Joshua stopped the sun, did he stop inertia too?

[CACTUSJACKmankin]

Joshua 10:12-13 "Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day."

What would it mean for the sun to not go down for a whole day? The sun rises and sets because the earth rotates about its axis. So, in order for the sun to hold its position in the sky and not set for a whole day the earth would have to cease rotating. The earth is rotating at a rate of 465.1 m/s or 1040.4 mph at the equatior. nearly everything on earth is traveling at about that speed (+- the speed of any movement, this is most significant with wind).

So if the earth's rotation stopped, via the law of inertia, everything on earth would continue to travel at 1040.4 mph until stopped by another force. Wind that was previously a light breeze would become many times more devastating than any hurricain on record. the strongest known hurricains reached speeds of 195 mph, if the earth stopped all but major storms flowing against the earth's rotation (and would only act to marginally slow it down) would be traveling 5.3 times that respective to the ground. Little would be left standing. even today no human structure is built to handle anything near that. trees, rocks, people, even hills and some mountains wouldnt be spared. massive amounts of water would crash onto the land. It is highly doubtful that anyone or anything would be left alive.

Obviously none of this happened. it is simply an interesting example of how literal interpretations cant be taken seriously and how little scientific understanding people had thousands of years ago.

 

[Washington]

Just another reason to take what the Bible sometimes says with a grain of salt. And occasionally with a lot of grains.

 

[Hespera]

if you could make the earth just make the stop rotating, i think you could magically prevent all the consequences.

 

[dad]

Joshua 10:12-13 "Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day."

What would it mean for the sun to not go down for a whole day? The sun rises and sets because the earth rotates about its axis. So, in order for the sun to hold its position in the sky and not set for a whole day the earth would have to cease rotating. The earth is rotating at a rate of 465.1 m/s or 1040.4 mph at the equatior. nearly everything on earth is traveling at about that speed (+- the speed of any movement, this is most significant with wind).

So if the earth's rotation stopped, via the law of inertia, everything on earth would continue to travel at 1040.4 mph until stopped by another force. Wind that was previously a light breeze would become many times more devastating than any hurricain on record. the strongest known hurricains reached speeds of 195 mph, if the earth stopped all but major storms flowing against the earth's rotation (and would only act to marginally slow it down) would be traveling 5.3 times that respective to the ground. Little would be left standing. even today no human structure is built to handle anything near that. trees, rocks, people, even hills and some mountains wouldnt be spared. massive amounts of water would crash onto the land. It is highly doubtful that anyone or anything would be left alive.

Obviously none of this happened. it is simply an interesting example of how literal interpretations cant be taken seriously and how little scientific understanding people had thousands of years ago.

Amazing to me, how people can doubt God for no reasons other than trying to hold Him to the little rules they know, and think are the be all end all! I find a few clues there, that seemm to rule out the usual. I look at the evidence first of all, I'm just like that I guess.
I don't recall any other nation in the area or anywhere recording a missing day, or the sun not moving?? Maybe there is, I just never heard about it, if anyone has such evidence do present it.

That leaves the added spiritual as the prime suspect in this case. The spirit added is known to affect time and space, such as Philip being transported across water, or John being shown stuff in a moment of time, etc etc. It therefore seems that God in some way transported the whole battle area in the spirit through time, or in some way we of the temporal physical only can't comprehend, any more than ants could! In the future, the sun will maybe not have earth orbiting, after all, and maybe even in the past for all we know. So a different universal arrangement is actually the norm. We are in a different temporary state. All that was needed was to make a little area more in tune with the norm!! Piece o cake, really. Doubting it without evidence seems insane to me..

 

[dad]

if you could make the earth just make the stop rotating, i think you could magically prevent all the consequences.

No need to do that, any more than taking a space station and putting it in orbit would make the earth stop, or move in any big way! It was a localized spiritual added event! Just a taste of the wonders and eternal realities to come.

 

[CACTUSJACKmankin]

Amazing to me, how people can doubt God for no reasons other than trying to hold Him to the little rules they know, and think are the be all end all! I find a few clues there, that seemm to rule out the usual. I look at the evidence first of all, I'm just like that I guess.
I don't recall any other nation in the area or anywhere recording a missing day, or the sun not moving?? Maybe there is, I just never heard about it, if anyone has such evidence do present it.

