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Setting The Bible Reader Straight

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Salvador

RF's Swedenborgian
A circular area of 140,000 square miles indicates a radius of 210 miles, which from Mt Everest would encompass the area in the circle in the map below.

Not much to brag about is it.

.

My grandfather piloted me in his Cessna on a clear day over central Illinois up to an altitude of ca. 14,000 feet, where I'd estimate I could see the Earth's horizon at around 100 miles away; calculating the area of a circle with a radius of 100 miles squared times pi, would've resulted in me being able to see ca. 31,400 square miles from my vantage point. This mean my field of vision from my vantage point was over 0.01 percent of our planet's surface area.

I've been a passenger on commercial jet liners flying at a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet; unfortunately, my field of vision there was limited to the sides of the plane and clouds..

What was the field of vision area size of the greatest vantage point you've ever experienced?

 
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3rdAngel

Well-Known Member
Sorry, but sojourner has got you dead to rights. :D

Strong's H7579 in the following manner: draw (15x), drawer (4x).

Outline of Biblical Usage

1 to draw (water)

A (Qal)
i to draw (water)
ii water-drawing women (participle)

Strong's H7554 in the following manner: spread... (6x), stamp (2x), stretch (1x), beat (1x), made broad (1x).

Outline of Biblical Usage

to beat, stamp, beat out, spread out, stretch

A (Qal)
to stamp, beat out
one who beats out (participle)

B (Piel) to overlay, beat out (for plating)

C (Pual) beaten out (participle)

D (Hiphil) to make a spreading (of clouds)
Source: Blue Letter Bible.​
.

Not really. You are confused. You do know that the Hebrew root word of רקע; râqa‛ H7554 (to pound or beat out) is not the Hebrew word רקיע; râqı̂ya‛ H7579 used for sky right? The root word is where the Hebrew word for sky comes from. It is not the definition of sky although God did make the sky as it says in Genesis 1. Seems you blew that one again. Hope this helps.

Your welcome :)
 

Salvador

RF's Swedenborgian
SCIENCE vs BIBLE

By

Here's a list of scientific errors in the Bible from @Bob the Unbeliever back when he was Quantum Bob on a now defunct site. Perhaps we can add the mathematical error of making pi = 3.

....;;

[11] Bible says: "the sun stopped in the sky for a bit"
Science says: "such an event would have destroyed the earth, and everyone on it"

Hypothetically, if the Earth's axis tilt were shifted such that Jericho would be the Earth's pole titled towards the Sun, the Sun would appear standing still in the sky there; the Earth could still rotate as normal without there being any of the destructive momentum force on most earthly terrestrial objects that'd occur if the Earth were to promptly stop its rotation. ....:D

If the Earth were to suddenly stop spinning, the momentum transferred from the Earth's former rotational speed would hurl most mid-latitude positioned earthly terrestrial objects at supersonic speed.. ....:eek:

 
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Evangelicalhumanist

"Truth" isn't a thing...
Premium Member
Not really. As posted above nothing in the scriptures you provided said what you claimed they said. So you have no argument. In relation to the top of the mountain. This has already been addressed to someone else in this thread. As posted earlier the scripture only says he was taken to the highest part of a mountain and shown the kingdoms of the world. It does not say how he was shown but during Jesus’ time on earth (28–30 CE), the Roman Empire was at its prime, covering all of the known world at that time, from Lusitania (ie, Portugal) and North Africa in the west to Mesopotamia (ie, Iraq) in the east, including Judea, which, for nearly a century, had lain under the mastery of Rome, as well as Gaul (ie, France), Greece and Egypt, the both of them having lost their own renowned empires long before the Roman Republic. How this was shown to JESUS is not recorded. So you simply have no argument.
you do know that on a perfectly clear day, from the top of Mount Everest -- the highest mountain on earth, you can see roughly 211 miles (340 kilometers) in any direction, don't you? That would give a view of a very, very small part of the Roman Empire!

In fact, the world’s longest line of sight is not from Everest, but from Dankova, Kyrgyzstan (5.971 m.) to Hindu Tagh, China (6.436 m.) a total distance of 538km (334 mi).
 

3rdAngel

Well-Known Member
you do know that on a perfectly clear day, from the top of Mount Everest -- the highest mountain on earth, you can see roughly 211 miles (340 kilometers) in any direction, don't you? That would give a view of a very, very small part of the Roman Empire!

In fact, the world’s longest line of sight is not from Everest, but from Dankova, Kyrgyzstan (5.971 m.) to Hindu Tagh, China (6.436 m.) a total distance of 538km (334 mi).

