Science in Antiquity: Part 2

 

Many modern people have a very limited view of history. They can only see or think about five or ten years into the past. They see history as boring and they think of the ancients as ignorant and backward. This was not actually not true. What the ancients lacked was the modern accumulation of facts. An ancient Israelite would have been very puzzled and culture-shocked to have been dumped into the modern world, but he or she could have eventually learned to drive a car or to cook on a stove or to use a cellphone.

The ancients were just as intelligent as we are but the accumulation of scientific facts had not yet reached a critical point. Human knowledge took centuries to double, fact by fact. As knowledge accumulated, the rate of accumulation began to speed up. Every answer exposes a new question. Buckminster Fuller spoke of the Knowledge Doubling Curve which was relatively flat for centuries, then began a slow climb, and then went into an explosive upward thrust.

By the end of the 19^th Century, knowledge was doubling once per century. By about 1945, the rate of doubling was about every 25 years. By 1982, the rate was about every 12-13 months. By 2020, the doubling was occurring about every 12 hours. With at least 50,000,000,000 devices now operating and with the rise of artificial intelligence, the rate may now be in minutes.

 

9 March 5 BC/BCE: Chinese astronomers describe a comet which they observed.

24 BC/BCE: Strabo visits Thebes (modern Luxor/al-Uqsur, Egypt). On this trip (24-20), he finds the ruins of Heliopolis (the biblical On). Genesis 41:45. He described the Earth as a sphere and said gravity pulled things to the center.

(b. ca 25 BC/BCE – d. ca 50 AD/CE) Aulus Cornelius Celsus is a Roman medical encyclopedist who wrote about subjects including skin disorders, fevers, kidney stones, eye anatomy, dentistry, jaw fractures, cancers, diet, surgery, and medicines. He taught correctly that fevers were the “effort of the body to throw off some morbid cause.”

10 May 28 BC/BCE: Chinese astronomers recorded the earliest known dated record of a sunspot, a black spot on the sun. Exactly how the sunspots were viewed is not known, since telescopes were not invented until the 1570’s and direct viewing of the sun will damage the eyes.

78-37 BC/BCE:  The Han Chinese genius, Jing Fang, is a music theorist, mathematician, and astronomer. He explained lunar and solar eclipses and musical octaves.

Science in Antiquity: Part 1

 

Many modern people have a very limited view of history. They can only see or think about five or ten years into the past. They see history as boring and they think of the ancients as ignorant and backward. This was actually not true. What the ancients lacked was the modern accumulation of facts. An ancient Israelite would have been very puzzled and culture-shocked to have been dumped into the modern world, but he or she could have eventually learned to drive a car or to cook on a stove or to use a cellphone.

The ancients were just as intelligent as we are but the accumulation of scientific facts had not yet reached a critical point. Human knowledge took centuries to double, fact by fact. As knowledge accumulated, the rate of accumulation began to speed up. Every answer exposes a new question. Buckminster Fuller spoke of the Knowledge Doubling Curve which was relatively flat for centuries, then began a slow climb, and then went into an explosive upward thrust.

By the end of the 19^th Century, knowledge was doubling once per century. By about 1945, the rate of doubling was about every 25 years. By 1982, the rate was about every 12-13 months. By 2020, the doubling was occurring about every 12 hours. With at least 50,000,000,000 devices now operating and with the rise of artificial intelligence, the rate may now be in minutes.

 

185 AD/CE: Chinese astronomers report a bright star which faded away after eight months. This is Supernova SN 185 which occurred 8200 years ago in the Centaurus constellation.

Ca 140 AD/CE:  A Chinese surgeon, Hua Tuo, is the first recorded to use anesthesia during surgery.

78-139 AD/CE: Zhang Heng, a Han polymath, works in seismology, hydraulics, astronomy, cartography, poetry, and politics. He invents a functional water clock.

100 AD/CE: 1.  The mathematician Theon of Smyrna says that the Earth is a sphere.

Ca 20 AD/CE:1.  Birth of the Greek scientist, Hero of Alexandria, who did work in theoretical mathematics, mechanics, and physics.  He studied the science of light reflection and invented a rotary steam engine and several pneumatic devices.

              2. Geminus of Rhodes studies astronomy and writes The Theory of Mathematics.

8 AD/CE: Chinese astronomer Liu Xin calculates the solar year as 365.25016 days. He calculates pi as 3.154

Science in Antiquity: Part 12

 Many modern people have a very limited view of history. They can only see or think about five or ten years into the past. They see history as boring and they think of the ancients as ignorant and backward. This was actually not true. What the ancients lacked was the modern accumulation of facts. An ancient Israelite would have been very puzzled and culture-shocked to have been dumped into the modern world, but he or she could have eventually learned to drive a car or to cook on a stove or to use a cellphone.

