![](\"https:\/\/www.personal.psu.edu\/staff\/d\/r\/drs18\/BiSciCreation\/geocentricLg.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\nDoes the Bible \u201cteach\u201d geocentrism<\/a>? I\u2019m glad that Joel Watts<\/a> is taking the time to argue the case that it does<\/a>. <\/p>\n But I\u2019d like to suggest that that\u2019s not the best way to phrase the question. The Biblical literature was entirely composed in contexts where geocentrism was accepted as true, and it is worth noting that at the very least it never challenges geocentrism directly or explicitly. If something is written in a context in which X is assumed to be true, and it says nothing to contradict X,\u00a0should it be assumed that the author probably accepted X as true?<\/p>\n It is important not to only ask \u201cDoes the Bible explicitly emphasize this?\u201d nor \u201cCan the Bible can be made to seem compatible with what we have since learned?\u201d, but \u201cWhat would the Bible have been understood to mean to its original hearers and readers?\u201d<\/p>\n If we ask the latter question, then the answer is that the Bible may not \u201cteach geocentrism<\/a>\u201c, but only for the simple reason that geocentrism was so much taken for granted that it could be treated as a given, a universal assumption, and thus there was no need to \u201cteach\u201d it.<\/p>\n