It's a little more nuanced than that. The flat earth movement originated with Samuel Rowbotham who actually conducted an experiment in 1838 whose results (he c

It's a little more nuanced than that. The flat earth movement originated with Samuel Rowbotham who actually conducted an experiment in 1838 whose results (he claimed) demonstrated that the earth was flat [1]. I think it's arguable that he was engaging in the scientific method in good faith. --- [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedford_Level_experiment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedford_Level_experiment