Sometimes the argument is proposed that the writers of the Bible were simply primitive men, and that if their words had been truly inspired then they would have corrected ancient errors like the notion that the earth was flat.
This argument seems reasonable on the surface until you actually look into it a little, and find out that the word of God actually did teach very clearly from as far back as 800 BCE that the earth was a sphere, and that it is likely this source which inspired several ancient Greeks to take the same position hundreds of years later.
The Hebrew text of Isaiah 40:22 states as follows: הַיֹּשֵׁב עַל־חוּג הָאָרֶץ וְיֹשְׁבֶיהָ כַּחֲגָבִים הַנּוֹטֶה כַדֹּק שָׁמַיִם וַיִּמְתָּחֵם כָּאֹהֶל לָשָׁבֶת׃.
This translates as "The one who dwells above the sphere of the Earth, and whose inhabitants are like grasshoppers; Who stretches the cosmos like a curtain, expands them out like a tent to dwell."
The LXX (Greek translation of the Old Testament) likewise states as follows: ὁ κατέχων τὸν γῦρον τῆς γῆς καὶ οἱ ἐνοικοῦντες ἐν αὐτῇ ὡς ἀκρίδες ὁ στήσας ὡς καμάραν τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ διατείνας ὡς σκηνὴν κατοικεῖν.
The literal here is "It is He who comprehends the circumference of the earth." The Greek word γῦρον literally means "roundness," so in both the Hebrew and Greek texts you have the same statement being made. The Lord God was telling humanity 2,800 years ago that the earth was round, not flat.
Later Greek writers would follow suit on this thought. Roughly 500 years later (300 BCE), Aristotle taught that the earth was round based on several naturalistic observations, such as that the shape of the earth's shadow upon the moon was round during an eclipse, and a hundred years later the Greek philosopher Erastothenes managed to calculate the circumference of the earth with astonishing accuracy through the use of mathematics.
This continued to be the prevailing thought throughout the Middle Ages, for the roundness of the earth was also well known to the educated Romans, Arabs and medieval Christian monks. Thomas Aquinas, writing in the 13th century, took for granted that his readers would already be familiar with this fact, stating, "the same scientific truth belongs to different sciences: thus both the physicist and the astronomer prove the earth to be round.” Kepler, Galileo and Newton also would have been as familiar with the roundness of the earth as we are today.
So where did "the earth is flat" idea come from? The Wiki on Flat Earth theory provides what I think is the answer. It gained the traction it seems to have today as a result of atheists and agnostics foisting it upon society back in the 19th century as a way to convince people that Christianity was incompatible with science, when in fact nothing was farther from the truth.
The myth that people in the Middle Ages thought the Earth is flat... gained currency in the 19th century, thanks to inaccurate histories such as John William Draper's History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science (1874) and Andrew Dickson White's A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1896). Atheists and agnostics championed the conflict thesis for their own purposes, but historical research gradually demonstrated that Draper and White had propagated more fantasy than fact in their efforts to prove that science and religion are locked in eternal conflict.
en.wikipedia.org
Other erroneous works and the false assumptions that bolstered this myth are mentioned in the article. Suffice it to say, the thoughts of the common man are rarely something he adopts by accident. His thoughts have often been given to him by people who do not have science or truth as their objective. They have false teachings which they wish to promote, and take advantage of the lack of education among the masses to push these ideas forward, regardless of what genuine science knows to be an utter falsehood.
This argument seems reasonable on the surface until you actually look into it a little, and find out that the word of God actually did teach very clearly from as far back as 800 BCE that the earth was a sphere, and that it is likely this source which inspired several ancient Greeks to take the same position hundreds of years later.
The Hebrew text of Isaiah 40:22 states as follows: הַיֹּשֵׁב עַל־חוּג הָאָרֶץ וְיֹשְׁבֶיהָ כַּחֲגָבִים הַנּוֹטֶה כַדֹּק שָׁמַיִם וַיִּמְתָּחֵם כָּאֹהֶל לָשָׁבֶת׃.
This translates as "The one who dwells above the sphere of the Earth, and whose inhabitants are like grasshoppers; Who stretches the cosmos like a curtain, expands them out like a tent to dwell."
The LXX (Greek translation of the Old Testament) likewise states as follows: ὁ κατέχων τὸν γῦρον τῆς γῆς καὶ οἱ ἐνοικοῦντες ἐν αὐτῇ ὡς ἀκρίδες ὁ στήσας ὡς καμάραν τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ διατείνας ὡς σκηνὴν κατοικεῖν.
The literal here is "It is He who comprehends the circumference of the earth." The Greek word γῦρον literally means "roundness," so in both the Hebrew and Greek texts you have the same statement being made. The Lord God was telling humanity 2,800 years ago that the earth was round, not flat.
Later Greek writers would follow suit on this thought. Roughly 500 years later (300 BCE), Aristotle taught that the earth was round based on several naturalistic observations, such as that the shape of the earth's shadow upon the moon was round during an eclipse, and a hundred years later the Greek philosopher Erastothenes managed to calculate the circumference of the earth with astonishing accuracy through the use of mathematics.
This continued to be the prevailing thought throughout the Middle Ages, for the roundness of the earth was also well known to the educated Romans, Arabs and medieval Christian monks. Thomas Aquinas, writing in the 13th century, took for granted that his readers would already be familiar with this fact, stating, "the same scientific truth belongs to different sciences: thus both the physicist and the astronomer prove the earth to be round.” Kepler, Galileo and Newton also would have been as familiar with the roundness of the earth as we are today.
So where did "the earth is flat" idea come from? The Wiki on Flat Earth theory provides what I think is the answer. It gained the traction it seems to have today as a result of atheists and agnostics foisting it upon society back in the 19th century as a way to convince people that Christianity was incompatible with science, when in fact nothing was farther from the truth.
The myth that people in the Middle Ages thought the Earth is flat... gained currency in the 19th century, thanks to inaccurate histories such as John William Draper's History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science (1874) and Andrew Dickson White's A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1896). Atheists and agnostics championed the conflict thesis for their own purposes, but historical research gradually demonstrated that Draper and White had propagated more fantasy than fact in their efforts to prove that science and religion are locked in eternal conflict.
Myth of the flat Earth - Wikipedia
Other erroneous works and the false assumptions that bolstered this myth are mentioned in the article. Suffice it to say, the thoughts of the common man are rarely something he adopts by accident. His thoughts have often been given to him by people who do not have science or truth as their objective. They have false teachings which they wish to promote, and take advantage of the lack of education among the masses to push these ideas forward, regardless of what genuine science knows to be an utter falsehood.
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