[Flat Moon]

Please respond.
Would you agree that 'your main reasoning for believing in a flat earth is because you have yet to prove to yourself that it isn't true?'
What I mean by that is you haven't left the atmosphere in however way you want, to get to space to prove it to yourself?

If you have another opinion feel free to share

Cheers!

[Round Eyes]

no

[Flat Moon]

Why's that?

[Pete Svarrior]

Would you agree that 'your main reasoning for believing in a flat earth is because you have yet to prove to yourself that it isn't true?'

No, that's a suggestion that's verging on idiotic. You imply that it is just a matter of time for a FE'er to understand that she's wrong. Regardless of what the truth might be, how likely do you think a FE'er will be to share your reasoning?

[RonJ]

I was thinking about all the evidence that is on the side of my global earth beliefs.  It has been difficult to come up with something that you can easily see and hold in your hand.  Last night I thought of something.  My job as a merchant marine officer exposed me frequently to a technology that you don't usually see much of anywhere except on ships and airplanes.  On my final ship, before I retired, we had two very expensive gyro compasses.  This technology was very important and the azimuth outputs were very important because they drove other devices such as the autopilot, the electronic maps, and the radars.  If you do a little basic research on the subject, you can see that the operation of these devices depends on the earth rotating and basically being round.  Each year our gyros had to be overhauled so they would provide reliable operation.  Because of this, I've had all the parts in my hands and have become familiar with the operation of this equipment.  The main argument here is that the gyros were compact, self contained units and were only influenced by the basic forces of a rotating round earth.  It has been said that seamen engage in the worlds second oldest profession.  That may be true but things are getting very high tech these days.  An actual seaman would be controlling the helm less than 10 percent of the time.  Mostly the autopilot was steering the ship and the gyro compass was giving azimuth information to the autopilot.  It won't be long until autonomous ships will make our jobs obsolete.  Kongsberg already has some proto-types out there.  You can be sure that they also will be depending on a good gyro compass to keep the robots on course.     

[Humble B]

No, that's a suggestion that's verging on idiotic. You imply that it is just a matter of time for a FE'er to understand that she's wrong. Regardless of what the truth might be, how likely do you think a FE'er will be to share your reasoning?

Flat moon's suggestion is not verging on idiotic, but very reasonable.  He/she is asking if your main reasoning for believing in a flat earth is because you haven't yet seen proof that the earth is not flat. Implying that you're willing to change your opinion about the shape of the earth in case you proved to yourself that it isn't true.

Verging on idiotic would be the opposite; maintaining to believe the earth is flat even after you've seen proof the earth is a sphere.

[Pete Svarrior]

He/she is asking if your main reasoning for believing in a flat earth is because you haven't yet seen proof that the earth is not flat

And your rephrasing pushes it firmly from "verging on idiotic" to "par for the course". It would take a particularly interesting individual to believe something merely because they haven't established its falsehood. You need reasons to believe something, not just a lack of evidence to the contrary.

The answer stands: No. It is not the main reasoning behind our belief in anything. It's not how the human mind works, generally speaking.

[AATW]

I've still yet to understand why any FE person came to the belief they did.
I've seen vague hints at experiments they've done but never seen any details of them.
I get that Zeteticism is about doing your own research but it would help if there were some experiment results shown if only so people could look at those results and where appropriate repeat the experiments.

[Humble B]

You need reasons to believe something, not just a lack of evidence to the contrary.

The answer stands: No. It is not the main reasoning behind our belief in anything. It's not how the human mind works, generally speaking.

Exactly, people always need a reason to believe something. We agree about that. But that reason is not always based on evidence or the lack of it, and often the main reason why someone has chosen to believe something can be stronger than all the evidence in the world that what he believes is not true.

Eg religious sentiments and the influence of religious communities on a person can be much stronger than evidence. When a particular person is a respected member of a religious community that preaches creationism, he/she can decide to stay a creationist even after seen irrefutable evidence for evolution. Because if he/she would accept that evidence and change his believe about creationism, he/she will be in deep trouble with his/her religious community and lose respect, friends and family. If for this person his position within his community is more important than the truth about evolution, he will stay a creationist no matter what.

That's how the human mind works, generally speaking, and the driving force behind self-deception.

Therefore as soon as you see someone denying irrefutable evidence when that irrefutable evidence doesn't support his belief, (like the declining speed of the terminator on the southern hemisphere) you should start questioning the reasons of his belief; a desire to know the truth........ or something else.

[Pete Svarrior]

Therefore as soon as you see someone denying irrefutable evidence when that irrefutable evidence doesn't support his belief, (like the declining speed of the terminator on the southern hemisphere) you should start questioning the reasons of his belief; a desire to know the truth........ or something else.

A friendly reminder on off-topic posting: whenever you consider it - don't. Your "irrefutable" non-sequitur is indeed a fantastic case of self-deception, but you already have a thread about it in the appropriate board.

If for this person his position within his community is more important than the truth about evolution, he will stay a creationist no matter what.

Pretending to believe something in order to retain a position of respect is entirely different from actually believing it. Religion is a great example of that. However, you've veered into people identifying themselves as believers of something - that's not the question here.