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Perhaps, but the point that I neglected to make is that the Israelites constructed this "Sea" according to instructions that were allegedly given to them by God Himself. If that is the case, then wouldn't such an omniscient being have given more precise dimensions? Even 10 cubits across and 31 cubits around would have been more accurate. 10 by 31 and four-tenths of a cubit would be even more so. 3.14 is an acceptable value, given the size of the item.


I am saying that Pi = 3 is more in error than 3.14 or even 3.1 - either of which would give a more than adequate working value for Bronze-Age craftsmen.


That's why I usually say something like, "I was 54 years old on my last birthday".


That's why I say "I am about 6 feet tall." If pressed for a more exact measure, I ask them to measure me.

Which brings up another point: the Bible does not use any approximations in these measurements, but clearly states them in specific values.


Or we could say that Pi is approximately 3.14, and provide reference to more precise values, like This One.


Correct. The first known use of the decimal point was by Jesuit Father Christopher Clavius in 1593, in his "Tabula Sinuum".


As I've already posted: "He made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits high. It took a line that was a number of cubits equal to twenty-two of seven parts of the line across to measure around it." Even "And he made the molten sea of about ten cubits from brim to brim, round in compass, and the height thereof was about five cubits; and a line of about thirty cubits did compass it round about.", or "And he made the molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, round in compass, and the height thereof was five cubits; and a line of thirty-one and four-tenths of a cubit did compass it round about." would make more sense.

But no, the Bible is not about making sense; it is about justifying violence against foreigners, the conquest of their lands, and the violation of their women (not to mention the overarching misogyny of the Biblical leaders).

The excuses given by modern bible scholars for these facts have always seemed both lame and contrived.

Yes, according to the rules of current mathematics.<....>

The earliest known textually evidenced approximations of pi date from around 1900 BC. They are found in the Egyptian Rhind Papyrus 256/81 ≈ 3.160 and on Babylonian tablets 25/8 = 3.125, both within 1 percent of the true value.[1]The Indian text Shatapatha Brahmana (composed between the 8th to 6th centuries BCE, Iron Age India)[46] gives π as 339/108 ≈ 3.139. It has been suggested that passages in the 1 Kings 7:23 and 2 Chronicles 4:2 discussing a ceremonial pool in the temple of King Solomon with a diameter of ten cubits and a circumference of thirty cubits show that the writers considered π to have had an approximate value of three, which various authors have tried to explain away through various suggestions such as a hexagonal pool or an outward curving rim.[47]

Many ancient cultures calculated from early on with numerals based on ten: Egyptian hieroglyphs, in evidence since around 3000 BC, used a purely decimal system,[8][9] just as the Cretan hieroglyphs (ca. 1625−1500 BC) of the Minoans whose numerals are closely based on the Egyptian model.[10][11] The decimal system was handed down to the consecutive Bronze Age cultures of Greece, including Linear A (ca. 18th century BC−1450 BC) and Linear B (ca. 1375−1200 BC) — the number system of classical Greece also used powers of ten, including, like the Roman numerals did, an intermediate base of 5.

So shouldn't we judge whether they were wrong or not in mathematics based on their own ancient rules rather than impose our modern ones?

And again, you say Pi = 3 is an error. But we're talking about a value that can't be written down on paper precisely.

Hypocrisy, within the religion I was a part of mostly. But I am not an athiest or agnostic I just don't follow any religions.

... All in all it's just another example how they wrote what they wanted without much thought in it. No regard for truth whatsoever.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, eh?

Maybe it's a woman

Can't be. I thought women were perfect.

I thought the only perfect women were Eve before the apple and Mary the Virgin.

Pseudochristian to Atheist: I never really believed, but my parents pretended I did. The non-existence of a deity or deities is rational and logical, and backed (although not proven) by biological and physical fact and theories.

wrt the OP: I was born into a Catholic family and became agnostic based on Sunday School teachings and sermons (God sends Indonesian kids to hell just because they happened to be born somewhere without Christianity? How is that fair?), and became atheistic when I read the bible for myself (*shudder*). I sometimes now call myself a pantheist, which to me describes an emotional reaction of awe to the universe without requiring any sort of supernatural/transcendent/personal deity.

I thought pantheism was the believe of god in all things?