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UCG Portland Mini Study
We know the earth is a spinning sphere. But, to the untrained, naked eye, the earth appears flat. Our individual observational range is too limited to tell us otherwise. Of course, pictures taken from rockets and missiles from the late 1940s have proved the wisdom of the adage "Seeing is believing"; plane earth is spherical - as shown by photographs of our beautiful jewel-like orb taken from space since 1969.
Yet most of humanity lives its life as if the earth is flat. We go about our day-to-day business unconscious of our planet's movement as a spinning ball hurtling though space. Though we may sit quietly unaware in comfortable armchairs, we are completing a gigantic sideways somersault once every 24 hours a a speed of 700 miles per hour relative to the earth's axis.
We will know our days and our seasons, but God has so designed spaceship earth with such magnificent stability that we can go through life without much conscious thought of the marvelously complicated mechanisms that under-gird our journey. Long before people came to understand the invisible force of gravity that keeps the heavenly bodies in place, a Bible writer observed that the Creator "hangs the earth on nothing" (Job 26:7). How marvelous are the works of our God!
We scarcely give a thought to the gravitational pulls and counter-pulls that keep us on course and enable the normal cycle of the four seasons. We can be thankful we don't have to fully understand the complex astronomical machinery to enjoy the ride.
Read more about the creation in our publication:
The Good News Magazine© 2003-2011 United Church of God Portland Oregon