(Below is a series of exchanges started by this article about 'scientists looking for a missing day' that the Bible supposedly mentioned. I thought it was all bullshit and therefore did some research. That was when I found that it was just a hoax - see my response below. This is a perfect example of how gullible some people can be. What this shows is missing is that of the ability to think logically.)
Please respond to liangperngseow@bigpond.com
To: cheng_chee_khiaw@jpmorgan.com
Subject: FW: [Fwd: Fw: The Missing Day]
I am sure you would all find this amazing........
God Bless
LP
-----Original Message-----
From: Teck Lee [mailto:tcklee@pd.jaring.my]
Sent: 07 June 2001 10:59
To: Lim Tai Pong; Chu Yat Choy; New Jing Yan; Choe Swee See; Gay Lee; Liang Perng SEOW
Subject: [Fwd: Fw: The Missing Day]
Here's something interesting!
ongoal wrote:
Here's how you account for the missing day. Isn't this marvellous?
For all the scientists out there, and for all the students who have a hard time convincing these people regarding the truth of the Bible, here's something that shows God's awesome creation & that He is still in control.
Did you know that the space program is busy proving that what has been called "myth" in the Bible is true? Mr Harold Hill, President of the Curtis Engine Company in Baltimore, Maryland & a consultant in the space program, relates the following development. "I think one of the most amazing things that God has done for us today happened recently to our astronauts and space scientists at GreenBelt, Maryland. They were checking out where the positions of the sun, moon & planets would be 100 years & 1,000 years from now. We have to know this so we won't send up a satellite & have it bump into something later on in its orbits. We have to lay out the orbits in terms of the life of the satellite and where the planets will be so the whole thing will not bog down. They ran the computer measurement back & forth over the centuries & it came to a halt. The computer stopped and put up a red signal, which meant that there was something wrong with either the information fed into it or with the results as compared to the standards.
They called in the service department to check it out & they said, 'What's wrong?' Well, they found there is a day missing in space in elapsed time. They scratched their heads and tore their hair. There was no answer.
Finally a Christian man on the team said, 'You know, one time I was in Sunday School & they talked about the sun standing still,' While they didn't believe him, they didn't have an answer either, so they said, 'Show us.' "He got a Bible & went to the book of Joshua where they found a pretty ridiculous statement for any one with 'common sense.' There they found the Lord saying to Joshua, 'Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you." (Joshua 10:8).
Joshua was concerned because he was surrounded by the enemy & if darkness fell, they would overpower them. So Joshua asked the Lord to make the sun stand still! That's right...'So the sun stood still & the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky & delayed going down about a full day." (Joshua 10:12-13)"
The astronauts & scientists said, 'There is the missing day!' They checked the computers going back into the time it was written & found it was close but not close enough. The elapsed time that was missing back in Joshua's day was 23 hours & 20 minutes... not a whole day. "They read the Bible & there it was - 'about (approximately) a full day.'
These little words in the Bible are important, but they were still in trouble because if you cannot account for 40 minutes, you'll still be in trouble 1,000 years from now. Forty minutes had to be found because it can be multiplied many times over in orbits.
As the Christian employee thought about it, he remembered somewhere in the Bible where it said the sun went BACKWARDS. The scientists told him he was out of his mind, but they got out the Book anyway and read these words in 2 Kings that told of the following story: Hezekiah, on his death bed, was visited by the prophet Isaiah who told him that he was not going to die. Hezekiah asked for a sign as proof.
Isaiah said 'Do you want the sun to go ahead 10 degrees?' Hezekiah said, 'It is nothing for the sun to go ahead 10 degrees, but let the shadow return backward 10 degrees.' Isaiah spoke to the Lord & the Lord brought the shadow ten degrees BACKWARD! "Ten degrees is exactly 40 minutes! Twenty-three hours and 20 minutes in Joshua, plus 40 minutes in Second Kings make the missing day in the universe!" Isn't it amazing?
References: Joshua 10:8 and 12,13 and 2 Kings 20:9-11.
Forward this to as many people who you believe would think this is equally as cool. Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember, amateurs built the ark. Professionals build the Titanic!
To: Liangperngseow@Bigpond.Com
Hi my friend,
You may want to consider the below before doing anything else. You should at least return this to the originator of the mail.
1. Harold Hill of Curtis Engineering of Maryland died in 1986. The company sells and rents power generators. It's web page claims it has no knowledge of the anomaly reported below.
