William Lane Craig on the raqia and the ANE

Faith & Science Conversation
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So Bill Craig did a podcast on Ancient Israelite Cosmology, where he argues against the common view that ancient people (including the Israelites) by and large believed in a solid sky dome. I myself have been skeptical of such a view for some time.

I found I agreed with most of what he said. I know Craig is a philosopher, not a biblical scholar, but I found he was surprisingly well read.

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I thought Billy Lane did a good job, thanks for sharing. I sympathize with the guy he described as frustrated that the ancient model of the universe was not taught in church to him in earlier years, as I have similar frustrations that our denominations tend to teach only one interpretation on many topics, rather than giving pros and cons of various views, I do understand why to some extent as it would confuse those who just “What to know which one is right.”
I am not sure I totally agree with Dr. Craig however as to how the ancients saw the universe though would agree that we probably have it somewhat wrong. It is hard for me to imagine that they only conceived of the structure of the universe as recurring patterns, without having some concepts of the physical structure of how those patterns were made. Probably like us trying to conceive of an expanding universe, and wanting to think of it expanding into something beyond space-time, They had a difficult time given the lack of knowledge, but surely they had some model of how things worked. His comments on divination were interesting, and gives some insight as to how ancient minds integrated the spiritual into the physical world, so perhaps their model of the universe was more metaphysical and we project our views of the need of a physical model like the three tiered one we often see pictured onto them, when their actual concept of the universe is even further removed than that.

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