In January, the science minister, Marcos Pontes – South America’s first astronaut – said that he felt a “knot in the stomach” when he heard suggestions that the Earth is flat.īut just a few months later, Olavo de Carvalho – a former astrologer who is considered the intellectual guru of Bolsonaro and his inner circle – prompted outrage and ridicule when he tweeted: “I didn’t study the subject of the flat Earth. Accusations of links to the flat Earth movement have dogged Bolsonaro’s government. Chaibub, who says he is a Catholic, admits that part of flat Earth culture is influenced by Bible verses, but denied that the movement is religious – or political. In Brazil, the power and influence of the evangelical Christian church has grown significantly in recent decades: around a quarter of the population identifies as evangelical and these voters played a large part in bringing the far-right president Jair Bolsonaro to power.

He said that like climate change denial and creationism, flat Earth theory had a base of Christian fundamentalism. “The internet gives a voice to these idiots,” said Fernando Lang da Silveira, a professor of physics at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil.

Critics attribute Brazil’s most recent flat Earth craze to poor public education, copycatting from abroad and to the increase in social media use.

Flat earth laser test