2. Greenbelt Maryland is a suburb of Washington D.C. I'm not aware of astronauts and space scientists operating out of there. FYI, Washington D.C. is the political centre of the US not the space center. If it is still not fishy enough, read on (needs a bit more thinking though).
3. Below article claimed that 'They were checking out where the positions of the sun, moon & planets would be 100 years & 1,000 years from now. We have to know this so we won't send up a satellite & have it bump into something later on in its orbits.'
I'm not aware of any satellite that has been or is being built to last 100 years, least of all 1,000. Satellites are crafts earthlings build to circle above the planet earth. Crafts we use for inter-planetary travel and beyond are commonly called space-crafts. (No man-made spacecraft currently have the power to make space travels of the duration above too).
If the concern was indeed that of a satellite bumping into something, God help all of us. For we should be worrying about that object (the satellite may bump into) ramming into earth!
4. The article claimed that 'They ran the computer measurement back & forth over the centuries & it came to a halt'. This must mean that whoever they were thought they knew the exact positions of all the celestial bodies 'over the centuries'. I would be amazed by that. To perfectly reconcile the past position of a space object with its current position requires accurate historical records and perfect knowledge of Everything not currently provided by the Bible nor available to Science.
As far as I know, no religious organisation in this world has ever been involved in nor is capable of building satellites (or spacecrafts) or such earthly endeavors as space travel. In fact, if it was not because of them man might already be on Mars by now (you see, humankind lost more than 1 day because religious men controlled the levers of power for centuries). So, it is safe to assume that knowledge of inter-stellar mechanics is exclusive to science. But I've never heard any scientist claiming that we have perfect knowledge in that area.
Perhaps some of you have that. But if we bother to work our history back over the centuries, we all know that the Christian Church believed for centuries (until about 400 years ago) that the earth was flat and it was the centre of everything. Persecution of men who contradicted that view (& whom most if not all Christians now believed were right) were harsh and at times meant death. If they didn't even know that the earth was round (shucks, you mean the Bible did not say that?), I'd be amazed anyone would believe they have the ability to make accurate and reliable records of the position of celestial bodies over the centuries.
5. I'm also amazed that the computer came to a halt as claimed by the article simply because it cannot account for a day. As a fellow computer professional, you know pretty well that it would have just been 'garbage in garbage out'.
6. Lastly, to address the relatively simple (I'll be glad to explain why it's so) problem of potentially bumping into things 1,000 years from now NASA could just simply load the satellite with a simple radar (that planes have) and/or a simple set of computer instructions to fire one of its on-board rockets to go round the object.
Of course, pure scientists may be interested in the anomaly if it indeed exists. But then they would have more concerns than that 'missing day' and they don't operate out of Washington!
Quiz :
- How long did it take the amateur who built the ark to get all the animals into it?
- How did that amateur know how many species to load?
- How did that amateur know which species was in which part of earth?
- How did that amateur know which was the male or female?
In case he overloads his boat with all of the same sex (what a waste of effort). For species whose sexes are determined only later in life, could the amateur have mistakenly loaded 2 sexless babies and ran the risk that they both turn out to be same sex?
- How big was the ark? How did the amateur know how large a boat to build? What powered the boat? If by sail, how long did he take to get to Australia to pick up the Kangaroos? And then to Indonesia for the Komodos? Then to Galapagos for the.......and so on
- How did that amateur know the total weight of all the animals he was supposed to load? Did he really have the technical ability to build a boat that can hold all that weight? If that's the case, he was really selfish to keep that to himself. Even then he should have at least kept it safe just to prove that it was all real. He can't? But he could do all the other amazing things I'm questioning!
- How did the amateur keep all the animals fed without the 2 lions eating up the 2 deers?
- Was the flood water salty or fresh? If fresh, did the amateur store enough salt water to keep the sharks and seabass alive? (worry about the other hundreds of salt sea species later). If otherwise?
- Were birds included too? How about plants? Hopefully he realised that many plants don't live in water.
Are all the above questions irrelevant?
Ans : Unimportant - not amazing enough? But it's OK, one 2,000 year old book will satisfy all our curiosity. Amazing isn't it?
Rgds
CCK
1 comment:
To: cheng_chee_khiaw@jpmorgan.com, liangperngseow@bigpond.com
Subject: Some quotations
"Having eyes, but not seeing beauty; having ears, but not hearing music; having minds, but not perceiving truth; having hearts that are never moved and therefore never set on fire. These are the things to fear, said the headmaster." Pg. 81 Totto-chan by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi
"Learn from Science that you MUST doubt the experts. As a matter of fact, I can also define science another way: Sience is the believe in the ignorance of experts." Address given by Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman to the National Science Teachers Association in 1966.
