Joshua's earth stopping experience

Author: RoderickSpode

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#1
RoderickSpode
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Joshua chapter 10 talks about an incident at one point when his army was at war with an
alligned
army, and he asked God to cause the Sun to stand still so they would have extended time in their battle with the opposing army. Of
course
this idea in the literal sense would have
reeked
havoc on our planet that would have killed all of life. I would say however, we have some clues that would suggest a literal stopping of the earth's rotation unnecessary. 

1. A smaller point, but even Hollywood has a concept of suspended time. Sometimes during a
converstaion
between people within a movie, we will get a facial shot on camera of one of the individuals. Sometimes they may look into the camera, and talk to us the audience. Sometimes we may just hear what they're thinking during the scene when they're interacting with others. But during this extended period of time, the party they are interacting with has no clue of this. To them, time went on as normal, and time never stopped while interacting with the person we received a glimpse of their thought from. That extended period of time we witnessed didn't exist with that party present during that scene.



2. Hypnosis. Am I suggesting Joshua and his army were hypnotized into thinking the day was longer? No. But, it's another example of different perceptions in time. If someone was hypnotized for 2 hours, after awakening, they may not be aware they lost 2 hours whereas others around them would be fully aware of that time-frame as it wasn't lost to them. Of course we lose proper realization of time when we awake from sleep, or even just getting involved in activity that demands full attention.





3. Aircraft activity. We lose a very small fraction of time in a commercial airline, and an astronaught would age considerably less if they orbited for a long period of time. The latter scenario of someone remaining much younger than their contemporaries is something out of a fantasy story, but is a

real potential scenario. This is another example of time manipulation that doesn't require an earthshaking catastrophe.










4. Dimensions and multiverses. While none of these can be proven scientifically, and fall under the umbrella of speculations, they are natural-based speculations aimed to give us possible explanations to some of the mysteries of the universe. It's speculated that multiverses could collide, and maybe even overlap. Imagine what would happen if, particularly the latter happened. Another universe intermingling with our very own. I couldn't imagine what that would be like. There have been numerous sightings of what has been called UFOs. I personally don't believe in interplanetary
travellers, and the subject is so puzzling, that some suggest UFOs are inter-dimensional travellers. Well, substitute inter-dimensional ET activity with an all-powerful creator who understands and can operate in and through a time-less realm, what happened in Joshua chapter 10 may not be far-fetched.



Conclusion, the incident in Joshua 10 does not require tons of gravel and water to come to a complete halt wiping out all of life on earth.



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@RoderickSpode



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RoderickSpode,

The verse in question is yet another passage that shows the earth is flat and the center of the universe, where when the sun revolves around the earth in a geocentric form as believed by many societies of biblical times, then the sun is able to stop without horrific results to Mother Earth!

There are actually members here on DebateArt that deny this Biblical FLAT EARTH CENTER OF UNIVERSE that the Bible proposes, where the historicity of the time period supports a flat center of universe earth as well.  Did someone mention the Ptolemaic Planetary System when the writings of the Bible were written in approximately 100AD? Hmmmm ..... 2+2 still equals 4.


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@RoderickSpode
Theologically, there can't be a problem with God doing whatever is necessary to 'stop the sun' without any undesirable side-effects.   I find it strange that believers try to mix science and miracle. 

I am firmly in the 'minimalism' camp in relation to the histricity of the Mosaic books.   I doubt that the story of Joshua has any basis in fact.  A long time ago I expected to find that those books gave a garbled and theocratic version of real events and people.   If so, there would be a 'rational' eplanayin for things like the sun standing still for Joshua, but now I think 'Never happened' is nearer the mark.

IMO the early books were compiled to bolster the morale of the Jews exiled in Babylon with a grand saga of their glorious past and the promise of a return to that greatness.  Telling the plain, unvarnished truth was not the intent - preserving the Jewish idenity was.

I'm not one for left-field opinions - I tend to go with mainstream scholarship which says that neither Josha nor his conquest ofI Israel are historical. 


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It's a good thing knowing the answer to this is not necessary for salvation.
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@BrotherDThomas
RoderickSpode,

The verse in question is yet another passage that shows the earth is flat and the center of the universe, where when the sun revolves around the earth in a geocentric form as believed by many societies of biblical times, then the sun is able to stop without horrific results to Mother Earth!

There are actually members here on DebateArt that deny this Biblical FLAT EARTH CENTER OF UNIVERSE that the Bible proposes, where the historicity of the time period supports a flat center of universe earth as well.  Did someone mention the Ptolemaic Planetary System when the writings of the Bible were written in approximately 100AD? Hmmmm ..... 2+2 still equals 4.
Well a flat earth I suppose would support the doctrine of church women wearing a beehive hairstyle to get closer to God.

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@keithprosser
Well, I never thought too highly of Israel Finkelstien's claims. But I have to think that much of the ideas against the Bible as history have to do with many of it's association with the supernatural. That's got to play a significant part as opposed to strictly going by archaeological and literary findings. For instance, I don't see any controversy with not finding evidence of the Exodus in the Sinai in that we're talking about a huge land mass that would probably require many years of excavation before finding any evidence (although some sources say probable artifacts supporting the incident have been found). That should be no problem. In a similar scenario involving evolution, I think the patience would be far greater. But when it's suggested that the Egyptian exodus did occur, what does one do with the parting of the Red Sea?

Are you familiar with Sennacharib's Prism?



It's particularly interesting because in it's contents, the King boasts about his conquests against King Hezekiah and an impending invasion of Jerusalem. However, oddly the prism doesn't describe the siege of Jerusalem. However, the continuation of the account continues in 2 Kings 19 where the Assyrians are supernaturally defeated. Well, everything should be fine with everyone, except that little detail involving the supernatural.

As far as mixing science and miracles, there's still the problems that require possible natural theories to answer them like multiverses and dimensions. For probably most scientists, they don't really want to touch these because to them they border on pseudo-science. So why would these speculative theories be any more plausible than involvement of a creator?

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@RoderickSpode
Well, I never thought too highly of Israel Finkelstien's claims.
Of course not because he proves that silly book to be fiction, he has evidence and you have fantasies.


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@RoderickSpode
I've written previously that there is a trend in the historical books of the bible - they start with pure myth and legend in the Pentateuch and end with almost straight history in Ezra.  Basically, the further back from the compilation of the OT around the Baylonian exile in the 7thC BCE the less historical it is.

The Sennacherib Prism comes from near the end, Joshua from the near the beginning. 
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@BrotherDThomas
Flat earth.
bwuahahahahahahahaha
oh dear
bwuahahahahahahahahah
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@disgusted



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disgusted,

There is no need for you to show us your outright ignorance of the Bible proposing a Flat Earth! So many like you are insidiously anachronistic to the biblical era where the historicity of the Jews that are represented in the Bible, thought the earth was flat.



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RoderickSpode,

Yes, closer to Yahweh/Jesus God is also represented in the steeples of churches always trying to be as high as possible, in the same vein as Moses climbing Mt Sinai to be nearer to the proposed heaven to talk with God.


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