It is common knowledge that Atheists and a few non-believers tend to usually falsely claim that the Bible claims the earth was flat. History shows that this is not true.

Personally, I know that the Bible never said that the Earth was a flat Earth . . . hence in reality, the Bible account is okay with me . . .however I am only posting this thread in other to counter the propaganda being peddled by a few atheists and muslims and naive believers that falsely claim that the Bible claims that the Earth was Flat.


History:

The following are quotations I found I stumbled upon showing that the myth about claiming that Bible believers thought the earth was flat is just a flat out lie:

http://www.yecheadquarters.org/flat_earth.html

In 1828, American writer Washington Irving (author of Rip Van Winkle) published a book entitled The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. It was a mixture of fact and fiction, with Irving himself admitting he was “apt to indulge in the imagination.”

Its theme was the victory of a lone believer in a spherical Earth over a united front of Bible-quoting, superstitious ignoramuses, convinced the Earth was flat. In fact, the well-known argument at the Council of Salamanca was about the dubious distance between Europe and Japan which Columbus presented—it had nothing to do with the shape of the Earth.

[b]The idea that the earth is flat is a modern concoction that reached its peak only after Darwinists tried to discredit the Bible, an American history professor [/b]says.

Jeffrey Burton Russell is a professor of history at the University of California in Santa Barbara. He says in his book Inventing the Flat Earth (written for the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's journey to America in 1492) that through antiquity and up to the time of Columbus, “nearly unanimous scholarly opinion pronounced the earth spherical.”

Russell says there is nothing in the documents from the time of Columbus or in early accounts of his life that suggests any debate about the roundness of the earth. He believes a major source of the myth came from the creator of the Rip Van Winkle story-Washington Irving-who wrote a fictitious account of Columbus's defending a round earth against misinformed clerics and university professors.

But Russell says the flat earth mythology flourished most between 1870 and 1920, and had to do with the ideological setting created by struggles over evolution. He says the flat-earth myth was an ideal way to dismiss the ideas of a religious past in the name of modern science.

In 1834, the anti-Christian Letronne falsely claimed that most of the Church Fathers, including Augustine, Ambrose and Basil, held to a flat Earth. His work has been repeatedly cited as “reputable” ever since.

In the late nineteenth century, the writings of John William Draper and Andrew Dickson White were responsible for promoting the myth that the church taught a flat Earth. Both had Christian backgrounds, but rejected these early in life.

Englishman Draper convinced himself that with the downfall of the Roman Empire the 'affairs of men fell into the hands of ignorant and infuriated ecclesiastics, parasites, eunuchs and slaves' these were the 'Dark Ages'. Draper's work, History of the Conflict between Religion and Science (1874), was directed particularly against the Roman Church, and was a best seller.

Meanwhile White (who founded Cornell University as the first explicitly secular university in the United States), published the two-volume scholarly work History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom, in 1896.

Both men incorrectly portrayed a continuing battle through the Christian era between the defenders of ignorance and the enlightened rationalists. In fact, not only did the church not promote the flat Earth, it is clear from such passages as Isaiah 40:22 that the Bible implies it is spherical. (Non-literal figures of speech such as the “four corners of the Earth” are still used today.)

So everyone can see that the myth of a flat earth is a lie that has been propagated by those opposed to the Bible. . . this myth has brainwashed a lot of people into believing lies.

[size=18pt]
The truth would set you free . . . so please stop lying and spreading false information and myth that was never true . . . [/size]

No2athesimUK

From wiki

Some authors and artists less prominent in the Church's history directly opposed the round Earth.

Diodorus of Tarsus pa christain bishop[ (d. 394) may have argued for a flat Earth based on scriptures; however, Diodorus' opinion on the matter is known to us only by a criticism of it by Photius.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth#Early_Christian_Church

And nope, I did not edit wiki to put that. Look the point is there were conflicts in ideollogy between christainity and modern science. Period.

