5 Reasons the Flat Earth is Foolishness: And the valuable lessons we can learn in understanding God’s word and world in context

5 Reasons the Flat Earth is Foolishness
And the valuable lessons we can learn in understanding God’s word and world in context

There is a disease of the mind that is at best foolishness and worse doctrine of demons, that distorts the word and intent of the Bible and turns it into literate literalism. This is the flat earth dogma which was popularized by Washington Irving and propagated through public/government schools. Recently it has blemished may a facebook page. I welcome new ideas and dialogue, but have to call out fool's errands and say this theory/dogma looks an awful lot like a dog returning to its vomit. For those who have been genuinely pulled into this vortex of foolishness, I respect you, but I can not respect foolish ideas which lead to setting oneself on a course of scriptural misinterpretation and literacy. See reason # 5.
Men more learned and eloquent than I have addressed this issue, but I hope that I can add to the pot in a delicious stew of rational worship of our Creator where He receives all the Glory for his supernatural creation.


5 Reasons the Flat Earth is Foolishness
1. Observation destroys a flat earth
2. Physics destroys a flat earth
3. Eclipsed destroy a flat earth
4. The ancients and their knowledge destroy a flat earth
5. The Bible destroys a flat earth

1. Observation destroys a flat earth
    One can physically observe the other planets in our solar system. I have observed the moon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn as well as the sun through a powerful telescope and they are all spheres.  It is not an optical illusion, and being an artist in training, I have drawn many spheres vs. other shapes. So why would it make sense that the only non-spherical object / planet in our solar system is earth.

2. Physics destroys a flat earth
    Any non solid, liquidus form forms a sphere as it falls or especially if it is in a vacuum. Physics / gravity 101  tells us that the natural shape of an liquidus object is a sphere. Increase the volume to that of the earth and you definitely get a sphere based on physics. Many of the earthquakes on earth are caused by the gravity of earth pulling in on the crust and equalizing the mass and physical pressures. Yes the earth is spinning/ rotating, and that deforms the earth a bit. But not enough to create a sphere by centrifugal force.  Speed up a liquidus sphere’s rotation and you get a disk, but it is highly unstable. Flat, oblong “liquid” disks are highly unstable when spinning because the centrifugal force is much stronger on the outside than inside. Just as kids on a merry-go-round. The outer part of the disk wants to fly off overcoming the weekend gravitational forces. Slow down the spinning liquidus disk and it wants to collapse upon itself. The earth would do the same if it were a spinning disk - a flat earth.

3. Eclipsed destroy a flat earth
    The ancients observed eclipses and concluded spheres, so can you.  Two kind of eclipses. A lunar eclipse and a solar eclipse.  A solar eclipse is when the moon is between the earth and sun, thus blocking out the sun. next we see the shape of the earth against the moon when the earth gets between the moon and sun. for that to stay a perfect circle you either need a sphere or the flat earth disk to always be facing the moon, and the other side the sun. If not you would get a shadow on the moon that would reveal a disk, not a sphere.  

4. The ancients and their knowledge destroy a flat earth
    It is well documented that the ancients knew the earth to be a sphere, and the Hebrew people didn’t live in a bubble, They would have had access to the knowledge of the times and were no backwoods - well even that analogy would be an insult to backwoods people who are pretty brilliant compared to most city dwellers who couldn't survive a day in the woods.

at least since the time of Aristotle, educated people knew the world was a sphere. And a generation after Aristotle, in the third century BC (well before the time of the New Testament), Eratosthenes computed the earth’s size.
https://sensuouscurmudgeon.wordpress.com/2016/05/25/answers-in-genesis-and-the-flat-earth/
https://answersingenesis.org/astronomy/earth/is-the-earth-flat/


    The flat earth theory and fiction was propagated and popularized by atheists seeking to slander the Bible and Christianity.  

a myth, as documented by historian Jeffery Burton Russel (a man who is certainly no friend of Christians or Creationists!) in his book “The Flat Earth Myth.” The “story “ of the flat Earth that permeates government education was a fictional invention of an American Writer of Fairy Tales. His name was Washington Irving. In the early 1800’s
Originally at: The Flat Earth….again…. | Genesis Week

