 |
 |
Though there are several quotes by early church fathers endorsing a flat/geocentric earth, I am only going to
present quotes that come from those who use Scripture to back up their opinion (as these are the quotes
commonly cited by critics). This is by no means a complete list:
"But as to the fable that there are Antipodes, that is to say, men on the opposite side of the earth, where the sun
rises when it sets to us, men who walk with their feet opposite ours, that is on no ground credible. And, indeed, it
is not affirmed that this has been learned by historical knowledge, but by scientific conjecture, on the ground that
the earth is suspended within the concavity of the sky... But they do not remark that, although it be supposed or
scientifically demonstrated that the world is of a round and spherical form... For Scripture...gives no false
information." St. Augustine, The City of God Book 16 Chapter 9
In the first place, then, when arguing with them about the spherical figure, we showed that this figure was not
possible, and was indeed quite inconsistent with the nature of things...as we said before, that the heaven is fixed
and does not revolve...Why do you then, when beleaguered with difficulties, utter absurdities contrary to nature,
in opposition to scripture? Cosmas, Christian Topography Book I
"But to want to affirm that the sun really is fixed in the center of the heavens and only revolves around itself
without traveling from east to west, and that the earth is situated in the third sphere and revolves with great
speed around the sun, is a very dangerous thing, not only by irritating all the philosophers and scholastic
theologians, but also by injuring our holy faith and rendering the Holy Scriptures false."
Bellarmine, Letter on Galileo's Theories
Random Remark: Is it that hard to look at the sky and see that the sun, moon, and stars are round and to
think maybe... just maybe... the earth is round too? :-)
Instead of dissecting these quotes one at a time as misquotes or out of context interpretations, the short answer
would be that these quotes all originated from fallible humans. These individuals held onto the current
consensus of scientific teachings that the earth was flat. The point is, these quotes come from man- not the Bible.
Because we explore this matter in depth on this page, I won't spend too much time on it here. The heart of our
answer can be found in the fact that the erroneous beliefs of the above individuals were caused by incorrect
interpretation of Scripture. Just as some Jews of antiquity were confused by the dualism of Messianic
prophecy, just as some Christians today interpret the Bible as foretelling a rapture while others do not, just as
there are those who believe in a preterist view of prophecy fulfillment and those who don't, the same can be said
of those who believed in a flat/geocentric earth verses those who believed in a spherical earth.
CONCLUSION: It would be unwise to "chunk Jesus into the garbage can" due to the error of humans, for nothing
in the Bible contradicts what we know about science.
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |
| Bookmark Us (Ctrl + d) |
