(March 15, 2023 at 10:18 pm)Ferrocyanide Wrote:

(March 15, 2023 at 11:14 am)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: Bingo lolly. There’s a reason why there are three billy goats Gruff, seven dwarfs, twelve Labours of Hercules, etc. 

Numbers is magic, they is.

Boru

12 h in a day and 12 h at night.
If the numbers 3, 7, 40 are also magical, why didn’t they choose to have 3 h for day and 3 h at night? Why did they go with 12? I have no idea.

Look at analog clocks. What do you notice? I notice that all of them follow a pattern. The number 12 is at the top. The Sun is suppose to reach its highest point in the sky at 12 PM.
Is that why 12 is at the top of analog clocks?

Why do the clock hands spin in that direction? Does it have a significance?
If we place an analog clock on the ground, face up, is the hour hand suppose to follow the movement of the Sun?
Does it have a religious significance?
Did ancient people dance around a fire clockwise?
Did the priests walk around the altar of sacrifice clockwise?

Why 60 min in an hour? Why 60 sec in 1 min?

You can look these things up, you know. But I'll give you a hint: The answer to (most of) your questions has to do with astronomy and Babylonian arithmetic.

Boru

(March 15, 2023 at 9:51 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote: From the Book of Job: "Who has put wisdom in the innermost being, Or given understanding to the mind? Who can count the clouds by wisdom, And pour out the water jars of the heavens."

So how do you recommend approaching such a text? Well, IMNSHO starting with the assumption that ancient peoples believed in literal jars in the sky pouring water from above would be a remarkably ignorant and arrogant hueristic.

Yeah, atheists, are you so ignorant that you think that Christians actually believe all that crap from the Bible? It is so arrogantly ignorant that you think that Christians believe that a man lived in a belly of a big fish, or that donkey talked, and you are at your dumbest when you think that Christians believe that a virgin got pregnant and then some dumb carpenter walked on water and resurrected from the dead. I mean give me a break!

(March 14, 2023 at 7:22 pm)Anomalocaris Wrote: He said all the days were 777 years.   Maybe those years just had more days.

Just a then current fashion. "All his days were numbered 777 years." i.e. his days totaled up to 777 years.

And remember, most people would glaze right over when being hit with any kind of higher math* in those days.

*Higher than 5 + 3 = something.

(March 16, 2023 at 5:57 am)Fake Messiah Wrote:

(March 15, 2023 at 9:51 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote: From the Book of Job: "Who has put wisdom in the innermost being, Or given understanding to the mind? Who can count the clouds by wisdom, And pour out the water jars of the heavens."

So how do you recommend approaching such a text? Well,  IMNSHO starting with the assumption that ancient peoples believed in literal jars in the sky pouring water from above would be a remarkably ignorant and arrogant hueristic.

Yeah, atheists, are you so ignorant that you think that Christians actually believe all that crap from the Bible? It is so arrogantly ignorant that you think that Christians believe that a man lived in a belly of a big fish, or that donkey talked, and you are at your dumbest when you think that Christians believe that a virgin got pregnant and then some dumb carpenter walked on water and resurrected from the dead. I mean give me a break!

Actually, I've yet to meet a Jehovah's Witness who didn't believe all that crap. 

While we're at it, how many angels can actually dance on a pinhead?

Or in a pinhead, for that matter?

(March 16, 2023 at 8:39 am)Gawdzilla Sama Wrote:

(March 14, 2023 at 7:22 pm)Anomalocaris Wrote: He said all the days were 777 years.   Maybe those years just had more days.

Just a then current fashion. "All his days were numbered 777 years." i.e. his days totaled up to 777 years.

And remember, most people would glaze right over when being hit with any kind of higher math* in those days.

*Higher than 5 + 3 = something.

Apparently even in these days the eyes of people such as Neo still glaze over when confronted by pretenses by the Bible at doing math not much higher than 5+3.

Like how much water would be needed to flood the entire fucking world to kill off a few misbehaving souls?

(March 16, 2023 at 9:26 pm)Gawdzilla Sama Wrote: Like how much water would be needed to flood the entire fucking world to kill off a few misbehaving souls?

Doing the math is a fun exercise.
One person had said 3.25 times all the water in the oceans.
My number came up to 3.12.

We can do the math today, and probably this should be demonstrated in math class to children, bc sufficient information about the Earth has been collected.
Long ago, it was not possible to calculate this and the people did not have a reason to suspect that the story is bullshit.

On top of that, it was reasonable for humans long ago that the minimum number of humans needed to repopulate was 1 male and 1 female (Adam + Eve).
So having a set of Noah+wife and his 3 sons+wives was reasonable.
Collecting 1 male and 1 female was reasonable to them (or 7 clean animals).

Of course, the believer can just claim that his god is omnipotent and did his magic to bring the water from elsewhere and then made it disappear again.
For some reason, none of them make that claim.

(March 14, 2023 at 11:59 am)Ferrocyanide Wrote: Hmmmm Lamech lived 802 y and later on it says he lived 777 y and he died.

Hmm where did you get those numbers? The KJV says "an hundred eighty and two years."

Thats 182 not 802.

Edit: My bad, this was already mentioned in the comments lol.

(March 16, 2023 at 5:57 am)Fake Messiah Wrote:

(March 15, 2023 at 9:51 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote: From the Book of Job: "Who has put wisdom in the innermost being, Or given understanding to the mind? Who can count the clouds by wisdom, And pour out the water jars of the heavens."

So how do you recommend approaching such a text? Well, IMNSHO starting with the assumption that ancient peoples believed in literal jars in the sky pouring water from above would be a remarkably ignorant and arrogant hueristic.

Yeah, atheists, are you so ignorant that you think that Christians actually believe all that crap from the Bible? It is so arrogantly ignorant that you think that Christians believe that a man lived in a belly of a big fish, or that donkey talked, and you are at your dumbest when you think that Christians believe that a virgin got pregnant and then some dumb carpenter walked on water and resurrected from the dead. I mean give me a break!

Be that as it may, IMHO literal-minded approaches rob people of texts' depth from reaching them, regardless of whether they are JW-AssemblyOfGod-MoodyBible-SouthernBaptist-types or internet atheists. I know I have barely scratched the texts and look forward to understanding them more...particularly in terms of the ancient middle east mindset.