On Creationism

Does the Bible promote a flat Earth cosmology or a modern cosmology? Part 1 looked at the cosmology set out in Genesis chapter 1, part 2 looked at the many other references to a flat earth cosmology (FEC) in the Bible. This part will now look at verses that Christians have said suggest a modern cosmology. The Circle of the Earth The one usually cited is this: Isaiah 40:22 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 like a tent to dwell in; For example here , here and here . It is curious because I also cited in in part 2 as a verse supporting a flat Earth cosmology. The claim is that the ancient Hebrews had no word for sphere, so when they said " circle of the earth" they meant sphere. Well, maybe. But maybe not. Maybe they really meant circle. The Hebrews did have a word דּוּר or "dur", which can mean ball ,...

Does the Bible promote a flat Earth cosmology or a modern cosmology? Part 1 looked at the cosmology set out in Genesis chapter 1, this post will look at the many other references to a flat earth cosmology (FEC) in the Bible. Part 3 will then look at verses that Christians have said suggest a modern cosmology. By the way, the Skeptics Annotated Bible was a great help compiling this list. Genesis 8:2 The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; In the Hebrew it says the rain stopped when God closed the "arubbah" - a lattice, window or sluice. Makes sense if the sky is a solid structure. The fountains of the deep were supplied by the "waters below". Joshua 10:12 Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. 13 And the sun...

Does the Bible promote a flat Earth cosmology or a modern cosmology? This is the first of three posts that will address that question. First let us think about what a flat Earth cosmology actually means. In this view the earth is stationary. Stretched out over it is a solid dome-like structure, the firmament. The stars, moon and sun are relatively small (much smaller than the Earth), and travel across the firmament. Above the firmament are the waters above, and below the earth are the waters of the deep. The ancient Greeks first proposed a spherical world as early as the sixth century BC, but it was not until the third century BC that it was accepted by Greek astronomers, and it took a long time to spread. Many notable Christians continued to believe in a flat Earth until around the fourth century AD - and used the Bible to support that position. It was, of course, much later that geocentrism was abandoned. In this first post of three I will be looking at Genesis 1, and seeing h...

Casey Luskin has written a post about just that. He defines it thus: Intelligent design is a scientific theory that argues that the best explanation for some natural phenomena is an intelligence cause, especially when we find certain types of information and complexity in nature which in our experience are caused by intelligence. My question is, exactly what types of information and complexity in nature do we know by our experience are caused by intelligence? He goes on: "1. ID uses a positive argument based upon finding high levels of complex and specified information " This positive argument is basically giving the idea that something "looks designed" the impressive-sounding "high CSI". Hey look, things designed by humans look designed (have "high CSI"), so those things in nature that looked designed (have "high CSI") are probably designed as well. This has three flaws. Firstly the subjective nature of whether something looks desi...