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Originally posted by Wordswordsman:
I won't hold out hope Nos could possibly comprehend or offer any proper answer, but I'll offer an answer anyway for the sake of MartinM's confusion. Nos doesn't understand the definition of a circle, or its wondrous mechanics, and it appears MartinM compounds the error further. Let's get the coin fallacy out of the way first. A coin is a section of a cylinder. It is composed of two circles bounding an interior space (volume), with two outer surfaces, and one edge. A coin is NOT a circle, and is NOT flat, but is three dimensional (length, height, and width=volume), with a truly round coin having equal length and width
A circle's topography is the Cartesian product R1 x S1, correct. In the limit of negligible depth, this reduces to S1, the circle. A coin is a circle in the same sense that a piece of paper is flat - not strictly true, but a good enough approximation for everyday usage.
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A circle does in fact define a sphere, whether intended or not, visible or not, whether the circle is a flat plane on a sheet of paper, or a hoop hanging in mid air. A sphere is mathematically implied
No. No, it isn't. A circle is S1, a sphere S2. They are very different. One could equally well argue that one can associate with any circle an imaginary cylinder, but it's a very silly concept.
The context does not change the statement at all.
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The Hebrew word "chuwg" was translated there as "circle"; "circuit" in Job 22:14; and "compass" in Psalm 8:27
Isaiah had previously used the word 'duwr' to mean 'ball' - an infinitely more accurate description of the Earth. So there was certainly at least one better word he could have used. But he didn't, suggesting that he did not think the Earth spherical.
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This word revealed that the earth was round by any means of envisioning it until some men presented the idea of the flat, four-cornered plane being the shape of earth, and the round disk-shaped earth
Round != spherical
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But the Bible makes no such claims. Find an interesting discussion about that myth here: Simon Fraser University philosophy/swartz/flat_earth.htm
Thanks for the link. From there -
"Cosmas Indicopleustes wrote a book called "Christian Topography" in which he claimed the earth is flat."
"the ancient Hebrews, like all of their contemporaries, were flat earthers, and their flat earth cosmology is written between the lines in numerous passages of the Hebrew Bible. This was not lost on many of the Fathers of the Church. Lactantius, Cyril of Jerusalem, and Diodorus of Tarsus have been correctly cited by others as flat earthers. I could name many more, some minor figures, some major (John Chrysostom, for example, and probably Basil of Caesarea). Flat earthism seems to have been uncommon among the Latin Fathers (Tertullian seems to have been one exception). Among the Greek Fathers, the Alexandrians tended to interpret scripture allegorically, and they likewise could accept sphericity without a problem. The Antiochene theologians, however, originated the grammatical-historical interpretation of the Bible beloved by modern fundamentalists, and I can't name a single one of them who endorsed sphericity but several who condemned it. The Old Syrian Church seems likewise to have been hostile to sphericity"
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