[Thanks to Susan for the nooze tip]
Where does fruitlessly fooling around end and genuine mental illness begin?
I think the likelihood is very high that this person does not, in fact, sincerely “identify as a turtle.” I think it’s doing something asinine because she’s convinced no one will stop her, no one will rein her in, and she can insult the whole state of Oregon with impunity. If she sincerely believed she was a turtle, she wouldn’t be wearing human clothes, would she?
And she has a quasi-governmental post! Governed by nincompoops. Way to go, Oregon. We thought we were badly off in New Jersey, but we don’t hold a candle to the sorry spectacle that your state has consented to become.
She just wants the attention, the thrill of getting people to do what she wants, and (these days) the woke points that lead to high pay, perks, and promotions.
I think that a lot of this nonsense distills to being a way to express defiance. I once had a bit of a go around with a flat earther, and it was obvious that this was simply a way of provoking an argument.
One of the evidences put forth, in favor of a flat earth, was that airplanes would have to push over to keep from flying into space. Refuting that was effortless; planes fly in the atmosphere and the atmosphere molds to the planet. Trim up at 35,000’ and you can fly any direction you want, until you run out of fuel. Gravity holds the atmosphere to the planet, so there’s no risk of flying out into space. Gravity is the hero of the story.
When I explained this, the answer was that this flat earther didn’t believe in gravity. Ok, this does beg the question of what was keeping him on the floor, but just as obviously, he was simply pivoting his reasoning, to prolong the argument.
Belief in a flat earth was not the point of this exercise. The point was to defy reason, and to waste my time. Yeah, and his dad could beat up my dad. 🙂 At the end of the day, the entire argument was simply a challenge to reality. No amount of verifiable facts would have ended the argument, because the entire point was to assail reality itself. BTW, I refuse to enter into flat earth discussions, because any time I spend on the argument is a victory for the flat earther.
Yahweh created a spirit realm and the material realm. He is a God of order, not disorder, and He created things to be predictable. Predictable? I’m soon going to walk into the next room. If gravity were not 100% reliable, my first step across the room would send me tumbling, helplessly, and I would be unable to get to the next room.
Everything we do, even the most mundane of tasks, requires that everything around us in the material realm be orderly, and predictable. But an opposer to God’s sovereignty has tried to argue otherwise. Much like the flat earther, when confronted with facts, this opposer merely pivots to a different point of contention, and tries to perpetuate the argument. It’s an old trick, but common to people whom wish to cause disruption. We can see it playing out in geopolitics, and we can see it if we encounter a disagreeable drunk who just wants to argue. The root of all this is the work of that opposer, who challenged God by questioning reality, when tempting Eve.
So, someone can claim to be something that they definitely are not, or assail the realities of our planet’s gravity, the order of the entire Universe, etc. It doesn’t matter, because these are simply arguing points, designed to disrupt, implant doubt, and cause disorder. There is much disorder in our world, because of the work of this opposer, but the fundamentals of the material realm remain orderly and predictable. And with that, I will now walk across the room, with absolute confidence that my next step won’t propel me into the ceiling.
Jesus summed it up the best in John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
How did our civilization ever come to this?
Tolerance of anything and everything, even if that thing is harmful.
The law of “buoyancy and density” could be the answer as to what keeps us on earth. No argument, just a thought.
Here’s a simple illustration, I considered as I thought about this issue. Consider, two ants on the top of a beach ball (the north pole). John wants to get to the bottom (the south pole), and Tom wants to remain where he is. The middle of the beach ball would be the equator. As John walks southward, toward the equator, he notices the ground is starting to slope a great deal. In fact, when he gets to the middle (the equator), he is now standing sideways, at a 45-degree angle from when he started. And soon, he will be walking upside down, long before he even gets close to the south pole. And when he has arrived at his destination, he will be standing 180-degrees different then when he was at the north pole. In other words, John is now, literally standing upside down.
Would it make any difference what size the beach ball was for our illustration; whether the size of a golf ball or the earth or the sun? Wouldn’t John still be standing upside down when he got to the south pole?
No arguments, just a few thoughts and considerations. Elder Mike
Gravity works from the center of mass. All material objects have gravity, but it is a multiple of mass. So, if a golf ball appeared out of nothing, 10’ above the ground, it would attract the earth to its center, and the earth would affect the golf ball. Because of the difference in mass, the golf ball would have no measurable effect upon the earth and would be drawn towards the center of the earth at an acceleration rate of 32.2 feet per second, squared. Of course if would collide with the surface of the earth about 5/ of a second into its fall, but the direction of the fall would be the absolute center of the earth.
So, when you are walking, or driving, what you perceive as “down” is the center of the earth. In our normal, everyday experience, the sense of orientation is actually the acceleration of gravity pulling you towards the center of the earth, and the solid surface on which you are standing keeping you at cground level.
An airplane in steady flight obeys these same basic rules, but instead of being supported by solid ground, you are supported by the differential of pressure between the bottom of the wing and the top of the wing. Gravity is an accelerative force, so in an airplane, if you bank 60 degrees, you will experience two times the normal acceleration of gravity, or 2 Gs. Because if this, it’s possible to become disoriented in an aircraft and it may feel like you are right side up, when you are in fact in a steep turn and losing altitude.
But high G maneuvers are not what we normally experience in cruise flight, so as an airplane flies a long distance, that same sense of orientation is in play, and there’s no sensation of the ground sloping beneath you. Even in low earth orbit, the earth basically looks flat.
Another point, however, is that the atmosphere thins at a predictable rate as you rise above sea level. Aircraft measure their altitude by measuring the air pressure. The higher you climb, the thinner the air. If you are in a light aircraft and are flying at 8,000’ above sea level, and want to climb to 10,000’ feet above sea level, you would add power to initiate the climb. So, if the effect of the curvature of the earth made the ground seem to drop away from under you, rather quickly, you would have to add power, and would eventually be unable to continue the climb, because the engine has less oxygen to support combustion, not to mention the fact that you would be trying to breath ever thinner air and would pass out from hypoxia without supplemental oxygen, or pressurization.
Also, as you got higher, the flight controls would lose effectiveness, making control impossible. High powered experimental aircraft which have probed the upper atmosphere use reaction thrusters, basically tiny rocket motors, to maintain orientation. Flying at very high altitudes is akin to driving on glare ice, which is to say that it’s possible, but very risky.
I’ve been pilot in command of cross country flights and can state from firsthand experience that compensating for the curvature of the earth is not an issue. Accommodation is made for atmospheric pressure, wind direction, wind speed, deviation between the magnetic pole and the geographic pole, but conforming to the curvature of the earth is taken care of by gravity, first and foremost and the altitude above sea level is monitored via an altimeter, so believe me, if any extra altitude was sneaking in, the pilot would know and reduce the engine power accordingly … but that never happens inna stable, well planned flight. Even without a three axis autopilot, planes tend to be easy to keep on altitude.
All the same, I think I’ll steer clear of the South Pole. You never know when gravity’s going to go on strike.
Sounds like a plan to me. 🙂