Depends, we are not told in the scriptures how JESUS was shown the kingdoms of the known world as pointed out in the post you are quoting from. The post was only to show who was the known world ruling power in the known world at the time Jesus was living at his temptation.
 

Salvador

RF's Swedenborgian
Depends, we are not told in the scriptures how JESUS was shown the kingdoms of the known world as pointed out in the post you are quoting from. The post was only to show who was the known world ruling power in the known world at the time Jesus was living at his temptation.

I had an out of body experience when I was 13 years old. It happened immediately after I had a fainting spell from hyperventilating and holding my breath in such a way that I forced myself to pass out. When I woke up from this fainting spell, I was floating outside and above my body. While I was floating outside and above my body, everything in the room started spinning around me and then became brightly illuminated with a blinding white light which blinded me until I descended back into my body. I had a greater field of vision being disembodied consciousness than my field of vision I have being embodied.

Have you ever had such an out of body experience?

 

3rdAngel

Well-Known Member
I had an out of body experience when I was 13 years old. It happened immediately after I had a fainting spell from hyperventilating and holding my breath in such a way that I forced myself to pass out. When I woke up from this fainting spell, I was floating outside and above my body. While I was floating outside and above my body, everything in the room started spinning around me and then became brightly illuminated with a blinding white light which blinded me until I descended back into my body. I had a greater field of vision being disembodied consciousness than my field of vision being embodied.

Have you ever had such an out of body experience?

Me personally no. But there is many accounts of people having visions from God all through the bible. Some say in the body or out of it they did not know.

1 Corinthians 12:1-6
[1], It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.
[2], I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knows; such an one caught up to the third heaven.
[3], And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knows
[4], How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
[5], Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in my infirmities.
[6], For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he sees me to be, or that he hears of me.

I believe that God can make us to see what he wants us to see and know and can use many different ways to achieve this.
 

shmogie

Well-Known Member
SCIENCE vs BIBLE

By

Here's a list of scientific errors in the Bible from @Bob the Unbeliever back when he was Quantum Bob on a now defunct site. Perhaps we can add the mathematical error of making pi = 3.

[1] Bible says: "Lightning is from God"
Science says: "Lightning is static atmospheric effect."

[2] Bible says: "The world is flat".
Science says: "the world is an oblate spheroid."

[3] Bible says: "mental disease is caused by demons"
Science says: "mental disease is caused by brain damage of some sort or a chemical imbalance"

[4] Bible says: "sickness is caused by evil spirits"
Science says: "sickness is caused by microbes or genetic damage"

[5] Bible says: "the sky is a clear dome made of crystal"
Science says: "the sky is made of nitrogen, oxygen, water vapor, carbon dioxide and other trace gasses"

[6] Bible says: "the flat disc of the earth is held up by 4 pillars"
Science says: "the earth is roughly a sphere, and is held in orbit by gravity"

[7] Bible says: "people have souls"
Science says: "can this 'soul' be measured? If not, likely does not exist"

[8] Bible says: "the sun revolves around the earth"
Science says: "the earth revolves around the sun"

[9] Bible says: "the moon is a light in the sky"
Science says: "the moon reflects the sun's radiation, and is not a light in an of itself"

[10] Bible says: "the earth was flooded by water, all at once"
Science says: "impossible-- insufficient water, and such an event would have destroyed all life in the oceans"

[11] Bible says: "the sun stopped in the sky for a bit"
Science says: "such an event would have destroyed the earth, and everyone on it"

[12] Bible says: "from a high mountain, you can see the whole earth"
Science says: "Impossible on a spherical earth. Only possible if the earth was a flat disc"

[13] Bible says: "Snakes and donkeys can talk"
Science says: "snakes do not have vocal cords, cannot talk. Donkeys do not have proper vocal cords, cannot talk"

[14] Bible says: "you can make a woman from just a man's rib"
Science says: "you maybe could make another man-- but not a woman-- the DNA is wrong"

[15] Bible says: "bats are birds"
Science says: "bats are mammals, with fir and mammary glands--birds have neither of these"

[16] Bible says: "insects have 4 legs"
Science says: "all insects have 6 legs of varying degree"



The Bible attempts to do what science does, but with wrong guesses. The creation story is an attempt at explaining what modern science explains better.

Every scripture is removed from surrounding context - the verses preceding and following it. When you claim that a scripture is taken out of context, you are implying that excising relevant language has changed the apparent meaning of the words, as when I reduce "The fool says in his heart, "There is no God."" to, the Bible says "There is no God."

