A thought on the Bible

[left-of-center2012]

[beam me up scottie]

1. Nice!

The part about the dinosaurs being left off the Ark was pretty sad.

Poor dinosaurs, God forsook them.

[Cartoonist]

2. I think it would be more accurate

To say it was written by those who said the Sun orbited the Earth. I don't believe the flat Earth contingent was universal.

[LostOne4Ever]

3. Pretty sure there are several references to the earth being a flat circular disc in there

[font style="font-family:'Georgia','Baskerville Old Face','Helvetica',fantasy;" size=4 color=teal]It is constantly talking about god drawing the circle of the earth on the waters, parting the waters and putting firmament of heaven in the air, setting the foundations of the earth and the pillars holding it up, god shaking people off the earth by grabbing earth by it's edges and the like.[/font]

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Flat_Earth
http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/febible.htm

[Cartoonist]

4. The only reference I know of is in Joshua

The sun is stopped in its journey across the sky.

[trotsky]

9. Matthew 4:8

When Jesus is in the wilderness hanging out with god's old gambling buddy Satan, they go to a "very high mountain" where ALL the kingdoms of the earth can be seen. Can't be done on a sphere.

[DetlefK]

6. The ancient Egypts believed that Earth was a flat rectangle.

[Major Nikon]

5. It would be bad enough if it was just a matter of silly shit

But you have people using a book as a moral compass that authorizes slavery.

Leviticus 25:44-46New International Version (NIV)

44 “‘Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. 45 You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property. 46 You can bequeath them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly.

[Enthusiast]

7. +1 You nailed it.

[onager]

8. Round earth was proven about 240 BCE

By the one-man MENSA, Eratosthenes - mathematician, geographer, scientist, poet, music theorist, etc. etc. Also Chief Librarian at the Great Library of Alexandria, Egypt.

While living in Alexandria, he not only proved the earth was round, he calculated its circumference with only minor errors. Those errors were caused by some assumptions he had to make, lacking the instruments we have today. He also calculated the axial tilt of the Earth and may have calculated the distance to the Sun.

Speaking of assumptions - Columbus studied Eratosthenes' calculations before he started on his 1492 voyage. For his own unknown reasons, Columbus arbitrarily decided the Earth was a lot smaller than Eratosthenes' had figured. If Columbus had used the original numbers, he would have known he wasn't landing in India.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes

[nil desperandum]

10. Indeed

these guys hadn't even arrived at the notion that leeches would remove the bad humours from an ill person and revive them to full health quite yet...so there was a bit of room for scientific advancement all around.

[edhopper]

11. Everyone knows

it's turtles all the way down.