The day the Sun stood still...

[GKirk]

...many know of the bible passage saying that the sun was stopped for a day.

(I'm giving them that it must have been the Earth that God stopped not the Sun)
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Sun Stood Still

In the tenth chapter of the Book of Joshua the following account is recorded:


Then Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel: Sun, stand still over Gibeon; and Moon, in the Valley of Aijalon. So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the people had revenge upon their enemies. Is this not written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and did not hastened to go down for about a whole day. And there has been no day like that, before it or after it, that the Lord heeded a voice of a man; for the Lord fought for Israel (Joshua 10:12-14).
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This site argues that it's true, that God slowed down 6.6 sextrillion tons of spinning gravel and water
(the weight of the Earth). My first thought is wouldn't have been a tad easier just to spite his enemies?

But in the website's defense of this event they say "There is indisputable evidence from the modern science of ethnology that such an event occurred as Joshua records. In the ancient Chinese writings there is a legend of a long day."

So they use a legend as proof of something they say actually happened, weird.

Then there is this: " Herodotus, an ancient historian, recounts that while in Egypt, priest showed him their temple records, and that he read of a day which was twice the natural length of any day that had ever been recorded"

Well, how exactly did they measure this twice as long day? With a Rolex? It couldn't have been with a sundial; cause the sun wasn't moving, remember?

Or maybe it just seemed like a long day to those Egyptian priests. We all have days like that from time to time.

[classof56]

1. As with most of us raised in The Way, I never questioned that passage.

God is, after all, omnipotent, meaning he has the power to do whatever he wants with only the blink of his eye. Or snap of his fingers. Or something like that. I'm thinking he may have had the ability to defeat the Amorites without stopping the sun or the earth, too. Of course, the sun is stationary as I understand it, and it's the planets that move, and if the earth stopped, wouldn't that cause everything on its surface to go flying off into space? But perhaps that's where God steps in and holds it all together. As the years have passed, I've started having some questions about such things, only to discover the "God said it I believe it that settles it" crowd, the ones never interested in things like physics, geology, astronomy, etc., etc. But a few years ago, I was told about some folk who entered all the existing data of the known world into a computer, pushed the "compute" button and discovered--guess what--there was a "missing day", thus proving the account in Joshua 10. So there we go--proof positive! Well, at least for those whose faith is such that the bible can never be questioned. Providing it's the King James version--but that's an entire other subject.

Thanks for your post--got me to cogitating on a topic I hadn't thought of for quite some time. Like you said, we all have days that seem like they'll never end. Maybe it's daylight savings time.

Cheers.

[KaoriMitsubishi]

6. ...all the existing data of the known world...

"But a few years ago, I was told about some folk who entered all the existing data of the known world into a computer, pushed the "compute" button and discovered--guess what--there was a "missing day", thus proving the account in Joshua 10. So there we go--proof positive!"


Proof positive you have not the slightest clue as to how much data that is. So much so that most of it is stored away in huge warehouses until we have the human and computing resources to process it all. If you really understood that you would know that the story you heard was a fabrication, a lie told by liars for Jesus. What was that part of the bible which talks about ALL LIARS having their place in the lake of fire?

[GKirk]

7. snopes.com

has a good rebuttal about that 'found' day

[GKirk]

8. And here it is...

http://www.snopes.com/religion/lostday.asp

[KaoriMitsubishi]

12. Thanks for posting that.

There are liars for Jesus, and then there are damned liars for Jesus.

[onager]

10. They stole that from a science-fiction story.

But a few years ago, I was told about some folk who entered all the existing data of the known world into a computer, pushed the "compute" button and discovered--guess what--there was a "missing day", thus proving the account in Joshua 10.

:rofl:

Ah, Xians. If they can't burn it, they steal it. Or vice-versa.

Submitted for your approval...the short-short story Answer by Fredric Brown. First published in his collection "Angels and Spaceships" (Dutton). In 1954:

Dwar Ev ceremoniously soldered the final connection with gold. The eyes of a dozen television cameras watched him and the subether bore through the universe a dozen pictures of what he was doing.

He straightened and nodded to Dwar Reyn, then moved to a position beside the switch that would complete the contact when he threw it. The switch that would connect, all at once, all of the monster computing machines of all the populated planets in the universe--ninety-six billion planets--into the supercircuit that would connect them all into the one supercalculator, one cybernetics machine that would combine all the knowledge of all the galaxies.

Dwar Reyn spoke briefly to the watching and listening trillions. Then, after a moment's silence, he said, "Now, Dwar Ev."

Dwar Ev threw the switch. There was a mighty hum, the surge of power from ninety-six billion planets. Lights flashed and quieted along the miles-long panel.

Dwar Ev stepped back and drew a deep breath. "The honor of asking the first question is yours, Dwar Reyn."

"Thank you," said Dwar Reyn. "It shall be a question that no single cybernetics machine has been able to answer."

He turned to face the machine. "Is there a God?"

The mighty voice answered without hesitation, without the clicking of single relay.

"Yes, now there is a God."

Sudden fear flashed on the face of Dwar Ev. He leaped to grab the switch.

A bolt of lightning from the cloudless sky struck him down and fused the switch shut.

[GKirk]

2. I meant smite his enemies

not spite them :(

[Deep13]

3. He could smite them just to spite them. nt

[GKirk]

4. Good point...

... the OT God seemed to like to smite people for smitings sake.
Friend or foe.

[sakabatou]

5. Notice no citations, or if they are, they fallacious?

[moobu2]

9. It was an exploding star or some other astronomical event.

That is If the passages were even based on something that actually happened, matter of fact, nearly every single story in the Bible started off in the sky somehow (the zodiac, the sun and moon and planets etc...).

[laconicsax]

11. You're giving fiction too much credit. n/t

[Lionel Mandrake]

13. Luther used this passage to denounce Copernicus

"There is talk of a new astrologer who wants to prove that the earth moves and goes around instead of the sky, the sun, the moon, just as if somebody were moving in a carriage or ship might hold that he was sitting still and at rest while the earth and the trees walked and moved. But that is how things are nowadays: when a man wishes to be clever he must needs invent something special, and the way he does it must needs be the best! The fool wants to turn the whole art of astronomy upside-down. However, as Holy Scripture tells us, so did Joshua bid the sun to stand still and not the earth."

from Luther's Tablebook (Tischreden), or record of dinner-table conversations

more: http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast161/Unit3/response.html

[LAGC]

14. As usual, its scientists dragging the religious leaders into the future...

Kicking and screaming all the way.

[Deep13]

15. Well, someone was giving a long, rambling speech...

...that no one wanted to sit and listern to, but they were obligated. So it made the day seem like it would never end.