We live in an age where pictures taken away from this earth leave NO doubt about its shape. I have never ever considered this earth to be a flat object. And we in this present age can explore the physical earth. I cannot figure out what you mean with this metaphorical morality. There was a depraved immorality that caused this flesh age to be required. Guess what, the reason was metaphorically called 'the tree of the knowledge of good and evil'.
The flat earth is in the Bible. The firmament—the shell that holds all the stars—is in the Bible. The estimate of the age of the earth was calculated by Biblical scholars on the basis of the Biblical text, and most of those calculations place it at about 6,000 years.
Scripture please. The word 'flat' is used four times in the Bible and none of the places where the word 'flat' is used refers to this earth. You really ought to check out the meaning of that word firmament. (Strong's Hebrew 7749, from 7554 means prop. an expanse, i.e. the firmament or (apparently) visible arch of the sky; - firmament. Comes from a prime root that means "to pound the earth (as a sign of passion); by analogy to expand (by hammering); by impl. to overlay (with thin sheets of metal): beat, make broad, spread abroad (forth, over, out, into plates, stamp. stretch. (Strong's Hebrew #7554) Has something to do with the 'arch of the sky'.
The closest to that 6,000 date is when the Adam's soul/spirit was placed in his newly formed flesh body. Some claiming to be Bible scholars say the days of creation were 24/7 hour days. But Peter says God keeps time differently, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years.... IIPeter 3. The literal WORD repeatedly states this earth and heavens are old very very very old.
As far as the nature of the earth goes, the geologists are the ones who figured out what it was like billions of years ago; life scientists like me really aren’t trained in that area. That stuff you call “scum” actually was a mixture of organic molecules of various sizes and shapes. The traces of those molecules can be found in old rocks. The earth cooled off the same way it cools now: through heat radiation into space. Its temperature is now kept in rough equilibrium by radioactive decay deep underground, and energy from the sun; the atmosphere also acts to stabilize the temperature.
I have nothing against geologists. That is unless they make claims contrary to what God had His elected prophets pen that took place through eons of time. God said He destroyed that first heaven/earth age, everything except the 'supernatural' bodies of His children. One can read Genesis 1:3- to see what the vast environmental clean up took place as a result of the complete destruction on this earth stated in Genesis 1:2. God even told those flesh beings created in Genesis 1 to go and replenish this earth. This was 'days' (thousands of years) before the Adam was created in Genesis 2 and placed in the Garden of God, called Eden.
I could go on about the measurable physical properties of the earth, which have been determined by direct observation and experimentation—but I’d probably be wasting my time.
Well I am sure God is waiting with a baited breath for His creation to finish their observations and experimentation.
And I’m still waiting on you to explain why you feel it is so important to believe both that the physical world is exactly the way it is described in Genesis (flat, relatively new, solid shell sky), and that the physical world is unimportant. Those beliefs are kind of opposite of each other. Furthermore, if you genuinely believe the physical world is unimportant, then it shouldn’t matter a whit to you that scientists such as myself are driven to describe the physical world (including life upon the world) as accurately as possible.
Provide the Scripture wherein God said this earth was ever flat or any such thing as a solid shell sky. It is not there it was never Written. I have never said the 'physical' world is unimportant. I have said flesh dies and will never be used again ever.
To tell young children they are here as result of a single cell getting all hot and bothered and through eons of time of animal evolution they are the result is cheating them. God created all souls/spirit intellect, and HE loves them all. TOE removes the direct and individual connection that each and every soul/spirit literally has with the Creator. How can a child love their Creator when they are told they are here as result of eons of evolution through the animal kingdom. Why they act just like animals...
I did not say anything about the Biblical version of the earth that contradicts anything that was taken as fact throughout most of the history of Christianity. Galileo was imprisoned for heresy for saying that the earth orbits around the sun: a statement in direct contradiction to what the Bible says. I'm not going to go into all of the scientific inaccuracies of the Bible; that information is readily available on the internet. The fact remains that if you do not believe the earth is flat (although the Bible is unclear about whether it is a circle or square), the sun races around the earth, etc., you do not literally believe the Bible. And that just begs the question, why do you believe the Biblical version that God waved His hands and all life popped into existence in its current form, when you choose to believe the scientific observations instead of the Biblical version where other scientific disciplines are concerned? Logically, there is no reason to believe that the Biblical is meant to be a scientific authority in *any* manner.
God gave the Bible to us as a spiritual guide; He left the physical nature of the universe for us to discover. And no amount of quoting scripture at me is going to change my mind about that.