The sun revolves around the earth!

by AIRVIEW1 11 Replies latest jw friends

  • AIRVIEW1
    AIRVIEW1

    Yes the sun revolves around the earth....it moves from east to west.
    This is why Galileo a 15th century noted inventor, astronomer and mathmetical genius was excumminicated by the catholic church. The scriptures state that Joshua commanded the sun to STAND STILL! If the sun doesn't revolve around the earth then this command would be really stupid!

    Ahhh but what if the bible was written from the standpoint of the scientific knowledge the observer would have at that time? At that time scientific knowledge had not progressed to the telescopic point. Everyone in general believed the sun revolved around the earth. If Joshua would have commanded the earth to stand still then his aids would have probably totted him off to the ole deranged camel bin. It simply would not have made sense at that time.

    Einstein's theory of relativity seems to have some value here.
    SOME BIBLICAL TRUTH IS RELATIVE TO THE SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE KNOWN AT THE "TIME" OF EXPLANATION. Surely the catholic church would not excommunicate Galileo in this modern day and age.

    The point is scientific discovery of what is true is accelerating making some long held biblical understanding obsolete and
    irrelevant. Some who have been cast out as apostate's may turn out to
    to be yet another Galileo.

  • rekless
    rekless

    bible is suppose to be inspired so message from god should be unchanged .

  • AIRVIEW1
    AIRVIEW1

    reckless,
    You do not communicate with 1st graders the same way you would with a person who has a batchler of science degree...unless of course you yourself is a 1st grader.

    the bible didn't change....just the understanding of it changed

    the solar system didn't change....just the understanding of it changed.

    When people become inflexible, closed minded and not open to the possibilty that their particular interpretation of events could be modified or even ratically altered....then they have become a victim
    of thev fossilized "hardening of the ego".

    We are dealing with a "Progressive" plan of God.

    Earth is a school....what are you learning?

  • libra_spirit
    libra_spirit

    Good point,
    In order to learn we must change. This is the law of life, simply all things change.
    Also that is a good arguement to put in front of a Fundamintalist Christian. How could the Bible be literal and be true. Literal to us was not the same as literal to those back then.
    If this statement was in error, there maybe other concepts also in error that need to change. There will always be stubborn people with inflexable minds, sometimes I am one. At least I do not practice it anymore on purpose....LOL

    The people who desire to dominate thoelogy and define it for everyone else can be the most stubborn. I think that the time for an Organization to be able to do it on a grand scale may be ending. The Internet and a generation of knowledge oriented people is definitly the enemy of such stubborness and narrow vision.

  • mark smith
    mark smith

    THIS MIGHT HELP YOU GET BACK TO BASICS
    we are made in the image of GOD and are NOT GOD take care

    How did we get here? Is there a creator or did we evolve, or was there a big bang? All of these can’t be right, there is only one truth. This leaflet is intended only to get people thinking. We hope you will find it intriguing.
    One point both the creationist and the scientist agree upon is the complex existence of order and sequences is (a marvel,) all differing from each other yet all working in harmony together in the gigantic universal engine. If one of the elements were missing, such as the sun, the whole solar system would not operate. The sun is 90,000,000 miles away from the earth, and yet this is perfect for the life forms on earth to exist. We do not need to look as far as the sun or universe for perfect sequences and powerful influential forces, we can see these things here on our planet, as our home is spinning at 1000’s of miles per hour on it’s atlas. It is protected in it’s own bubble, the ozone, which screens us from harmful rays protecting us and all other life on earth. The seasons ensure a cycle of life throughout the whole earth, year in, year out. Even the existence of our days and nights are a marvel, even our water supply is distributed through the clouds, falling as rain on our lands and then vaporising back into clouds, blown by the wind to ensure that the all the earth is watered. Even the people who live the other side of the world look up to the see the sky and down to see the ground. Every country has the feeling that the earth beneath their feet is flat, an amazing illusion in itself. We could go on forever marvelling at this planet earth, but we cannot hope to understand the precision, synchronisation and planning behind this amazing world, full of awesome marvels and miracles.

    The majority of people (86%) believe in a spiritual creator whose intelligence goes far beyond that of man, the Creator who instigated the wheel of life, who made everything seen and unseen. There are some who believe that there was a vast explosion of gas, (the big bang) when the particles settled all living things that exist today came into being. There are yet another group who believe in the evolution theory – believing that all things evolved from a single cell to the huge array of life on earth today.

    There are acknowledged problems with both of these theories. Firstly, with evolution, if a single cell evolved into a human over 200,000,000+ years then at no stage in the evolution process could the species die. It would have to survive the whole 200,000,000+ years in order to eventually become human, or any other life form, if it had died out at any stage of it’s evolution it would just return to matter and would have had to evolve again. One scientist quoted the odds of the evolution theory being correct saying “If you wrote down the amount of noughts they would wrap around the world 100 times or more, to 1”, in other words he believed it to be an impossibility. The same odds were applied to the “big bang theory”. However, the odds on there being a Creator are the same number of noughts but the other way around! The bible says that every house has a builder, and the builder of this earth is God. Scientists are only now beginning to stumble on theories of how the universe is working, this does not disprove Gods existence, your house, your car has been designed and built by others, it would be laughable to suggest that they had built themselves, or that your car is a result of an explosion at the car factory, it just does not make sense, it’s the same with our world!