So, when you make the claim that something was taken out of context, you have actually said nothing until you restore relevant context that shows us that the scripture should be understood to mean something that contradicts the apparent meaning of the scripture. If you can't do that, you've done nothing.



I have the opposite experience when I see people like you trying to sanitize the errors in the Bible. It confirms my belief that that book was written only by fallible men that made a lot of errors, something the believer is not allowed to admit. And so, we see what we have seen on this thread - apologists trying to create just-so stories to try to rectify biblical errors. If I were to show you a picture of a boy throwing a ball upward in the noonday sun, and the Bible said that he would throw it downward at midnight, some apologist would explain that from the other side of the world, where it is midnight, the boy's upward is downward, hence the Bible got it right again. Next.



If proof is that which convinces, who have you proven anything to? Who did you convince that you are correct? Not me.

If no minds were changed, you've proven nothing to anybody. It's up to them to tell you whether you proved something to them. It's analogous to a comedian telling us that he was hilarious at last night's stand-up show, when nobody laughed and the audience walked out thinking he was unfunny. That's the audience's call.



Nope. The Bible is replete with internal contradictions, failed prophecies, unkept promises, moral and intellectual errors committed by an allegedly perfect god, and errors of history and science. You can't make them go away with apologetics, however contorted they may be.
  • "When the philosopher's argument becomes tedious, complicated, and opaque, it is usually a sign that he is attempting to prove as true to the intellect what is plainly false to common sense・- Edward Abbey


This subject - ancient errors - would be irrelevant if there weren't those claiming that this book is different from all other books by virtue of being divinely authored (some say inspired, but that's a weasel word in this context). If the Bible isn't the thoughts of a deity, then it's just another book like the Iliad or Odyssey.

You can see from their reactions how hard at work the believers are refuting the claims of the OP., so I don't think that they consider these objections trifling. They also toggle back and forth from the words being transcendent and prescient when that suits, to them being ordinary people who didn't have the benefit of the modern perspective when that suits.

(Digression - although one can tell its meaning from the way it's used, can anybody tell me what the abbreviation OP stands for? - opening paragraph, original post, something else?)



Agreed, but isn't that exactly what is being done by these apologists?



No. We assume that if these scriptures were authored by a god, they would be correct. If you're going to treat them as the mundane and incorrect ideas or ancient people, then I have no argument with you. Of course these people didn't know what we know today and could not be expected to avoid multiple errors.



Who is to say what the message is when the language is poetry? Poetry is deliberately vague language that the reader is expected to project personal meaning into. When we want to avoid that, as when writing a will, giving directions to find something, or writing out a recipe, we want to be crystal clear, which is what a god that wishes to be understood ought to do as well.

Here's some poetry from Bob Dylan's Desolation Row. Can you tell me what it means? No, you can't. You can only tell me what images it conjures up for you, which are likely to be different from mine and everybody else's. This is no way to communicate important information:

Dr. Filth, he keeps his world
Inside of a leather cup
But all his sexless patients
They’re trying to blow it up

Now his nurse, some local loser
She’s in charge of the cyanide hole
And she also keeps the cards that read
“Have Mercy on His Soul”

They all play on the pennywhistle
You can hear them blow
If you lean your head out far enough
From Desolation Row
An interesting list, with a couple I have't seen before. ALL are refutable. WHERE in the Bible these alleged errors occur is required.

The Bible does not say the earth is flat. It does not say that from a high mountain YOU or I can see the whole earth.

You say that the soul doesn't exist because it can't be measured. Can thoughts be measured ? How much do they weigh ? Ditto for dreams.

Context is critical. The actual words are critical.

By the standard used in this list I am pretty sure you have at some point in the past stated that you can fly, i.e. " I flew from X to Y yesterday, and I will fly back to Y in a week".

So, you get me chapter and verse, and I will pare your list way down.
 

sooda

Veteran Member
Depends, we are not told in the scriptures how JESUS was shown the kingdoms of the known world as pointed out in the post you are quoting from. The post was only to show who was the known world ruling power in the known world at the time Jesus was living at his temptation.

You think Jesus could see from Egypt to Babylon?
 

