It was the evening of Oct. 5 when I had the most interesting conversation of my life. I saw a canopy with a sign reading “flat Earth.” My original plan was to mock them. I felt and still do feel morally obligated to mock beliefs that are harmful to society. However, I now see a distinction between mocking a belief and mocking a believer. I saw a group of people talking to one of the flat-earthers and the other one came up to me and asked what I believed the shape of the Earth to be. I sarcastically responded, “That’s a tricky one, but I think my belief will coincide with all of the scientific evidence.”
To be fair, I do not know much about the belief in the flat Earth, I only know that it is harmful to perpetuate misinformation. Most of my two hour conversation with this person wasn’t even about the flat Earth. I saw they also had a sign that read “Are you a good person?” I know this is a debate tactic used by evangelist Ray Comfort.
I thought if these people believed in a flat Earth, then they are surely young-Earth creationists, so I asked them if they were. I was correct and that was good for me because I can more accurately debate with youngEarth creationists than I can with a flat-earther. The person I spoke with mentioned not believing in dinosaur fossils; this led me to comment that Satan placed them there to test our faith. The person said I was misrepresenting his argument, which I thought was a fair criticism of my actions. In actuality the person thought that dinosaur fossils in museums were faked, so it turns out that Satan really didn’t have to place them in the ground.
He had other views that might be considered extreme, such as believing the events at Jonestown did not happen and that the moon landing was staged. Specifically with the moon landing, I mentioned how the Soviet Union’s government confirmed that the United States landed on the moon. His response was that the Soviet government and the American government are both part of one large government conspiracy.
Even though I found his views harmful, I did not go at his throat and mostly had a good time talking with him to try and understand his worldview. In a way it reminded me of Daryl Davis, someone who I look up to.
According to NPR, Davis is a Black man who has spent the past 30 years befriending people in the Ku Klux Klan. He was able to convince 200 people to leave the Klan because, instead of attacking the people with a dangerous worldview, he was able to have a discussion with them and was living proof that their views were wrong. While people in the Klan incorrectly believe that Black people are criminals and stupid, Davis proved them wrong by showing how smart and peaceful he is.
While my interaction with the flat-earther was much less extreme and heroic than anything Davis has done, I feel the same way of
interacting holds true. While it is not always possible to get people to see how damaging their views are to society, it is worth trying to not be at their throat. I know it is hard because I still feel that we are all morally responsible for attacking views that are harmful, but we can attack views without necessarily attacking people.
Davis has a lot more courage than I will ever have and I was not able to convince the flat-earther that his views were dangerous. I still think that there was a lot of use in me not attacking him. I was able to have one of the most interesting conversations in my life by not doing so. If I had just belittled him then I would not have had this incredible experience.
Nico Brazill can be contacted at
nbrazill@kscequinox.com
