From: sieferme@stein.u.washington.edu (Eric Sieferman)
Subject: Re: Quotes from the Bible.
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 00:01:32 GMT

In article <910773f.38.724539646@axe.acadiau.ca> 910773f@axe.acadiau.ca (HEATHER LEE FYFFE) writes:
>In article <BzCy0o.1v8@apollo.hp.com> stave@apollo.hp.com (Joel H. Stave) writes:
>>(quotes are from my online version of the bible)
>>  1st Kings, 7:23
>>  "And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other:
>>  it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line
>>  of thirty cubits did compass it round about."
>>
>>  If its 10 cubits wide and 30 cubits around then pi = 3.

>_But_, you must remember that handsbreaths and cubits were very subjective 
>measurements.  Is it possible that the description given is only meant to 
>give an idea of the size of the thing, and not to provide blueprints of how 
>to build yourself another one?  Isn't this known as significant figures?
>Would you rather 31.415926etc cubits?  The Bible is the word of God, but it 
>was written by men, who at that time simply didn't have such precise 
>measurement equipment, and even today that kind of appoximation is common 
>in all but scientific and architectural texts.  Just because somebody 
>rounded off when they described a circumference does NOT imply that God 
>thinks pi=3.

The Egyptians, and the Babylonians (I think) used a ratio of 22 / 7
to approximate pi.  God could have just as easily given this
ratio (or maybe 31 / 10) to the Hebrews.

And what is this "word of God, but written by men" stuff?
If the Bible contains human errors, which parts are we to
take seriously and which parts are we to reject?

>  >>|> The sun revolves around the earth
>>Somewhere it mentions that God stops the sun in the sky.  It didn't
>>say that the sun *seemed* to stop moving in the sky, so it must be
>>literally moving, so it must go around the earth, rather than the
>>earth move around a stationary sun.
>
>
>Yeah, that's what it says, in Joshua (I don't know offhand exactly where).
>Once again though, remember that this was written by a man (Joshua himself I 
>believe, though I may be wrong), and for all the evidence he saw, the sun 
>stopped moving.  I'm sure we all, as children, thought the sun moved until 
>someone explained to us how WE are the ones moving... Well, noone had 
>explained it to Joshua, as noone had figured it out yet.  This statement by 
>a man is again no reason to conclude that God thinks the sun revolves around 
>the Earth.  

If the Bible is dripping with divine inspiration, I would expect
a greater level of astronomical acumen than this.  And the implication
that the ancient Hebrews were at a childish level of understanding
is frankly insulting.  If God had presented a more accurate 
description of the operation of the solar system, I'm sure that
it would have been accepted.  Other ancient cultures (eg, Vedic;
Mayan) had no trouble dealing with a universe of immense size and
a duration of millions of years.


-- 
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Truth:  You ignore it, it ignores you.
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