Do you believe in angels/demons?

[bimmylee]

ManusJustus said:

bimmylee said:

Ok, first off... Why the presumptuous disposition, ManusJustus? We're all friends here. No need to belittle me, thank you. This is benign debate.

The Bible indeed says the Earth is "firm", "fixed", and "immovable". Is it not mostly comprised of rock? Should I worry about North America rocking back and forth every time I step on it? And tell me... can you move it? These adjectives ≠ "the Earth is flat". As Kasz is saying, this is a huge reach.

"Ends of the earth." "Four corners of the earth." I still have trouble finding "the Earth is flat" anywhere in those figures of speech.

In reference to Isaiah describing the Earth as a circle, he had no other choice; there is no Hebrew word that means "sphere"!! To call the Earth a "circle" is the closest he could get. Hebrew is a very ambiguous language, my friend. Twisting the meaning of Bible verses to fit your position is not recommended.

No, the Earth is not mostly comprised of rock.  Most of the Earth is in fact molten and in a plastic form.

Just as you can walk off the end or edge of a building, you can walk off the end or edge of the Earth (or so they thought).

The Babylonians (this influencing the Hebrews) thought the Earth was a circle, with deep waters underneath and a firmament in the sky, the same thing that the Bible states.

Here are links to the Enuma Elish and Epic of Gilgamesh, the former being the predecessor of Genesis and the latter the predecessor of Noah's Flood.  If you want to read up on ancient Mesopotamian thought and compare it to the Bible, this is the best place to start.  Keep in mind that these stories pre-date the Bible by thousands of years, and that the Enuma Elish this is where Christians get the idea of the Battle between God and Satan.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/enuma.htm

http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/

I will warn you, though, that they are difficult reads.  It may be from its literal translation, the lack of ancient writing skills, or a combination of both.

Yes, most of the Earth is fact molten... molten rock, that is.

Isaiah is a prophetic book. This means that it is full of imagery, intended to be visualized by the reader as from the perspective of a person standing on Earth and looking into the horizon/sky. If you are standing on Earth and reading Isaiah, the imagery makes sense. (The "four corners" are the cardinal directions around you. The dome-like picture you posted above resembles what the Earth looks like when a person looks around himself at it; it would appear to be "tent"-like in nature from human observation.) And again, "circle" ≠ "flat". "Circle" is meant to mean "sphere" in that context.

I've read both of those Babylonian texts in various classes during college, so I am familiar with them. While it is certainly popular to claim that the subject matter of Genesis was derived from such Babylonian texts, it is not true whatsoever; the pagan Babylonian stories were bastardizations of what had actually happened; a Hebrew named Moses was then brought in to write five books would set the record straight for all time.