Flat Earth And Christianity

[Mark Quayle]

Indeed. The Sophon android was creepy. But the dimensional collapse, that was a disaster. I don’t think many Flat Earth proponents have stopped to think how horrible the universe would be if the Earth were two dimensional. Or one, or zero, the dreadful ultimate fate that I think is subtextually hinted at, that a universe where the great powers are wiping each other out by deleting dimensions will eventually result in the deletion of all dimensions and the entire collapse of spacetime.

Wondering if you have read Terry Pratchett's Discworld books. Hilarious. Particularly the first one.

 

[Tinker Grey]

Wondering if you have read Terry Pratchett's Discworld books. Hilarious. Particularly the first one.

This book was written in 1884: Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott: Abbott, Edwin A.: 9798630248015: Amazon.com: Books

 

[Mark Quayle]

This book was written in 1884: Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott: Abbott, Edwin A.: 9798630248015: Amazon.com: Books

I'll have to look it up. Thanks.

 

[Tinker Grey]

I'll have to look it up. Thanks.

It's relatively short read. And, it's a pretty easy read, though the ideas are intriguing.

 

[The Liturgist]

Wondering if you have read Terry Pratchett's Discworld books. Hilarious. Particularly the first one

I am not a huge fan of Terry Pratchett; I think his SF, even as satirical SF is concerned, is inferior compared to that of earlier satirists like CM Kornbluth, and also he was a militant atheist and opted for euthanasia.

 

[The Liturgist]

I'll have to look it up. Thanks.

Flatland is a classic, unlike Discworld; Rev. Edwin Abbott conceived of not just a two dimensional space, but four dimensional, one dimensional and zero dimensional spaces. The work also contains exquisite social satire, with Flatland mocking those aspects of Victorian society incompatible with Christianity, namely the racist, classist and sexist attributes.

And he was also a great schoolteacher, who wrote a much used Latin textbook, Via Latina, and an ordained priest and talented theologian in the Church of England, who continued to do interesting literary and theological work throughout his life.

I have a great admiration for Rev. Abbott, and nis skill at making people think in new ways; he was, like me, an imaginative clergyman with a penchant for science fiction and a disdain for the even more corrupt morality of the modern era, in which racism remains and is probably worse, sexism is worse due to imposed tolerance of the abuse of women which is doctrinally mandated in Islam, and which is unique to Islam, under the banner of multiculturalism (while allowing what amounts to hate speech against the Chassidic and Charedi branches of Judaism and against conservative Christians for conduct which does not begin to compare with what Muslims of the Shi’a Jafari and the Sunni Shafti, Hanbali and Maliki fiqhs (schools of jurisprudence) inflict upon their women, but in addition to our hypocritical racism and sexism, we have added gross sexual immorality, impiety, irreligion and a clinical disregard for human life with our abortion clinics and doctor-assisted homicides on a scale that makes the evil 19th century King Leopold of Belgium look like a great humanitarian.

 

[The Liturgist]

It's relatively short read. And, it's a pretty easy read, though the ideas are intriguing.

Indeed, this being due to Rev. Abbott’s formation as a priest, which requires the ability to communicate complex theological and moral ideas to a congregation of varying ages and levels of intellectual aptitude, and his training as a schoolteacher, which requires even more skill in communicating complex ideas in a simple way so as to make them accessible to young minds, without coming across as boring or patronizing and thus losing the attention of one’s pupils. Were he not a schoolteacher and a priest, the work surely would have become lost in its own contrivances, which is the fate that befalls so much science fiction and fantasy. For example, the Matrix sequels, or more disastrously, the X-Files, or as far as literary SF is concerned, the progressively more dull and pretentious sequels written to various originally brilliant works of science fiction. I shall not name names of authors, with the exception of L. Ron Hubbard, who started with mediocre science fiction and wound up with unpalettable nonsense, but created a false non-theistic* religion which strains credulity in the same manner as the subject of this thread, but which exploits people in every conceivable way, including sexually, and destroys families in a cruel way, abuses which one cannot accuse Flat Earth believers of engaging in.

Believing in a flat Earth, unlike Islam or Scientology or certain anti-religious political systems like Marxist-Leninism, Stalinism, Trotskyism, Maoism or Hoxhaism, only harms the believer.

*Non-theist religions include Jainism and some forms of Buddhism.

