'Flat Earth Theories' are a good lesson in to how language can be used to beguile people who would otherwise just laugh off such things.
Yes we all know the Earth is not flat yet even then some of these explanations that 'prove' the Earth is flat are rather compelling; yet without some scientific knowledge and despite knowing that what you are reading is BS you can't explain away their points.
Now consider the creationist movement and their well funded articles that frequently rear their ugly little heads over on UCD and such like webshites. If such a ludicrous and obviously false notion of a flat Earth can allow reasonably sounding arguments to be made then it suddenly becomes plainly clear why less clear cuts ideas (we can't actually see life arising and evolving in front of our eyes) can attract such a following.