That leaves the added spiritual as the prime suspect in this case. The spirit added is known to affect time and space, such as Philip being transported across water, or John being shown stuff in a moment of time, etc etc. It therefore seems that God in some way transported the whole battle area in the spirit through time, or in some way we of the temporal physical only can't comprehend, any more than ants could! In the future, the sun will maybe not have earth orbiting, after all, and maybe even in the past for all we know. So a different universal arrangement is actually the norm. We are in a different temporary state. All that was needed was to make a little area more in tune with the norm!! Piece o cake, really. Doubting it without evidence seems insane to me..

and accepting that explanation without evidence isnt?

 

[juvenissun]

Joshua 10:12-13 "Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day."

What would it mean for the sun to not go down for a whole day? The sun rises and sets because the earth rotates about its axis. So, in order for the sun to hold its position in the sky and not set for a whole day the earth would have to cease rotating. The earth is rotating at a rate of 465.1 m/s or 1040.4 mph at the equatior. nearly everything on earth is traveling at about that speed (+- the speed of any movement, this is most significant with wind).

So if the earth's rotation stopped, via the law of inertia, everything on earth would continue to travel at 1040.4 mph until stopped by another force. Wind that was previously a light breeze would become many times more devastating than any hurricain on record. the strongest known hurricains reached speeds of 195 mph, if the earth stopped all but major storms flowing against the earth's rotation (and would only act to marginally slow it down) would be traveling 5.3 times that respective to the ground. Little would be left standing. even today no human structure is built to handle anything near that. trees, rocks, people, even hills and some mountains wouldnt be spared. massive amounts of water would crash onto the land. It is highly doubtful that anyone or anything would be left alive.

Obviously none of this happened. it is simply an interesting example of how literal interpretations cant be taken seriously and how little scientific understanding people had thousands of years ago.

These analyses are basically high school level mental exercises, and are quite meaningless in any practical sense. Either you propose a reasonable hypothesis, or you can simply take it as a miracle. Or, like many do, you can take it as a metaphor.

Boring.

 

[Hespera]

What grade level is your endless exercise trying to demonstrate that "a plant is not a life"?

 

[CACTUSJACKmankin]

These analyses are basically high school level mental exercises, and are quite meaningless in any practical sense. Either you propose a reasonable hypothesis, or you can simply take it as a miracle. Or, like many do, you can take it as a metaphor.

Boring.

Miracles, as most people seem to use the word, are meaningless to me because the laws of physics DON'T bend. we live in a universe of fixed rules of nature and there has never been a confirmed case in which they have been violated.

There is only one miracle that i need, existence. That's it, everything else is bs. The universe we live in is so amazing and so wonderful that if you need violations of physics to get a sense of wonderment then you really dont appreciate what we have around us. My birth via my parents is so embarrasingly unlikely, 40,000 eggs and 400 million sperm, that that is really all i need. I feel so fortunate to have been born in this species, in this nation, at this time in history where we have so much science and technology. That is the only miracle ANYONE should ever need. Never take for granted what you got.

 

[AV1611VET]

So if the earth's rotation stopped, via the law of inertia, everything on earth would continue to travel at 1040.4 mph until stopped by another force.

God even beat that later!

Watch this doosey!

10 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.
11 And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the LORD: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.

Not only did God stop the earth's rotation here, He reversed it!

Have you ever hit the PAUSE BUTTON on a video game?

All action comes to an immediate halt, with no momentum displayed --- (indeed, there is no momentum).

And yet, God's relationship to this physical universe is much more intricate than a player's relationship to a video game.

 

[Penumbra]

To play devil's advocate, if we understand that God had the capacity to stop the earth in its orbit, we should also understand that God could stop every particle on its surface as well. If God breaks one rule of physics by stopping an entire planet from spinning, there's no reason to assume that all other laws of physics continue operating properly causing destruction.

Simple answer: Take it as a lie, exaggeration, myth, or metaphor.


I don't think it makes sense for an omnipotent god to construct a universe with physical laws that have absolutely no documented cases of being broken, only to go around breaking them secretly all the time. Either he creates a perfect harmony of physical precision that works towards his will, or he continually repairs a sloppy machine.

 

[AV1611VET]

To play devil's advocate, if we understand that God had the capacity to stop the earth in its orbit, we should also understand that God could stop every particle on its surface as well. If God breaks one rule of physics by stopping an entire planet from spinning, there's no reason to assume that all other laws of physics continue operating properly causing destruction.

Simple answer: Take it as a lie, exaggeration, myth, or metaphor.


