Fixed-Earth?

What are we to think of astronomer Nicholas Copernicus's suggestion that the earth moves, when Scripture seems to teach that the earth is immovably fixed in space? This may not seem to be a huge deal today but at the time it was a very hot topic. In the fourth century BC the famous Greek philosopher Aristotle taught that the earth was fixed in the center of the universe and that the sun, stars, and planets revolved around it. Aristotle's fixed-earth view was the official church view for centuries even though, as early as 250 BC, Aristochus of Samos proposed that the earth and planets revolved around the Sun at the center of the solar system. To the ordinary people it looked like the sun appears to go around the earth; and if the earth moves, why aren't we thrown off into space? Why does a stone, thrown straight up into the air, come straight down and if the earth rotating rapidly why don't we feel a strong wind blowing in our faces in the opposite direction to our motion? Surely the idea that the earth moves is absurd?

Aristotle's work was translated into Latin, and in the Middle Ages  it came to influence the Roman Catholic Church.

Aristotle believed that not only that the universe was old, but that it had always existed.

One fellow, Thomas Acquinas (1225-1274) had no difficulty reconciling an eternal universe with the existence of God as Creator in a philosophical sense, but he admitted that there was difficulty reconciling it with the Bible, since the Bible clearly said there had been a beginning. The fixed-earth was different: it seemed to fit in well with what the Bible said. For instance:

1 Chronicles 16:30 tremble before him, all the earth;
    yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.

Psalm 93:1 The Lord reigns; he is robed in majesty;
    the Lord is robed; he has put on strength as his belt.

Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.

Psalm 104:5 He set the earth on its foundations,
    so that it should never be moved.

1Samuel 2:8 He raises up the poor from the dust;
    he lifts the needy from the ash heap
to make them sit with princes
    and inherit a seat of honor.
For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's,
    and on them he has set the world.

The Bible seemed to not only to teach that the earth was fixed; it seemed clearly to say that the sun moved.

Psalm 19:4-6 Their voice goes out through all the earth,

    and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
     which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
    and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.

 Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
    and its circuit to the end of them,
    and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

 Ecclesiastes 1:5 The sun rises, and the sun goes down,

    and hastens to the place where it rises.