Re: [asa] Flat Earth in earlier Christendom

Davis Young's book on John Calvin and the natural world shows that the
idea that the biblical text accommodates to scientific views of the
day is not new.

The Bible nowhere _teaches_ a flat earth. It uses the imagery of a
flat earth, which is an accurate description of how the earth appears,
on various occasions (though what took place in a dream or vision is
hardly reasonable grounds for inferring actual geographic beliefs;
additionally, the vision in the temptation of "all" the kingdoms, etc.
need not be taken in an exhaustive sense, just as all sorts of evils,
not every last evil, has money at the root. Even on a flat earth with
little air pollution, one cannot see kingdoms all that far away no
matter how high up you are-it doesn't say "we hiked up Mt. Carmel and
saw Rome" but rather is a vision of some sort.)

Of course, if nitpicky details justify throwing out the Bible, then
the ridiculous errors of inserting Paul and a garbled citation of
Daniel into Revelation justify throwing out everything he says.

-- 
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections
University of Alabama
"I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"
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