Sai

Pi=3.4? No, i wont expect even the bible to be that far off.

It isnt (necessasrily) lying to say 999.99 when you mean 1000.00 but it is not ACCURATE. It is the sort of error that can cause a bridge to collapse, of course. Or make a Mars mission miss by a few million miles. That aint splitting hairs.

Its called an approximation error; the discrepancy between an exact value and some approximation to it.

Anyway, you clearly agree that the bible is not accurate in this regard, which means it is in error.

So now that we have one approximation error, the question is: how many more errors are there? How big are the errors? How do you know?

Now you asked two questions and I answered them both.

Your turn.

How do you know that anything is accurate if one part of an "inerrant book" is wrong?

IBelieveInHymn

What method of measurement did the writers of the bible use?

The Bible saying PI=3 is not an error. Just because they didn't round off the number?

Come on.. gimme a break.

Can you say splitting hairs?

IBelieveInHymn

The first concerns the meaning of the word cubit, and how it would have been used in measuring the vessel. A cubit was the length of a man’s forearm from the elbow to the extended fingertips. The Hebrew cubit was about 45 centimetres (18 inches). It is obvious that a man's forearm does not readily lend itself to the measurement of fractions of a forearm. In the Bible half a cubit is mentioned several times, but there is no mention of a third part of a cubit or a fourth part of a cubit, even though these fractions of ‘a third part’ and ‘a fourth part’ were used in volume and weight measurements.2 It therefore seems highly probable that any measurement of more than half a cubit would have been counted as a full cubit, and any measurement of less than half a cubit would have been rounded down to the nearest full cubit.

http://creation.com/does-the-bible-say-pi-equals-30

Now you have the facts...

No error found.

Sai

Nope no giving you a break. The are said to have used cubits, the length of hand and forearm. Every cubit is different of course, and there is no way to measure accurately with cubits.

If the number is not right, its wrong. if its approximate, it is not accurate.
if its not accurate its in error, and errant is not inerrant.

Its gonna take more than rolling eyes to get out of that one.

Is you bible inerrant or not?

Kapyong

Gday,

But Pi IS 3.

...

(To one significant figure.)


K.

Sai

Great, cut and paste. You just made it worse for yourself by admitting that it is extremely approximate.

That is called "no error admitted". Ive noticed a trend here. The river is dry / the river is not dry....

Do you understand the concept of an approximation error?

Do you understand the difference between errant and inerrant?

Sai

True. Likewise, the bible is accurate to within some unknown but large margin of error

Kasper

What if it had said PI = 2.99, would that have been an error?

The point is that saying PI = 3 is totally useless for anyone who needs to use PI in practise, and PI was known in a huge amount of digits even in hundreds of years BC.

Kapyong

Gday,

Yes, glad we agree.

But the Bible wasn't doing that, was it?
It wasn't a building manual for the practical construction of round objects.

It just gave a loose description of an object, with values to 1 significant figure, which imply Pi is 3.

Which is correct.
Pi is 3.
To one significant figure.

(Pi is not 2.99 - so if it had said that, yes, that would be in error, obviously.)

K.

Deus Ex

Matthew 12:30
Luke 9:50
These two phrases sound similar, but have exactly opposite meanings.

Either Jesus was conflicted or the two different authors simply did not agree on what they believed Jesus had said?