Conspiracy theories take facts and then change them to outlandish, alternative ideas.

There are some odd and extreme people out there with some crazy ideas about how we are all being duped. They seem to think that everyone is hoping to hoodwink them into believing reality, when really the world is a much darker place than we all imagine. Let's take a look at some of the more bizarre conspiracy theories in the world.

Paul McCartney is dead.

Obviously, Paul McCartney is not dead. He released an album called Egypt Station just last summer. In 2015 he released FourFiveSeconds with Rihanna and Kanye West. However, conspiracy theorists think that he died in 1966, three years before the Beatles disbanded. They have found their proof hidden in the Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, which they believe has loads of hidden messages about Paul's death. They even think that the other Beatles have been covering it up by hiring someone who looked and sang like it him. If that is the case, they certainly found a very talented doppelganger.

Elvis is alive.

Again, it seems odd that people have come up with a conspiracy theory that is obviously false. But then that is the nature of these theories. There has recently been a YouTube video released which shows grainy footage of an 81 year old groundsman. People believe that he gave them a sign by raising two fingers to his head, which proves that he is alive… This seems to be tenuous at best.

The moon landing was a fake.

In the 1960s, during the Cold War, the USA and Russia were heavily involved in a space race. They wanted to see who could get the furthest and who could be the best. When Neil Armstrong landed on the moon in 1969, the USA claimed victory in the race. But conspiracy theorists don't think that they really got there. They think it was faked. Even though two countries from opposite sides of the globe (the round world we live on) were involved in the race; even though there were several failed attempts; even though it is a fact, with photo evidence, they think it was fake. There's no helping some people.

The Queen's son is a vampire.

Prince Charles is a distant descendant of Vlad the Impaler, who was the inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula. Let's not forget, Dracula was a fictional novel written by Stoker in 1897. It was not a biography. However, this is enough for conspiracy theorists. They believe, despite evidence to the contrary, that Prince Charles is therefore a vampire; a mythical creature that cannot go outside in the light and likes to feed on human flesh. Sure, that seems likely.

The Earth is flat.

So, with these other conspiracy theories in mind, let's look at another bizarre theory that some people actually believe in. They believe that the Earth is actually flat. As in, they don't think it is round. They don't think you can fly around it in a circular direction. They think it is flat and has edges.

The proof that the Earth is flat is non-existent.

In the 19th century, a man without serious credentials named Samuel Rowbotham claimed that the Earth was flat. He ran away from some questions that he couldn't answer, he refused to take part in challenges and he lied when he finally had to do a test. Yet many people now, 150 years later, still think that he could be right.

The Earth is surrounded by walls of ice.

It sounds like he has been influenced by Game of Thrones, but this is what many people believe. It is a system that Rowbotham invented, called Zetetic astronomy. The idea is that the sun, moon, planets and stars are only a few hundred miles away from the Earth. Crucially, they think that the Earth is an ice-enclosed plane beneath that.

The Earth is round.

It is worth putting it out there, before we continue, that the Earth is round. This isn't a matter of opinion. It is fact.

There isn't any doubt that the world is round.

It has been scientifically proven that the Earth is not flat. The moon is round, the sun is round, and so is the Earth. The Earth rotates on an axis, and the Earth rotates around the sun. You can even see shadows during a lunar eclipse which show the Earth's round shadow. The shape is, you might say, a globe.

We have known that the Earth is not flat for over 2,000 years.

Aristotle realised that the Earth was round way back in 350 BC, when he wrote On The Heavens. He made the point that simply by observing the stars we are able to tell that the Earth is round. You can see this by the ways the stars move across the sky at night as the Earth rotates. Or the way you get different stars depending on if you are on the northern or southern hemisphere. A very good point.

The Ancient Greeks used a really simple test to prove it.

If you put a stick in the ground, then when the sun is directly overhead, there is no shadow. But at the exact same time in a city 500 miles north, there is a shadow. If the Earth was flat, they would show the same shadow. The Ancient Greeks managed to use the difference in the angles to calculate the size of the Earth. They got to within 10%. That's a pretty good effort for over 2,000 years ago.

Christopher Columbus re-discovered a lot of the world.

It is common knowledge that Christopher Columbus mistakenly claimed to have discovered a New World, despite the fact that there were already lots of people living there. He even managed to call a place the Indies, thinking he was in India, when in fact he was on the other side of the world in the Caribbean.

A lot of people think that Columbus discovered that the Earth was round.

