Scientific ACCURACIES in the Bible

[Justtristo]

The Greeks, of course.

Eratosthenes

Eratosthenes (276–194 BC) estimated Earth's circumference around 240 BC. He had heard that in Syene the Sun was directly overhead at the summer solstice whereas in Alexandria it still cast a shadow. Using the differing angles the shadows made as the basis of his trigonometric calculations he estimated a circumference of around 250,000 stades. The length of a 'stade' is not precisely known, but Eratosthenes' figure only has an error of around five to fifteen percent.[17][18][19] Eratosthenes used rough estimates and round numbers, but depending on the length of the stadion, his result is within a margin of between 2% and 20% of the actual meridional circumference, 40,008 kilometres (24,860 mi). Note that Eratosthenes could only measure the circumference of the Earth by assuming that the distance to the Sun is so great that the rays of sunlight are essentially parallel.

The more you read about Greco-Roman science the more amazed about how much was lost during the Dark Ages.

However the level of scientific advancement is not surprising, considering that Greco-Roman philosophy (particularly in ethics and other areas), reached a level that the Christian west would not get to until the 17th and 18th centuries!. For example; the Stoics were advocating the brotherhood or man and condemning the institution of slavery. That did not emerge in the Christian West until the 18th century!.

[hoppimike]

Thing is, for every convincing positive account, there's a convincing negative account!!

http://www.atheistfoundation.org.au/arti...r-just-man

And I really am an atheist because I personally don't believe a god exists but also agnostic as I don't claim certainty. I simply want to know the TRUTH.

I personally am still veering on the side that Jesus was just a bit of a myth, at least in terms of what he actually did during his life. Why? Because it stands out so much on history and just doesn't make SENSE in the context of what we now know about our history and origins.

Although what that guy in the vid said about Jesus inspiring so many followers to start a church is interesting, but then he as far as I can see presents the most obvious case against his OWN point there by saying Mohammed was a fake. Yet look how many followers Mohammed amassed!! And Mohammed and Jesus AFAIK said conflicting things.

Just because someone amasses a lot of followers doesn't necessarily on its own mean they were in actuality anything special (other than convincing!)

[Minimalist]

The more you read about Greco-Roman science the more amazed about how much was lost during the Dark Ages.

Beware of xtian thugs with torches.

[hoppimike]

One huge problem here can be summed up by the expression "The proof of the pudding is in the eating"!

By that I mean... if the Bible truly was teeming with modern day knowledge... why was the church not a DRIVING force behind scientific progress, as opposed to a limiting force?

And if it's all just written too ambiguously for man to understand (hidden in riddles and metaphor and so on) then it's probably going to be quite hard to determine whether it was correct even in hindsight.

I thought of this while watching this:

[Justtristo]

The more you read about Greco-Roman science the more amazed about how much was lost during the Dark Ages.

Beware of xtian thugs with torches.

To be fair Richard Carrier, only goes as far as Christians just not being interested in ancient science so that these works got preserved. For example every letter of St Jerome was preserved by the Christian copyists. Likewise we have tons of manuscripts of various "Church Fathers", however very little of the ancient scientists.

It is more a case of sheer disinterest in science to antipathy by early Christians who rightly inferred that scientific discoveries often challenged biblical propositions.

[Angrboda]

Beware of xtian thugs with torches.

To be fair Richard Carrier, only goes as far as Christians just not being interested in ancient science so that these works got preserved. For example every letter of St Jerome was preserved by the Christian copyists. Likewise we have tons of manuscripts of various "Church Fathers", however very little of the ancient scientists.

It is more a case of sheer disinterest in science to antipathy by early Christians who rightly inferred that scientific discoveries often challenged biblical propositions.

That, and when power shifted to Rome and a church based in Latin, fewer people were around to translate the old texts from Greek into Latin, so the texts were still around, but nobody could read them. The situation in Muslim countries was a little different, so there were Arabic translations of the Greek texts, and some of the Latin translations of Greek texts were from the Arabic rather than the original Greek.