The ancients were just as intelligent as we are but the accumulation of scientific facts had not yet reached a critical point. Human knowledge took centuries to double, fact by fact. As knowledge accumulated, the rate of accumulation began to speed up. Every answer exposes a new question. Buckminster Fuller spoke of the Knowledge Doubling Curve which was relatively flat for centuries, then began a slow climb, and then went into an explosive upward thrust. By the end of the 19^th Century, knowledge was doubling once per century. By about 1945, the rate of doubling was about every 25 years. By 1982, the rate was about every 12-13 months. By 2020, the doubling was occurring about every 12 hours. With at least 50,000,000,000 devices now operating and with the rise of artificial intelligence, the rate may now be in minutes.

 

Ca 1950 BC/BCE: Quadratic equations are solved by Babylonian mathematicians.

Ca 2000 BC/BCE: In India, fouled water is purified by boiling and subsequent filtration through

charcoal.

Ca 22 Oct. 2137 BC/BCE: A solar eclipse is recorded and described by Chinese officials.

9 May 2138 BC/BCE: Solar eclipse visible over Babylon.

24 May 2138 BC/BCE: Lunar eclipse visible over Babylon.

Science in Antiquity: Part 10

 Many modern people have a very limited view of history. They can only see or think about five or ten years into the past. They see history as boring and they think of the ancients as ignorant and backward. This was actually not true. What the ancients lacked was the modern accumulation of facts. An ancient Israelite would have been very puzzled and culture-shocked to have been dumped into the modern world, but he or she could have eventually learned to drive a car or to cook on a stove or to use a cellphone.

The ancients were just as intelligent as we are but the accumulation of scientific facts had not yet reached a critical point. Human knowledge took centuries to double, fact by fact. As knowledge accumulated, the rate of accumulation began to speed up. Every answer exposes a new question. Buckminster Fuller spoke of the Knowledge Doubling Curve which was relatively flat for centuries, then began a slow climb, and then went into an explosive upward thrust.

By the end of the 19^th Century, knowledge was doubling once per century. By about 1945, the rate of doubling was about every 25 years. By 1982, the rate was about every 12-13 months. By 2020, the doubling was occurring about every 12 hours. With at least 50,000,000,000 devices now operating and with the rise of artificial intelligence, the rate may now be in minutes.

 

Ca 805 BC/BCE: In India, Baudhayana calculates square roots and quadratic equations.

Ca 1000 BC/BCE: Egyptian mathematicians use simple fractions.

11^th Century BC/BCE: Chinese scholars describe algebra, geometry, and trigonometry.

27 December 1192 BC/BCE: A Chinese oracle bone has been found inscribed with a description of a lunar eclipse occurring between 2148 (9:48 PM) and 2330 (11:30 PM). The lunar eclipse has been confirmed by NASA to have happened on that date and time.

Ca 1486 BC/BCE: Chinese astronomers see a ten-tailed comet.

The Fine Structure Constant: 1/137

 

In physics, the fine structure constant, a,  is 1/137, or 0.0072973525693, the reciprocal of which is 137.03599084. Paul M. Sutter, an astrophysics professor at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, has said, “It’s a measure of the strength of the interaction between charged particles and the electromagnetic force … if it had any other value, life as we know it would be impossible …”

a was first noticed in 1916. Going back, physicists began to see it in many earlier calculations. The speed of light, atoms, numerous physical constants, gravity, stars, Fibonacci numbers, dark energy, parts of Einstein’s field equations, and electromagnetism are a few. It occurs almost uniformly around the subject of physics.

http://www.fine-structure-constant.org/

Some see from this that the ultimate nature of reality is mathematical. Others deny this but say that we can exist only because of the fortunate occurrence of the exacting physical conditions necessary for our reality, the anthropic principle. They would say that mathematics is a strictly human invention used to describe reality.

To those who see reality as mathematical, this is one of the arguments for the existence of God. They say there is an external reality totally independent of man. 1/137 cannot prove that God exists (none of the proofs can do that), but some see it as a finger pointing to him. (See this post:  https://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/search/label/Amelie )

Magic Squares in Christian Occultism, Part 2

Magic squares became associated with occultism through the practice of numerology. Numerology assigns number values to individual letters of alphabetic writing systems. Individual words or names can be assigned a numerical value by adding the values of their component letters. Numerologists often consider names and words with the same numerical value to be telated to one another in some way.