According to Stephen Jay Gould, “there never was a period of ‘flat earth darkness’ among scholars (regardless of how the public at large may have conceptualized our planet both then and now). Greek knowledge of sphericity never faded, and all major medieval scholars accepted the Earth’s roundness as an established fact of cosmology.” Historians of science David Lindberg and Ronald Numbers point out that “there was scarcely a Christian scholar of the Middle Ages who did not acknowledge [Earth’s] sphericity and even know its approximate circumference”.
Originally at: The Flat Earth….again…. | Genesis Week
http://www.genesisweek.com/the-flat-earth-again/
CrEvo Rant #271, “The Flat Earth     Originally at: The Flat Earth….again…. | Genesis Week  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZrLMhjOPPM


5. The Bible destroys a flat earth
    I am going to say this again. The flat earth theory and fiction was originally propagated and popularized by atheists seeking to slander the Bible and Christianity.  It saddens me that people claiming to believe in the Creator and the Bible are following in their footsteps.  
They do this by taking away the beautiful poetic, metaphorical, similes and hyperboles found within  the Biblical literature. They take passages and words out of context, and the original language. We also don't allow them to be ancient people who didn’t know everything, and insist that everything in the Bible has to line up with scientific, logical thought progressions. Let me give you an example.  Ancients placed the seat of the emotions in the bosom or gut.  We place it in the heart.  
         “I just feel it in my heart, or I love you from my heart.” Those aren’t scientifically accurate statements, but we don't call people liars when they say that.
Another example.  Yesterday my boy and I were playing outside and suddenly it got darker.
         “What is that Trevor asked?”
         “Oh, the sun just went behind the clouds,” I replied.  
I just lied, and was totally unscientific and made a non-real statement… to my kid!  For shame.  
        “Clouds got between the sun and the earth or us.” - just doesn't have the same ring to it.   Same thing with sunrises and sunsets.  The sun isn’t doing anything it is the earth rotating. Should we call them earthrises and earthsets?

    The ancients and Bible authors used the same language to describe  the earth and their experiences. The weren't writing scientific, peer reviewed literature. Thank goodness or we wouldn't read it…
They were writing for message and impact inspired by God’s Spirit, which did not override their culture, history or education. God works in and through his imperfect people and still does, which is why I could be wrong, and I seek the input of others to correct me, but I learn, grow and discover God’s truth and reality.
    I couldn't agree more with a comment posted after a “Bible teaches flat earth” article by SY

...those passages don’t imply a flat earth. Much of the problem is from translation: in the original (I had to suffer through twelve years of a Hebrew education), the word “eretz” is used, which your translations render as “earth.” That’s quite poetic, but not terribly accurate. “Eretz” is much closer to “land” than earth, hence references to “eretz yisroel” (Land of Israel) or “eretz mitzrayim” (Land of Egypt). An alternate word used in some of those passages (e.g., the passages you cited in Daniel) is “arae,” with more of a connotation of “ground,” but also meaning “land.” The word usually used to indicate the entire world is “olam,” not “eretz.”
And, of course, there is still the typical fundamentalist view that my ancestors were too stupid to use allegory or metaphor in their writing…
https://sensuouscurmudgeon.wordpress.com/2011/05/07/the-earth-is-flat/  


I do agree that the ancient Israelites had a somewhat flat earth supernatural or spiritual cosmology as pointed out by Hebrew scholar Dr. Michael S. Heser.   But I believe it can be argued that it was not their complete view on physical -planetary cosmology.
http://drmsh.com/christians-who-believe-the-earth-is-really-flat-does-it-get-any-dumber-than-this/  

Some examples from the Bible used to support a flat earth fallacy and why it doesn't.

Four Areas of argument

• The earth is flat
• The earth has corners
• The earth has pillars -- hint pillars refers to mountains in ancient context
• The earth doesn’t move -- neither do people who believe and trust in God

Thanks to https://sensuouscurmudgeon.wordpress.com/2011/05/07/the-earth-is-flat/  for saving me the work on getting all these together. I actually thought you would find some verses that say the earth is literally flat, but it never says that… literally.  The author of this sight has his comments in red, my rebuttal when needed follows.

If you take the below passages literally you must also agree that a person who trusts in God can not be moved - and I can attest that I do move, but am never moved in my belief and confidence in my Creator and Lord.  ...Hope you get that one.   See all the verses about immovability and un-sheakability of those who trust God.

