Kent Shove, another member of the community, says that others should conduct experiments to see the evidence of Flat Earth. Those in the science community like Dr. Despite pushback and stigmatization of the group, members of the Flat Earthers are hardly ever discouraged from their beliefs. Peters, who has come to peace with who she is, mentions that she even feels bad for those who do not see their truth.
I think they have an awful lot to gain. Search Enter the terms you wish to search for. Other ways to search: Events Calendar Campus Map. Bible Earthers are out of this world. Flat-earthers also offer some scriptural arguments that are in my view weak, ambiguous, erroneous, or irrelevant. Ironically, it is these that apologists for sphericity usually choose to deal with in their rebuttals to the flat-earthers! The weak and ambiguous arguments can help support a cumulative picture but are insufficient on their own.
One of the weaker scriptural arguments is that the sky literally has openings windows which God can open to let the waters above fall to the surface as rain see Genesis , Genesis , Isaiah , Jeremiah , and Malachi While the idea and scriptures are certainly consistent with the flat-earth cosmology, they could for instance refer to openings in a spherical shell surrounding a spherical earth.
The same applies to the Tower of Babel story in Genesis , often cited as an attempt to literally reach the heavens. Likewise, flat-earthers frequently cite the numerous Old Testament verses referring to the earth's foundations see 2 Samuel , Job , Psalm , Proverbs , Isaiah , and numerous others. Foundations are, however, fairly well-covered by geocentricity. Revelation This was indeed the way many early churchmen interpreted it [Cosmas, ].
The modern flat-earth model doesn't have literal corners. The Biblical view of the universe is relatively clear and consistent. Biblical statements bearing on cosmology are with one possible exception yet to be discussed consistent with the well-known flat-earth cosmologies of the ancient Near East, but they are often flatly contradicted by modern science.
How do spherical apologists reply? Those who claim Biblical support for a spherical earth typically ignore this forest of consistency and focus on one or two aberrant trees. Some take refuge in audacity. This divide and conquer strategy is poor scholarship and worse logic. Heroic efforts have been made by apologists to explain away the firmament, which encloses the celestial bodies, has waters above it, and is a masterpiece proving the Creator's craftsmanship.
The late Harold W. This simply ignores difficulties and invents evidence. Gerardus Bouw tried to identify the firmament as a mathematical plenum [].
In my view, it is a grave error to reinterpret ancient documents to force their authors to speak with modern voices. Gary Zukov [] and Fritjof Capra [], for instance, read modern physics into the teachings of eastern mysticism. I consider all such attempts equally suspect. The Hebrew tsaphon literally meant hidden or dark, and it was used in reference to the northern regions.
We will return to Job later. All or nearly all of these verses have traditionally been used by flat-earthers to prove the earth flat. If one views the earth as an architectural structure with floor, curtain walls, and a roof, it is natural to assume it has foundations and, I might add, a cornerstone.
Why a sphere would have foundations escapes me. Bouw's argument that these scriptures refer to the earth's core seems strained at best. Bouw's most interesting argument for sphericity is based on the gospel of Luke. He compares the King James version of Luke and Bouw then cites 1 Corinthians to argue that the events are simultaneous, claiming simultaneity is possible only on a spherical earth.
First of all, the latter claim is wrong. The modern though not the ancient flat-earth model has day and night occurring simultaneously at different points on earth. Third, Luke appears to have been writing figuratively, and citing Paul to prove otherwise begs the question. One more spherical argument deserves notice. The National Creation Conference in Cleveland ended with a formal debate on the relative merits of heliocentricity and geocentricity.
Richard Niessen of Christian Heritage College, defending the Copernican view, remarked that the Bible teaches a spherical earth because it treats north and south as absolutes, but east and west as relative. In the ancient flat-earth model, however, east and west were about as far apart as you could get, which seems to be the image Psalm was intended to invoke. In my view, all arguments to prove the Bible teaches a spherical earth are weak if not wrong- headed. On the other hand, the flat-earth cosmology previously described is historically consistent and requires none of the special pleading apparently necessary to harmonize the Bible with sphericity.
Numerous manuscripts of 1 Enoch have since been found in Ethiopian monasteries. Turn of the century scholars concluded that parts of the book are pre-Maccabean, and most perhaps all of it was composed by B.
These conclusions were largely vindicated when numerous fragments of 1 Enoch were found among the so-called Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran. There have been two major English translations of 1 Enoch, the translation of R. Charles and the translation by E. All of the quotations that follow come from the newer translation. The importance of 1 Enoch is poorly appreciated outside the scholarly community. Comparison of its text with New Testament books reveals that many Enochian doctrines were taken over by early Christians.
Isaac writes:. The cosmos as described in the book of Enoch. The punishment of the fallen angels described in 2 Peter seems to come directly from 1 Enoch, as does much of the imagery or even wording in Revelation. The inner quote, 1 Enoch , is found in the original Hebrew on a recently-published Qumran fragment [Shanks, , 18].
By attributing prophecy to Enoch, Jude confers inspired status upon the book. First Enoch is important for another reason. Unlike the canonical books of the Bible, which in my view were never meant to teach science, sections of 1 Enoch were intended to describe the natural world. The narrator sometimes sounds like a 2nd century B. Carl Sagan explaining the heavens and earth to the admiring masses. The Enochian cosmology is precisely the flat-earth cosmology previously derived from the canonical books.
The angel Uriel guided Enoch in most of his travels. They made several trips to the ends of the earth, where the dome of heaven came down to the surface. For instance, Enoch says:. The sharp-eyed reader will note what I suspect is an editing error in the Isaac translation. The earth resting on the heaven makes no sense. No doubt, their pastors are reluctant to mention it. Imagine a Canadian and an Australian praying together over FaceTime or Skype, both raising their heads and hands to heaven, but facing opposite ends of the universe.
See also Job ; Psalms ; Today, most Christians believe in a heliocentric system, i. See also Psalms ; ; 1 Chronicles Christian commentators, evidently, eager to align themselves with modern, mostly atheistic scientists, raise two objections.
They claim this suggests a globe. However, hanging the earth on nothing could just as easily refer to a flat disk. Many have cited this phrase to claim the biblical authors knew the earth was a sphere long before anyone else.
This is absurd.
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