 Gematria, a form of numerology, began among the Assyro-Babylonians and was later adopted as a practice by the Jews. Words with identical numerical values were considered to be related to one another or to a person whose name could be assigned the same number. Remember that for the first few years, all Christians were Jews. The number of the Antichrist. 666, was recognized to also be the number of the Roman Emperor Nero, Nero Qasr (Nero Caesar).

The Hebrew word, gematria, probably comes from the Greek word, geometria (“geometry”).  Numerology is closely associated with the Jewish Qabbalah tradition, but there are examples within the Bible, where numbers such as 3 or 666 carry special meanings. The primary language for gematria has always been Hebrew. There is a Jewish tradition that God manipulated the letters of the Torah in order to create the universe; in effect, God’s creation of the universe was through the use of numbers; mathematics. The universe does indeed have a highly mathematical structure as attested to by modern physics.

The ancient Hebrews, and later the Jews, were very careful with names because the name of a person carried characteristics associated with that person. An example is Isaac, which means “he laughed” because old Abraham (he was over 100 years old) laughed when he was told that he and the aged Sarah (she was over 90 years old) would have a son. God said Sarah also laughed in secret but she denied it. Their laughter became that of joy and wonderment.

This is where the magic squares and the occultists come in. Because every word can be written as a number, words and even phrases can be embedded into number sequences. Sending a coded message to a fellow occultist, or placing a blessing or  a curse upon a person, could be accomplished by handing them a talisman upon which a magic square of numbers was inscribed. 

This is an attempt to use the power of words, phrases, and names to influence or to alter reality. Occultists believe that if the correct words (spells) are known, the practitioner can force the universe to create good health, wealth, love, and/or personal power. It is also true that malicious persons felt that they could cause disease, economic trouble, sadness, family conflict, and even death.

Even with the biblical proscriptions against involvement with magic, some Christians were fascinated by this.

Next: Magic Squares in Christian Occultism, Part 3   

Magic Squares in Christian Occultism, Part 1

I had to remove today’s post because it became corrupted by some sort of commercial spam. I am instead posting on another subject entirely. Before you read this, let me absolutely declare that I am not an occultist of any sort.  I reject the practice of magic. I am not speaking about stage magic, which is a form of entertainment based on sleight of hand and visual deception.  That is clearly not real and does not claim to be real.

What I am talking about is Magic (or more properly Magick). Magick is based on the belief that there is an underlying basis to reality which is not apparent to the normal human senses. Magick  believes that with knowledge of the correct words, phrases, or actions, one may influence, or even force, the universe to produce particular intended results. In other words, spells and curses. The traditional Christian understanding is that we should have nothing to do with any of this. Of course, some Christians, even some very learned Christians, have not abided by this understanding. Knowing about Magick and understanding how it crept into Christian use is not a violation of the proscription against it. It is necessary so that we do not do it again. (Sadly, some still do.) [Deuteronomy 18:9-13; Exodus 22:18; Leviticus 19:26, 19:31, 20:6, 20:27; Galatians 5:19-21.]

This will take several days to discuss, so bear with me and keep on reading. The subject of this series of posts is “Magic Squares” and how they have been used in Christian symbolism.

The simplest Magic Squares are, of themselves, merely mathematical constructs which consist of numbers arranged so that the addition of the numbers in a column in any direction (left to right, right to left, top to bottom, bottom to top, or diagonally from corner to corner) always add up to the same sum. Examples are:

                                    2 7 6                                    All the columns in any

                                    9 5 1                                    direction total to 15.

                                    4 3 8

                         8   58 59  5   4   62 63  1

                        49 15 14 52 53 11 10 56  

                        41 23 22 44 45 19 18 48            All the columns in any

                        32 34 35 29 28 38 39 25            direction total to 260.

                        40 26 27 37 36 30 31 33

                        17 47 46 20 21 43 42 24

                         9  55 54 12 13 51 50 16

                        64  2   3   61 60  6   7  57

These mathematical constructions were known in numerous cultures around the world from early in the history of mathematics.  

The mathematical process for producing the squares can be expressed in mathematical formulae. The earliest squares were based on addition, but later squares have been based on multiplication, complex numbers, shapes other than squares, hypercubes, primes, and even genetic algorithms.  The term “magic square” is also applied to word squares which read the same in any direction.   

