Editing Modern flat Earth beliefs (section)

===Beliefs===
Based on the speakers at the 2018 UK's Flat Earth UK Convention, believers in a flat Earth vary widely in their views. While most agree upon a disc-shaped Earth, some are convinced the Earth is diamond-shaped. Furthermore, while most believers do not believe in [[outer space]] and none believe humans have ever travelled there, they vary widely in their views of the universe.<ref name=Marshall2018conference>{{cite news |last1=Marshall |first1=Michael|author-link1=Michael Marshall (skeptic) |title=The universe is an egg and the moon isn't real: notes from a Flat Earth conference |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2018/may/02/the-universe-is-an-egg-and-the-moon-isnt-real-notes-from-a-flat-earth-conference |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=16 September 2018|date=2 May 2018}}</ref> (Flat Earth International Conferences, organized by Robbie Davidson, are unaffiliated with the Flat Earth Society. According to Davidson, the "Earth is ... a stationary plane, with the sun, moon, and stars inside a dome", while the Flat Earth Society promotes a model in which Earth is "a disk flying through space", and which Davidson finds "incredibly ridiculous".)<ref name="Burdick-Looking-2018"/>

Filmmakers of ''Behind the Curve'' attended another flat Earth conference at which a substantial number of people believed the Earth was an infinite plane, potentially with more continents beyond the purported circular ice wall of Antarctica. 
Members of the Flat Earth Society and other flat-Earthers claim that NASA and other government agencies conspire to fabricate evidence that the Earth is spherical.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last=Wolchover|first=Natalie|date=30 May 2017|title=Are Flat-Earthers Being Serious?|url=https://www.livescience.com/24310-flat-earth-belief.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508235829/https://www.livescience.com/24310-flat-earth-belief.html|archive-date=8 May 2021|access-date=17 January 2019|website=Live Science}}</ref> According to the most widely spread version of current flat-Earth theory, NASA is guarding the Antarctic ice wall that surrounds Earth.<ref name=":1" /> Flat-Earthers argue that NASA [[Photo manipulation|manipulates]] and fabricates its [[Satellite imagery|satellite images]], based on observations that the color of the oceans changes from image to image and that continents seem to be in different places.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Moshakis|first=Alex|date=2018-05-27|title=Is the Earth flat? Meet the people questioning science|language=en-GB|work=The Observer|url=https://www.theguardian.com/global/2018/may/27/is-the-earth-pancake-flat-among-the-flat-earthers-conspiracy-theories-fake-news|url-status=live|access-date=2019-01-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308185255/https://www.theguardian.com/global/2018/may/27/is-the-earth-pancake-flat-among-the-flat-earthers-conspiracy-theories-fake-news|archive-date=8 March 2021|issn=0029-7712}}</ref> The publicly perpetuated image is kept up through a large-scale practice of "compartmentalization", according to which only a select number of individuals have knowledge about the truth.<ref name="Burdick-Looking-2018"/>

Research by Carlos Diaz Ruiz and Tomas Nilsson on the arguments that flat Earthers wield, shows three factions, each one subscribing to its own set of beliefs.<ref name="sagepub">{{Cite journal |last1=Diaz Ruiz |first1=Carlos |last2=Nilsson |first2=Tomas |date=16 May 2022 |title=Disinformation and Echo Chambers: How Disinformation Circulates in Social Media Through Identity-Driven Controversies |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/07439156221103852 |journal=Journal of Public Policy & Marketing |volume=42 |issue=1 |pages=18–35 |doi=10.1177/07439156221103852 |s2cid=248934562}}</ref>
 
The first faction subscribes to a faith-based conflict in which atheists use science to suppress the Christian faith. Their argument is that atheists use pseudo-science – evolution, [[Big Bang]], and the round Earth – to make people believe that God is an abstract idea, not real. Instead, their arguments use the Scripture – word-by-word – to support an argument that enables God to really exist. This faction frames flat-Earth arguments as revelatory.<ref name="sagepub"/> (For example, a literal interpretation of [[Revelation 7]] --  "I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth ..."—indicates the earth must have four corners.) This is in spite of the fact that a circular flat earth would also not have corners, contradicting the central model of flat earth. This contradiction seems to imply that God created a 2D quadrilateral or 3D tetrahedral earth. 

The second faction believes in an overarching conspiracy for knowledge suppression. Building upon the premise that knowledge is power, the flat Earth conspiracy argues that a shadowy group of "elites" control knowledge to remain in power. In their view, lying about the fundamental nature of the Earth primes the population to believe a host of other conspiracies. This faction frames flat-Earth arguments as liberatory.<ref name="sagepub"/>

The third faction believes that knowledge is personal and experiential. They are dismissive of knowledge that comes from authoritative sources, especially book knowledge. This faction would like to find out themselves whether the Earth truly is round or flat. Because they distrust book knowledge and mathematical proof, this faction believes that the Earth is flat because their observations and lived experiences make it appear that the Earth is a flat surface. This faction frames flat-Earth arguments as experimental.<ref name="sagepub"/>

Fellow flat earthers are not exempt from distrust and belief that they may be in cahoots with round earthers. In ''Behind the Curve'', conference attendees were warned against attending by Math Powerland, also known as Matt Boylan, who posted videos alleging others were working for the CIA or Warner Brothers. At the 2017 Flat Earth conference:

{{blockquote|[S]everal speakers made reference to "shills" within the community, people purporting to espouse the theory but who in fact belong to some deep-state counterintelligence program aimed at making the movement seem laughable. In 2016, [Eric Dubay], of the "200 Proofs" video, called out [[Mark Sargent (flat Earth proponent)|Mark Sargent]], Jeran Campanella, and other figures as "suspected controlled opposition shills," and last year in a radio interview he called the November conference a "shill-fest." Even the flat-Earth bureaucracy is suspect. At the end of the conference's second day, a panelist mentioned a plan to set up a nonprofit to carry on the work. This brought a rebuke from a woman in the audience. "You had me up until I heard the gentleman say, 'The reason we had to scramble to get the [[501(c)(3)]],{{' "}} she said. "In my research, I found out that's a [[Lucifer]]ian contract."<ref name="Burdick-Looking-2018"/>}}