On Sat, 15 Aug 1998 22:29:29 -0700, Pim van Meurs wrote:
>SJ>Plimer's other error is his implicit assumption that the Bible teaches
>>that "the mathematical constant pi is exactly 3". This is again simply
>>false. Nowhere does the Bible teach that "pi is exactly 3".
Agreed that "the bible is not always teaching what we believe
it is teaching". The Bible's "teachings" might be infallible but our
*interpretations* of what it is teaching is not.
PM>So can we conclude that perhaps the bible is not always teaching what
>we believe it is teaching ?
Agreed. What "the bible is...teaching" and what we fallible human beings
"believe it is teaching" are not always the same thing.
PM>Perhaps we try to conclude from what it says, conclusions that were
>not meant as such ?
Agreed again! The key words are "that were not meant as such". Our task
is to work hard to find out what was "meant" by the immediate human
authors of the books of the Bible and through them what the ultimate
Author God "meant".
>SJ>My Bible footnotes say that either the dimensions given were an
>>approximation, or that the measurements were not taken taken from the
>>same positions on the rim:
PM>The foresight of those who wrote the bible originally to add footnotes
>is incredible.
Argument from personal incredility Pim?
But in case you are serious, I included a quote and reference "(Barker K.,
ed, "The NIV Study Bible," 1985, p483)" to indicate which particular "Bible
footnotes" I was referring to.
PM>It is good to see how one has to speculate a lot about this unfortunate
pi=3 measurement.
There was *no* speculation about it AFAIK by Bible believers, until
sceptics raised it as an alleged problem.
And there is *no* "pi=3 measurement".
PM>Perhaps we are wrong about other 'measurements' as well ? Perhaps a
>'day is not 24 hrs' for instance?
Nowhere does the Bible even say that the days of Genesis 1 are "24 hrs".
This is just a human interpretation.
PM>It's so easy to 'explain away' things in the bible.
To assert that someone is `explaining away' "things in the bible", implies
that you know what the Bible is *really* saying. Perhaps you can share
your infallible interpretation with us?
PM>Heck all it takes are some 'footnotes' which I believe were not in the
original documents ?
Of course the "footnotes" "were not in the original documents"! Surely Pim
you can't be be serious in thinking they were?
Steve
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3 Hawker Avenue / Oz \ senojes@hotmail.com
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Perth, West Australia v "Test everything." (1Thess 5:21)
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