The squares became associated with occultism through the practice of numerology. Numerology assigns number values to individual letters of alphabetic writing systems. Every word or name can be assigned a numerical value.

More in the next post: Magic Squares in Christian Occultism, Part 2

The Worldview Shift in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

“What happened in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was that what for many had been the minimal theology of the Old World became the maximal of the New. … They found it in the world of Nature.”  John  V. Fleming (a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, university professor at Princeton University, and medievalist).

The “minimal theology of the Old World/maximal theology of the New World” is that the obvious order, mathematical nature,  and logic of the natural world all strongly imply the existence of an intelligence, a Creator.  Everything works as it must for us to exist at all.  If anything at all; gravitation, body pH, the amount of radiation in the atmosphere, the attractive and repellant forces between subatomic particles, etc.,  is  varied by even minute amounts, we will all die.  The extreme order and complexity of the physical world led to what is called the Argument from Design.  Design implies a Designer.

The shift  in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries denied the importance and sometimes even the existence of the Designer.  At best this is Deism (God exists but that is all that can be said), at worst, it is Atheism (God does not exist).

This shift in worldview led ultimately to the philosophy known as scientific materialism or naturalism.  This is the idea that the only things which can be known are those things which can be empirically measured.  A few steps more led to overt militant atheism.  A few steps more led to the idea that nothing can be known absolutely; that there is no Absolute Truth of any sort.  From this, people feel that they can, with a straight face, declare , “That is your truth, my truth may be different.”  Essentially, they are saying that there can be no universal standards of any sort, no declaration that anything is always wrong or right, and, ultimately, that “there can be no criticism of ME.”  This is the ultimate meaning of sin, the elevation of self above everything and everyone else.  Man making himself into God.

This is the Bible’s response to Deism and Atheism: “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:” Romans 1:20

Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian.   Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, of their orthodoxy or lack of it, or of their actions.  Some of those listed may surprise you.  Readers are encouraged to suggest persons who should be included on this list.  This is a recurring segment in this blog.

Bartolomeu de Gusmao: (b. 1685, Brazil –d. 1724) Portuguese Jesuit priest, naturalist, philologist, mathematician, linguist, university professor, chaplain to King John V of Portugal.  He designed a lighter-than-air airship but it was never built.

Francesco Lana de Terzi: (b. 1631, Italy – d. 1687) Italian Jesuit priest, naturalist, mathematician, aeronautics theorist, developer of a pre-Braille reading system for the blind.  He worried that flying ships could be used for warfare.

Serzh Azati Sargsyan: (b. 1954, Nagorno-Karabakh) Third President of Armenia, first elected in 2008. Armenian Apostolic.

Ernest Jennings Ford: (b. 1919, Tennessee, USA – d. 1991; aka: “Tennessee Ernie” Ford) Country and Gospel music singer, guitarist, and violinist. His television show always ended with a hymn. He struggled with alcoholism his entire life. Country Music Hall of Fame 1991.

Hugo Chavez: (b. 1954, Venezuela – d. 2013) president of Venezuela 1999-2013, Socialist. Roman Catholic.

Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian.   Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, of their orthodoxy or lack of it, or of their actions.  Readers are encouraged to suggest persons who should be included on this list.  This is a recurring segment in this blog.

Mary of Clopas: This woman is possibly the same as Mary Salome, who was either the wife or daughter of Clopas.  She is mentioned in John 19:25.

Julia Anne Sweeney: (b. 1959, Washington, USA) Film, stage, and theater actress. She left the Catholic Church to become an atheist and is associated with the Freedom from Religion Foundation.

William Todd Aikin: (b. 1947, New York, USA) Engineer, United States Representative from Missouri, elected 2001.  He is an opponent of abortion and embryonic stem cell research.  Presbyterian.

Jeremiah Horrocks: (b. 1618, England –d. 1641) Astronomer, mathematician, mechanic. Considered to be the Father of British Astronomy.  He was the first person to demonstrate that the moon orbits the Earth in an elliptical pattern and was the only astronomer to predict the Transit of Venus which occurred in 1639.  Puritan.

Hifikepunye Lucas Pohamba: (b. 1935, South Africa) President of Namibia, elected in 2004 and 2009. Anglican. 

Another Discussion of Pi in 1 Kings

Yesterday's post was about the use of the mathematical constant, pi, in 1 Kings 7:23.  Today is another answer to the question of whether or not the verse represents an error in the Bible.  The writer of the web article, "Answer to: Does the Math in 1 Kings 7:23 prove that the Bible has errors?" , says the solution to the question is in 1 Kings 7:26.  You have to read both verses to see that two different measurements are being discussed, one is the diameter of the outside rim of the cup and the other is the circumference of the inside rim of the cup.  This may sound like "splitting hairs"but, actually, it is not.  This is not the "Aha! Gotcha!" that the Bible-haters would like it to be.

