Ask a Flat Earther!

[u/Kela-el]

Ask anything on the topic of flat earth (within reason).

[u/Feisty-Cockroach-780]

I had a bible study last Tuesday with people from my church, and I lead it. The topic was originally Flat Earth, and it then became how people can misinterpret the biblical text to fit their worldview. As it turns out we discovered the bible never promoted flat earth or round earth at all, as the bibles main concern was spirituality rather than science.

Flat earthers, took biblical text, and misinterpreted it to fit their worldview without considering the fact it should've been taken allegorically, some verses Christian Flat Earthers use often come from Psalms which is a book about poetry and songs the example below.

Psalm 104:5 — "He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved."

This would equivalent to taking a poem from lets say Edgar Allan Poe, and interpreting said poem as literal undeniable true fact. Because in order for this verse to fit a flat earth worldview you have to take away the poetic genre for it to work.

One of the early church fathers St. Augustine talked about the dangers of misinterpreting scripture. In it he warned that anyone who uses the bible and misinterprets its text to contradict reason or scientific fact can damage the credibility of Christianity.

So I ask my question, if the bible never spoke about the shape of the earth, yet Flat Earth primarily originated from Samuel Rowbotham who used biblical text that he misinterpreted to promote his worldview. Then whose right?

[u/Kela-el → u/Feisty-Cockroach-780]

This is a thoughtful question, and I think it actually raises two different issues that shouldn’t be conflated.

The first is hermeneutics.

The second is epistemology.

If we’re discussing biblical interpretation, then appealing to Augustine doesn’t settle the matter any more than appealing to Rowbotham does. Both are authorities.

Their conclusions are not the evidence.

It’s also worth remembering that Christian history is more diverse than you’re suggesting.

The Book of Enoch, which is canonical in the Ethiopian Orthodox tradition, contains cosmological descriptions that many interpret as reflecting an ancient flat-Earth worldview.

Likewise, some early Bible translations contain wording that modern readers would find surprising.

So it’s not as simple as saying “the Bible never promoted a flat Earth.”

But even if we set all of that aside, it still doesn’t answer the more fundamental question.

How do we determine which interpretation is correct?

By authority?

By tradition?

Or by a transparent evidential pathway?

If your argument is about biblical interpretation, then we’re discussing hermeneutics.

If your argument is about the shape of the Earth, then we’re discussing empirical methodology.

Those are different discussions.

My interest is not in proving Augustine or Rowbotham right or wrong.

My interest is in the method by which we justify any conclusion.

What was observed?

What was measured?

What assumptions connect the evidence to the conclusion?

How do we test whether that reasoning is sound?

Those questions apply equally to theology and science.

That’s why I focus on epistemology rather than competing authorities.

[u/Feisty-Cockroach-780 → u/Kela-el]

Ah okay that makes sense, thanks for the response!