“Take capitalism. I can say without shame that it has flaws. And I’m not a communist or anything, but it’s obvious that our economic system isn’t perfect, especially after what happened in 2008. Or, you know how some people still refuse to admit that climate change is real…” I nod along as Carla dishes out a list of controversial topics. The nodding, however, abruptly stops as she announces the last one, “Or society not even acknowledging the possibility that the Earth might not be round.”

My heart sinks. There it is. She’s a Flat Earther.

Bye-bye, true love.

Just to make sure, before I give up on her right away, I say, “You believe the Earth is flat?”

“Yeah, a round Earth makes some other phenomena unexplainable.”

At this point, it’s a mere fascination that prompts me to explore the topic. “Yeah, like what?”

“Railways, for example. The tracks run for miles across this country, and they’re always flat. I mean, New York to LA, that supposed curvature should’ve come in at some point but, no. If the world was a globe curving eight inches per mile, the railways should be curved arcs, not flat lines. Or consider airplanes: if the Earth was a sphere 25,000 miles in diameter, pilots would have to constantly adjust their altitude to follow the slope, dipping the nose of the plane down, or they’d be flying straight into outer space. And yet, they fly straight.”

“Well, no,” I say. “Because gravity does the adjusting for them; it keeps the plane sort of on an orbit around the Earth.”

“Oh, please, don’t get me started on gravity.”

Okay, this I have to hear. “Why not?”

“Because ‘gravity’ is an obscure force supposedly strong enough to hold entire buildings, people, even the atmosphere, stuck to the surface of a rapidly spinning ball, but it’s sufficiently weak enough to allow bugs, birds, and even planes to fly and travel in any direction. Don’t you find that contradictory?”

“Um, if I remember correctly, gravity is a function of the weight of an object or the mass, I can’t recall which. Physics was never my strong suit in school. Anyway, a bug doesn’t weigh much, making its gravitational pull weak. It’s why bird’s bones are hollow, so they don’t carry too much deadweight.”

“Yeah? How do you explain the oceans, then? If gravity could curve and hold in place such massive expanses of water, how could fish ever swim through such forcefully held water?”

“I don’t know. I’m not a scientist.”

“See? A round Earth is counterintuitive. A much simpler explanation would be that the Earth is a flat expanse with no gravity.”

“Do you really believe that?”