I enthusiastically invite all Christians to join me in the pursuit of Veracity!
The topic of the hour, does the author of the Bible, The Biblical God, know everything?
Objection: The Biblical God seems to think the Earth is flat.
Evidence: The following verses show this lack of knowledge.
Job 9:6
Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble.
Job 38:13
That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it?
Psalm 104:5
Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.
Isaiah 40:22
It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:
Daniel 4:11
The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth:
Matthew 4:8
Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
The author of these verses believed:
a) The Earth is not moving, fixed on pillars
b) The Earth was a 2-dimensional Circle with the sky over it as a tent would be over flat ground.
c) The Earth had extremes.
d) The Earth was small and flat enough to view atop a mountain.
Apologetic Response:
a) They will argue the language is metaphorical.
b) They will argue that the use of the word "Circle" suggests the author knew the world was round and again argue the language is metaphorical
c) They will argue the language is metaphorical
d) They will argue Jesus only was shown the known kingdoms of the world.
Response to Apologetic:
In order to honestly explain that the language being used is an imperfect metaphor, we must ask ourselves whether an all knowing God could have used a better term to reveal the truth, while at the same time getting the idea across. In the case of Isaiah 40:22 the word "chuwg" is being used for "Circle". Why did the all knowing God not use the word for ball "duwr"? The plain fact here is the author was not stating the Earth is a 3-dimensional object, they believed it was a 2-dimensional object.
All of the alleged metaphors are consistent and they consistently point to the author having a lack of knowledge about the shape and extent of the Earth.
The localized argument is another popular attempt to distort the message plainly written in the text. Some claim that the mention of the "World/Earth" only applies to the known "World" at that time. Sounds good in principle, but Matthew 4:8 impedes this understanding from removing all contradiction to current knowledge. The curvature of the Earth does not allow for a LOS (Line of Sight) beyond approximately 418 Miles (Assuming you are standing at the top of Mt. Everest with an estimated height of 8850 meters). Even if Mount Everest was directly in the center of the known world at that time, which it was not, 418 Miles LOS radius would be insufficient to view the entire known world. You would need closer to a 1000 Miles radius roughly to even conceivably achieve this. That would mean Jesus would have to be standing on point nearly 6X the height of Mt. Everest today.
Conclusions:
a) The author of these verses was not God (Probable)
b) The Biblical God is not all knowing
c) The Biblical God lied to us
Have a better explanation?
Equation for LOS: http://cnx.org/content/m0538/latest/
Map of Known World: http://www.truechristian.org/are_you_a_t_c/europe2.jpg
The topic of the hour, does the author of the Bible, The Biblical God, know everything?
Objection: The Biblical God seems to think the Earth is flat.
Evidence: The following verses show this lack of knowledge.
Job 9:6
Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble.
Job 38:13
That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it?
Psalm 104:5
Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.
Isaiah 40:22
It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:
Daniel 4:11
The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth:
Matthew 4:8
Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
The author of these verses believed:
a) The Earth is not moving, fixed on pillars
b) The Earth was a 2-dimensional Circle with the sky over it as a tent would be over flat ground.
c) The Earth had extremes.
d) The Earth was small and flat enough to view atop a mountain.
Apologetic Response:
a) They will argue the language is metaphorical.
b) They will argue that the use of the word "Circle" suggests the author knew the world was round and again argue the language is metaphorical
c) They will argue the language is metaphorical
d) They will argue Jesus only was shown the known kingdoms of the world.
Response to Apologetic:
In order to honestly explain that the language being used is an imperfect metaphor, we must ask ourselves whether an all knowing God could have used a better term to reveal the truth, while at the same time getting the idea across. In the case of Isaiah 40:22 the word "chuwg" is being used for "Circle". Why did the all knowing God not use the word for ball "duwr"? The plain fact here is the author was not stating the Earth is a 3-dimensional object, they believed it was a 2-dimensional object.
All of the alleged metaphors are consistent and they consistently point to the author having a lack of knowledge about the shape and extent of the Earth.
The localized argument is another popular attempt to distort the message plainly written in the text. Some claim that the mention of the "World/Earth" only applies to the known "World" at that time. Sounds good in principle, but Matthew 4:8 impedes this understanding from removing all contradiction to current knowledge. The curvature of the Earth does not allow for a LOS (Line of Sight) beyond approximately 418 Miles (Assuming you are standing at the top of Mt. Everest with an estimated height of 8850 meters). Even if Mount Everest was directly in the center of the known world at that time, which it was not, 418 Miles LOS radius would be insufficient to view the entire known world. You would need closer to a 1000 Miles radius roughly to even conceivably achieve this. That would mean Jesus would have to be standing on point nearly 6X the height of Mt. Everest today.
Conclusions:
a) The author of these verses was not God (Probable)
b) The Biblical God is not all knowing
c) The Biblical God lied to us
Have a better explanation?
Equation for LOS: http://cnx.org/content/m0538/latest/
Map of Known World: http://www.truechristian.org/are_you_a_t_c/europe2.jpg