 

[Mark Quayle]

I am not a huge fan of Terry Pratchett; I think his SF, even as satirical SF is concerned, is inferior compared to that of earlier satirists like CM Kornbluth, and also he was a militant atheist and opted for euthanasia.

I have only read, I think, three of his books, maybe four. Didn't know anything about Terry personally. Didn't take his books as satirical —just fun fantasy-comedy. Something in the same vein as Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but more folksy, (and, of course, less playing on words).

 

[Mark Quayle]

Flatland is a classic, unlike Discworld; Rev. Edwin Abbott conceived of not just a two dimensional space, but four dimensional, one dimensional and zero dimensional spaces. The work also contains exquisite social satire, with Flatland mocking those aspects of Victorian society incompatible with Christianity, namely the racist, classist and sexist attributes.

And he was also a great schoolteacher, who wrote a much used Latin textbook, Via Latina, and an ordained priest and talented theologian in the Church of England, who continued to do interesting literary and theological work throughout his life.

I have a great admiration for Rev. Abbott, and nis skill at making people think in new ways; he was, like me, an imaginative clergyman with a penchant for science fiction and a disdain for the even more corrupt morality of the modern era, in which racism remains and is probably worse, sexism is worse due to imposed tolerance of the abuse of women which is doctrinally mandated in Islam, and which is unique to Islam, under the banner of multiculturalism (while allowing what amounts to hate speech against the Chassidic and Charedi branches of Judaism and against conservative Christians for conduct which does not begin to compare with what Muslims of the Shi’a Jafari and the Sunni Shafti, Hanbali and Maliki fiqhs (schools of jurisprudence) inflict upon their women, but in addition to our hypocritical racism and sexism, we have added gross sexual immorality, impiety, irreligion and a clinical disregard for human life with our abortion clinics and doctor-assisted homicides on a scale that makes the evil 19th century King Leopold of Belgium look like a great humanitarian.

I vaguely remember Via Latina, from missionary kids school. My grandmother (an RN) taught Latin for the high schoolers.

 

[Tinker Grey]

I am not a huge fan of Terry Pratchett; I think his SF, even as satirical SF is concerned, is inferior compared to that of earlier satirists like CM Kornbluth, and also he was a militant atheist and opted for euthanasia.

He did not die from euthanasia, though he campaigned for the right: Terry Pratchett - Wikipedia

Pratchett died at his home from complications of Alzheimer's disease on the morning of 12 March 2015. He was 66 years old.[60][61] The Telegraph reported an unidentified source as saying that despite his previous discussion of assisted suicide, his death had been natural.[62]​

Empahsis added.

 

[Jipsah]

If you had, you would show your evidence.

As someone who has seen Skylab in the sky, and navigated by the stars on land and water, and looked at four of the big moons around Jupiter through a backyard telescope, you better have some good evidence.

Lies! All lies!

 

[Jipsah]

Clearly we never went to the moon. Anyone with any video analytic sense can see that. Science has to be the worst religion of them all.

I have evidence that the moon is simply a delusion shared by almost all human beings.

 

[Paulos23]

Lies! All lies!

Which ones?

 

[Paulos23]

I have evidence that the moon is simply a delusion shared by almost all human beings.

Then present it. Or stop reviving old threads.

 

[Mark Quayle]

Which ones?

Then present it. Or stop reviving old threads.

So serious! I thought @Jipsah was just trying to be funny.

 

[Paulos23]

So serious! I thought @Jipsah was just trying to be funny.

Well, Poe's law.

And they did revive an old thread, and I have been cranky lately.

 

[Divide]

Then present it. Or stop reviving old threads.

I think he is talking about a movie called, The Thirteenth Floor.

It's along the lines of the Matrix in a way.

 

[Divide]

So serious! I thought @Jipsah was just trying to be funny.

You missed a perfect oppurtunity to say put the gun down! (It's raised in his avatar picture, lol.)

 

[Jipsah]

So serious! I thought @Jipsah was just trying to be funny.

Apparently my sense of humor isn't shared by some folks.

 

[Jipsah]

You missed a perfect oppurtunity to say put the gun down! (It's raised in his avatar picture, lol.)

Whose avatar pic? Mine is a picture of my grandson at his first birthday party, and I can assure you he was unarmed.