Albion

If he thinks science is determined by juries, he must have spent too much time listening to Phillip Johnson.

Vorhis the Wolf

Um, the bible says diffrent:
Planets are round and there is no way to see all of the world no matter how tall your tree or mountain is. Then there is the whole earth not moveing thing. The earth revolves around the sun and turns on its axis. That sounds a lot like movement to me.

Then there was that nasty inquisition that had a word with Galileo about his wong mindedness.

Jan Haugland

Yeah, quoting Isaiah will really prove that the Christian Church taught a flat earth.

Fact is, it was commonly known that the earth was round in the Hellenistic world. Early Christian leaders had no quarrel with that.

It is true that no book in the Bible indicates belief in a spherical Earth and many indicates flat earth beliefs, but that is irrelevant. The Christian church has never, ever taught that the Earth is flat.

- Jan

...who rants and raves every day at Secular Blasphemy

Toto

Jan - you mean that the medieval Christian church never insisted that the earth was flat, and the idea that Columbus had to argue against churchmen who thought he would fall off the end was a myth. (It was a myth made up to make fun of creationists.)

But I wonder if you can show that the Christian church [b]never[b] taught that the earth was flat. There is clear evidence of flat-earthism in the Bible, and the church has a very long history.

Gunnaheave

Actually the myth that people thought the earth was plat was made up by Washington Irving and Antoine-Jean Letronne. Irving in particular made up a story about a particular debate Columbus had with clergy on the subject. The point wasn't to add or detract from religious controversies. It was to contribute to the mythology of a supposed American hero. In any event, the notion that people widely believed the earth to be flat before Columbus is indeed a myth.

Are there any objections to the assertion tyhat Christian leaders have preached an anthropocentric vision of the universe and persecuted those advancing a copernican view?

Jan Haugland

By the time of Ptolemy, first century AD, practically all educated people in the Hellenistic world accepted a spherical Earth. That is a matter of historical record. The vast majority of even the earliest Church writers accepted that; there are a handful of exceptions, that's all. There is no evidence that a flat earth was ever a teaching in even the early Christian church.

There are many good arguments against Christianity. That it taught a flat earth is not one of them.


- Jan

...who rants and raves every day at Secular Blasphemy

Vorhis the Wolf

If the church didnt think that the earth was flat, then why was Galilleo brough before the inquisiton and charged with "Heresy" for saying that the earth was round? How can the church charge you with heresy if they agree with what you are saying? :banghead:


That is my point. How can you say that the bible doesnt promote a flat earth and give me a about quotes from Isaiah and then agree with me that the bible does promote a flat earth in your next sentance??

Jan Haugland

You are pulling my leg now, right?

If not, I suggest you check out the Galileo story again.

The Bible is not the Christian Church. Isaiah, for one, was written centuries before the Christian church was founded.

There exists a "flat earth society" (that may or may not be a joke) that uses Bible quotes to support flat earthism. So you could argue from the Bible that the Earth was flat, and this has been done. But that does not mean that the Christian church ever taught that the earth was anything but spherical.


- Jan

...who rants and raves every day at Secular Blasphemy

tgamble

I thought the dispute was over the movement of the earth, not the shape.

Jimmy Higgins

ARGH!!!

They never thought the world was flat!!!

That came out of a book written in the mid 1800's by some American. Even in bible days they knew the Earth wasn't flat.