Some Christians think the earth is flat, because the Bible contains references to things like the earth having foundations (Job 38:4) and four corners (Isaiah 11:12). This has even become a bit of a controversy in recent times. To illustrate why these passages are not meant to be taken literally, let’s examine what the Bible says about the human heart.

The Hebrew word for “heart” is lēḇ. We know from passages like Exodus 28:29-30 that this refers to the literal heart, but it is also used many times in Scripture to refer to a place of feeling emotions or to a source of desires and certain types of thoughts.

The reason it is used this way is because many types of emotions are felt in or around the heart. A painful loss is called a “heartache” for a reason: it really feels like your heart is aching in your chest. When you get extremely good news, you can feel a swelling in your chest. Certain hidden desires can cause your heart to race, while disappointment can make your heart feel heavy.

It does not matter that these emotions, desires, and thoughts are generated and managed in the brain. Your experience of them centers around the heart, which is how God designed this part of your connection to your “being” (mind, soul, heart, body, etc.). In these instances, you can discern your emotional state by paying more attention to your chest than your skull.

This distinction rather easily settles the debate over the flatness of the earth in the Bible. The earth is described as having foundations and four corners because this is how we perceive the earth, not because it is how the earth actually works. It’s as simple as that. Like with emotions and the heart, sometimes our experience of something does not reflect the mechanics at play.