Joshua 10:12-13 God made the sun and moon stand still

[Compassionist]

"On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel: "Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon." So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day." - Joshua 10:12-13, The Bible (New International Version). If the Bible is true and this really happened, then why is there no records by any other civilizations of the extraordinary event of the sun and the moon standing still for a day? For this to occur, the Earth would need to suddenly stop rotating on its axis which would cause people and other animals, structures, bodies of water, etc. to be flung out into space due to inertia. Besides, how can a loving and just God command genocide?

[Willum]

[Replying to post 1 by Compassionist]

Obviously, Jews and Christians will tell you:
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

I have a topic on Noah currently ablaze that raises a similar question:
If every other culture in the world supports different facts, then why do you support one people's story over another?

Solar, lunar, indeed stellar events were of vast importance, and well recorded.

Clay tablets found at ancient archaeological sites show that the Babylonians not only recorded eclipses—the earliest known Babylonian record is of the eclipse that took place on May 3, 1375 BCE—but were also fairly accurate in predicting them. They were the first people to use the saros cycle to predict eclipses. -https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/sol ... story.html

Something involving the Sun, that would blow peoples' minds of any region and culture.

I mean, we have Noah, Lazarus, Joshua 10:12-13, Enslavement in Egypt, countless others, how many epic events must be false, missing, or recorded as children's stories, before one's faith is questioned?

[Compassionist]

[Replying to post 1 by Compassionist]

Obviously, Jews and Christians will tell you:
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

I have a topic on Noah currently ablaze that raises a similar question:
If every other culture in the world supports different facts, then why do you support one people's story over another?

Solar, lunar, indeed stellar events were of vast importance, and well recorded.

Clay tablets found at ancient archaeological sites show that the Babylonians not only recorded eclipses—the earliest known Babylonian record is of the eclipse that took place on May 3, 1375 BCE—but were also fairly accurate in predicting them. They were the first people to use the saros cycle to predict eclipses. -https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/sol ... story.html

Something involving the Sun, that would blow peoples' minds of any region and culture.

I mean, we have Noah, Lazarus, Joshua 10:12-13, Enslavement in Egypt, countless others, how many epic events must be false, missing, or recorded as children's stories, before one's faith is questioned?

It seems that people are willing to turn a blind eye when it suits them. I totally agree with you. Thank you for your reply.

[JehovahsWitness]

[Replying to post 1 by Compassionist]

Maybe the sun didn't literally stand still; after all we speak of the sun rising (going up) and setting (going down), do you think that it literally moves up and down every day?

It seems reasonable to me that Joshua was miraculously given what he was asking for, more hours of light so he could successfully complete his battle. ie the sun appeared to stand still.


JW

[Willum]

[Replying to post 4 by JehovahsWitness]

So you are saying the primitive human did not understand the wondrous phenomena, maybe something like the lights at a baseball stadium, so that human recorded what is did understand?
It does beg the Moon, though...

That is certainly a good point. How many other phenomenon over 16,000 years have primitives who though God made thunder, mis-interpreted?

What is the opportunity for immense coincidences, under the mis-interpretation of "miracles," to exist?

[JehovahsWitness]

So you are saying the primitive human did not understand the wondrous phenomena, maybe something like the lights at a baseball stadium, so that human recorded what is did understand?

Do you underdstand the "wondrous phenomena" of a the sun being fixed in its orbit and the earth going around it? If so, can you honestly say you've never uttered the words "sunset"? If you have, why? Were you lying or do you consider yourself a primitive human that does not understand the fact that the sun doesn't literaly move up and down?

... but enough about you, let's talk about NASA...
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/suns ... ce-station

[Compassionist]

[Replying to post 1 by Compassionist]

Maybe the sun didn't literally stand still; after all we speak of the sun rising (going up) and setting (going down), do you think that it literally moves up and down every day?

It seems reasonable to me that Joshua was miraculously given what he was asking for, more hours of light so he could successfully complete his battle. ie the sun appeared to stand still.