Those who trust in the LORD Are as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever. Psalm 125:1
14 Bible versed about not being moved, applying to people   http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Not-Moved  
To understand “literally” I suggest a great article.  
Here’s how I would lay the groundwork for an answer. If I’m asked if I take the Bible literally, I would say I think that’s the wrong question. I’d say instead that I take the Bible in its ordinary sense, that is, I try to take the things recorded there with the precision I think the writer intended.  https://bible.org/article/taking-bible-literally

The earth is flat - has ends

Genesis 28:12    And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. [The ladder must be on a fixed, flat surface.] original Flat earth comment - I respond.  Ladder in ancient context could refer to a ziggurat, and this is a supernatural event
Deuteronomy 28:49    The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;
Deuteronomy 28:64    And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other;
Deuteronomy 33:17      His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: [The unicorn reference is a bonus.] My reply. Siberian unicorn discovered, Um… they were real creatures,  and There are single horn Rhinoceros as well.  Hyperbole - metaphor anyone?
1 Samuel 2:10
The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: the LORD shall judge the ends of the earth;

Psalm 67:7    God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.
Psalm 72:8    He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.
Psalm 74:17    Thou hast set all the borders of the earth:
Isaiah 5:26    And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly: [The earth must be flat for all to see that ensign.]  my reply - again a supernatural event in progress?  - most likely
Jeremiah 25:33    And the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth:
Daniel 4:11 (repeated in Daniel 4:20)    The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven,and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth: [The tree must be on a flat earth to be visible to the end of the earth.]   my response - Has all the earth seen Jesus - Heard of Him or had that chance see Romans 1&2 - Yes.  So prophecy fulfilled.
Psalm 22:27    All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD:


    The whole earth covered?

Luke 23:44    And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. [The earth must be flat to be all dark at one time.]  Earth = land of Israel - no problem here.
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.     Matthew 27:45
And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.  Mark 15:33    
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; Matthew 4:8  [That mountain must be on a flat earth.]   Um , supernatural being, and supernatural activity in view here.
And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. Luke 4:5   


The earth has corners
Revelation 7:1      And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth,


The earth has pillars and foundations
1 Samuel 2:8     for the pillars of the earth are the LORD’s, and he hath set the world upon them.
Job 9:6     Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble. [A reference to the usually unmovable earth, but it must be flat to sit on pillars.]
Job 37:3      He directeth it under the whole heaven, and his lightning unto the ends of the earth.
Job 38:4      Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Psalm 104:5      Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever. [Another reference to the unmovable earth, also flat to sit on foundations.]  same must apply to humans believing in god...

Pillars = mountains  which have foundations sunk into the earth - especially true of metamorphic volcanic mountains.  Also to an ancient a volcanic mountain spewing smoke creates a column, a pillar.
Foundations = 1.rock below mountains, and 2. Sub crustal caverns explained by the Hydroplate Theory  https://www.youtube.com/embed/3CzFcPkop84  
http://www.creationscience.com/            http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/HydroplateOverview.html


The earth doesn’t move

Say among the heathen that the LORD reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: Psalm 96:10

Psalm 93:1    the world also is established, that it cannot be moved. [Not a flat-earth passage, but nevertheless interesting.]
Say among the heathen that the LORD reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: Psalm 96:10
1 Chronicles 16:30    Fear before him, all the earth: the world also shall be stable, that it be not moved.
Psalm 93:1    The LORD reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the LORD is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is established, that it cannot be moved.
Psalm 96:10    Say among the heathen that the LORD reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people righteously.
Psalm 104:5    Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.

Amazing things the Bible does get scientifically right, even before “modern science” discovered it.
http://www.eternal-productions.org/101science.html
http://www.clarifyingchristianity.com/science.shtml
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Scientific_Facts_in_the_Bible:_100_Reasons_to_Believe_the_Bible_is_Supernatural_in_Origin
http://www.inplainsite.org/html/scientific_facts_in_the_bible.html
http://www.bible.ca/b-science-evidences.htm


Oh and science is a handicapped observation system.  See my blog article for that fun read.
http://www.originsunited.com/blog/science-the-handicapped-observational-system  


So.. What do you think?  Has this blog helped you understand the Bible as inspiration, as literature, and the worldview of the ancient people chosen by god to begin his family on earth, - resulting in Christ and his church?

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