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.

Coronavirus COVID-19: Edited 22 March 2020

This post may seem to be off subject but it is not. If Jesus is Lord of everything then He is the Lord of public health and our personal health. The current world-wide spread of the COViD-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019) virus in its original form and in a possible second mutated form are surely cause for vigilance and concern but not for panic and misinformation. Updates are in BOLD type.

The CoVid-19 virus is essentially an influenza virus so the following comments make good sense regardless of whether the disease to be avoided is SARS, MERS, CoViD-19, "the flu", or the common cold.

1.  The "corona" in the name is Latin meaning "crown" or "halo" and is descriptive. Under two dimesional electron microscopy, the viral particles appear to be covered with club-shaped spikes.

2.  The current virus is not "Coronavirus." It is one of a group of viruses known as coronaviruses. Corona in Latin means "crown." The group includes the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome virus (MERS-CoV) and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome virus (SARS-Cov). The viruses in this group are RNA (ribonucleic acid) viruses with a viral envelope as their outer layer. Many of these viruses produce flu-like symptoms and in severe cases do have the capacity to be fatal.

3.  The presence of a second mutated form of the virus is to be expected. Viruses commonly mutate into new varieties.

4.  The United States Centers for Disease Control says that there is no need for healthy individuals to wear face masks.

5.  Cover your face, mouth, and nose if you sneeze. The primary infection route is on respiratory moisture droplets from sneezes or coughs. The second most likely infection route is fingers: touching a contaminated surface and then touching your own mouth, nose, or eyes.

6.   If possible, stay about six to 10 feet away from people with obvious flu-like symptoms (fever, cough, and shortness of breath). It is silly and racist to avoid any particular ethnic group. Viruses do not care about your ethnic background.

6.  Wash your hands frequently with soap and water and use any hand sanitizers which are provided by stores, churches, physicians, etc. Grocery stores often provide sanitizing wipes for use on grocery cart handles; always use them because the grocery cart handles are touched by hundreds of people a day. All of the items listed here are touched by many random people each day: door knobs and handles, elevator buttons, public telephones, shared computer keyboards, coins and paper money, and any number of other public things. You probably use your cell phone all day long; anything you have touched with with your bare hands will be on your phone. Don't forget about your automobile;s steering wheel, radio buttons, light switches, and door handles. Wash, wash, wash; wipe, wipe, wipe. The main route of transmission of viruses such as CoVid-19 is your hands. Keep your fingers away from your mouth, your nose, and your eyes. Do not chew on rubber pencil erasers!

7.   Most healthy individuals are at slightly less risk. Those with the greatest risk are probably the elderly, those with compromised immune systems, and those with other serious preexisting conditions. The main causes of death from the virus are secondary pneumonia and multiple organ failure.

8.    A vaccine for the virus will eventually be available but the process for developing the vaccine is not magic. It will take time.

9.   Follow the instructions of your local health authorities. Cooperate with what they instruct you to do. It is their job to protect you as much as possible. Do not assume that you are immune to any disease. It is not disloyal to the Lord to temporarily avoid large gatherings of people like church services.  We are instructed in scripture to be good citizens and to cooperate with our rulers in any matters which do not interfere with with our Christian faith, always putting our obedience to the Lord first.

10. Think of the "social distancing" which is being implemented as you would about the crews who fight forest fires. To fight the enormous fires, the firefighters take bulldozers and cut wide trenches into the dirt, clearing away trees, brush, and debris, When the fire reaches the trench there is nothing there for it to burn. The idea for us is we cannot infect one another if we are separated.

Circumcise Baby Boys on the Eighth Day

“And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.” Genesis 17:12

There is a legitimate scientific reason why circumcision is safest for a male child on the eighth day after birth, but Moses could not possibly have known or understood this fact.   The science of Moses’ day was not sufficiently advanced to have discovered this fact.  Those who believe the Bible account know that God led Moses to give this instruction.

