The same people that wrote the bible thought the world was flat

[tobbias88]

Would it…does it, matter in the slightest whether the earth is flat, round or just imaginary?

Scientific knowledge is fine but it doesn’t help you to lead your life. You can have a bagful of PHDs & still be a very nasty person.

Some of the kindest people I ever met in the Pacific Isles might be termed primitive savages by westerners. They believed having 2 shirts was wrong. You can wear only one shirt at a time so why not give the other shirt to someone else? I think Jesus would have approved.

 

[strngrnrth]

The verses about possessions and money mostly warn us against focusing on those things, they don’t express or promote such a focus.
God doesn’t send people to Hell. God made Hell for the evil one; people who prefer the evil to the good are free to follow that thinking where it takes them. People who seek the good but haven’t heard enough about God to convince them of the truth will be rewarded for their diligent search by God’s sending a human or angelic missionary to tell them or by a vision or other means of knowledge sometime before they face Him when they die. If possible, they will learn that they must be baptized. If they die before that can be done God will know they tried. It’s the same for the other sacraments. But for those who prefer evil or don’t care enough to listen or seek truth, Hell is there. It’s up to each individual. Going to Heaven doesn’t mean getting whatever you want. It means getting what God wants most for you. If you hate God or insist on being your own God, you will not be dragged kicking and screaming into God’s Heaven. But no, making your own version of paradise and making up your own way of entry isn’t one of the choices.

 

[bogeydogg]

We should also notice that when the Bible speaks of ‘setting the course of the sun’ or something else like that, it is using phenomenological language. The writer tells us the sun moves because the sun appears to move. We use this sort of language today. The weatherman will talk about ‘sun rise’ and ‘sun set’, but no one calls the news cast and says, “Wait a minute, the sun doesn’t rise and set, the sun doesn’t move in relation to us.”

 

[packermann]

The Bible devotes some 500 verses on prayer, less than 500 verses on faith, but over 2000 verses on money and possessions.

I counted how many times you used the word “God” in your post. Seven times. I then counted how many times you referred to yourself. Only twice (one “I” and one “my”). I hardly think we can conclude from this that you love God more than yourself. So just because God mentions money and possession so many times does not mean He is obsessed about money and posessions. Rather, it shows that God is aware how much we, because of original sin, are obsessed about money and posessions.

 

[Fone_Bone_2001]

Wow, what an embarrassingly ignorant tirade.

In fact, you lose even before you started typing your actual post: the very title reveals the OP’s silliness, for no one ever actually thought the Earth was flat.

That was Humanist propaganda designed to make the medieval world look backward.

I realize that that actual detail (the whole “flat earth” thing) wasn’t really the point of your post, but it’s pretty darn telling nonetheless that the first thing out of your (virtual) mouth reflects a totally inaccurate and ignorant view of the people who have come before us.

 

[peary]

**Different cultures had different views of a “flat earth”, but for many “falling over the edge” was precluded by the intersection of another surface there. For example, the pre-Eratosthenean Greeks saw the world as a squat cylinder with the earth as the bottom of the “can” and the heavens the top. We don’t know what they thought the sides were composed of, but we know they thought such sides existed. Several other cultures saw the flat earth vaulted by hemispherical “heavens” that would similarly preclude falling off the edge. Still other cultures, including early Mesopotamians, imagined the seas surrounding the central land masses to be infinite.

And yet, to be fair, there is nothing in the bible that claims the world is flat. It talks about the four corners , north, south, east , west. And then we are confronted with the following passage:

Isa 40:22: “It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.” It would have been the ‘scientist’ at the time who thought the earth was flat. The Bible talks about the circle of the earth; in other words, the sphere of the earth.

God has always been ahead of scientist and always will be. And it also shows that the truth is contained within Scripture.**

 

[thomfra]

The Bible devotes some 500 verses on prayer, less than 500 verses on faith, but over 2000 verses on money and possessions.

You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do.

We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes.

Not my words but of others.

When talking to christians of different denominations, all I hear is “Gods love”. “Gods mercy”. “Gods bonevolence”.

They always neglect to mention the above comes with certian conditions. And consequences!!

If you do not give yourself completely and utterly over to God, the alternative is quite horrible… Banishment and death await you. Seems a little harsh and slightly unfair.

Why do christians appear to forget to mention the bit about how God will destroy the non believers?
Is it because that they know that recruitment tactic may have worked in millennia passed, but not any more ?

Yeah, a lot of fire and brimstone in the Old Testemant. I guess Christianity for most (apart from ultra conservative fundamentals who are obsessed with the old Testemant) is about what Christ did. i.e. new Testemant…

 

[bogeydogg]

Yeah, a lot of fire and brimstone in the Old Testemant. I guess Christianity for most (apart from ultra conservative fundamentals who are obsessed with the old Testemant) is about what Christ did. i.e. new Testemant…

I think you should read the text more carefully. The New Testament never abrogates the Old. In fact, in the Book of Acts the deaths of Ananias and Saphira serve as reminder that God still takes His Holiness very seriously. It is the Christians who ignore the OT who err, not ‘conservative fundamentalists’.

 

[magisterfaust]

I counted how many times you used the word “God” in your post. Seven times. I then counted how many times you referred to yourself. Only twice (one “I” and one “my”). I hardly think we can conclude from this that you love God more than yourself. So just because God mentions money and possession so many times does not mean He is obsessed about money and posessions. Rather, it shows that God is aware how much we, because of original sin, are obsessed about money and posessions.

So, I mention God more than I mention myself, and this proves beyond all doubt that i love god more than I love myself
Did you consider that maybe I did this because I was posting about god and the bible. Not about me:thumbsup:

 

[cpayne]

To the OP:

If you haven’t read “The Great Divorce” by CS Lewis, I’d recommend it. You could get it at the library, and read it in 2 hours or so. It might answer some questions you have…and with only a small investment in your time.

Regards!

Absolutely wonderful book, and eye-opening. A little weirder and more difficult book, but still good, is Charles Williams’ Descent Into Hell.