JW

The sun appears to rise in the east and set in the west. This illusion is created by the real movement Earth's axial rotation. For the sun and the moon to appear to stand still, the Earth's axial rotation would have to stop which would cause people and other animals, structures, bodies of water, etc. to be flung out into space due to inertia.

[JehovahsWitness]

The sun appears to rise in the east and set in the west. This illusion is created by the real movement Earth's axial rotation.

Exactly! So we speak of the sun as doing something when it really isn't doing at all , it is as you rightly said an "illusion" in other words something that is not physically happening as we describe but does as you say "appear" to be that way. ie the sun "appears"to be moving up and down from a human perspective. If we speak in such terms today,even though we know it is not literally true, why could Joshua not do the same?

For the sun and the moon to appear to stand still, the Earth's axial rotation would have to stop which would cause people and other animals, structures, bodies of water, etc. to be flung out into space due to inertia.

Illustions don't work that way. the whole point of an illusion is that one cannot "trust" their eyes to be conveying a physical reality. Your point is like saying, the only way for the magician to have his assistant's feet and legs sticking out of one half of the box and her head and hands in another direction is to dislocate her spine! er... well yes, if he really did saw her in half. But we all know he did not, only that it was an illustion and he APPEARED to. How people perform trick, I cannot say, but I can say that they don't kill their assistants so their spines are almost certainly not severed in two.

HOW Joshua was given the impression that the sun wasn't moving we cannot say for sure, but it almost certainly wasn't by stopping the earth from rotating although if there is a God an omnipotent God that certainly wouldn't be beyond his capabilities (to do so would seem a bit like overkill to me, no pun intended)...



JW



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[Willum]

[Replying to JehovahsWitness]

Can you honestly have this conversation if the goat-herders of old, who recorded the Sun and Moon standing still, had visited the space station?

I must admit, that is the best and most subtle use of anachronism to make a point I have ever seen.

So, you think it was aliens using flood lights, or huge mirrors from space to keep the Sun and Moon standing still.

The Sun I get, but the Moon is overkill, don't you think?

[Compassionist]

The sun appears to rise in the east and set in the west. This illusion is created by the real movement Earth's axial rotation.

Exactly! So we speak of the sun as doing something when it really isn't doing at all , it is as you rightly said an "illusion" in other words something that is not physically happening as we describe but does as you say "appear" to be that way. ie the sun "appears"to be moving up and down from a human perspective. If we speak in such terms today,even though we know it is not literally true, why could Joshua not do the same?

For the sun and the moon to appear to stand still, the Earth's axial rotation would have to stop which would cause people and other animals, structures, bodies of water, etc. to be flung out into space due to inertia.

Illustions don't work that way. the whole point of an illusion is that one cannot "trust" their eyes to be conveying a physical reality. Your point is like saying, the only way for the magician to have his assistant's feet and legs sticking out of one half of the box and her head and hands in another direction is to dislocate her spine! er... well yes, if he really did saw her in half. But we all know he did not, only that it was an illustion and he APPEARED to. How people perform trick, I cannot say, but I can say that they don't kill their assistants so their spines are almost certainly not severed in two.

HOW Joshua was given the impression that the sun wasn't moving we cannot say for sure, but it almost certainly wasn't by stopping the earth from rotating although if there is a God an omnipotent God that certainly wouldn't be beyond his capabilities (to do so would seem a bit like overkill to me, no pun intended)...



JW

You are missing my two points. My point is that the illusion of the sun rising, moving and setting is caused by the REAL axial motion of the earth. In order to create the illusion that the sun has stopped moving, the REAL axial motion of the Earth would have to be stopped which would cause people and other animals, structures, bodies of water, etc. to be flung out into space due to inertia. Since that did not happen, the Bible is lying. Also, if the Earth really stopped spinning, other groups of humans around the world would have noticed that and would have recorded that. These are my two points. Do you understand now?