Galileo

I'm studying Humanities in a university and one of the professors states that the people at Galileo's time thought the earth was flat. He uses the scripture from Joshua about how our Lord held the sun. The thing is, we all say "when the sun goes down or rises". Does not the scripture state that the earth is not the center of the universe or that the earth is round? Please help with this. Scripture rules and science verifies it. Galileo's seeing that the sun is the center is scriptural, right?

Thanks in Him,
Mike

sin = the universe revolves around me
sanctification = my life revolves around God in obedience

I would say that there is more scriptural evidence in theology for a Sun (SON) centered solar system than for a Earth centered one.

One of the fields that should be explored is how athiests have hijacked history to portray a story of church vs. science, when often science was bolstered by the church. There were of course ignorant people in those generations, there are today, and there always will be, but that shouldn't be to say that they were in the majority.

I think that a close study of history will show that science was more often supported by the church than antagonized by it.

I was a History major at the University of Washington and a minor in the History of Science and Technology, I wrote my senior thesis on the ways in which the church supported and fostered what we consider early science.

Unfortunately most history textbook writers and professors want to make certain events stand out more than others.

Ian, I would enjoy reading your paper, if possible.

MC

I'll see if I can dig it up, its 25 pages and knowing how lazy of a student I was at the time, it probably didn't make for very good reading.

Few basic points I remember:

Church preserved Greek and Roman writings because many of them had a significance to the early church fathers such as Clemente of Alexandria and Justin Martyr.

Visigoths, Vandals and Vikings destroyed more ancient greek and roman manuscripts than misguided Christians did, Christians for the most part preserved history instead of destroying it.

Early church fostered science and philosphy in church schools which developed into the modern Universities. Universities didn't develop under any other religion than Christianity. Theology was considered the highest academic pursuit (and still is at many older colleges such as Oxford or Cambridge).

Many early scientific developments were made by monks in monastaries that supported the advancement of knowledge. While pagans where fighting and plundering, early church leaders were encouraging academic pursuits for the betternment of society. Many advances in agriculture and architecture the produced higher yields in crops and staived off starvation and famine were developed by monks. Monks used science practically to help those around them.

Science wasn't discouraged, but instead encouraged as the 'hand-maiden' of theology.

There could be whole libraries of books on how protestantism effected science. The protestant work ethic, along with a sincere desire to understand God's creation was a primary catalyst in the development of modern science.

Very very very few scientists before the 20th century were athiests, in fact I could probably count the number on one hand. In fact, even in modern universities most scientists are men and women of faith.

Bro Mike
Greetings in Jesus' Name by Whose Blood we are Saved.AMEN.

if we read Genesis 1 vs 6-8 we see that the earth isn't flat, nor did some of the ancients think it was. Moses knew the earth was round. i don't know whose bright idea it was to think the earth flat but scripture testifies to the earth being round.

Grace and Peace are ours in Jesus.AMEN.

Does not the scripture state that the earth is not the center of the universe or that the earth is round?

The Hebrews used the metaphor of a three stage heaven. We have the earth, then above or beyond that the sparrows' heaven, then above or beyond that the starry heaven, then above or beyond that the heaven of heavens - God's place. The Hebrew word for heaven implies something which is above or beyond and the Greek word has the same kind of idea.

The stood did stand still, from the earthly perspective. Just as it rises and sinks, from the earthly perspective. The astonishing thing about Genesis 1 is the perspective that is 'higher' than a cosmic perspective. It is a description from a perspective where every created thing is 'below'.

There are occasional verses which are difficult to apply to a flat plate earth eg.

[color=0000ff] Thick clouds cover Him, so that He cannot see, And He walks above the circle of heaven.’ (Job 22:14 NKJV)

When He prepared the heavens, I was there, When He drew a circle on the face of the deep, (Proverbs 8:27 NKJV)

It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. (Isaiah 40:22 NKJV)[/color]

Each of these verses could mean sphericity as easily as two dimension circularity.

Isaiah 40:22 It is He that sitteth up the "circle" of the earth.

The Bible declares the earth is round. When the Bible says the sun rises and sets is not a scientific claim by scripture that the sun revolves around the earth. It's a matter of perspective. We see the sun rise and set. We say the same thing and we also don't mean that the sun revolves around the earth.

Job 26:27 He stretcheth out the north over the empty place and [u]hangeth the earth upon nothing[/u].

It also states that the earth is suspended in space.