Pi: Not the Movie But the Number

Pi (1998) is a movie I will talk about later.  It was the first feature directed by Darren Aronovsky, who is best known for the intense psychological thriller, Black Swan (2010).  This post is not about the film, but the number.


Pi is a mathematical constant; the ratio of a circle's circumference to its 
diameter.  It is often approximated as 3.14, but it is actually an irrational 
number whose decimal representation never ends and never repeats.
It has been calculated to 5 trilllion decimal places without breaking 
this pattern.  The number is useful in mathematics, science, and engineering.  


Jerry Tuttle, (who gives a calculus based derivation of Pi, π ) in his web article, "Does the Bible say Pi equals three?" discusses this very question.  Some say that there is a mathematical error in the Bible at 1 Kings 7:23.  Remember that one of the recurrent attacks on the Bible is that it is full of "errors."  It is ironic though that the supposed errors can almost always be explained away just as the cities and places which "never existed" keep on being found.

Book Comment: Cracking the Bible Code

"All that was, is, and will be unto the end of time is included in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible."  So said the Lithuanian (though born in Belarus) Talmudic scholar Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman (1720 - 1797).  He was a mathematician and bible commentator who memorized the Talmud.  


When the rabbi was challenged, "Where is the Rambam?" (The 12th Century Rabbi Moses ben Maimonides), he instantly responded, "Rabot (may be multiplied) Moftai (my wonders) B'eretz (in the land of) Mitzraim (Egypt)."  This is Exodus 11:9.


Rabbi Moshe Cordevaro (1522-1570) had earlier said, "The secrets of our holy Torah are revealed through knowledge of combinations, numerology (gematria), switching letters, first-and-last letters, shapes of letters, first- and last- verses, skipping of letters (dilug otiot) and letter combinations."


Both men were echoing an ancient Jewish tradition that the Torah was dictated by God to Moses letter by letter and that it contained coded or encrypted information about the past, present, and future.*  This is the subject discussed by Jeffrey Satinover in Cracking the Bible Code (1997).  For example, Satinover points out that AHRN (Aaron) occurs twenty-five times in the Hebrew text at equidistant spaces in Leviticus 1:1-13, a passage in which Aaron is not mentioned.


The claim of hidden messages in the scriptures is at the heart of Kabballah, Jewish mysticism.  There are currently many teams of researchers using computers to search for names, sentences, predictions, etc.  Many claim to have found mentions of historical and modern persons and events.  Most are using the Old Testament Hebrew text; a few are attempting to use the same techniques on the Greek text of the New Testament.


Who knows?  It seems unlikely, but who would dare to insist it is not true?  Is it a situation like what is said in the film, The Number 21, "You're finding it because you're looking for it."?  It does seem dangerous, though, to base one's faith in the Bible on Bible Codes, religious relics, the Shroud of Turin, or other such things when we have the Bible itself and the witness of the Apostles.  The Bible Codes might be equivalent to seeing Jesus' face in a plate of spaghetti.    


















* Many modern theologians, including many Jewish scholars, believe that someone, possibly Moses, assembled the Torah from earlier, far more ancient, sources.  

Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian.   Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, their religious beliefs, or their actions.  This is a recurring segment in this blog.

Noel Alexandre: (b. 1639, France – d. 1724) Church historian, Dominican theologian

John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton: (b. 1834, Italy – d. 1902) 1^st Baron Acton.  Acton was a historian educated at Paris and Munich.  A politically liberal Roman Catholic, he opposed the doctrine of Papal Infallibility.

Ivan Mikheevich Pervushin (b. 1827, Russia – d. 1900) Russian priest, meteorologist, mathematician, and statistician.   He contributed to the development of number theory and developed numerous mathematical proofs.

Harold Guy Hunt (b. 1933, Alabama – d. 2009)  Farmer, preacher, Governor of Alabama 1987-1993. In 1993 he became the first Alabama governor removed from office for a felony ethics conviction.

Sandra Kay Yow: (b. 1942, North Carolina - d. 2008) Naismith Hall of Fame Inductee (2002) who led the Elon College and the North Carolina State University women’s basketball teams to over 700 wins.  She led the United States Olympic team to a gold medal in 1988.