    We humans love and long for knowledge, wanting answers, we hunger for the truth. Our genetic make up has in it a hole, a hole that needs filling, we try to fill this gap with possessions; a new car, or bigger house but once these possessions are in our grasp we find that the same hunger still exists. Some try sex or drugs (or both), a quick fix to try to sate the hunger within, satisfaction is never achieved. This hole is God shaped and can never be filled with worldly things, thirst can not be quenched with dry bread. Every tribe and nation that is or has ever existed has had the need, the God given need, to worship, to pray, to seek after a higher power – the force they seek is The Creator. It is futile to attempt to deny God’s existence by inventing different theories. There are literally thousands of differing beliefs in the world, all professing that they have found the true meaning of life, of their existence on this earth, how they got here, what is going wrong with the earth, where they go after death. Each of these questions does indeed have an answer, a true answer, not a theory or a half-truth. Would you like answers to your questions?

    Do you want to feel complete and happy, contented joyful and have hope for the future?, being honest are you truly happy with your life, exactly as you are? The choice is yours.
    Perhaps you would like to ask other questions, questions such as:-

    Þ Why do we die?
    Þ Why do so many terrible things happen?
    Þ What is God’s plan for the earth?
    Þ Is there life beyond the grave?
    20th century life is busy but you must have asked yourself (or others) at least one of these questions at some point in your life. The years slip by so quickly; it feels like yesterday when you left school doesn’t it? And we truly don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring. So ask those soul-searching questions. Your conscience is there to tell you what is right and what is wrong, what is truth and what is false. You will know when you have the truth.
    If you would like a free booklet sending to you, which will help you to explore the bibles truths for yourself please write to; The Way, PO Box 6671, Nottingham. NG2 4NH.
    Or by email: [email protected]
    The booklet will be sent at no cost to yourself, we guarantee that you will not be contacted again. No Hassle Promise!!!
    We hope that you will find truth and the answers to your questions.

    Mark Smith
    & Nicola Smith

  • You Know
    You Know

    Even with our knowledge of how the solar system works we still say that the sun comes up and goes down because it's just the most natural way to say it. / You Know

  • Erich
    Erich

    AIRVIEW1:
    > SOME BIBLICAL TRUTH IS RELATIVE TO THE SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE KNOWN AT THE "TIME" OF EXPLANATION. <

    That's not quite correct.
    Joshua wrote down what he saw. His experience was subjectively made.
    No objective scientific view. Nevertheless, subjective experiences can be seen as "truth". Same happened during the "deluge".

  • oscartheduck
    oscartheduck

    "the bible didn't change....just the understanding of it changed"

    Does this mean we can re-interpret scripture as much as we want as our understanding of anything else alters?

    If not, then we're inflexible.

    If so, then that gives us license to write pretty much what we want. Think of the debates over the word "chugh" for example...

    ============================
    The Watchtower, April 15, 1928, p. 126 "As every one knows, there are mistakes in the Bible "

  • AIRVIEW1
    AIRVIEW1

    Thank you everyone for your input. The obsevation I have made is when you try to put God in a monopoly box....he just steps out.The scribes
    and pharisees had a big problem with this and resorted to nails and a hammer to try to solve the problem.

  • SYN
    SYN

    OK, this is just a giant load of hogwash - I'd never even really paid attention to that section of the Bible (reading through the whole thing doesn't usually leave you much time to dwell on individual bits!)

    For starters, it is now COMMON KNOWLEDGE (even little kids know this) that the Earth revolves around the Sun. Anyone who wants to flame me about this statement is welcome, come on, my asbestos underwear is ready!

    The problem here is that human perception was very limited back in the days of Joshua, therefore the logic of the time dictated that the Sun revolved around the Earth. I bet most people on this board wouldn't have considered anything otherwise if they had been living in that time period, so the words in Joshua make perfect sense - to someone living with a limited knowledge of astronomy.

    Anyway, let's get to the point. To stop either the Sun or the Earth, the amount of energy you would need to expend would be incredible. But let's say that God has infinite amounts of kinetic energy at his command, so that's not a problem for him. Right.

    Let's start with stopping the Earth rotating (an easier solution for God). As soon as you try this little trick, you will first of all disturb the orbit of the Moon (the Earth's oceans are so huge that they have a significant influence on the Moon's orbit). What will happen then is unpredictable, because we don't currently have enough computing power to simulate enough water to decide what would happen to the Moon in such a situation. Suffice to say, if the Earth even stood still for one day, there would be a significant Lunar orbit deviation, resulting in all ancient calenders and forth becoming completely screwed up, WHICH THEY ARE NOT. They agree with ours. Conclusion - the Earth never stopped moving. Simple logic here, folks.

    Secondly, if you tried to stop the Sun rotating around the Earth (ludicrous notion, but let's finish this off properly), where exactly would it go? Hmmm? What would happen to the inconcievably large amount of kinetic energy released in the process? Oh sure, God would handle that. But how would he handle the fact that every single weather system on Earth would be fucked up for centuries, possibly starting another Ice Age, if the foregoing events occurred?

    I think a reasonable conclusion would be that some other object or device occupied the sky for a long period of time, possibly leading to the interpretion in Joshua.

    Comments are welcome!

    "I see no good reasons why the views given in this volume should shock the religious sensibilities of anyone." -- Charles Darwin, The Origin Of Species, 1869.

Share this

Google+
Pinterest
Reddit