ElRazur:

No2athesimUK

From wiki



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth#Early_Christian_Church

And nope, I did not edit wiki to put that. Look the point is there were conflicts in ideollogy between christainity and modern science. Period.

- You raised some valid points which i am going to take time to check out . . . however next time please do not quote wikipedia, cus in reality, i do not consider it has a credible source.

- This raises the questions as to whether:

  1. A number of people in the church around the time u mentioned were flat earthers or not
  2. Or the whole church around the time u mentioned had a flat earth theology

. . . I am going to have to do my own research before reaching a conclusion on this.

- I have found another source that said the same thing that you have said, hence why i am taking into consideration what you have mentioned, despite your point and statements i still say and i still repeat:


THE BIBLE NEVER SAID THE EARTH WAS FLAT, IF IT DID YOU ARE FREE TO KINDLY SHOW ME.


Hence one might consider if this is a problem of the early church and its dogma or whether this is an issue of historical accuracy of reporting events . . . . . until i do my own research about the issue no comment.

This is interesting because the Bible itself implies the Earth is flat (for example at Daniel 4:11 or 4:8 in Catholic Bibles) and most of its writers (certainly those of the Old Testament) probably thought so

Daniell 4:11

What does it say? It appears to suggest the earth is flat.

People can follow the whole debate here. I cant be posting the same things in two places. For those interested, please catch up from page 55.

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-371719.1728.html

ElRazur:

This is interesting because the Bible itself implies the Earth is flat (for example at Daniel 4:11 or 4:8 in Catholic Bibles) and most of its writers (certainly those of the Old Testament) probably thought so

Daniell 4:11

What does it say? It appears to suggest the earth is flat.

Daniel 4:11 does not 'appear' to make that suggestion but is figure of speech that depicts greatness or largeness. This is the KJV of that verse:

[list]The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth.[/list]

Pretty much the same appears in some of the Catholic Bibles in Daniel 4:8 such as the Douay Rheims:

[list]The tree was great, and strong: and the height thereof reached unto heaven: the sight thereof was even to the ends of all the earth.[/list]

We should understand that Nebuchadnezzar not speaking in literal terms in Daniel 4 when he recounted his dream/vision to Daniel (ie., Belteshazzar). In verse 10, Nebuchadnezzar had already mentioned in regards of the tree that 'the height thereof was great', and in verse 11 only reiterated this greatness of the height by saying 'the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth'.

The phrase 'the end of all the earth' is common expression akin to other such expressions like 'the four corners of the earth' etc. These expressions do not suggest a flat earth in so far as the speaker in Daniel 4 was not making a case for a literal flat earth. In the mistaken idea that some have argued for a flat earth in the Bible from such expressions, I have tried to set this issue straight in this link in post #1, #2, and #3:

     https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-352044.0.html#msg4927695

However, Daniel 4 has a double expression of emphasis - 'the height thereof reached unto heaven', and 'the sight thereof to the end of all the earth'. This is also just about the same way that people expressed themselves in emphatic language to show greatness rather than describing reality in literal terms. We find just about the same idea expressed in Genesis 11:4 - 'And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven', and we see there it is not in literal terms that they spoke.

Other examples include the following, but not limited to these:

[list]*  Deuteronomy 1:28 - 'Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there'

*  Deuteronomy 9:1  - 'Hear, O Israel: Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven'[/list]

These two examples (among others) using the expression 'cities great and walled up to heaven' are quite simply emphatic of figurative speech showing greatness, and these are explained in very simple terms in the following:

[list]Numbers 13:28     -  the cities are walled, and very great:
Deuteronomy 3:5  -  All these cities were fenced with high walls, gates, and bars;
beside unwalled towns a great many[/list]

These latter quotes show that such expressions found in Daniel 4:11 (or 4:8 in Douay Rheims) are not meant to be literal but rather figurative. The problem is that many readers (whether religious or skeptics) take them out of context and force their own misapprehensions into them to argue for a flat earth. Frankly, skeptics who try to suggest a flat earth into those verses are no better than religious people who misread the simple statements in them out of context.

