Why an Atheist Thinks the Shroud of Turin is the Real Deal

Zetetic Astronomy: Earth Not a Globe

Johnson and his wife Marjory wanted to scientifically verify the claims of Samuel Birley Rowbotham, a founder of the Zetetic movement who wrote Zetetic Astronomy: Earth Not a Globe. To do so, they carefully examined the surfaces of Lake Tahoe and saw no curvature. This satisfied them that Rowbotham’s scientific conclusions were correct and that the world was indeed flat.

Marjory Johnson, who came to California from Australia, was so upset that her native country was called “down under” that she swore out an affidavit stating that she had never hung by her feet in Australia. Though she probably did not know it, she had provided a humorous answer to a question that Augustine of Hippo had pondered in The City of God:  were there “men on the opposite side of the earth, where the sun rises when it sets to us, men who walk with their feet opposite ours.”

Most of us – I hope most of us – know better. It doesn’t take much knowledge of science and history to know that the world isn’t flat. We might say that our own worldviews are better tuned to reality than those of the flat-earthers. But, how much better do we know the truth?