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Humans have known the world is not, in fact, flat for thousands of years, but there are still plenty of people who would try to tell you otherwise. That includes a Flat Earther who made the trek to Antarctica to test out a theory about the Sun before being forced to admit he’d missed the mark after being confronted by reality.
The thinkers of Ancient Greece are commonly credited with being the first to determine the Earth is a globe; Eratosthenes, Pythagoras, and Aristotle are commonly cited when people attempt to identify the initial champion of the theory, but there’s no clear-cut historical evidence that can be used to firmly determine who made the discovery.
While the debate was essentially put to rest more than 2,000 years ago, we still live on a decidedly spherical globe that’s nonetheless populated by the “Flat Earthers” who vehemently disagree with that assertion, with most people who fall under that umbrella believing we actually live on a disc-shaped planet surrounded by a massive ice wall that’s located where the so-called “continent” of Antarctica exists.
As is the case with most conspiracy theories, there’s not much you can do to convince Flat Earthers they’re wrong despite the mountain of evidence to the contrary, and they’ll usually dream up some fantastical excuse when confronted with any seemingly ironclad proof their literal worldview doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.
A pastor from Colorado named Will Duffy recently had the chance to do exactly that when he invited some Flat Earthers to join him in Antarctica for what he dubbed “The Final Experiment.”
In addition to being the purported location of the ice wall, the snowy expanse is also a hot topic among Flat Earthers who don’t buy into the idea it’s possible for the Sun to shine above it for a full 24 hours during the summer months in the Southern Hemisphere (a feat that would be impossible if the planet is actually flat).
The quartet of Flat Earth advocates who made the trip included Jeran Campanella, a high-profile YouTuber in the community who traveled 9,000 miles from California to Antarctica to take part in the live-streamed “experiment” that proved the Sun doesn’t actually set there at this point in the year.
Campanella got the chance to respond to that development around 31 minutes into the following video, as he acknowledged his YouTube channel might not be as popular among Flat Earthers as it once was before admitting he was incorrect, saying. “Sometimes you are wrong in life. I thought there was no 24-hour sun. In fact, I was pretty sure of it…It’s a fact. The sun does circle you.”
He continued, adding, “I realize that I’ll be called a ‘shill’ for just saying that. And you know what? If you’re a shill for being honest, so be it. I honestly believed there was no 24-hour sun. I honestly now believe there is.”
Campanella’s fellow Flat Earthers were slightly less willing to admit defeat while acknowledging what they saw but asserting it didn’t necessarily debunk the theory they’re intent on clinging to, which isn’t necessarily a huge surprise.
However, you have to give him some credit where credit is due for not even attempting to enter the spin zone.