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Old October 17th 18, 01:12 PM posted to sci.astro.amateur
Gerald Kelleher
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Default OT? Amateur Astronomy

On Tuesday, October 16, 2018 at 4:26:05 AM UTC+1, Davoud wrote:

http://www.primordial-light.com/deeptime.html

"But the Bible says... No, it doesn’t. The Bible doesn’t say anything at all about the age of the Universe or the age of the Earth. The authors of the Book of Genesis didn't know anything at all about the Universe. They didn't know that the Sun is a star or that the Moon and the Earth orbit a common center of mass. They didn't know the value of Pi or that the Earth is round."


These old boys who are basically walking graves and don't have any feel for history nor indeed that the Bible represents dozens of different traditions. Despite the fact that the early Christian brought up observational quandaries that people here today still can't answer, including this fella, these silly statements have less to do with the authors of the books of the Bible than they do about contemporary ignorance -

"Some of the brethren raise a question concerning the motion of
heaven, whether it is fixed or moved. If it is moved, they say, how is
it a firmament? If it stands still, how do these stars which are held
fixed in it go round from east to west, the more northerly performing
shorter circuits near the pole, so that the heaven (if there is
another pole unknown to us) may seem to revolve upon some axis, or (if
there is no other pole) may be thought to move as a discus? To these
men I reply that it would require many subtle and profound reasonings
to find out which of these things is actually so; but to undertake
this and discuss it is consistent neither with my leisure nor with the
duty of those whom I desire to instruct in essential matters more
directly conducing to their salvation and to the benefit of the holy
Church." Augustine

I am afraid the subtle and profound reasoning doesn't really show its face here for while stellar circumpolar motion is an effect of rotation, it cannot be proposed directly to daily rotation as there is another rotation involved when referenced to the Sun and anchored to noon.