How can you believe a book that says the earth is flat and sits on a pedestal...?

Question

and the Sun revolves around us?

If they are wrong about such huge things like our solar system and it's functions, then how can you trust them when they talk about Jesus and his resurrection?

Serena, please explain to me how "the earth is flat" is a figure of speech for "the earth is not flat"????????

Answer 1

How could the authors of Scripture know more about science than present day scientists? Should this ignorance be a blow to the authority of the Bible? O course not. The Bible is not a scientific manual. It is a book of revelation about God, his creatures, and their relationship with him. God allowed our understanding of science to develop slowly over the centuries, but he gave us all we needed to know him, love him, and serve him throughout all ages. He gave us divine truth.

Peace and every blessing!

Answer 2

No—this false idea is not taught in Scripture!

In the Old Testament, Job 26:7 explains that the earth is suspended in space—the obvious comparison being with the spherical sun and moon. By 150 B.C., the Greek astronomer Eratosthenes had already measured the 25,000-mile circumference of the earth.
The round shape of our planet was a conclusion easily drawn by watching ships disappear over the horizon and also by observing eclipse shadows, and we can assume that such information was well known to New Testament writers.

Earth's spherical shape was, of course, also understood by Christopher Columbus. Some people may have thought the earth was flat, but certainly not the great explorers. Some Bible critics have claimed that Revelation 7:1 assumes a flat earth since the verse refers to angels standing at the "four corners" of the earth. Actually, the reference is to the cardinal directions: north, south, east, and west.

Similar terminology is often used today when we speak of the sun's rising and setting, even though the earth, not the sun, is doing the moving. Bible writers used the "language of appearance," just as people always have. Without it, the intended message would be awkward at best and probably not understood clearly. When the Bible touches on scientific subjects, it is entirely accurate.

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The idea that the earth is flat is a modern concoction that reached its peak only after Darwinists tried to discredit the Bible, an American history professor says.

Jeffrey Burton Russell is a professor of history at the University of California in Santa Barbara. He says in his book Inventing the Flat Earth—written for the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s journey to America in 1492—that through antiquity and up to the time of Columbus, ‘nearly unanimous scholarly opinion pronounced the earth spherical.’

Russell says there is nothing in the documents from the time of Columbus or in early accounts of his life that suggests any debate about the roundness of the earth. He believes a major source of the myth came from the creator of the Rip Van Winkle story—Washington Irving—who wrote a fictitious account of Columbus’s defending a round earth against misinformed clerics and university professors.

But Russell says the flat-earth mythology flourished most between 1870 and 1920, and had to do with the ideological setting created by struggles over evolution. He says the flat-earth myth was an ideal way to dismiss the ideas of a religious past in the name of modern science.

Ottawa Citizen, May, 1992.

The Bible of course teaches the correct shape of the earth. Isaiah 40:22 says God sits above ‘the circle of the earth’ (the Hebrew word for ‘circle’ can also mean a ‘sphere’). Also, Luke 17:34–36 depicts Christ’s Second Coming as happening while some are asleep at night and others are working at daytime activities in the field—an indication of a rotating earth with day and night at the same time.
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Answer 3

The Bible says nothing about the earth being flat. In fact the Bible refers to the earth as a "circle" (Hebrew word "chugh" which conveys the idea of a sphere") Isaiah 40:22.

The Bible says nothing about the earth sitting on a pedestal. In fact, the Bible says that God 'hanged the earth upon nothing' (Job 26:7). Sometimes the Bible refers to the earth as God's footrest, but that is not to be taken literally.

The Bible doesn't say the sun revoloves around the earth. It simply says that the sun moves across the sky. Have you ever used the word sunrise or sunset? Is the sun really rising or setting? No, the earth rotating is what causes the sun to appear to move. However, we still use the terms sunrise and sunset, because from our perspective, that's what it appears to do. Likewise, when the Bible writers spoke of the sun's movement- or lack thereof- they were simply reporting from their perspective.

Next time you try to bash something that the Bible says, make sure you read it first. Otherwise you look like a fool. I would very much like to see these mysterious "scriptures" where you are getting all these ideas.

