Kenny,
I'd like to post what the Bible say on creation as compared to what AIG believe, but this may not be within the scope of this topic.

Oliver,
The text of Joshua 10: 14 says,"God harkened to the prayers of man". I would not have thought this unusual, but what was unusual was that his prayers regarding the sun and moon were answered with the extended darkness caused by the heavy clouds. The text says, "the Lord fought for Israel", which was identified by the giant hailstones. Reading verse 8 - 10 indicates Joshua's real conviction was; there would not be a man of the enemy standing after the battle. Joshua came upon the enemy at night and disturbed them under the cover of darkness and this was to Israels advantage. Joshua did not want the sun to shine untill he had destroyed every Amorite. It would appear that the heavy cloud extended most of the day (verse 13b. What is astounding about his prayer is the intervention of God over natural conditions, ie the extended darkness.

The nature of poetry written by a warrior could well be expressed in terms eg,, "may the sun not shine on (the inhabitants of) Gibeon and the moon not give its gentle light to Aijalon until we have destroyed all our enemies". However in poetry when a triumph song is sung over a dead enemy, they could well say, may the sun ceased to shine upon them now they have entered the eternal darkness. Poetry can have several associated meanings. Calling the sun to cease shining upon an enemy is a form of psychological preparation for battle, or a triumph song. Compare Ex. 10:21 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand towards the sky so that darkness will spread over Egypt — darkness that can be felt.”
Ex. 10:22 .. and total darkness covered Egypt for three days".

1Sa. 2:9 He will guard the feet of his saints, but the wicked will be
silenced in darkness. “It is not by strength that one prevails".

So philo when they say God is Love or Truth, Light etc whatever or Jesus is the word made flesh than that is just poetry?

Please tell me how you are supposed to know the difference between poetry, midrash and actual historical events. Spong thinks much of the NT is midrash and cannot be used as a hitorical document.

Quote, "So philo when they say God is Love or Truth, Light etc whatever or Jesus is the word made flesh than that is just poetry?"

I could be equally as smart in my comment but I will give you the benifit of intelligence. Obviously you infer that poetry is just wimsical immagination, and has no reality. Ask peots if what they felt was real or not.

The context will identify the intention of the writer. The above character qualities identified with God, love, truth, enlightenment etc, are what was manifest in the life and character of Jesus. The eternal qualities of God were witnessed in his life, wisdom and acts, i.e. the character (Spirit) of God was incarnate in Jesus. Hardly poetry, but certainly a wonderful expression of a human life that has done more than any man to inspire divine aspirations in those who believe him.

Aslan ,

PART ONE (Cont.)

Actually that’s 150 degrees of the Earth’s rotation!

Sorry, Aslan, I really can’t see such an event not being recorded elsewhere in the world. (Yes, I know about argument from silence.)

PART TWO

Remember, the Ancient Chinese were excellent mathematicians but poor geometricians. Look at Figure 1. (Aslan’s earlier psot) Draw a line of “best fit” between Mars, Saturn, Mercury and Jupiter. Think more in terms of variance to fit. What do see? A four planet conjunction (of fit)on a common axis, perhaps?

Philo,

Hmmm… Not a metaphor, then. Between modern prayer and incantation? A A summoning? Some modern Arabs seem to adopt a similar style, when they curse another. "May you and family, dogs that you are ... ."

Kenny,

I confirmed your finding regarding fundamentalist Creation. Herein, I found these guys believe not only did dinosaurs live contemporaneously with humans, but, that Noah chose baby dinosaurs for the Ark, because grown dinosaurs took up too much room.

http://rense.com/general65/inark.htm

Boaz,

I suspect you might not hold fundamentalist views. Herein, would you see the Flood (or Gilgamesh) being an atypical event around the Tigris and Euphates? The Creationist belief, that the Flood created the Grand Canyon, is really, really hard to accept.

Philo it is a serious topic in the philosophy of religion that many religious concepts are a misuse of language and in fact many Christians take statements that God is love literally.

I would take it that you are familiar with the term midrash and how it is used to rehash concepts through stories by the Jews to convey ideas and their relationship with their God.

Once a lay person understands that it is an integral part of the OT and is argued the NT, that there is a strong argument backed up by archeology and history that the Jewish and therefore the Christian religions are mythologized constructs with real historical people and events thrown in, and they can no more be used as historical documents than a contemporary historical fictional novel.

So I agree that you must look at the content and intent of the writer and that is one of the reasons why much of Christianity has got it wrong concerning the Bible they have disregarded the midrashic intent of the OT and Spong would argue the NT as well.

Oliver,

Re Journal "East Asia History", you said: "if I use the library’s general catalogue it retrieves. If enter, physical sciences, astronomy and tick the peer review box, it does not retrieve."

That's because it is not a science journal - its a HISTORY journal! I thought that would be obvious when the title is "East Asia History"!

You said: "My “guess” is doctoral students publish here for feedback, before their topic defence"

Your guess is wrong. East Asia History web site: "Contributions are invited from scholars working towards degrees as well as from those already well-established. Manuscripts will be read by at least two referees and under conditions of anonymity as far as possible."
Stop trying to minimise the published research Oliver.

You said: "With the oracle stones you can point a Radio Telescope to confirm the position of star that no longer exists based on its radiation signature. I think that is pretty amazing."

Irrelevant!

You said: "Relatedly, the Christians went on a book-burning spree in 391."

A gross distortion of the facts. See
http://www.christian-thinktank.com/qburnbx.html

You said: "Nonetheless, many records survive from earlier periods. Similarly, records survived in China."

I never disputed this. The problem is that most were destroyed.

I'll answer your other questions when you answer mine:
On what basis can the Hague or, after the war, the Nuremberg trials, condemn Nazi acts and prosecute the offenders? If its just your opinion, or the UN's, or the Hague's etc then its just an opinion. What right do you or the UN or the Hague have to impose your own morality on Hitler and co.? In Hitler's opinion, genocide is not wrong. Why should he submit to your or the Hague's view of morality?