The Bible's scientific accuracies.

1) The stretching heavens. My opponent wishes to rebut by offering that Isaiah is not speaking about a domed room and claims refutation by use of a sup-par Creationist website. In addition, he offers the position that the Hebrew word for "stretches" is present tense; therefore, God is still stretching the heavens and this shows an ancient understanding of the expanding universe. If Isaiah wished to convey that the stretching stopped then the past tense would have been used. Pro is incorrect on this point. 1a) The Hebrew word for "stretches": As much as I enjoy translation arguments, my opponent offered little to rebut. Translations are not done in a word to word fashion ignoring the full content of the phrase needed for translation, and when speaking of tenses one must understand that present tense occurs in many forms. My opponent offered a source that does not provide one, not one, citation. The author, Jeffrey Fall is a writer for "Tomorrow's World" a magazine dedicated to the New Church of God and is apparently a Dr. , but no where can I find what, exactly, he studied for his Doctorate. If my opponent knows, I ask that he share it with the rest of us. Mr/Dr Fall simply states the Hebrew word is in the present sense so must mean Isaiah knew the heavens to still be expanding, but offers no proof, nothing. Mr. /Dr Fall uses a nice trick here, and the trick is dependant on a general misunderstanding of tenses in languages. We do not have the simple past, present, future tenses, but have many. [1] In order to determine which is being used we must look at the whole of the context, not translate the word in a vacuum. In addition, Jeffrey Fall does not tell the readers the Hebrew word is referencing. The word used in this phrase is "natah". [3 at 120] Next, we look at the definition. [4] Several are offered but which one works here? The text clearly states "like a tent" so the use of natah is in reference to this tent, and must mean "pitch". In other words, God pitched a tent. The use of this verb throughout Isaiah [5] is listed here. [5] Please note every use is either in the past or the present perfect (as close as we can get to present perfect concepts with Hebrew). "Stretched" or "stretched out still" The stretching has stopped and the referenced object is still stretched, not stretching. Repeating an unverified claim does not verify it. With no citations and no credible source concerning the Hebrew translation from my opponent, the reference to the tense used is not credible. Not until modern times has this verse been used to support the still expanding universe. Early church historians did no such thing. (Basil the Great and Theodoret of Cyr are good examples) [2] 1b) The domed roof: My opponent states, "No, he is not talking about a "domed roof" a domed roof implies that it is finite or has limited space. " Pro's analysis depends on the present tense phrase from Jeffrey Fall, refuted above, and I must remind my opponent that in order for God to "sit above", the universe could not have been thought infinite as God must be above the universe in a literal sense. 2) I chose my words correctly when I referenced the biblical literalists as selectivists. My opponent wishes to refute a similar reference in Psalms by examining the Book as a whole, claiming Psalms is poetic, but when confronted with the whole of Isaiah he dismisses it as irrelevant! Which is it, Pro? Both Psalms and Isaiah are using imagery to convey a message. Does my opponent really wish to take the "grasshopper" reference literally? I am not familiar with 6 legged humans so I conclude this phrase is meant to be a simile, and the verse itself is a metaphor; one showing the earth to a flat disc with a domed roof, a roof God pitched like a tent. I see no clearer means of reading this passage. Trade Winds and Ecclesiastes: My opponent does not support the jet stream argument and does not mention the poetic nature of the book which falls in line with his selective reading of the Bible. I am shocked as this is the scientific discovery attributed to this verse by creation pseudo scientists. I linked a reference. He claims the observance of the blowing wind in Ecclesiastes message showed us the global wind patterns, not the jet stream. I have seen this claim but it is not as common. The reason, of course, is that wind patterns were known at the time, the writers of the Bible did not discover them, and certainly did not do so thousands of years before anyone else. Is the writer talking about the trade winds? He said the wind blows from north to south and then turns around. So what? The Holy Bible did not discover the consistency of winds, they were already known. Ancient sailors made use of the winds and were able to determine the consistent nature of the trade winds. "When there was wind, the direction it came from was of crucial importance. Ancient sailing craft, whether Egyptian, Phoenician, Etruscan, Greek or Roman, were all equipped with squaresails…[If] he has to sail into a head wind, he must resort to tacking, proceeding toward his destination by a series of zigzags. " If heading north then the sailor would use the ESE or WNW winds, [7] too easy – they already knew. The problem for early sailors was the location and use of the trade winds, not their existence. [6] I see no reference to the Hadley Cell or the Coriolis Effect in the Bible either. No discoveries can be extrapolated from this text as the consistency of winds was known at the time, and my opponent has abandoned the jet stream argument. My opponent did not address my rebuttal to the water cycle, nor did he address the cosmologies at the time of Isaiah concerning the flat circle of the earth. Conclusion: My opponent's position has been refuted. He simply restates that Isaiah is speaking of a spherical earth. Nothing more; I have provided ample material to refute my opponent's claims and spent considerable time to provide internet sources so my opponent can review them. I reserve the right to respond to any claims in my final round, if my opponent offers them. 1. . http://www.englishpage.com... 2. . http://books.google.com... 3. . http://books.google.com... 4. . http://www.biblestudytools.com... 5. . http://www.biblestudytools.com... 6. . http://earthguide.ucsd.edu... 7. . http://books.google.com...