[quote]pushharder wrote:
Except the parts where the Bible absolutely teaches something. [/quote]
You cannot tell me that everyone agrees on what is absolutely being taught. The existence of the Flat Earth Society should be prima facae evidence of this.
I’d like to put you, Sloth, Brother Chris, Tiribulus and Karado in a room, and have you discuss any “definite teaching” of the bible in detail. Probably not too much consensus will happen.
[quote]But this doesn’t mean the Bible teaches a flat earth. As you implied. In fact, you even posted a photo of a flat earth, did you not? And it was in the context of what you were implying the Bible teaches. Why back pedal now?
[/quote]
Not back pedaling. I stand by what I originally wrote. The Bible is silent on the sphericality of the planet. It refers to the “circle” of the earth, but also talks about the “four corners” and the “ends of the earth” where the “firmament” rests on “pillars”.
The Hebrews in the Bronze Age may have believed a lot of things about the nature of their physical universe, but the idea that their earth was one of several spheres of molten and solid rock in orbital rotation around a super massive exploding ball of hydrogen and helium among billions upon billions of other such balls of gas, in an expanse of space too broad to be measured, was probably not the majority view among those who wrote the scriptures.
I don’t criticize the authors for writing what they did. It’s pretty good stuff. It’s what they imagined their world to be, and their understanding of things made perfect sense for their time and the realities of their existence. But it doesn’t matter to us now. It doesn’t matter whether the Bible says the earth is circular or sherical or toroid or even hemorrhoid. It doesn’t matter that the Bible seems to imply that the earth was created before the sun, or that the rotation of the entire planet actually literally stopped for several hours so that a bunch of bronze age tribesmen in the eastern Mediterranean could finish fighting a bunch of other tribesmen. It really doesn’t matter.
Because it’s background noise to what should be the main message: love God, love other people as much as you love yourself, and treat them how you’d like to be treated. There it is. All that really matters, according to Hillel and Jesus. The whole of the law. All else is just commentary.
By the way, Rabbi Hillel and Jesus lived in Jerusalem at the same time. He may have been one of Jesus’ teachers.