Episode Details

Lawyer and philosophy professor Sterling Harwood, author of The Greatest Mystery of the Beatles, emailed me to ask: “Did the literal interpretation of Christianity just die on Mars?” He explained that one of NASA’s Mars rovers may have found traces of ancient microbial life. So how would that impact Christianity? Sterling: “Genesis, interpreted literally, implies life was created on earth, not independently (of God) on Mars.” Um, okay.

Whatever you think about Christianity and ET life, Islam doesn’t have a problem with it:

Sterling also claims that the Bible supports flat earthism, and supplies the following scriptural citations and flat earthism references, drawn from his assignment for philosophy students.

A COLLECTION OF 26 FLAT EARTH CONSPIRACY THEORY QUOTES YOU MAY CHOOSE FROM TO INCLUDE AS A-SECTIONS IN ABC SETS FOR TERM PAPERS AND/OR CLASS PARTICIPATION; REMEMBER: FLAT EARTH CONSPIRACY THEORY IS THE EASIEST OF THE 125 OR SO TERM PAPER TOPICS. NOW I’VE MADE IT EVEN EASIER BY ROUNDING UP THESE 26 QUOTES FOR YOU TO CONSIDER USING IN YOUR TERM PAPER OR CLASS PARTICIPATION ABC SETS ON FLAT EARTH CONSPIRACY THEORY.

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FLAT EARTH CONSPIRACY THEORY QUOTES YOU MAY USE IN YOU A-SECTIONS &/OR C-SECTIONS (REMEMBER, SOMETIMES YOU CAN PIT ONE QUOTE AGAINST ANOTHER OR YOU CAN SOMETIMES CORROBORATE ONE QUOTE WITH ANOTHER). See biblehub.com for one good place to start reading interpretations of these parts of the Bible.

1. Daniel 4:11 = “The tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth.” HARWOOD’S HELPFUL HINT = MAKE THE TREE AS HIGH AS YOU LIKE, YOU CAN NEVER SEE THROUGH THE OPAQUE EARTH IF YOU ARE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE GLOBE FROM THE TREE. SO, THIS PART OF THE BIBLE IMPLIES THE EARTH IS NOT A GLOBE.

2. Job 38:14 = “As the light approaches, the earth takes shape like clay pressed beneath a seal; it is robed in brilliant colors.” HARWOOD’S HELPFUL HINT = When softer material such as clay is pressed beneath a seal, it is flattened. The seal is not the animal ‘seal’ here. The seal is like a metal stamp you use to press wax flat across the back of an envelope to seal the envelop shut and prevent tampering with the envelope.

3. Isaiah 40:22 = “He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.” HARWOOD’S HELPFUL HINT = The stretch something out suggests a flat result, since to get a sphere or globe, one would have to ball up the material rather than stretch it out. To stretch and to ball are opposites. So, this part of the Bible seems incompatible with the earth being a sphere, globe or ball.

4. “[According to many flat earthers] Earth’s gravity is an illusion.” ~ Natalie Wolchover and Live Science Staff, Are Flat-Earthers Being Serious?, Article, May 30, 2017 10:24am ET. Harwood’s Helpful Hint: Flat earthers are forced to deny the existence of gravity, since gravity — by pulling in all directions from the center of gravity — explains why the sun and all the planets we observe were formed as globes (spheres).

5. Revelation 7:1 = “After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree.” HARWOOD’S HELPFUL HINT = Spheres lack corners. Squares and rectangles, which are flat or f