Celebrities Who Believe The Earth Is Flat
March 23, 2017 8:48 AM
This article is more than seven years old.
A complete list of celebrities, prominent figures, politicians and notable people who believe that Earth is flat.
Photo: simple.wikipedia.org
You've probably heard the US basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal is the latest celebrity to out himself as a flat earther but he's certainly not the first prominent person to believe that the Earth is flat.
Shaq presented the logic behind his refusal to accept the Earth is a globe in a podcast, "I drive from Florida to California all the time and it's flat to me. I do not go up and down at a 360-degree angle."
He went on to say, "have you looked outside Atlanta lately and seen all these buildings? You mean to tell me that China is under us? China is under us? It's not. The world is flat."
Worryingly, Shaquille isn't the only notable person who believes in the Flat Earth theory, below is a complete list of all celebrities and prominent figures who are convinced the Earth is flat.
1. Shaquille O'Neal
Photo: © Keith Allison
Shaquille made his outlandish claims in 'The Big Podcast', a co-host pointed out to him that there are satellite images of Earth which prove it to be round. Shaq responded, "oh satellite imagery? That could be a drone or made up."
"I'm just saying that when I drive from Florida to New York – flat. New York to Seattle... flat. Seattle to L.A... flat", he added and when asked what shape he thought Earth is, the basketball star replied "it's a square."
2. B.o.B
Photo: © Dominick Brady
As no one has heard from US rapper B.o.B. for a few years, it seems he had to do something to grab the attention of the world's press once again and he did this by declaring loud and proud that he's a firm believer that the Earth is flat.
Back in 2016, the rapper who's real name is Bobby Ray Simmons Jr shared his views on Twitter, "no matter how high in elevation you are... the horizon is always eye level... sorry cadets... I didn't wanna believe it either."
He went on to say, "don't believe what I say, research what I say. I'm going up against the greatest liars in history... you've been tremendously deceived."
His comments resulted in a full scale Twitter war with astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson but the war was won by Tyson's nephew who is also a rapper and released a B.o.B. diss track about the fight.
3. Tila Tequila
Photo: © Toglenn
If you don't know who Tila Tequila is, then good for you! She is the worst kind of "celebrity" who rose to fame for no reason other than being the most popular person on MySpace.
She was kicked off Twitter last year for posting a photo of herself giving a Nazi salute at an alt-right National Policy Institute meeting celebrating the election of Donald Trump.
On top of everything else that's wrong with her, she's also intent on spreading bad science as a passionate advocate of the Flat Earth theory.
4. A.J. Styles
Photo: it.wikipedia.org
A.J. Styles is a WWE wrestler and while he's doesn't actually subscribe to the Flat Earth theory, he's not a massive supporter of a round Earth ether. He said "I don't think the world is flat, I'm just saying there's some stuff about it. That's all. I'm not a flat earther. I'm just saying there's some things about it that make sense."
5. Kyrie Irving
Photo: © Erik Drost
Around the time B.o.B. made a fool of himself on Twitter, an NBA start also showed his ignorance of science and the world around him. Kyrie Irving, once a famous basketball player for the Cleveland Cavaliers is now better known as a flat earther.
Kyrie outed himself on a podcast telling its audience, "this is not even a conspiracy theory, the Earth is flat."
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6. George Bernard Shaw
Photo: simple.wikipedia.org
The legendary Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw isn't technically a flat earther but people love to quote his work and one quote taken from 1924 play 'Joan of Arc' is often used by flat earthers who think he is one of them.
"I must not, by the way, be taken as implying that the earth is flat, or that all or any of our amazing credulities are delusions or impostures."
7. Boko Haram
Photo: © Boko Haram
Boko Haram is an Islamic extremist group who have singled out geography teachers as part of their campaign against Western education in Nigeria.
The group believe that the Earth is flat and are convinced that lessons contradict their belief and have murdered 600 school staff since 2009 and forced thousands more to leave their jobs due to the ongoing fear of attack.
8. Pastor Wilbur Glenn Voliva
Photo: terapeak.com
Pastor Wilbur Glenn Voliva was the head of a Christian Catholic Apostolic Church in Illinois in the early 1900s and was a well-known subscriber to the Flat Earth theory. He went as far as to offer a $5,000 reward to anyone who could prove the Earth was round.
He had a habit of incorrectly predicting the end of the world was coming at various different dates and before his death confessed to his followers that he had stolen church funds... perhaps that money was just resting in his account.
9. Sherri Shepherd
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
The former co-host of the American talk show, 'The View' isn't a flat earther as such but in 2007 an outburst on the show didn't do much to stop the spread of this ludicrous theory.
The television personality asked "is the world flat? I've never thought about it." After Rosie O’Donnell pulled her up for her statement, Sherri backtracked and defended herself by saying it's not that she believes that the world is flat, she's just never really thought about it and has other things on her mind, like "how I'm going to feed my child."
10. Samuel Shenton
Samuel Shenton was the king of anti-fact, he founded the International Flat Earth Research Society in 1956 based in Dover, England. He lectured his beliefs to anyone who would listen, even during the 1960s when the "space race" was at its peak.
The International Flat Earth Research Society quietly fizzled out after the Soviets launched Sputnik which appeared at regular intervals in the sky and proved the Earth was round.
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11. Daniel Shenton
Confusingly, Daniel Shenton isn't a relation of Samuel, but he is now the president of the International Flat Earth Research Society having revived it for a new, defiant group of flat earthers in 2004.
Daniel says, "there is no unified flat Earth model, but the most commonly accepted one is that it's more or less a disc, with a ring of something to hold in the water. The height and substance of that, no one is absolutely sure, but most people think it's mountains with snow and ice."
12. Paul Kruger
Photo: en.wikipedia.org
The amusing story of Paul Kruger. He was a South African president but was exiled in 1900 and left the country aboard a Dutch ship. As a member of the fundamentalist Dutch Reformed Church, he was a strong believer that the Earth was flat.
While at sea he was shocked to learn that the ship was navigated as if the planet were spherical. At first he was skeptical but after inspecting the sextant and other instruments, he threw his bible overboard.
It's claimed he said that if Earth was a globe, then the book was untrue and of no further interest to him.
13. Thomas Dolby
Photo: © Arthur Mouratidis
Thomas Dolby, a British musician and music producer is credited with introducing Daniel Shenton of the Flat Earth Society to the theory.
In 1984, Thomas released his second album, 'The Flat Earth.' Daniel says that it was thanks Thomas' work that he discovered the Earth was flat, "it was the late 1990s and I started doing research into what the Flat Earth Society was. I had heard of it and, when I did some more research, I eventually ended up believing its ideas were true."
14. Donald Trump?
With his strong anti-science views and his intent on killing the space programme, I wouldn't be surprised if it were revealed that Trump believes the Earth is flat.
One satirical news site almost had the world convinced with a fictional Trump quote, about "the round earth people, and you know who they are, these people have an agenda." The fake news story claims the president made the statement while speaking to reporters in Baltimore in 2016.
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