how can people seriously believe the earth is flat?

Easily, by being myopic. It becomes easy for people to believe only what is in their own field of vision when that's their only reference to life. A lot of people believe only what they can see from their own vantage point. When that belief is agreed on by a majority of people, it's considered fact, when, from a non-seen vantage point, it may not be fact, at all. For example; it's agreed the Sun rises in the East and sets in the West. That belief, in scientific terms, is more poetic than factual. People are fixed (when they're not traveling) in their positions on planet Earth, which, when it rotates the people in the direction of the sun, brings them to where the sun is located in space, making it appear the sun is rising. When we're pulled away from the sun's location by continuing to be moved away from it by the Earth's rotation, it looks as though the sun is setting.

However, with any elementary learning of basic Earth science and common sense, I would think people couldn't [i]possibly[/i] believe the Earth is flat. But, I'm sure some do. (politicians)

walabby · 61-69, M

Yeah. You'd think that lunar eclipses would give them a hint, at least.. XD

therighttothink50 · 56-60, M

Some people feel it is flat within an encapsulated globe. We might be an experiment, like fish in a fish bowl. There are many possibilities, Antarctica is the key. Don't close your mind to things you don't understand. Open your eyes and investigate. Go where the evidence takes you, be open to new ideas. The watchers wish to keep us all in perpetual ignorance. The earth could be a farm and all of us the herd being cultivated and observed.