"It is necessary to teach both to accept and to reject the past with a kind of balance that takes considerable skill. Science alone of all the subjects contains within itself the lesson of the danger of belief in the infallibility of the greatest teachers of the preceding generation." Address given by Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman to the National Science Teachers Association in 1966.
To : bjkchua@pacific.net.sg
cc: Liangperngseow@Bigpond.Com
Subject: Re: Some quotations - some interpretations needed
Hi Ben,
Not sure what your mail was meant to do but it looks extremely similar to the 'pull a phrase out of the book and interprete however you like' type approach practiced by many religious followings. So this is what I have to say for the quotes below from Richard P. Feynman (hopefully then, some of us will be able to tell a bit more about him and what he teaches to our friends and kids):
How I wish all of us had read his books instead of taking a few quotes off him. It would have done more justice to both the man and to ourselves, and then hopefully our children and everything around us. I am quite sure that would have been his wish too. Richard P. Feynman was a great physicist and one of the greatest teacher of science of the last half century. Through his lucid scientific explanations of the workings of things around us he had shown to many of us interested to listen and understand how beautiful the world is. Richard P. Feynman has the presence of mind and honesty to acknowledge the dangers of dogmatism. Something which, I must say, is not present in many religious teachings - you know, those teachings of the 'ours is the ultimate truth' kind.
Science may not know everything. It does not think it can be so. Neither does it claim that it has all the truths. But what science do know is significant and humbling enough for someone to note that through science we find that the world is much more beautiful than anyone can possibly imagine. For me, much more beautiful than any religious text/man can ever describe. Unless of course, one finds the world most beautiful only when he hears something that makes him feel good e.g. when told that he and only he is special and is made in the image of God and everything else were created for him. Makes me wonder why if that is the case, God bothered to create the complexity that most men and their religious texts know nothing and do not bother to care about. And that's before we get to consider everything beyond our planet!
Some may say that that complexity and vastness was meant for man to discover. After all everything was there for man. If that is the case, what are all of us doing everyday? What method do we think man can use to do so? Through scientific methods or
- by reading from the same 2,000 years old texts everyday?
- by sending their kids to religious schools or sunday prayers before they even know how to think, feel & perceive for themselves?
- by teaching their children that if they believe in the 'message' strong enough, all their prayers will be answered? so there's nothing else to worry about?
If one seriously believes any of the above is the 'way' (have faith?), I suggest that one leaves his children in an island and let them follow the above recipe. But many of us choose to live in the comfort of our homes (result of science or prayers? the latter is the simpler answer) and harp on the greatness of our separate faiths to our kids but totally incapable of explaining to them how an ant colony works and how they fit in Nature other than may be imagining that somehow they are there to serve him. Except of course when the ants set up home beneath one's house. Then their 'services' are forgotten and they are pests to be exterminated at will by dialing a simple number and paying a few dollars (see how powerful that can make a man feel? Makes him feel like God). Of course, they also don't care what chemical the pest controller uses (that's a scientific truth that men of faith don't deal with). You see the above is just a simple example (before we really talk science) of how many of us are so ignorant and incapable of seeing and perceiving some simple truths around us.
Lastly, if Richard P. Feynman had believed that faith mattered above all else he would not have involved himself in the work he did and in the process gave many of us a better understanding of our place in Nature. Read his books then we talk.
Rgds
CCK
To: cheng_chee_khiaw@jpmorgan.com
cc: Liangperngseow@Bigpond.Com
Subject: Re: Some quotations - some interpretations needed
I am reading his books (have about 6 of them in my possession).
I also read his address to the National Teachers Association given in 1966, from which some of the quotations were taken. Everyone should read it. He had much to say about education and science that is as relevant today as it was in 1966. With a child in primary school, I feel it keenly.
The quotations were intended to provoke curiosity and thought (hopefully). Everyone is welcome to take them any which way they want to take them. That is up to them. I felt that the remarks he made were equally applicable to contexts other than scientific inquiry - management, law, politics, education etc.
That was a long response from you!!
Ben
To: bkjchua@pacific.net.sg
Subject: Re: Some quotations - some interpretations needed
Hi Ben,
That is very nice to hear. Your clarification & suggestion to all is as valuable as the quotes.
It is a small blessing to have the opportunity to read what the man has to say. Tell us more....
Rgds
CCK
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