How long has the Earth been flat?

Question

the genesis story - which many here believe literally true - states that day and night existed before the creation of the Sun.

this can be true only for a flat earth.

do all christians believe the earth is flat? or just the most devout ones?

Answer 1

"How long has the Earth been flat?"

For as long as people have been ignorant.

Answer 2

Also in the NT when Jesus was tempted by Satan in the desert, he was shown the four corners of the earth. That only exists on a flat earth as well. You can't have a flat earth and a round earth at the same time. Every Christian I have talked to, devout or not, believes the earth is flat because the Bible says it is, regardless of modern science.

Answer 3

Not true. Day and night to God doesn't need a Sun or Moon. (If the Earth was flat, light and dark couldn't be separated. Either the flat earth would be fully dark or fully light.)

Isaiah 40:22: He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers.

How did they know the earth had a circular shape? This was the verse that lead Columbus on his voyage to prove the earth was indeed "circular".

The "four corners of the earth" didn't mean actual pointed corners. If this was true then why would a "circular" world have corners? This was an expression talking about the farthest reaches of the earth in each direction.

OTHER SCIENTIFIC FACTS THE BIBLE HELD BEFORE SCIENCE DISCOVERED THEM:

Innumerable stars (Jeremiah 33:22).
Science then: Only 1,100 stars.

Free float of earth in space (Job 26:7).
Science then: Earth sat on a large animal.

Creation made of invisible elements (Hebrews11:3). Science was ignorant on the subject. Science NOW: Creation made of invisible elements (atoms).

Each star is different (1 Corinthians 15:41).
Science then: All stars were the same.

Light moves (Job 38:19,20).
Science then: Light was fixed in place.

Air has weight (Job 28:25).
Science then: Air was weightless.

Winds blow in cyclones (Ecclesiastes 1:6).
Science then: Winds blew straight.

Blood is the source of life and health (Leviticus 17:11). Science then: Sick people must be bled.

Ocean floor contains deep valleys and mountains (2 Samuel 22:16; Jonah 2:6).
Science then: The ocean floor was flat.

Ocean contains springs (Job 38:16).
Science then: Ocean fed only by rivers and rain.

When dealing with disease, hands should be washed under running water (Leviticus 15:13).
Science then: Hands washed in still water.

THE TRUE ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION:
The earth has never been flat. Only BELIEVED to be flat long ago up until Christopher Columbus' voyage return around 1504. And this was not EVERY person. Several people then and even before Christopher Columbus knew the earth was round.

An exerpt from a webpage (source provided)
"Christopher Columbus and his contemporaries knew very well that the earth was round. Medieval science had been built on the precise studies of Greek scholars, and every educated person of Columbus's time knew that the earth is round. Not only had the ancient Greeks discovered that the earth is round, but the philosopher Eratostenes accurately calculated the earth's circumference in the third century before Christ. Medieval scholars debated such details as the earth's size and how big are the oceans, but no serious scholar believed the earth to be flat."

"The myth that people of the 15th century believed that the earth was flat was popularized by 19th century atheists in order to use science in their war against religion. What better way to discredit religion than to attribute an obviously false idea to religious people! This myth can be traced directly to two very influential 19th century books: History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science by John William Draper (a physician) published in 1874 and History of the Warfare of Science With Theology in Christendom by Andrew Dickson White (the first president of Cornell University) published in 1896. Both men used the flat-earth myth to help spread their arguments against religion. These books started the false and dangerous ideology that there is a war between science and religion, and that science is the only source of truth. The flat-earth myth did not appear in schoolbooks before 1870, but nearly all textbooks included it after 1880."

Answer 4

How can the earth being flat cause night and day to exist if there is no Sun. Sun is what causes night and day regardless of the shape of the earth.

Answer 5

Genesis 1: 1-5
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was[a] on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

He created all things before they were, then he created light. After that he said let night be separated from day and day from night.

Answer 6

That is a BIG misconception. I'm a Christian, and I DO NOT believe the earth is flat. To be honest, I do not know, nor have I heard of ONE Christian that believes it's flat. The earth is round. End of story.

Answer 7

It is of course the most devout ones, not to mention they constantly try and use everything around them as justification that God is real. You don't have to tell me he is real but when you are trying to believe in a lie you tend to tell the story over and over until you almost believe it.

Answer 8

It is obvious that you make a misconception that our sun is the source of all light.
Do you believe the Earth's sun is the source of all light.
God created light without which the sun could not give off light.
Isaiah speaks of the circle of the earth which circle is the same word for sphere.

Answer 9

Dude, what are you smoking and why aren't you sharing? The earth is not flat. It has been proven to be round in shape. Didn't you learn that in school?

Answer 10

Troll.

Why does a story that was couched in the frame of reference of a farmer of 6000 years ago have to be taken literally? My mother-in-law is an 87 year old subsistence farmer in the mountain highlands of the Philippines, and knew headhunters in her childhood. She's still skeptical about the round earth concept.

Do you have a substantive point?

Answer 11

The European Pope still believes the earth is flat.

- Galileo