The Bible is a Reliable Science Book - Part 2

Is the Earth Really Flat?

Another attack on the credibility of the Bible -and in believers' understanding of astronomy -has come in the form of the flat earth idea. Since the physicality of the earth and the apparent movements of the sun and moon and stars are effected by whether we believe the earth is a globe or a flat disc, I believe this subject is one I must address in this blog...

My purpose in addressing this is that I believe the credibility of believers and Scripture itself is under attack with this one...  And its very important for the world to know that Christians aren't un-scientific, un-reasoning "quacks"...  And more importantly even than that - the world needs to know that the Word of Yahweh is the ultimate and reliable Truth on any subject - including science.

So, let's start off with a brief explanation of what "Flat Earthers" - as they call themselves - believe and teach. Let's begin with an explanation from Wikipedia:

The flat Earth model is an archaic conception of Earth's shape as a plane or disk. Many ancient cultures subscribed to a flat Earth cosmography, including Greece until the classical period, the Bronze Age and Iron Age civilizations of the Near East until the Hellenistic period, India until the Gupta period (early centuries AD), and China until the 17th century. 

The idea of a spherical Earth appeared in Greek philosophy with Pythagoras (6th century BC), although most pre-Socratics (6th-5th century BC) retained the flat Earth model. Aristotle provided evidence for the spherical shape of the Earth on empirical grounds by around 330 BC. Knowledge of the spherical Earth gradually began to spread beyond the Hellenistic world from then on. 

Despite the scientific fact of Earth's sphericity, pseudoscientific flat Earth conspiracy theories are espoused by modern flat Earth societies...

The following diagram shows how the flat Earth theory presents the Earth.


Notably, proponents of the flat Earth theory do believe that the other planets in our solar system are indeed spherical. It is also taught that the sun and moon are spherical. According to the flat Earth teaching, only the Earth is flat, in all of Yahweh's (at least local) Creation, as is shown in the image below:

But the flat Earth theory really begins to especially get my attention when people claim that the Earth has to be flat - as an evidence of Creation...  In other words, the flat Earth Christians are increasingly coming to believe and teach that God made our Earth flat - amidst a universe of spherical bodies, as proof of His Creation. Thus, to disbelieve in a flat Earth is to disbelieve in Creation itself! This sobering belief is presented by a lady interviewed in the first video link below...  Check it out...

Additionally, what one can note in this video, is that the flat Earth proponents are apparently making the Bible be in opposition to science. Now, don't get me wrong...  The Bible and science are often on opposite viewpoints - but only in the area of "historical" (unobservable, untestable, unprovable "science") such as one would find in the "scientific" story of our origins. Historical science cannot be tested or demonstrated in a laboratory. The theory of Evolution is a good example of a historical "science" teaching.

But real science is testable, observable, and provable based upon demonstrated principles which can be shown in a science lab or in scientific tests. 

With demonstrated and provable scientific principles - the Bible is in full alignment. In fact, over and over again, we find that Yahweh's Word revealed it before the scientific community understood it.

But in the flat Earth theory, observable science is being ignored as one can see in the following video links (each of which is no longer than 10 minutes), which I share with you to set the stage for tomorrow's blog (which will be a Bible study on the subject).

There are several observable scientific ways to prove the Earth is round. Here are a few:

1. The curvature of the Earth is observable as you watch a ship sail off to sea

Unless you are way up in the heavens, it is impossible to see the curvature of the Earth. But you can see a demonstration of its curvature. If you are able to watch a ship sail off to sea, watch its mast and flag as it goes off into the distance. It does not fade off into the distance, instead, the mast and flag appear to slowly sink...  You will need binoculars to see it... 

This is the test that National Geographic recently did, as follows:

National Geographic's test on flat Earth vs round: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06bvdFK3vVU

2. A lunar eclipse demonstrates that the Earth is round

In a lunar eclipse, the Earth passes between the moon and sun, so that the sun projects Earth's shadow onto the Moon in the night sky. 

If the Earth were a plate-like disc and the sun and moon are moving around on opposite sides of a circular track in Earth's domed sky, as the flat Earth theory suggests, the Earth would never get in the way of the sun's light shining upon the moon. 

The reason the round shadow cast upon the moon is red is that there is some light cast upon the moon - even in shadow (for if there were no light at all, the moon would be completely invisible). But while the moon is in earth's shadow, the only light cast upon it is refracted back from Earth's atmosphere. The shadow on the moon appears red for the same reasons that a sunrise and sunset appear red.

Just being funny - since there would be no lunar eclipse if the sun and moon moved on a circular track (which never crosses) as the flat Earth teaching suggests - one astrophysicist posted the following image to show what a lunar eclipse should look like if the Earth were flat...

3. Measuring shadows across the country can prove the curvature of the Earth.

How the ancient people mathematically determined that the Earth was round: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=Mw30CgaXiQw

Professional Pilot completes the flat Earther's $100,000 challenge for the third time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=11&v=OVp_yJgSwfA

From the above videos and observable principles (and many more like them), we can see that if the Bible really teaches that the Earth is flat, it is completely at odds with provable, observable science... But Yahweh is the Creator...  and as such, He is the Author of all observable principles of science (remember, evolution is not observable, so the debate between Creation vs Evolution is not included in this category of science). 

How then, can observable science ever be at odds with the Bible? Just the suggestion brings up a deeper issue - if observable science is at odds with the Bible, then either the Scripture or God Himself must be unreliable.

But, the Bible is reliable. And Yahweh is the Creator of both Science and the Author of Scripture. So, in tomorrow's blog, we will look at what the Bible really says about the shape of the Earth.

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