Copernicus Lied! The Earth is FLAT! Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. In what year was the modern Flat Earth Society founded?

Answer: 1956 AD

The Society was founded by Englishman Samuel Shenton who died in 1971. The late Charles K. Johnson, a former president of the International Flat Earth Research Society claimed that The Flat Earth Society was founded by Moses in 1492 BCE. He also claimed that it was founded "at the Creation of the Creation". "The International Flat Earth Society is the oldest continuous Society existing on the world today.

It began with the Creation of the Creation. First the water...the face of the deep...without form or limits...just Water.

Then the Land sitting in and on the Water, the Water then as now being flat and level, as is the very Nature of Water. There are, of course, mountains and valleys on the Land but since most of the World is Water, we say, 'The World is Flat'. One thing we know for sure about this world...the known inhabited world is Flat, Level, a Plain World.

The Fact the Earth is Flat is not my opinion, it is a Proved Fact", wrote Johnson. All errors within quotations were in the original text and are not mine.

2. The "cosmology" of The Flat Earth Society derives from ideas that were almost completely original to Samuel Birley Rowbotham, another Englishman, who published a pamphlet outlining his theories in 1849. His system is still known today to its adherents as "________ Astronomy". Fill in the blank.

Answer: Zetetic

Rowbotham "preached" Zetetic Astronomy throughout England, and published a 430 page second edition of his "Earth Not a Globe" in 1873. This publication made him a household name in Victorian England.

3. Let's look at Zetetic Astronomy in its slightly revised form as used by The Flat Earth Society's former president, Charles K. Johnson. According to Johnson, what shape is the earth?

Answer: LP record-shaped

Perfectly circular.

4. What is supposedly at the centre of the world?

Answer: The north pole

The flat earth spins around the north pole. Early Jewish and Christian maps placed Jerusalem as the allegorical, if not literal, centre of the world. According to Johnson the south pole does not exist.

5. If the previous question's answer lies at the centre of the earth, what lies at the edge?

Answer: Wall of ice that holds in the oceans

The wall of ice is about 150 feet high. Nobody knows what lies beyond the ice-wall because it can't be scaled (one must then assume that it can't be flown over either).

6. The entire known universe is literally under what is called the "firmament" (vault or dome of Heaven). How high above the earth's flat surface is this "firmament"?

Answer: 4,000 miles

Johnson claimed that the whole of the universe is contained under the firmament. The original Zetetic theory placed the firmament at around 600 miles.

7. According to the "Proved Fact" of flat-earth cosmology the sun and moon are both about 32 miles in diameter and travel in the vicinity of the equator. The apparent rising and setting of both bodies are due to what?

Answer: A trick of perspective

"...[the sun's and the moon's] apparent rising and setting are tricks of perspective, like railroad tracks that appear to meet in the distance", said Johnson. The moon is self-illuminating and is never eclipsed by the earth, but by a dark and unseen body passing in front of it on occasion.

8. How far above the earth's surface are the stars? Remember the firmament!

Answer: As far as San Francisco is from Boston

The stars and the planets are very small and travel through the sky in a similar fashion to the sun and the moon.

9. Ironically (perhaps) Johnson's wife Marjory, who became The Society's secretary, was a lass from which country?

Answer: Australia

The two met whilst seeking the same Acker Bilk album (Stranger on the Shore) in a San Francisco record store. I'll let Johnson tell you, "Marjory has always known that the earth is flat, too. As far as she knew, everybody in Australia knew it. She was rather shocked when she arrived here and found people speaking of Australia as being 'down under'.

It really offended her. She would get in quite heated arguments with people who seemed to accuse her of coming from down under the world". Ultimately, Marjory Johnson swore in an affidavit that she had never hung by her feet in Australia. May this quiz author say that we Down Under know for a fact that Oz is on TOP of the world...and hanging by one's feet is nothing of which to be ashamed.

10. There you have The Flat Earth Society's "cosmology" in a nutshell (or nut firmament if you will) but there are other things of interest to note. Whom did Johnson accuse of "trying to get rid of Jesus" with his heliocentric universe? (Hint: Johnson called this man "Co-pernicious".)

Answer: Copernicus

The Bible says that Jesus went UP into Heaven, and Johnson says, "The whole point of the Copernican theory is to get rid of Jesus by saying there is no up and no down". Sounds a bit funny considering the fact that Copernicus was nominated for canon of the cathedral at Frauenberg, East Prussia, not to mention his dedication to Pope Paul III of his defining work "De revolutionibus orbium coelestrium".

11. According to Johnson which of the following people were flat-earthers?

Answer: All of them

Don't forget that Moses was the founder! "Moses was a flat-earther", Johnson reveals. "The Flat Earth Society was founded in 1492 B.C., when Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt and gave them the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai", says Johnson. Columbus's crew nearly mutinied against him because they believed the world was flat and that they were in danger of sailing over the edge, right? "It was exactly the reverse", explains Johnson. "There was a dispute out on the ship, but it was because Columbus was a flat-earther.

