Question to theists.

[Glacier]

Astounding indeed! The earth IS oval shaped... at least it was when I went to school.

[Poindexter]

Asking someone to suddenly apply reason to dispel a lifelong companion who's provided such comfort in thier life, is simply unrealistic. It's why they mock evolution by reducing it to watering rocks. It's a well rehearsed defense mechanism and is a waste of time to try and defeat.

[Geckonidae]

So you have no clue how life began yet you mock peoples beliefs? why do people do that?

yes, I know the bible tells a story, some stories it took science years to prove true.. e.g. the book of job which was written over 3000 years ago told us god hung the earth in space on nothing and it was oval shaped was years ahead of science.. we still had people in the 1400s thinking you would sail off the earth.

Its ok,, I will still attempt to live my life to the teachings of the new testament ,, if I am wrong there is no harm or loss.

you keep watering your pet rocks until they grow gills.

I did a bit of reading, and apparently the book of Job was written sometime around 600BC, give or take about a hundred years. We don't actually know exactly when it was written. We do know that in that same time there were some groups of people who believed the earth to be flat, and others for whom it was obviously round. Really, any group of people who did any amount of travelling could have figured that out fairly easily. Muslims also like to claim that Mohammad was the first one to write about the earth being round...also wrong. And while the book of Job seems to get this one partially correct, even if he was just writing down something that people had discovered before him, there are other Bible passages that are just as wrong. Apparently it was possible to climb a mountain so high that all the kingdoms of the earth could be seen. Can't do that on a sphere. Apparently God would come with the clouds and all eyes would see him. Well...maybe God will alter the laws of physics to make that happen.

Trying to say that the Bible explains scientific principles before any humans has discovered them is a really lame argument. Some of these statements are unverifiable, others rely of very loose interpretations, and others are flat out wrong. Didn't the Bible also refer to bats as a type of bird?

Mock my pet rocks again...I enjoyed that.

[janalta]

Astounding indeed! The earth IS oval shaped... at least it was when I went to school.

No, it's not an oval. It's a sphere.
An oblate spheroid to be exact.
A sphere or three dimensional circle, which is very slightly compressed at each pole. 'Slightly' being a difference in circumference of only 20 km from poles to equator.
A difference so slight that its not even detectable in images from space.
Not an oval.

[Glacier]

Not an oval.

o·val
ˈōvəl/
adjective
having a rounded and slightly elongated outline or shape, like that of an egg.

P.S. I'm not defending the position that the Bible inserts science that was unknown to anyone at the time, only drawing the conclusion that some of your anally retentive nitpicking is akin to a Kompili "gotcha" moment.

[janalta]

Asserting that the earth is egg shaped is hardly a gotcha moment.

[Hmmm]

Astounding indeed! The earth IS oval shaped... at least it was when I went to school.

Which Bible translation calls it an oval shape? Many say circle or sphere. And from a human standpoint, the Bible's description is accurate. When one looks at the Earth from space it looks like a circle or sphere. The Bible was not meant to be a science textbook, so don't expect it to spell things out the way a university science professor would.

It doesnt say the Earth is flat and it doesnt say its sitting on elephants or a giant turtle. It says its basically floating in space and its a circle shape. These are accurate from a human standpoint, minus the more specific scientific explanations. Any person who would ever look at our Earth from space would see exactly what the Bible described.

[Glacier]

Asserting that the earth is egg shaped is hardly a gotcha moment.

Exactly! 9/11 was in inside job for the same reason.

And Hmmm, I never said that the Bible said it was an oval, only that scientifically it has an oval shape, like an egg. This is fact that we all learned in school, and is irrespective of what the Bible says.

[Poindexter]

P.S. I'm not defending the position that the Bible inserts science that was unknown to anyone at the time, only drawing the conclusion that some of your anally retentive nitpicking is akin to a Kompili "gotcha" moment.

IMO the bible and science are mutually exclusive. They couldn't be further apart in the way they interpret the world. Science requires an observer where as religion counts on the unobservable.

I'm sure there are studies that have looked into just how far back the bible has set science because it has to have been centuries if not a millennium. All the previous religions that embraced science wiped out so that any gains they had made were erased. In almost every form of science previous scholarly pursuits deemed to be the work of the devil and persecuted.

I try to be inclusive about the good things the bible has done but it's surpassed by a wide margin in the harm it's caused. Even with its track record being so incredibly bad we continue to allow the bible to dictate how we pursue new scientific studies such as stem cell research. IMO if there even is such a thing as evil and good religion is by far the greater evil of the two. And unfortunately the bible isn't going anywhere soon and will continue to plague humankind into the next century, that is if it doesn't kill us all first.

[Geckonidae]

Which Bible translation calls it an oval shape? Many say circle or sphere. And from a human standpoint, the Bible's description is accurate. When one looks at the Earth from space it looks like a circle or sphere. The Bible was not meant to be a science textbook, so don't expect it to spell things out the way a university science professor would.

It doesnt say the Earth is flat and it doesnt say its sitting on elephants or a giant turtle. It says its basically floating in space and its a circle shape. These are accurate from a human standpoint, minus the more specific scientific explanations. Any person who would ever look at our Earth from space would see exactly what the Bible described.

Exactly...it isn't a science textbook. People need to stop claiming that the Bible, Koran or Torah provided scientific information that nobody else could have know at that time. It's not like the Bible tells you how to build a transistor, or explains magnetic fields. The Bible was written by multiple people, and it makes sense that they would describe things differently depending on their own understanding at the time. So one guy understands that the Earth must be round, and another thinks that you could theoretically have something happening so high up in the sky that everyone on the planet could see it. Apparently Job was smarter than that other guy.

[janalta]

Seems legit.

Not what they taught at my schools...but whatever you need to do to be right.
An oblate spheroid is not an oval it is not egg shaped and never will be.

[Glacier]

Yes, egg-shaped a bad simile. Pumpkin shaped would be more accurate. Shall we get back on topic?

[Hmmm]

What's the topic again please?

[janalta]

What's the topic again please?

Something about theists I think.

Oh yeah....providing proof of god's existence....

[averagejoe]

Joe....correct, all I was doing was providing my opinion.
The fact is though that religious text is not proof of god in any way, shape or form. They are nothing but books written by men... books of hearsay, myths and stories. Which ones? All of them?
The ten commandments were the word of god.....as told in a story book written by men.

God did not right those stone tablets....a man did. He just told people that god spoke to him.....what proof is there of that ? None. You forgot to mention that King Solomon built a massive temple in Jerusalem to house the Ark of the Covenant which carried the original 10 Commandments received by Moses and written by the finger of God.
Prophets say god speaks to them and shows himself to them....funny how he never does it in public, when there are millions of people around to witness it. He has shown himself numerous times to Israelites thuoght history.
Nope, always one on one....so the only proof is just one guy's say so.
One has to be pretty gullible to believe it. You provide no proof to back up your statements. I have provided many. Except what your atheist websites teach you.

I don't care how old a rock is....it's still just a rock. A Stone with a history. You seem to leave out a lot of what I post.The fact that people have been worshipping a rock for centuries because they believe stories about it only goes to show how ridiculous religion really is. Also, the Stone follows all the Royalty of the Tribe of Judah. Oh that silly little rock....