Answer 4

The Bible does not say the earth is supported by a pedestal or that it is flat or the sun revolves around us. You obviously cannot understand what you read. You need to go on that show, Are you as smart as a fifth grader? If you think about it, our sky is like a ceiling, just go outside the atmosphere then try to get back in. Why do you think the shuttle has a heat shield?, it's because our atmosphere is a protection, like a ceiling in a home, it's there to burn up any small items falling to our home, the earth.

Answer 5

And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the LORD will heal me...? And Isaiah said ... shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees? And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees. And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the LORD: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward. -- 2 Kings 20:8-11

That means the earth stopped spinning and then reversed its rotation or the sun stopped it's travel around the earth and reversed!

Also see Judges 5:31 and 1 Samuel 2:8

Answer 6

Bloody right!

Makes no sense to me, either. Or a book that states that human kind is less than 10,000 years old, when they can trace it back to 130,000. Or how about the logistics of the *whole* world flooding and one stupid boat holding every freakin animal and bug in the world? That is probably the stupidest thing I've ever heard. It's, of course, mathematically impossible. What makes me wonder is how people believe this tripe? I mean if they're willing to believe that, send 'em my way....there's this bridge I can sell 'em for a great price!

In my opinion, if a book presents itself as 100% accurate -- so accurate you have to stake you SOUL on it -- then they better darn well be 100%. Even one little flaw undermines the ENTIRE dogma, rendering it useless. From a writer's standpoint, that's why I don't write non-fiction: too dangerous. If you claim it's all true, and science discovers it's wrong, you're done. Your credibility is shot. Even worse, it's poorly written. If I turned in tripe like that, my editor would have ME crucified....

GREAT point!!! :)

PS: For all those that say the bible DOESN'T claim the Earth is round, check out the site in my sources. It does. Many, many times. Sorry.

AND, just for icing on the cake:

1 Chronicles 16:30: “He has fixed the earth firm, immovable.”

Psalm 93:1: “Thou hast fixed the earth immovable and firm ...”

Psalm 96:10: “He has fixed the earth firm, immovable ...”

Psalm 104:5: “Thou didst fix the earth on its foundation so that it never can be shaken.”

Isaiah 45:18: “...who made the earth and fashioned it, and himself fixed it fast...”

Answer 7

I am a senior lady, and still have trouble with the virgin birth. I think the translations are the problem, not the basic ideas of a supreme being. The book was written over a period of several hundred years, so keep that in mind. I think the authors wrote what they thought was truth, and we have to go with that as much as we can. People were burned alive in the 15th century for saying that blood circulated thru he heart. We have to find our own truths, live clean, hurt no one and be honest in our dealings. Best wishes

Answer 8

Thank Allah the Holy Quran is right logically and theologically, I don't know how non-Muslims don't beleive in a book which gave us the exact figure of the speed of light 1400 years ago. , AND SOME OF THEM SAY Mohammed (PBUH) the illitrate simple man wrote it himself, personnally I don't think people who don't see the light of the sun would understand that their book is corrupted.
FOR THOSE WHO SEEK THE TRUTH JUST CHECK THE ABOVE SITE

Answer 9

Impossible, everybody knows we live in a sphere unless their brain cells are wasted look don't believe what you hear, but believe what you see. Those who was not chosen to see what lies in the path of Heaven and Hell don't know. The tell you the truth for what I know and seen we at destruction war between Heaven and Hell. The only thing, it seem like there are two battles in living world and spiritual world. We are caught in the middle. For you, just think why God didn't make mankind with wings while Lucifer and other angels was furious of the making of mankind.

Answer 10

You need to check your verses. The land (not Earth) has four corners.

If you expect to find a scientific, historical book, it is not the bible. As for Solar system, this is Aristotle view, not biblical.

Answer 11

You are right, how can people believe such things, but then again people believe the most ridiculous unimaginable things. The thing is Jesus is the truth and they just don't want to believe him (if you believe in Jesus there is no loss you.....IT'S ALL GAIN FOR LIFE). I guess you can say people are ignorant, period.