The RenewaNation Review 2017 Volume 9 Issue 2 | Page 8

Maybe the Earth is Flat By Pastor Troy Keaton IF THE TITLE OF THIS article startles you, perhaps it should. However, the question over the shape of the earth seems to have been answered long ago. Even the Bible affirmed this in Isaiah 40:22: “It is He who sits above the CIRCLE of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.”   Recently, this subject made major news when NBA All-Star, Kyrie Irving, made a claim on a podcast that the earth was indeed flat. This created quite a news story with people asking him during the all-star weekend if he actually denied such obvious reality.   Irving said: “This is not even a conspiracy theory. The Earth is flat. It’s right in front of our faces. I’m telling you, it’s right in front of our faces. They lie to us.” He later reiterated those beliefs to ESPN’s Arash Markazi when he said, “I think people should do their own research. Hopefully, they’ll either back my belief, or they’ll throw it in the water. But I think it’s interesting for people to 8 find out on their own.” He went on to say, “I know the science, and I don’t mind going against the grain in terms of my thoughts.”   I know the earth is round, but I fully understand how Irving can make such a claim. I am even surprised that people are shocked to hear him say so. You might be thinking, under what premise can someone legitimately deny such a proven scientific reality? It’s very simple: in a worldview that denies absolute truth and where truth is relative, the earth can be flat. This is relativism, and it is the prominent worldview in our society today. Rela- tivism says, according to a Stanford University study in 2015, “There can be no framework-independent vantage point from which the matter of whether the thing in ques- tion is so can be established. Relativism has been, in its various guises, both one of the most popular and most reviled philosophical doctrines of our time. It is seen as a harbinger of tolerance.”   This is a world where one can believe anything as truth and be celebrated as “diverse.” Irving believes the