Does the Bible say the Earth is Flat?

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Dan McClellan (0:35)

Well, I hesitated, like when I was decided to make this video this morning for my social media, I was like contemplating, do I really want to do this? I'm opening myself up for criticism, but I was like, no, if I feel this way, I've got to go through with this, just because I wouldn't be able to look at myself in the mirror.

Hey, everybody, I'm Dan McClellan.

Dan Beecher (1:01)

And I'm Dan Beecher.

Dan McClellan (1:02)

And you're listening to the Data Over Dogma podcast, where we increase public access to the academic study of the Bible and religion, and combat the spread of misinformation about the same. How goes the storm, Dan?

Dan Beecher (1:16)

Well, it seems to have left you and come to me. We live on opposite sides of the Salt Lake City Valley.

And yeah, I'm hearing thunder in the background. I hope our listeners can't hear it. But if you can, it'll just, we'll just call this a moody episode.

Dan McClellan (1:32)

Little ambiance, that's all.

Dan Beecher (1:33)

Yeah, exactly.

Dan McClellan (1:34)

Cuddle up.

Dan Beecher (1:35)

I love it. And speaking of moody, Moody. We're gonna have some fun with a conspiracy. We're doing Conspiracy Watch to start off with.

And then we're gonna have opportunities for growth. I think that should be a self-help thing. We're gonna do Dan's self-help.

Dan McClellan (1:57)

And it's gonna be me looking into a mirror, right?

Dan Beecher (2:00)

Yeah, exactly. You're good enough, you're smart enough, and God dog gone it, or God dung it.

I'm not sure what I'm trying to say here.

Dan McClellan (2:09)

Or you could just go all the way back to Shania Twain, gone and done it.

Dan Beecher (2:13)

Gone and done it, there you go. I like it.

Yeah, but no, you are gonna be looking into a mirror a little bit because you've revised your position on some.

Dan McClellan (2:22)

Yeah, yeah, I am capable of growth from time to time. It is painful and it leaves behind a foul smelling husk, but we have opportunities for growth all the time. And I wanna share a little bit about, I don't think my position was necessarily wrong, but I'm gonna revise it a little bit because I think I can point it a little more directly at the target. So we'll get to that at the second half of the show.

Dan Beecher (2:51)

I mean, I made it sound all sexy and crazy and wild, and then you narrowed it down to the point where it almost doesn't sound like anything happened at all. But that's okay, we're gonna have a good time.

Everyone stay tuned to hear how Dan was almost, but not quite a little bit, maybe wrong-ish.

Dan McClellan (3:09)

Yeah, not the first time and won't be the last time.

Dan Beecher (3:13)

But before that, Conspiracy Watch.

SPEAKER_5 (3:16)

Dung, dung, dung.

Dan Beecher (3:20)

So for today's conspiracy, Dan, you suggested this idea and I tried to Google it. And here's the problem with Googling certain big conspiracies that have been widely and well refuted by respected sources.

Dan McClellan (3:41)

Is it all the porn that comes up?

Dan Beecher (3:43)

It's all the porn. It's a problem.

No, the problem is that what you get is those respected sources and their refutations. And their refutations very, very rarely include like the real off the wall dingbat stuff that you're looking for.

Dan McClellan (4:00)

There's not a lot of steel manning going on when it comes time to refute some of these yes and non conspiracy theories. So when you want the juicy stuff, when you wanna, I wanna know exactly what their argument is.

Dan Beecher (4:13)

From their mouths.

Dan McClellan (4:14)

From their mouths, yeah, you gotta go into the trenches.

Dan Beecher (4:17)

And so here's the thing. What we're talking about today is flat earth.

And what I found, and I think this is why we're talking about it. I don't know, I haven't heard your argument yet, but I believe that this is why we're talking about it. If I type flat earth, I get like page after page after page of refutations of the flat earth conspiracy theory.