This essay also appears in Atlantic Monthly, March 1899, p. 292-
310. It discusses, among other things, the history of flat and hollow earth theories.
Flat Earth News. International Flat Earth Research Society.
Gardner, Martin. "Flat and hollow." In his Fads and fallacies in the name of science. [Rev. and
expanded ed.] New York, Dover Publications [1957] p. 16–27. Q173.G35 1957. Includes Voliva
and the Christian Apostolic Church in Zion, Ill.
Garwood, Christine. Flat Earth, The History of an Infamous Idea. Macmillian, 2007.
Gates, David, with Jennifer Smith. "Keeping the Flat-Earth Faith." Newsweek, July 2, 1984.
Gleason, Alex. Is the Bible from heaven? Is the earth a globe? 2d ed., rev. and enl. Buffalo,
N.Y., Buffalo Electrotype and Engraving Co. [1893] xix, 402 p. illus., map, col. plates, portraits.
QB638.G56
Kneitel, Tom. "WCBD, The 'Flat Earth' Radio Station". Popular Communications, June 1986.
Johnson, William J. "Flat Earth Society." SR (date?)
Leaves of Healing. (periodical, 1888- )
Moore, Patrick. "Better and flatter earths." In his Can you speak Venusian? A guide to the
independent thinkers. [Newton Abbot, David & Charles, 1972] p. 16–29. illus. QB52.M66 1972.
Pfarr, Jerry. "Utopia was 40 miles north of Chicago." Chicago News-Sun, Sat/Sun, July 15016,
1989, sec. 1.
Reinders, Robert C. "Training for a Prophet: The West Coast Missions of John Alexander
Dowie, 1888-1890." The Pacific Historian, Spring 1986. XXX, 1, p. 3.
[Rowbotham, Samuel B.] Zetetic astronomy. Earth not a globe. An experimental inquiry into the
true figure of the earth, proving it a plane, without orbital or axial motion, and the only known
material world; its true position in the universe, comparatively recent formation, present
chemical condition, and approaching destruction by fire, &c., &c. By "Parallax" [pseud.] The
illus. by George Davey. 3d ed., rev. and enl. London, Day, 1881. 430 p. illus. CaBViP; CtY; ICJ
Schadewald, Robert. "He knew Earth is round, but his proof fell flat." Smithsonian, April 1978.
p. 101-113. An account of the 1870 'Old Bedford Canal' challenge in which naturalist Alfred
Russel Wallace and flat-earther John Hampden measured the flatness of the water surface.
Schadewald, Robert. "The Flat-out Truth: Earth Orbits? Moon Landings? A fraud! Says This
Prophet. Science Digest, July 1980, p. 58-63. Web copy.
Schadewald, Robert. "Is the World in Curious Shape?" (Asimov's science fiction magazine?)
https://www.lockhaven.edu/~dsimanek/flat/flateart.htm 18/19
3/25/2021 The Flat Earth.

Schadewald, Robert. "Some Like it Flat." In Fringes of Reason by Ted Schultz, ed. New York:
Harmony Books, 1989, 86-88.
Taylor, Jabez. Wilbur Glenn Voliva. Zion Historical Society, Continuing History of Zion, 1901-
1961, Series 7. (pamphlet, no date)
Taylor, Jabez. A Visit to Zion's Historical Shiloh House. Zion Historical Society, Shiloh House.
(pamphlet, no date)
Wacker, Grant. "Marching to Zion." A/G Heritage. Part 1, Summer? 1986. Part 2. Fall, 1986.
Wallace, Irving. The Square Pegs. Alfred A. Knopf, 1957. Chapter 1. In Defense of the Square
Peg.
Williams, Marjorie I. "From Realism to Reality: the Followers of Dr. John Alexander Dowie."
M.A. Thesis, Rosary College, July 1963.
[Winship, Thomas] Zetetic cosmogony; or, Conclusive evidence that the world is not a rotating-
revolving-globe, but a stationary plane circle. By Rectangle [pseud.] 2d ed., enl. Durban, Natal,
T. L. Cullingworth, 1899. 192 p. QB638.W77 First published in 1897 (46 p. QB638.W769).

Disclaimer.

This document is a work in progress. Consider it a first or rough draft. Later versions will have more
specific references and footnotes.

Additional reading.

Is the earth a spinning, round ball? by Donald Simanek. The evidence is abundant for anyone to
observe.
The Flat Earth Bible by Robert J. Schadewald.
The Flat-out Truth: Earth Orbits? Moon Landings? A Fraud! Says This Prophet by Robert J.
Schadewald. A profile of Charles Johnson.
The Scriptural Basis for a Geocentric Cosmology by Glenn Elert.
The Flat Earth and its Advocates: A List of References, Library of Congress.
Hollow Earth Bibliography (plus Flat Earth too!) by Michael Rogero Brown.

This document ©2006 by Donald E. Simanek. Revised in

2016. Input and suggestions are welcome. Please use the
address to the right when responding, and please indicate the specific document of interest.

Return to Myths and Mysteries of Science.

Check out an alternative theory, The Hollow Earth.
Return to Donald Simanek's front page.

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