I guess the realistic equivalent might be our local group. We can reach galaxies within it, but everything outside is moving away too fast for us to reach?
Comment on Is there any christian religions that don't believe in space?
Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world 8 months ago
The idea of a firmament is definitely a thing and has been for thousands of years. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firmament
I’ve heard about it all my life from mainstream Christian churches too.
otter@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
IWantToFuckSpez@kbin.social 8 months ago
Isn’t that based on the Ancient Greek theory of Celestial Spheres
0ops@lemm.ee 8 months ago
I always had the impression that firmament was synonymous with atmosphere for some reason. I’m not sure where I got that idea.
FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 8 months ago
there’s been a lot of ways of rectifying what’s obviously true and scriptures over the years.
which is amusing because they’ll do anything to not admit their scripture-writers were wrong. It was written by people with a fixed- and flawed- understanding of the world they lived in. (We too have a fixed and flawed understanding, in point of fact. Its a bit better than theirs, mind, but it’s still flawed.)
“yeah. they believed that. they were wrong” isn’t really all that damaging to the over all story. But they think it is.
skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl 8 months ago
Some religions update their interpretations. The Catholic Church, for example, has taken different points of view over the centuries on various things as they were proven to be false.
The Bible being a translation of a man-made interpretation of God by a primitive people doesn’t even make it too difficult to go “we have new proof, we need to re-evaluate the scripture to find out its true meaning”. Take the firmament, turn it into a metaphorical argument about God putting us in a universe expanding at the speed of light (making it impossible to reach other planets where we could possibly live) and boom, science compatible religion.
If I remember correctly, the Catholic Church doesn’t even rule out alien life at the moment. I remember reading a while ago that they were sceptical, but if aliens are proven to exist, they hope to find an alien species that did not betray God like humanity did in the garden of Eden.
The problem with admitting that you’re wrong is that people will ask “then what else could be wrong?”. Once you learn Santa isn’t real, the Easter Bunny suddenly becomes extremely suspect.
That said, churches like the Catholic Church are generally less strict then these extremists. The Catholic Church doesn’t deny the existence of dinosaurs, nor space, nor strictly speaking even evolution (as in, “souls are made by God” + “God guided all species through evolution” is not completely unacceptable). If you’re religious enough to think the Catholic Church has a liberal take on the Bible, you’re probably going to hold some batshit insane beliefs.
FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 8 months ago
most denominations and sects do, yes. There are still those more fringe-cases that absolutely do not.
It’s not a betrayal, because they were innocents and had no knowledge. in that story, god created the scenario and then allowed it to happen… and then gaslit the shit out of humanity ever since.
positiveWHAT@lemmy.world 8 months ago
WDYM we also have a fixed understanding? I’m as fluid as science.
squaresinger@feddit.de 8 months ago
History is full of great and not so great scientists who just couldn’t accept a paradigm shift that totally changed their field of science.
Germ theory for example was a big one that got rejected by most of the medical scientists and professionals for decades.
FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I mean our conception is fixed to what we currently know. (Or “know”) in the broad scheme of things it would be rather rare to come across something that changes your fundamental understanding, right.
Looking back we can see that a lot of what people thought was straight up stupid. like barnacle geese… coming from… barnacles
But an observer looking back from far in the future at us… will likely see some of our beliefs as ridiculous.