I don't think it makes sense for an omnipotent god to construct a universe with physical laws that have absolutely no documented cases of being broken, only to go around breaking them secretly all the time. Either he creates a perfect harmony of physical precision that works towards his will, or he continually repairs a sloppy machine.

If God didn't work miracles, then we would just have to assume He is more powerful than nature.

But He routinely demonstrated His mastery over nature by working miracles.

 

[BobW188]

How many soldiers in how many firefights - or swordfights, for that matter - recall them as going on for minutes and hours, even though they learned later that the fray was over in less than a minute? "The Sun standing still" seems to be a pretty routine occurence in combat.
For purposes of this thread, though, Penumbra's point is the central one. If the Sun did indeed stand still, it was God's doing, not Joshua's.

 

[CACTUSJACKmankin]

If God didn't work miracles, then we would just have to assume He is more powerful than nature.

But He routinely demonstrated His mastery over nature by working miracles.

If God's creation were perfect then he wouldnt have to muck with it. Physics works because it always works. if it didnt work we couldnt build anything reliably. buildings and machinery would spontaneously collapse.

 

[juvenissun]

Miracles, as most people seem to use the word, are meaningless to me because the laws of physics DON'T bend. we live in a universe of fixed rules of nature and there has never been a confirmed case in which they have been violated.

There is only one miracle that i need, existence. That's it, everything else is bs. The universe we live in is so amazing and so wonderful that if you need violations of physics to get a sense of wonderment then you really dont appreciate what we have around us. My birth via my parents is so embarrasingly unlikely, 40,000 eggs and 400 million sperm, that that is really all i need. I feel so fortunate to have been born in this species, in this nation, at this time in history where we have so much science and technology. That is the only miracle ANYONE should ever need. Never take for granted what you got.

Let me give you an example on how to learn science from the Bible:

The sun stands still relative to one locality of the earth is possible when the sun apparently orbit the earth in sync with earth's rotation.

Now you can continue the new exercise. This time it is at a post-doc level. I am not sure you can handle it.

 

[AV1611VET]

If God's creation were perfect then he wouldnt have to muck with it.

Creation 4004BC was perfect.

Physics works because it always works. if it didnt work we couldnt build anything reliably. buildings and machinery would spontaneously collapse.

Then, as Isaac Newton (?) sang:

Let's get physicscal, physicscal.
I wanna get physicscal. Let's get into physicscal.
Let me hear your data talk - your data talk.
I wanna hear your data talk.

-Let's Get Physicscal, by Sir Isaac Newton?

 

[TemperateSeaIsland]

It's amazing other (some more advanced) cultures didn't notice this happening. What year was this suppose to be again?

Just some more "God is on our side" propaganda..

 

[AV1611VET]

It's amazing other (some more advanced) cultures didn't notice this happening. What year was this suppose to be again?

Just some more "God is on our side" propaganda..

How do you know they didn't?

This occurred in BC 1451.

 

[Hespera]

Let me give you an example on how to learn science from the Bible:
Juv sez...

The sun stands still relative to one locality of the earth is possible when the sun apparently orbit the earth in sync with earth's rotation.

Now you can continue the new exercise. This time it is at a post-doc level. I am not sure you can handle it.


hespera sez... you never did get around to telling where you got, or if you got a PhD in something somewhere, or what a "creation petrologist " is.

As for handling fanciful fisics, post doc or other wise...

Can you handle the concept that when religion comes in the door, common sense flies out the window?

 

[AV1611VET]

Let me give you an example on how to learn science from the Bible:
Juv sez...

The sun stands still relative to one locality of the earth is possible when the sun apparently orbit the earth in sync with earth's rotation.

Now you can continue the new exercise. This time it is at a post-doc level. I am not sure you can handle it.


hespera sez... you never did get around to telling where you got, or if you got a PhD in something somewhere, or what a "creation petrologist " is.

As for handling fanciful fisics, post doc or other wise...

Can you handle the concept that when religion comes in the door, common sense flies out the window?

I can honestly say, Hespera, that the only ones I've ever seen have trouble with Joshua 10 are those who think scientifically.

It's like the old commercial where the office lady goes to help a man with his computer, and he looks at her and says, "Mam, excuse me, I have an MBA."

Whereupon, she backs off and says, "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know that. I'll get someone from the mail room to help you right away."

Even when giving them the key to understanding this passage --- they don't get it.

When someone comes to me with all their pomp and circumstance and says to me, "I'm a scientist --- explain this passage to me to my satisfaction" --- I just want to die laughing.