Bede

Looking back we seem to have gone off on a tangent a bit. Oddly, NOGO and I are actually in agreement now on the flat earth business.

I do agree that the writers of the Old Testament thought the earth was flat. I further agree that the Bible itself does imply this. I suppose some of the small number of literate Jews in 40AD may have believed this too although literate gentiles at the time did not (and neither did some Jews like Philo). Come the Middle Ages, of course, hardly anyone thought the earth was flat despite what the bible seems to imply, which shows that they did not feel they needed to take it completely literally.

So, I'm on the side of the devils when it comes to the biblical cosmology of the OT.

On Copernicus, I'm opening new thread. Nogo's comments on how I can't think straight are beneath contempt and I will silently pass over them.

Yours

Bede

Bede's Library - faith and reason

Hugo Holbling

Instead of straightforwardly insulting others here, i invite you to come to Philosophy and offer an argument as to why Christianity results in an inability to correctly consider the history and philosophy of science. Alternatively, you could try another forum and explain in cognitive or other terms why this regretable situation occurs.

NOGO

Too late for "silently pass over them" since you have qualified them already.

Bede here is dressing himself up in white and pure clothing.

He can certainly give it ... but can't take it.

Here are some of his quotes.

I did not complain to the moderator as Bede as done here.
The advantage is that I can now quote it.

Here is some of the conversation which got me these insults

I stated that Erathosthenes method in evaluating the earth's circumference was correct but his measurements were not accurate. Bede did not seem to understand this so I stated that it showed that he was outside his field.

Bede

Just for the record, I didn't complain to the moderator on this occasion.

B

beyelzu

Seems pretty convincing, I am not so sure about the persecution angle however.

NOGO

You must be suspicious of anything you read from Bede's site.
What Bede does not tell you is that maps throughout the middle ages were all made from a flat earth perspective.

Jerusalem was believed to be the centre of the earth ... the flat earth. The very word Mediterranean said it all. The word comes from "Medi" middle and "Terra" earth.

I presume here that people who made maps were literate.

So Bede's statement that all literate people knew that the earth was a shpere is just nonse.

Have you ever heard of the Flat Earth Society ?
Perhaps they were all illiterate.

Have you ever head of "Antipodes" ?
The idea that on the opposite side of the spherical earth there were people. Before the modern era they argued that you cannot have people going about with their heads down and their feet up. Hard to argue against this when Newton had not formulated his theory of gravity yet.

People did not believe that the earth was in "space" like the other planets. This was the main problem they had with the Copernican theory. Copernicus had sent the earth travelling through space ... The basic belief was that the earth was stationary and there was an up and there was a down. Even if some believed that the earth was a sphere the context was the same as the flat earth in the Bible. There was the earth and then there were the heavens. The earth was not a heavenly body.