On the 24th October 1946 rocket scientists in New Mexico, USA launched a V2 missile.
It had been confiscated by the Americans after the defeat of the Nazis in Europe and formed the initial part of further research and development that would, within 23 years, see Apollo Astronauts land on the moon.
An important event during the V2 secondment was, at a height of 65 miles, the taking of a photograph, officially the first of the planet Earth from space.
It was a grainy, black and white image with details barely discernible apart from one- there was a distinct curve to the atmosphere around our planet.
Yes, this was irrefutable visual proof and in the public domain that the Earth was round and not flat or any other shape or form.
Of course, I have to trust the photograph and its authenticity to represent the truth about a spherical Earth.
Personally I have never been into space to verify this for myself . What I have been presented with has had to be taken in good faith. Even a peek out of the small window of a passenger jet at about 34000 feet altitude on the way to a holiday destination has not been enough to determine the actual shape of our planet.
I do not accept everything at face value anyway.
I try to take reasonable steps to find out things for myself, to sift out the incorrect from the factual, to examine the evidence and make up my own mind.
This desire for due diligence has been instilled in me from an early age. My parents were keen to educate me to distinguish between right and wrong, truth and lies, fact and fantasy and for the majority of my life this strong moral compass has worked well, or at least as far as I can tell.
I have still had to rely on the likes of teachers, lecturers, politicians, employers , colleagues and others in positions of authority and importance for information relating to their areas of influence and although I have implicitly relied on their respective status I have had enough of an upbringing and general education to discern what is reliable in terms of reflecting the real situation and what is certainly not.
However, in the modern age of technology, social media, internet, 24 hour news channels and instant ability to pass and post comment I am beginning to doubt even my own capabilities for rational thought.
This can be no better explained by the resurgence in popularity of the Flat Earth Movement, that is those who believe that the planet Earth is flat.
The Flat Earth Society was founded in 1956 and although always in the background of conspiracy theories about collusion between states and aliens, interference by Government into the lives of private citizens and promoting a distrust of scientists and experts it has only really appealed to those who revel in such things rather than the wider population.
That is until the last few years.
In the current climate of the common use of the term "fake news" as a means to dismiss and discredit all and anything the Flat Earthers have found new support amongst those who hide behind the "fake news" impenetrable wall.
A main line of attack by the Leave Campaign in the 2016 UK Brexit Referendum was to encourage a mistrust of experts and this same method of mass misbelief has been put to very effective use by Trump followers in the USA.
In May this year (2018) a Flat Earth Conference in Birmingham, UK was very well attended and in presentations and open forum discussions the delegates and attendees covered all aspects of experiments and modelling to look for and explain multiple verifiable evidence that the Earth was indeed flat.
Their opinions and approaches are not a new phenomena and in legend, ancient history and in religious teachings the physical form of the Earth as being flat is well documented. Early maritime explorers, although confident in their own navigational and seafaring skills must have had a secret fear of simply sailing over the edge of the known world in the absence of any means of determining that anything else was a possibility.
That V2 rocket and photo were, again, the first to be taken looking back at a sufficient arc of our planet to determine that it was of a round shape.
We are in an era of unprecedented access by most of the global population to information. Unfortunately, a good proportion of the population just absorb, digest and then pass on what they have heard or seen in snippet or meme form perhaps adding a vote of confidence or another bit of information that could be nothing more than rumour, hearsay, gossip, mischief making or dangerous lies and misinformation.
At the recent UK Flat Earth meeting there did seem to be some tempering of the olde worlde stance of "It's Flat" thus giving no leeway for reasonable discussion on whether or not that was actually the case in that a proviso was offered that believers in the movement should still do their own research and accept that they might actually be wrong.
That could be a good lesson for all of us to promote a bit of tolerance, understanding, proper engaged dialogue and above all, an open mind to the pros and cons of things that otherwise threaten our everyday lives and interactions.
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