In the end, everything can be faked if you throw enough money at it.
But its certainly sinister that some branches of the church should wish to support crackpot ideas. Whether they get them accepted, such as a flat earth, or not, the authority of science, experts and therefore leaders who employ them, is undermined. This is political interference on a vast scale, leading to the large numbers of vociferous people today who oppose any and all authority, even when its for their own benefit. Think about the MMR vaccine issue, and the continuing debate over whether climate change is man-made and there is in reality no ground for a debate. All the scientific communities in the world agree on those two issues but there are substantial portions of the electorate who won't believe anything they're told, even if it can be scientifically proven.
What chance has democracy when education on accepted facts - like the age of the earth, evolution etc. - are rejected by frightened voters?
But its certainly sinister that some branches of the church should wish to support crackpot ideas. Whether they get them accepted, such as a flat earth, or not, the authority of science, experts and therefore leaders who employ them, is undermined. This is political interference on a vast scale, leading to the large numbers of vociferous people today who oppose any and all authority, even when its for their own benefit. Think about the MMR vaccine issue, and the continuing debate over whether climate change is man-made and there is in reality no ground for a debate. All the scientific communities in the world agree on those two issues but there are substantial portions of the electorate who won't believe anything they're told, even if it can be scientifically proven.
What chance has democracy when education on accepted facts - like the age of the earth, evolution etc. - are rejected by frightened voters?