Professor Brian Cox hits out at Flat Earth theory and explains why it's 'not funny at all'

Look, there’s plenty of things a lot of us tend to believe without any real scientific proof.

You know, like growing up thinking a big man in a red suit flies around the world with presents, or a little fairy steals your tooth and replaces it with a penny.

Or there’s the bigger things, like the Earth supposedly being flat. A lot of people believe that, and each to their own. But there’s enough out there to say it’s just a conspiracy.

And with that, Flat Earthers have become a bit of a joke. However, Professor Brian Cox has hit out at the theory and explained why it’s ‘not very funny at all’.

While a lot of us turn to Martin Lewis for our money advice, it’s Cox we go to for our scientific explanations.

He explained why it's 'dangerous'. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Ahead of his new BBC Two series about the solar system, LADbible spoke to the physicist about what he says is ‘nonsense’.

“Well, it’s not only nonsense, and laughable nonsense, but it becomes dangerous nonsense if you begin to get large numbers of people who are disconnected from reality,” he said.

Cox added that while people may argue that ‘it doesn’t matter people think the Earth is flat’, it can actually become a problem for that mindset to even exist.

Obviously assuring that our planet isn’t flat, and adding that it is a little ‘funny’ people believe it is, he continued: “The same kind of mindset can lead you to become suspicious about data on climate or vaccination technology.”

And the same goes for other things which are ‘actually important and make a big difference to everyone’.

I mean, it's kind of funny though. (Getty Stock Photo)

“So if you end up with a society in which conspiracies (some of which are just ridiculous) flourish and take root, then you'd start to lose contact with reality itself,” he explained.

Cox said that as a civilisation, we are faced with ‘real challenges’ and, in order to be able to solve them, we need to ‘face reality and accept the problem’.

“So, if enough of your people in your society lose contact with that process, then you’re in great danger,” the science whizz added.

With that in mind, Cox said conspiracies like the Earth being flat are ‘kind of funny at one level’.

“And then when you think about it for a moment, it becomes very quickly not very funny at all,” he concludes.

So, there you have it lads, it’s not only ‘ridiculous’ to believe the Earth is flat, but it’s also kind of ‘dangerous’.