Heavens to Space

[Just thinking]

Hello,

Does anyone know approximately when what we now refer to as 'Outer Space' (or just 'Space') was stopped commonly being called 'The Heavens'? I ask this because I have come across those who use old Biblical texts containing the word 'Space' to imply 'Outer Space', when I think it's far too early in civilized history to make that assertion. Any thoughts?

Thank you.

Well, not to do all your research for you, but a google search for "History of Astronomy" might be a good start, though sites about Galileo could lead you back to the 'Copernican System' (which still dealt with 'spheres'), and hence get the first references to a heliocentric universe from Aristarchus of Samos (310~230 BCE), but Galileo's work was probably the best place to drop a stake and say it was 'space' due to his telescopic observations of the motions of planets and moons, and the seemingly boundless depths of it.

This is a fine article that I dug up after a few minutes' scrounging....

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/newton-stm/

[TragicMonkey]

I think the definitive moment when "the heavens" became "space" was when people realized that rather than being full of angels, the place was full of revolving balls.*


*Which is quite magical in itself.

[c4ts]

Of course Heaven is in outer space, but the Outer Gods live beyond outer space, beyond time itself, in the far reaches of unfathomable dimensions that only fools and madmen dare to think about! At the center lies the Daemon Sultan Azathoth, the blind idiot god! He is surrounded by flutists, who pipe out tuneless music, to which great Azathoth dances without rhythm, writhing about in a contradictory manner that would drive you insane if you saw it! HE SENDS HIS MESSENGER NYARLATHOTEP TO CONSUME THE SUN AND ITS CHILDREN!! ALL WILL PERISH BEFORE THE BLACK MAN, THE SKINLESS ONE, THE MIGHTY TONGUE!!! EVEN THE FUNGI FROM YUGGOTH RECOGNIZE HIS POWER!!!! THE OLD ONES WHO CAME FROM THE STARS AND LIVE BENEATH THE EARTH RECOGNIZE THE BRAINLESS PULSATING FURY THAT IS HIS LAUGHTER!!!!
KNEEL BEFORE THE CRAWLING CHAOS, OR THE MIGHTY SPACE GOD WILL CONSUME YOUR CIVILIZATION!!

<marquee> Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!</marquee>

Billions of years ago, before our planet was a steaming bowl of primordial soup, the flying polyps came to Earth riding the tails of th Old Ones. They built giant cities of basalt, and lived beneath the ground, feeding on primitive cone shaped creatures, neither animal nor plant, with hideous eye stalks and tendrils. But suddenly, the Great Race of Yith transcended time and space! They posessed the bodies of the primitive coniform beings, and banished the polyps underground. But the polyps revolted, so the Yithians transported their bodies billions of years into the future, inhabiting advanced beetle-like creatures that would rule long after mankind's extinction. They sent their newfound beetle bodies back to the primordial era and defeated the flying polyps once and for all. And they brought with them from Outer Space their dark, midless god, which grew its pseudopods into the primordial soup and started life on Earth. Abiogenesis is a myth, that is the true story of creation! Darwin is wrong, "evolution" is really a process of deliberate mutation made possible by the occult knowledge of the Serpent People! Don't let anybody tell you otherwise, for you will be the wiser!!! Yog Sothoth favors those who oppose the blasphemy of evolutionism. Daoloth will shower you with geometric glory for your wisdom. Mighty Cthulhu will awaken in R'lyeh and bring upon a new era of orgasmic delight, where we will revel in his return and kill each other gloriously, and he will show us new ways to delight in killing because we will all be deliciously insane! That which is not dead may eternal lie, and with strange aeons even death may die! I tell you, I am not mad, not yet, but I have heard the voice of Cthulhu, and he imparted to me this knowledge of the divine! That is why I wear a tin foil hat. It keeps the channels open, 24/7! And you must wear a tin foil hat, or you will be torn apart by invisible demons for the knowledge I have granted you! Everybody must wear tin foil hats! Even the nurses and that nasty old psychologist, who cannot fathom my divine wisdom, and thinks I am schizophrenic because HE HAS NOT SEEN THE CITY OF R'LYEH, NOR CAN HE COMPREHEND ITS IMPOSSIBLE GEOMETRIES!!! MAY HE BE RIPPED APART BY DEMONS! MAY THE HOUNDS OF TINDALOS CONSUME HIM! THE OLD ONES HUNGER FOR HIS BLOOD!!!

Nurse! What are you doing? Keep those pills away from me. I know you think I am mad, but you have not SEEN! YOU HAVE NOT SEEN! NO! I DON'T WANT SHOCK TREATMENT! GREAT CTHULHU DOES NOT WANT SHOCK TREATMENT!!! HE NEEDS TO SPEAK TO ME!! HE WILL HAVE YOUR ENTRAILS BASTING IN A POOL OF NOOOOOOO!!!!!





And that is why you should not mistake outer space for heaven.

[Wudang]

Quote:

Originally posted by c4ts
HE WILL HAVE YOUR ENTRAILS BASTING IN A POOL OF NOOOOOOO!!!!!

Excuse my ignorance but what's a pool of nooooooo?

[c4ts]

It's a pool of what happens when your sentence gets cut off because they're dragging you away from the computer to give you shock treatment, I mean YOU WILL FIND OUT SOON ENOUGH!!!!!!