This is actually a common misconception. Scholars had known for centuries that the Earth was round, as Aristotle had said. Sailors were also aware that the Earth was round. They navigated the high seas, so they had a good idea that it couldn't just keep going eternally.

Globes have been around for centuries.

The oldest surviving globe is called the Erdapfel, which translates to 'Earth apple'. It was actually made while Columbus was on his first voyage to America. As such, the Americas do not feature on it. It is mostly just a large Eurasian continent. So even when the Americas didn’t have the wheel, the world already knew that the Earth was round. It had been proven so distinctly, even back then, that it has always been fact.

Have you ever seen a sunset?

The streaks of different colours in the sky at sunset can be breath-taking. But aside from their beauty, sunsets can also help you understand science. When you watch the sunset, especially near the equator where the sun appears to be bigger, you can see that the sun gradually disappears on the horizon. There is often a point where you can see half the sun, while half the sun has gone. Like when a child draws a sunset. This is because the Earth is rotating. In a funny way, it is actually the Earth that is setting, rather than the sun.

If that isn't proof enough for you, why don't you try this?

If you ever find yourself on the coast, the chances are, there will be some ships sailing. If you watch a ship, you can see that it sails out towards the horizon. But when it gets to the horizon, it doesn't just vanish. It slowly starts to go, until you can only see the top of the mast. If the Earth was flat, it wouldn't disappear. You would just keep being able to see it. Stars are millions of lightyears away, but we can still see them. So why would we not be able to see a ship that's out to see?

It takes all types of people to make this world.

Yet despite the overwhelmingly large evidence to the contrary, people persist in following the route of being 'flat-earthers'. These are the people who have seen all that evidence and think that it is all a hoax. Why an entire world would want to hoax people into thinking the world is round is a mystery. However, the idea persists.

And how the world laughs.

The idea that the Earth is flat does not make sense. As this guy points out, when all the other planets are round, why would Earth be flat?

And laughs.

The Flat Earth Society (yes, there is a whole group of them online), actually posted this message on their own page. Somehow I don't think they were saying it as a joke.

And laughs.

It gets you thinking; if there is a mountain of scientific evidence to the contrary, and if there is no evidence to back up your own idea, can you really be right? Are you actually really smart and seeing through other people's conspiracies? Or are you just really dumb?

It is so funny that people want it to become a reality TV show.

You heard that right. People want flat earthers to have their own reality TV show. The premise would be simple, yet impossible- the flat earther try to find the edge of the Earth.

People are really enjoying the idea.

So they could be offered heaps of money to find the edge of the world, and if they get there then they win a prize. If they don't find it, then alongside international humiliation, and being proven wrong, they also have to give back the money they were offered.

Why has this not been picked up by someone?

Surely the flat earthers would love the opportunity? Plus, the people want this show. People are keen to tune in and watch anything, never mind something this ludicrous.

It wouldn't be the weirdest reality TV show.

Remember this one called Naked Attraction? It was like many other dating shows. In the hopes of finding the love of their life, the contestant has a pool of six of the opposite sex to choose from. The only difference is that they are all naked. Their bodies are revealed from the toes up and contestants are eliminated at different levels of nudity.

Did you catch Shattered while it was on?

Ten housemates competed for a £100,000. All they had to do was stay awake for seven days. If any of them closed their eyes for more than ten seconds, they lost £1,000 from the total prize money. Unsurprisingly, things got pretty weird pretty quickly as they all descended into madness.

Or how about I wanna marry Harry ?

In this show, American broadcaster Fox tried to trick twelve girls into thinking that they had the chance to marry Prince Harry. They were meant to compete for his affections, but it was cancelled after only four episodes. In the end, it seems the young ladies weren't quite as gullible as they had hoped.

One of their own has actually been into space.

Yep. In spring last year, flat earther Mike Hughes made his own rocket so that he could check things out for himself. It cost $20,000 and took him 1,875 feet into the air. It would have been cheaper for him to get on a regular plane. He believes what he saw continues to prove that the Earth is flat. So maybe not finding the edge of the world would not dissuade them from their theory.

They are very sure of their ideas.

Somehow I imagine that even being unable to locate an edge or a wall wouldn't be enough to prove to them that the Earth is round. Even if they went through the process themselves, they would still think it was a hoax somehow.

Maybe it is best to just leave them.

Although they are wrong, they have so little evidence to prove their false theories that they are unable to cause too much damage. Everyone is wrong about something in their life. Everyone is unique. Maybe we should just let them believe this. And who knows, maybe one day they could be proven to be right. (Except they won't be, because they have already been very substantially proven to be wrong.)