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  "Restoring Sanity to the World"

 Most readers do not know that the Flat Earth Society's mission
statement is simply, "To restore sanity to the world." Surely the world can
use some sanity, I thought, as my wife ....and I drove ..... to Flat Earth
Society headquarters just outside of Lancaster, California. My old friend
Charles Johnson has been president of the Flat Earth Society for about
two decades, and the world does seem a saner place now than when he took
over.
..
..
 For some reason, many people think the Flat Earth Society is a joke.
Let me assure everyone that Charles Johnson is on the level. The Flat
Earth Society is, he says, the oldest organization on earth, having been
founded by Moses in 1492 B.C.
..
..
 While Johnson eschews the Bible-thumping that has usually
characterized the modern flat-earth movement, he does consider the spherical
hoax part of a plot to discredit the Bible. If flat earthism has its
religious implications, so does sphericity. Johnson claims that sphericity
is a doctrine of the Church of England, which is behind the spherical
hoax. Indeed, not just sphericity, but even heliocentricity really
*was* [emphasis in original] a doctrine of the Pythagorean religion,
and that almost two millenia before it was generally accepted. Johnson
therefore refers to the theory of Copernicus (sorry, "Copernicious") as
"Grease Ball Religion." Add a few bugs crawling out of a swamp (evolution),
and you get "Buggy Spinning Balls Religion"
..
..
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 You see, you're not the only loony around. You've got some real
competition.

Rob Zuber