How many 'stopping sun' myths and folktales are out there? Was there really a day when the sun stood still?

Question

The Bible clearly states that the sun stood still (Joshua 10:12-13). God may have stopped the sun just to upset the Amorites who worshiped it.
I am aware how fast the earth spins on its axis (about 1.000 mph at the equator), so scoffers need not bring that up. I believe the Bible, and I have a theory that the whole world noticed this phenomenon and was remembered in the form of folklore or something. The Japanese have a story about a princess who was responsible for the night lasting too long. In West Africa there is a story about the owl who refused to call the sun (Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears). I just want to know if anyone else has heard of other stories.

I do not believe in geocentricity. I am speaking from an earth-bound perspective. When you say 'the sunset was beautiful,' do you really think it is the sun that is moving? Your arguments are about 400 years out of date. The reason I am saying 'stopping sun' is that all folktales would be about a stopping sun.' Even if Joshua himself believed the sun revolved around the earth, God knew what he wanted. You have to understand that God is smarter than you are.

Answer 1

I can't answer the first part of your question, but I can answer the second. I wish I could remember the source, but it's been too long.

Anywho, there were some scientists who got together and made a computer program which could accurately simulate time running backwards. (Don't remember why.) As they ran it backwards, they noticed a full 24 hour day just up and disappeared. They couldn't figure out why it happened. They kept re-doing it, but it had the same results. Finally, one of the scientists dug out a Bible and read the account in Joshua 10:13. He noticed, however, that the text reads that the sun stood still for ABOUT one day. It's been too long since I heard this on the news, but if I remember correctly, they calculated that there was still an hour or two short of the full 24 that was missing. The scientists knew that even such a short amount of time would have caused all sorts of problems if it remained uncorrected. Well, after much head-scratching, the scientists finally turned to 2 Kings 20, where King Hezekiah asked for a sign that he would indeed recover. The sign was that the shadow falling on the staircase would go BACKWARD 10 steps. Some people speculate that this was just some local phenomenon, but the scientists discovered that this accounted for the exact amount of time that was missing.

Now, I know I'll get hounded for this. The story has been lost to obscurity because it proves that the sun both stood still in Joshua and went backwards in 2 Kings. It doesn't help that I forgot my source, but it's been at least 10 years since I heard it. It probably wasn't on national news, either.

Answer 2

No, the Sun never stood still! It is the Earth that moves around the Sun, so it would be the Earth standing still if such a thing could happen. This just shows the Bible is ignorant of science and reality. Inertia would cause major disaster. All things on the Earth's surface and much of that surface too would fly into space at great speed. The Bible says many things that are scientifically inaccurate, and this stuff is just one more of them. Do you believe pi is exactly 3.00 or that the sky is a solid dome a few miles above us? The Bible says such things more than once. There could not possibly have been a day when the Earth stood still...or the Sun seemed to stand still to scientifically illiterate people.

Answer 3

The sun is moving. The whole solar system is moving along with the galaxy's rotation and at the same time, the Earth is revolving around the Sun. Of course, relative to the Earth, the Sun is 'still.'

Anyways, if the Earth stopped revolving around the Sun (if the gravity of the Sun stopped pulling it inwards), then it would move away from the Sun on a trajectory tangential to it's current path. That would be bad. Say goodbye to warmth.

Answer 4

Greetings!

My Tradition has many Myths, stories, as do most Cultures.

We add a "pinch of Salt" to most things, it makes them easier to "swallow".

Theories are good, but to believe certain Books and Myths are literally true, and at the same time deny others, is to invalidate all.

Now, if the "Sun stood still" less than half of the World could see it. There are Megalithic structures all over the World, which orient upon the Sun, and many capture the moment of the Equinox,as in the Passage-Tomb at Newgrange, Maes Howe in Orkney, the Sun Dagger in Chaco Canyon.

They have web-cams.

/!\

Answer 5

The sun has never moved in relation to the Earth. To make the Earth appear to stop in relation to the Sun both its revolutions and its orbital movement around the sun would have to stop. The result would destroy the earth.

The tales of the Sun not coming up or not going down have in most cases begun in far Southern and Northern Areas where darkness and light may continue more than 24 hours.

In your details you forget, as does the Bibles wherein the writers thought the earth was Flat and everything was propelled around it by their God.

You could make a better arguement by saying that your God stopped time for some, but not all.

Answer 6

The Mayans predict that in Dec the year 2012 we will come to the end of the long cycle

This date coincides with the date our solar system will cross the Galactic "Equator" some argue that for a momont or even longer the orbits of the planets and stars with shift

some may appear to stand still


But this couldn't have happened already
and it only occurs once every 500 billion or so years

Answer 7

are you aware that the earth also changes poles periodically, and that the rotational speed isnt a constant? I suppose at some point in time, there may have been some kind of coincidental natural phenomenom in which the earth may have seemed to "stop", thus making it seem the sun had stopped. Or it may all be some kind of allegory.

Answer 8

when did the sun ever move??

Answer 9

we've all heard those stories.....come on, their only a little more believable than Christianity.

Answer 10

true when did it ever move?