Circle of the earth (page 3)

MrMoe

Oh, I remember those days... *light airy sigh* Thank you Stephen Hawkings.

SpunkyChick

** Patting Qua on the head **
That's right... you just keep telling yourself that.

Elsewhere - LOL!!

donkey

As to a reaching all the way up to heaven or seeing all the kingdoms of the earth at one thing, metaphors are permissible to anybody. So the yoke's on you again. Why do that to yourself?

Why thank you for your profound observaion!! So then, the phrase "circle of the earth", that Christians love to use to say the Bible is in harmony with science BTW, is that also a metaphor? Or do metaphors only apply to the scriptures that contradict the other scriptures? If so perhaps the author of the "circle of the earth" intended the phrase to be a metaphor and the other unscientific scriptures were intended literally? Or did the metaphoric devil metaphorically put metaphric jesus on a metaphoric mountain to show him (also a metaphor BTW) the metaphoric kingoms of the world? When you pull your head out of your ass (speaking metaphorically of course - thus not a vulgar crass expression) perhaps we could have a sensible debate. Jack

robhic

The "International Standard Version" Bible has this:

1Pe 3:18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, an innocent person for the guilty, so that he could bring you to God. He was put to death in the sphere of the flesh but was made alive in the sphere of the spirit,

I don't think they were talking about being made alive in a sphere, as in a ball or circular object. It's a figure of speech. Same as the "circle of the earth." It's just a form of saying the realm or area or place or whatever.

And as far as citing the bible's seeming knowledge of a round earth before anybody else due to the passage cited (depending on the translation used...) it could also mean a circular but flat earth too, could it not? Talking about the "4 corners of the earth" could easily be a flat, square earth so where do you draw the line?

Robert

ballistic

What I find strange is they have old maps known as the Finaeus maps of (1531) (I love old maps) of Antarctica with detail (as accurate as any other map was back then) the land masses underneath Antarctica, even though it has been frozen over for ??? hundreds of thousands of years.

Can any one explain that?

Kenneson

The purpose of the Bible is not to teach history or science; it's a book on theology. Its language (literary forms) is unscientific. The cosmology of the Hebrews is that of its times, not ours. The lesson to be learned is that God created the earth (whether flat or spherical). And there have always been both camps in Christendom. Consider, with all our enlightenment, there still is a Flat Earth Society, which maintains that the photos Nasa purports to be from outer space are really fakes.

The Bible didn't drop out of heaven directly from God. It was written by men who were prone to error in certain areas and lacked knowledge in others (for example history and science). In inspiring the human authors, God made use of their talents and limitations. The human authors were left intact. But, in spite of this, the Bible is inerrant in that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to convey to us.

drwtsn32

ballistic:

Interesting... I've never heard of that before. I did some reading on the Internet and found this:

http://www.strangehorizons.com/2002/20020610/medieval_maps.shtml

Scroll down to the topic "Modern Myth II: Ancient Sea-Kings"

AlanF

For me, one problem with believing that the Bible is a book of spiritual truth is this: If the Bible writers were so wrong about certain physical things, which we can confirm for ourselves (such as picturing the earth as a flat circle surrounded by the dome of the sky, claiming that a 'global' flood occurred, implying that before the Flood animals didn't eat vegetation, getting the order of creation of life wrong, etc.), then how can anyone trust that it's right about "spiritual turth" (whatever that is) which we can't confirm for ourselves?

In everyday life people sure don't trust people who believe that the earth is flat to teach them about anything at all, much less something as important to them as "spiritual truth".

AlanF

Satanus

Qua

What about greenland? It has 810,810 sq miles. Antarctica has 4.5 million sq miles.

SS

peacefulpete

Thanks Ballistic for the link. It offered a new angle to consider. The fact that some influential theologians (2-5 according to site) insisted upon literalizing the text does not mean the idea was popular or enforced by law. I feel the matter deserves more investigation. The one thing for sure is that the verse in Isaiah (circle of the earth) was not understood as being more than a metaphor by at least some early Church Fathers. The question is what did other mediterranean cults and cultures believe about the shape of the earth. This may clarify how to interpret verses that seem to suggest a flat earth. (metaphor as well or expression of belief)

Circle of the earth

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