No conflict with God's word, since God was speaking to Moses in the language of the ancient Egyptians. Not a sophisticated view of astrophysics. But Earth as a ball is intimated in a passage in the Book of Job. The rest pertained to Israel and the Israelites, all pretty much flat land for all that mattered. No hard shell for a sky. A "firmament" was a general idea of the sky or heaven; something where the Sun, Moon, and stars might be placed. And that's where they are---except now we are permitted to see how unimaginably huge God's universe is. Could it be that you are jealous of the fact that secular astronomers have a better appreciation of God's grandeur than you do? That you are spurning God by turning your eyes away from His creation?
No conflict with God's word, since God was speaking to Moses in the language of the ancient Egyptians. Not a sophisticated view of astrophysics. But Earth as a ball is intimated in a passage in the Book of Job. The rest pertained to Israel and the Israelites, all pretty much flat land for all that mattered. No hard shell for a sky. A "firmament" was a general idea of the sky or heaven; something where the Sun, Moon, and stars might be placed. And that's where they are---except now we are permitted to see how unimaginably huge God's universe is. Could it be that you are jealous of the fact that secular astronomers have a better appreciation of God's grandeur than you do? That you are spurning God by turning your eyes away from His creation?