The others believed the earth to be a ball, and they just knew that they were falling over the edge and couldn't get back. Columbus had to put them in irons and beat them until he convinced them they weren't going over any curve, and they could return.

He finally calmed them down", says Johnson in a rather confusing statement.

12. According to The Flat Earth Society Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin had planned to unite the world under the banner of the United Nations as a flat-earth nation. True or false?

Answer: True

According to The Society Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt devised a plan to bring in a New Flat-World Order under the banner of the United Nations. The world was to be ruled from the geographic location of the U.S. "After the war, the world would be declared flat and Roosevelt would be elected [doesn't he mean 'made'!?] first president of the world". Also, you should take a look at the UN logo - the one showing the world as a flat disc! The Flat Earth Society claims that the logo is the Zetetics' own map of the Earth.

13. Johnson and his wife Marjory set out to prove by way of experimentation that the world was flat. They correctly surmised that if the earth was a sphere then any large body of water would have a curved surface. Which lake situated on the California-Nevada line did the couple use for this experiment?

Answer: Tahoe

They observed no curve and therefore "proved" that the earth was flat. Of course this curve is visible to the naked eye but only at great altitude.

14. Which integral part of America's space programme does Johnson say is a ludicrous hoax and last ditch effort to convince people that the world is round?

Answer: Space Shuttle

Johnson claimed as it was built near to where he lived that he knew all about it. His claims included: the white surface was held on with epoxy and half of it fell off when they tried to move the Shuttle; the heat resistant tiles on the bottom of the shuttle could not be made to stick; last but not least he claims that when the shuttle was strapped to the back of a 747 for a test landing it wouldn't fit onto the rig so NASA "had to call in a handyman to drill some new holes to make the thing fit".

15. Johnson claimed that Edwards Air Force Base (home to the Shuttle) is where which sci-fi TV show was filmed?

Answer: Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

Johnson believed the base to be a purely science-fiction-based base, and that the script for the moon landing (which was faked according to Johnson) was written by Arthur C. Clarke. Johnson speaks, "Buck is a much better science program, considerably more authentic.

In fact, I recommend that the government get out of the space business and turn the whole thing over to ABC, CBS, and NBC. The TV networks do a far superior job. They could actually pay the government for rights, and it wouldn't cost the taxpayers a penny."

16. The oldest known flat-earth cosmology is attributable to which of the following civilisations?

Answer: Sumerian

Although all of the above civilisations did at one stage believe to a limited extent in a flat earth the Sumerians were the first, followed by the Babylonians. Sumerian civilisation dates from about 5000 BCE.

17. Is it true or false that Johnson was correct in his claim that almost no one thought seriously about a spherical earth before the moon landing in 1969?

Answer: False

Famous examples include Roger Bacon, Pythagoras and Aristarchus.

18. Columbus's voyage of 1492 proved that the earth was round. True or false?

Answer: False

It is a common myth that the earth was thought to be flat around the time of Columbus. Columbus's thoughts about the earth were influenced chiefly by the writings of Roger Bacon and Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly who both believed in a spherical earth. It was not a common contention that the earth was flat and Columbus's only dispute would seem to be with the size of the earth (he underestimated it), not the shape. American fiction writer Washington Irving's book entitled "The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus" (1828) is one of the primary reasons that some people today believe Columbus's voyage proved the earth wasn't flat. See "Inventing the flat earth: Columbus and modern historians" by Jeffrey Burton Russell and "Heaven and Earth in the Middle Ages - The Physical World Before Columbus" by Rudolph Simek.

19. In Brockport, N.Y., in March 1887, two scientific gentlemen defended the sphericity of the earth against flat-earther M.C. Flanders over three consecutive nights. When the debate was over, the 5 judges who were elected by the townspeople issued a unanimous verdict in favour of a flat earth. Their report was published in the Brockport Democrat. Pretty funny perhaps but has "flat-earth thinking" been the dominant trend throughout human history?

Answer: No

Apart from strong support early on from the Sumerian and Babylonian quarters a spherical earth has been favoured in general. This is a new way of looking at history but is gaining strong support among historians (see the 2 books I referenced above for an example).

It can be seen easily that as far back as history has been recorded there has been much support for a spherical earth from such quarters as Pythagoras right through to The Venerable Bede.

20. Lastly: The Flat Earth Society accepted its 100,000th paid member on March the 17th, 2002.

Answer: False

Under Charles K. Johnson the membership was boosted from a few members to a few hundred but it has never approached 100,000. In late September 1995, the Johnsons' home was gutted by fire destroying all of The Flat Earth Society's library, archives and membership list. Johnson managed to pull his wife to safety.

She died a semi-invalid on May 16th, 1996. Charles K. Johnson passed away on March 19th, 2001. All quotes were taken from an interview with Charles K. Johnson published in Science Digest, July 1980 (viewable at http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/fe-scidi.htm), and from The Flat Earth Society's manifesto which can be found around the web or via mail from Box 2533, Lancaster, CA 93534.

Source: Author Leviathan

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Lanni before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

We all know that the earth is round and that it revolves around the sun...right? Apparently not. See what you know about The Flat Earth Society and why its members think otherwise.

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