Interesting.Check this one out :

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-372836.0.html

mccloud224:

Interesting.Check this one out :

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-372836.0.html

'Soul train' and 'flat earth' - please translate: how do they connect with the subject of this thread?

Viaro, I have made a reply to the other thread. I think I addressed some of the points you raised already. Sorry, I can't keep posting the same thing in-between thread. . . .

I've been there, didn't see your reply. Please provide a link and maybe I might be able to follow up.

I really don't know what the bible says about if the Earth is flat or not. But I know some of the claims atheists make about the bible are bogus.


The bible does claim Jonah lounged in fish digestive system for a while tho. . . that's kinda heavy stuff Ok, off topic. Sue me

Isaiah 40:22 (New International Version)

22 He sits enthroned above[size=16pt] the circle of the earth, [/size]
and its people are like grasshoppers.

ends of the earth,

the idiom The utmost limit, as in She would go to the ends of the earth for him. This usage was once literal (referring to the farthest reaches of the planet) but now is used only figuratively.



http://www.yourdictionary.com/idioms/ends-of-the-earth-the

google is some people's enemy it seems

Isaiah 11:12
12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the FOUR CORNERS OF THE EARTH. (KJV)

Revelation 7:1
1 And after these things I saw four angels standing on FOUR CORNERS OF THE EARTH, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. (KJV)

Job 38:13
13 That it might take hold of the ENDS OF THE EARTH, that the wicked might be shaken out of it? (KJV)

Jeremiah 16:19
O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ENDS OF THE EARTH, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit. (KJV)

Daniel 4:11
11 The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the ENDS OF THE EARTH,: (KJV)

The bible dose say thaat the world was flat according to the evidence i have posted above

manmustwac:

The bible dose say thaat the world was flat according to the evidence i have posted above

This was why I said earlier: "Frankly, skeptics who try to suggest a flat earth into those verses are no better than religious people who misread the simple statements in them out of context."

Expressions such as "the four corners of the Earth" and "the ends of the Earth" have been dealt with and have been referred to several times:

The Four Corners of the Earth

Other Uses In Common Language

The Circle of the Earth

manmustwac

here's more of  Job 38 . As you can see, there are quite a number of allusions there, so you can also pick out some more that you think prove your points.

  1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said:
2 "Who is this that darkens my counsel  with words without knowledge?

3 Brace yourself like a man;   I will question you, and you shall answer me.

4 "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? ell me, if you understand.

5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?

6 On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone-

7 while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?

8 "Who shut up the sea behind doors  when it burst forth from the womb,

9 when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness,

10 when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place,

11 when I said, 'This far you may come and no farther;  here is where your proud waves halt'?

12 "Have you ever given orders to the morning,  or shown the dawn its place,

13 that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it?

14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment.

15 The wicked are denied their light,  and their upraised arm is broken.

16 "Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea  or walked in the recesses of the deep?

17 Have the gates of death been shown to you?  Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death ?

18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?  Tell me, if you know all this.

19 "What is the way to the abode of light?   And where does darkness reside?

20 Can you take them to their places?  Do you know the paths to their dwellings?

21 Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years!

22 "Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail,

23 which I reserve for times of trouble,  for days of war and battle?

24 What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed,  or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?

25 Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain,  and a path for the thunderstorm,

26 to water a land where no man lives,  a desert with no one in it,

27 to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass?

28 Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew?

29 From whose womb comes the ice?Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens

30 when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen?

31 "Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades?  Can you loose the cords of Orion?

32 Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons  or lead out the Bear  with its cubs?

33 Do you know the laws of the heavens?   Can you set up God's dominion over the earth?

34 "Can you raise your voice to the clouds  and cover yourself with a flood of water?

35 Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, 'Here we are'?

36 Who endowed the heart with wisdom  or gave understanding to the mind ?

37 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?  Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens

38 when the dust becomes hard and the clods of earth stick together?