[Justtristo]

That, and when power shifted to Rome and a church based in Latin, fewer people were around to translate the old texts from Greek into Latin, so the texts were still around, but nobody could read them. The situation in Muslim countries was a little different, so there were Arabic translations of the Greek texts, and some of the Latin translations of Greek texts were from the Arabic rather than the original Greek.

Actually much the same process as I have described occurred in the Greek speaking Eastern Roman Empire as well, though to a lesser extent. For example a codex containing works of Archimedes found in what is now Istanbul had Christian prayers overwritten on it.

---

The Greeks, of course.

Eratosthenes

Eratosthenes (276–194 BC) estimated Earth's circumference around 240 BC. He had heard that in Syene the Sun was directly overhead at the summer solstice whereas in Alexandria it still cast a shadow. Using the differing angles the shadows made as the basis of his trigonometric calculations he estimated a circumference of around 250,000 stades. The length of a 'stade' is not precisely known, but Eratosthenes' figure only has an error of around five to fifteen percent.[17][18][19] Eratosthenes used rough estimates and round numbers, but depending on the length of the stadion, his result is within a margin of between 2% and 20% of the actual meridional circumference, 40,008 kilometres (24,860 mi). Note that Eratosthenes could only measure the circumference of the Earth by assuming that the distance to the Sun is so great that the rays of sunlight are essentially parallel.

I once heard a preacher/university campus evangelist on a local Gospel radio station talk about Eratosthenes and how Isaiah beat him to the punch around 400 years earlier. The man quoted Isaiah 40:22 to make his case.

It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;

Isaiah 40:22 (English Standard Version)

I don't he realized despite his four year education at a bible college, that the verse actually implies a flat earth. Which can be confirmed by reading other biblical verses which describe the Earth in the same way.

[Tobie]

That, and when power shifted to Rome and a church based in Latin, fewer people were around to translate the old texts from Greek into Latin, so the texts were still around, but nobody could read them. The situation in Muslim countries was a little different, so there were Arabic translations of the Greek texts, and some of the Latin translations of Greek texts were from the Arabic rather than the original Greek.

Actually much the same process as I have described occurred in the Greek speaking Eastern Roman Empire as well, though to a lesser extent. For example a codex containing works of Archimedes found in what is now Istanbul had Christian prayers overwritten on it.

---

The Greeks, of course.

I once heard a preacher/university campus evangelist on a local Gospel radio station talk about Eratosthenes and how Isaiah beat him to the punch around 400 years earlier. The man quoted Isaiah 40:22 to make his case.

It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;

Isaiah 40:22 (English Standard Version)

I don't he realized despite his four year education at a bible college, that the verse actually implies a flat earth. Which can be confirmed by reading other biblical verses which describe the Earth in the same way.

The section of Isiah that this is in ( Deutero-Isiah) was written near the end of the Babylonian captivity ( according to modern scholars ), which is around the middle of the 6th century BCE. The Greek philosophers proposed a spherical earth at least 50 years earlier than this, so he's even more wrong than you thought he was.

[Justtristo]

Actually much the same process as I have described occurred in the Greek speaking Eastern Roman Empire as well, though to a lesser extent. For example a codex containing works of Archimedes found in what is now Istanbul had Christian prayers overwritten on it.

---

I once heard a preacher/university campus evangelist on a local Gospel radio station talk about Eratosthenes and how Isaiah beat him to the punch around 400 years earlier. The man quoted Isaiah 40:22 to make his case.

It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;

Isaiah 40:22 (English Standard Version)

I don't he realized despite his four year education at a bible college, that the verse actually implies a flat earth. Which can be confirmed by reading other biblical verses which describe the Earth in the same way.

The section of Isiah that this is in ( Deutero-Isiah) was written near the end of the Babylonian captivity ( according to modern scholars ), which is around the middle of the 6th century BCE. The Greek philosophers proposed a spherical earth at least 50 years earlier than this, so he's even more wrong than you thought he was.

Yikes