So I have a born again christian family member in their mid twenties who stated with complete confidence that there is a dome in the sky called the firmament and beyond it is where heaven is. She believes space doesn’t exist and rockets just blow up because the bible said so. She is not the brightest and normally I would let this sort of nonsense go but I work in aerospace and have multiple pieces of hardware in space so she is either calling me ignorant or a malicious agent for the devil purposely lying for her so I got pretty annoyed. I can’t find anything about this dome in a google search about religion and I suspect she ended up on a flat-earth YouTube channel that twisted a line in the bible to fit their beliefs and didn’t actually get it from her church. I know its probably hopeless to help her understand how dumb and frankly insulting this belief is but I can possibly talk some reason if I understand the source.
Are there any major or minor religions, christian or other that believe space is a lie and only god is outside our atmosphere?
In 6,000 year creationism, some sects believe there was a physical firmament (basically a shell of ice around the earth), but that it fell during Noah’s flood.
Let it go, friend. Don’t let a moron get you riled up. If it helps, just take comfort in the fact that the majority of the problems in this person’s life will be self-created, but they will be too goddamn stupid to realize it or take the actions in their power to correct them.
You can’t reason anyone out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into. She believes this because it’s a follow-up on the “the bible is literally true” position she has taken as an apparently core part of her personality.
Unless you’re looking for a fight, consider just ignoring this person. Otherwise, call her out and make her call you a liar in front a crowd.
She believes space doesn’t exist and rockets just blow up because the bible said so.
Ask her to show you where in the bible it says that rockets blow up. Or really where any of these things are in the bible.
I grew up in a super religious family and went to a Christian school for my whole childhood. Most people who claim to be religious don’t even read the Bible, and as soon as you ask them to point out where in the bible it says the things they are claiming it says, their argument falls apart. On the off chance they are able to point to a passage where it says it, 9 times out of 10, theor interpretation is the most idiotic way you could interpret it.
“Creationism” has some weird ideas about what space is. Though I will admit, some of those ideas would be pretty cool for a fantasy/scifi.
This is dipshit flatearther stuff. Ask them about the ice wall around the disc of the earth next time you see them.
Like others have said, this is flat earther stuff. A lot of Christian evangelical types question things like the Big Bang and how old the universe/Earth really are, but afaik there isn’t an entire religion with this as a belief.
I used to work at a space museum and we would get Christian folks who would sometimes argue with us over the number that was on the sign telling them the age of our Moon rock, but never that the earth was flat. If that is a thing, it must be new.
These are old beliefs from before the bible even existed. I’m pretty sure it was included in the bible though, but you know, even as a christian you can’t take everything that’s in the bible seriously
I agree with others, this seems like a flat-earther belief that has gotten mixed with Christianity’s creation story.
I’ve heard of it before while browsing the internet, but not from any Christians I personally know. All the Christians I interact with (myself included) believe in a literal interpretation of the creation but nobe of us believe in a physical firmament. I will note that a single man I know denies the moon landing (for reasons I haven’t bothered to ask) but even he still believes in a spherical earth and heliocentric orbit.
My understanding of Genesis 1:6-8 is that the firmament mentioned is the earth’s sky or atmosphere itself, and not a physical barrier at the edge of the atmosphere. The easiest way to show this would be Genesis 1:20 where birds are described as “flying in the firmament of heaven”. If the firmament was a solid object, birds could not fly in it.
What wasn’t reasoned into her head, can’t be reasoned out.
Sounds like there’s a good chance that you may need to apply a method I use when dealing people who believe in conspiracy theories. It’s largely a psychological thing, and it has very little to do with proof, evidence, logic, reasoning and science. No amount of evidence is ever going to solve a problem that is psychological in nature. Religious cults and conspiracy groups share some characteristics, so maybe this is applicable in her case too.
The idea is that people believe in crazy BS because that makes them a member of a group. That gives them an identity and makes them feel like they’re a privileged group for knowing some “hidden truth” about something. It also produces an “us against them” dynamic between the in-group and the out-group. Many individuals in these groups also have sub-clinical psychosis, narcissism or paranoia accompanied by anxiety and loneliness. This setup means that they find these BS nonsense groups appealing, and that the misguided beliefs become essentially bullet proof. Fighting against these beliefs will only make them stronger.
These people need therapy more than evidence.
A lot of “control” based conspiracy theories are born out of fear. The world is a chaotic, messy place and the idea that NO ONE is truly at the helm and we’re all just stumbling through the world is absolutely terrifying to some people. It’s far more comforting for them to believe there is some evil cabal or secret organization pulling the strings and that THEY’RE the reason bad things happen; rather than accepting that the world is complicated and most of us are barely removed from monkeys throwing poo at each other.
Absolutely. Fear and uncertainty are a huge part of many conspiracy theories. It’s actually quite human to be uncomfortable with uncertainty.
However, in the case of Conspiratorial Thinking (CT), that uncertainty just goes wild and the person in question will seek out unorthodox methods to cope with it. Even if the explanation is complete BS, it’s still more comforting than having no explanation at all. It’s comforting and appealing, but it does not solve the underlying problem, and that’s why people with CT have a hard time getting back to normal thinking.
The world is big, scary and full of complex interactions. If you can come up with a miserably flimsy excuse of an explanation that will at least calm you down, you’re absolutely going to hold on to it. Humans are pretty bad at tolerating uncertainty, and some people will feel absolutely devastated in the face of global economic turmoil and political unrest. Some people will go to great lengths to mitigate uncertainty, and resorting to CT isn’t even the most extreme example of this behavior.
the idea that NO ONE is truly at the helm and we’re all just stumbling through the world is absolutely terrifying to some people.
What’s hilarious to me is once I had this realization it was so relieving. I fucking hated the idea of me having to suck up to some asshole sky daddy just because I had the audacity to be born.
So what’s your method? I don’t think you ever actually spelled it out in the comment unless you meant sending them to therapy, which isn’t a bad idea.
Forget all the evidence and facts. Provide psychological support instead.
Oof. Even when I was a devout Christian I understood that space was a thing. Like ffs there’s even a video sermon of a pastor showing a picture of a stars forming a cross I saw making the rounds a decade ago. Most religious people would find that belief nutty lol