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
Nonsense, we posted up all the references you provided and went through all the texts one by one and they did not say what you were claiming they were saying. So yes you were twisting the scriptures to try and make them say things they were not. The fact is your wrong and you cannot prove your claims from the bible and it is annoying you. Be honest here show me a bible text that says the earth is flat? If you cannot why do you pretend that the bible is saying things it is not? This is simply dishonesty on your behalf.
No, you only misinterpreted them from a very biased perspective. That is not refuting. The problem was that even with your poor reinterpretation the verses still fail. Even the "Roman world" was far more than a tenth of a percent of Earth's surface area which would be all you could see from Everest. From any local mountain, which is what you would be limited to, it would even be less than that.

There is a huge problem with apologetics, sooner or later it always becomes "lying for Jesus".
 

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
Nonsense, we posted up all the references you provided and went through all the texts one by one and they did not say what you were claiming they were saying. So yes you were twisting the scriptures to try and make them say things they were not. The fact is your wrong and you cannot prove your claims from the bible and it is annoying you. Be honest here show me a bible text that says the earth is flat? If you cannot why do you pretend that the bible is saying things it is not? This is simply dishonesty on your behalf.
No, you only misinterpreted them from a very biased perspective. That is not refuting. The problem was that even with your poor reinterpretation the verses still fail. Even the "Roman world" was far more than a tenth of a percent of Earth's surface area which would be all you could see from Everest. From any local mountain, which is what you would be limited to, it would even be less than that.

There is a huge problem with apologetics, sooner or later it always becomes "lying for Jesus".
 

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
I would not know you are yet to provide any errors as shown above. Does this not worry you? It should. How would you feel if you find out too late the the scriptures were all true standing before God on judgment day? I will leave you with the last say. Seems you need it more than I do, as you are simply denying what others share with you and only repeating youself now so the conversation does not seem to be going anywhere.

Thanks for the discussion though it was nice talking with you :)
This indicates that you cannot approach the Bible honestly. But here is an easy one, if God cannot lie then the Noah's Ark story is clearly a myth.
 

shmogie

Well-Known Member
You think Jesus could see from Egypt to Babylon?
If He were just another guy, as you believe, of course He couldn't.

However, since He was God in the flesh, involved in a supernatural confrontation with an extremely powerful supernatural being, He could see anything,
 

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
If He were just another guy, as you believe, of course He couldn't.

However, since He was God in the flesh, involved in a supernatural confrontation with an extremely powerful supernatural being, He could see anything,
Then you really need to make up your mind about some of the myths of the Bible.
 

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
If He were just another guy, as you believe, of course He couldn't.

However, since He was God in the flesh, involved in a supernatural confrontation with an extremely powerful supernatural being, He could see anything,
Then you really need to make up your mind about some of the myths of the Bible.
 

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
you do know that on a perfectly clear day, from the top of Mount Everest -- the highest mountain on earth, you can see roughly 211 miles (340 kilometers) in any direction, don't you? That would give a view of a very, very small part of the Roman Empire!

In fact, the world’s longest line of sight is not from Everest, but from Dankova, Kyrgyzstan (5.971 m.) to Hindu Tagh, China (6.436 m.) a total distance of 538km (334 mi).
Yes, the longest line of sight relies upon the line of sight from one tall peak to another. Anything beyond the 211 miles that was low lying would be below the horizon. But it gets worse for our Bible defender. The mountains anywhere near Israel are much lower. By trying to limit it to the Roman world he limits it to mountains in the Roman world which are at best half the height of Everest giving a far nearer horizon. And since area is proportional to radius squared cutting the radius in half would mean a fourth of the area visible from Everest. An insignificant amount of the Earth gets even smaller.
 

sooda

Veteran Member
No, you only misinterpreted them from a very biased perspective. That is not refuting. The problem was that even with your poor reinterpretation the verses still fail.

Even the "Roman world" was far more than a tenth of a percent of Earth's surface area which would be all you could see from Everest. From any local mountain, which is what you would be limited to, it would even be less than that.

There is a huge problem with apologetics, sooner or later it always becomes "lying for Jesus".

LOLOL

roman+empire.jpg
 

sooda

Veteran Member
Yes, the longest line of sight relies upon the line of sight from one tall peak to another. Anything beyond the 211 miles that was low lying would be below the horizon.

But it gets worse for our Bible defender. The mountains anywhere near Israel are much lower. By trying to limit it to the Roman world he limits it to mountains in the Roman world which are at best half the height of Everest giving a far nearer horizon. And since area is proportional to radius squared cutting the radius in half would mean a fourth of the area visible from Everest. An insignificant amount of the Earth gets even smaller.

1200px-Roman_Empire_69.svg.png
 
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