The first-ever 2017 Flat Earth International Conference took place in Raleigh, North Carolina on Nov. 9 and 10. It was aimed at disputing the notion that the Earth is round.
Flat-Earthers: The Earth Is Not A Globe
The Flat-Earthers are unanimous in their belief that the planet is not globular in shape, though the reason for this varies. For instance, Darryl Marble, speaker at the conference, is of the opinion that the planet does not curve, while Mark Sargent who has created YouTube series like Flat Earth Clues believes that all life is enclosed in a dome-like structure.
Many other YouTube personalities think that the Earth is actually a disc surrounded by an ice wall, which prevents people from falling off the edge of the earth or crossing or tumbling into whatever exists beyond.
Flat-Earthers further argue that NASA and other scientific agencies show digitally created pictures of Earth from space, and the sun and moon are holograms that are projected manually in the sky. All of this is, in fact, part of a deep conspiracy theory to keep the reality of a flat planet from mankind.
"So as far as what's underneath this, I don't know, it could be this thickness. It doesn't even have to be that thick because we can only drill down eight miles,” Sargent told BBC when asked about the thickness of a flat earth. “Heck, this is only fifty miles deep, we don't know. So, it could be this sort of dimension.”
Rapper B.o.B., who is a flat-Earth believer, recently attempted to crowdfund $1 million via GoFundMe to launch a satellite. The aim was to see if he could discover for himself if the Earth had a curvature at all. GoFundMe, however, temporarily froze the donation account, but it is now back online and collected $6,842 from over 200 people.
Though Marble has boasted of 22,954 subscribers on his YouTube channel and around 500 people attended the conference, the total number of Flat-Earth believers is not known. Flat Earth Society, which is the oldest organization associated with the belief, also claims to have more than 500 members.
Other Conspiracy Theories
The conference, which was hosted by Kryptoz Media, also discussed other conspiracy theories such as the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary were made-up, the U.S. government practices mind control over people, and that the 9/11 attacks were fictional. The next annual FEIC will be held in Denver in 2018 on Nov. 15 and 16.