At birth, the infant’s immune system has just begun to work and the child could not yet successfully fight off infection.  Luckily, for the first week of life, the child carries antibodies in his blood which have been provided by the mother.  The mother’s antibodies begin to decline in number after one week,

The infant’s ability to form clots begins to develop about day five and reaches its peak at day eight.  If any surgery is to be performed, day eight would be the ideal day.  On day eight, the infant is best able to prevent infection and to close and seal a surgical wound.  Moses could have only known this in one of two ways: 1. Trial and error, with a large number of dead babies, or 2.  He was told.

The science behind this was not elucidated until the Twentieth Century.  In 1935, Dr. Carl Peter Henrik Dam (1895 - 1976), while doing research on cholesterol metabolism in baby chicks at the University of Copenhagen, discovered Vitamin K, a vital factor in the coagulation mechanism.  He initially called it the Koagulationsvitamin.  He received the 1943 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his work on the subject.

The American pediatrician, Luther Emmett Holt (1855 – 1924) discovered that infants were especially susceptible to bleeding on days two through five, but had nearly 100% clotting ability by day eight.

………………………………………….

The Jewish Kabbalists, in their numerology, say that the eighth day has a mystical meaning.  The number seven has the meaning of “nature,” or “finite.”   The number eight carries the meaning of “super-rational,” or “infinite.”

The God Particle

On 4 July 2012 (today),  scientists from the CERN Hadron Collider  announced that they had produced a measurable particle consistent with the Higgs-Boson particle , also known as the “God Particle.”  As could be expected this has created a storm of discussion.  What does it all mean?

First, this discussion is not essentially religious in nature (except for those who already believe), even though the particle is commonly called the “God Particle.”  The particle was first predicted over fifty years ago (1964) by the atheist English physicist, Peter Higgs (b. 1929, England) to explain the behavior of sub-atomic particles.  The particle would fall into the category of particles known as bosons; named for the Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose 1894-1974.  Bosons are sub-atomic particles which are “force-carriers,”  ie: photons (particles of light), which carry the electromagnetic force; mesons, which carry nuclear forces, ;  gravitons, carriers of the gravitational force,; etc.  The Higgs Boson particle is associated with mass, which is similar to, but not exactly the same as, weight.  Mass is actually defined as “resistance to acceleration.”  The entire discussion is based largely on high level mathematics.

The “God Particle” name came from the book, The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, What Is the Question?, by Leon Lederman.  Lederman said he named the particle because it is “so central to the state of physics today, so crucial to our understanding of the structure of matter, yet so elusive.  … the publisher wouldn’t let us call it the Goddamn Particle though that might be a more appropriate title, given its villainous nature and the expense it is causing.”

Practical applications which theoretically could result from manipulation of the Higgs Boson particle and related particles include:

1.     Super-dense, super-hard, and super-light weighted materials.

2.     Super-heavy materials.

3.     Particle beam weapons and excavation equipment.

4.     Anti-gravity devices.

Some persons will see the religious implications of a particle which imparts physicality to a purely energy based reality just as some see the possible religious implications of laminin , a cross-shaped molecule which is involved in the connective tissue holding together all human tissue.

Film Comment: A Clockwork Orange

I have to admit that A Clockwork Orange (1971) is one of my favorite films.  I believe it is one of the films, like Citizen Kane and Casablanca, which is nearly perfectly made.  Every element, every sound, every piece of scenery, every piece of clothing, every facial expression; it is all essential to the totality of the film.  This is not a pretty film and the "hero" is a monster of the worst sort.  The film grabs your emotions and evokes revulsion and horror at the creature, Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell).  What happens to Alex pulls the viewer into feeling sympathy, even pity, for him.  At Alex's triumph, the viewer may well feel that justice has been done.  The reason that this film is so important, and is studied in every film school, is that it forces the viewer to think.

Based on the same-named science-fiction novel by Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange was long thought to be unfilmable.  The film retains the odd slang and nihilist, crumbling culture of the novel.  The legal authorities are useless and ineffectual, so much so that Alex's gang, his three Droogies, can be deputized.  This is like hiring cannibals to babysit your children for a week.  

In a near-future dystopian England, Alex DeLarge leads his droogies on nightly rages of rape, bloody violence, and murder.  Alex and the boys respect no one and nothing  and fuel their rages with "milk plus" (milk spiked with mind-altering drugs).  The mindless sprees are set to classical music because the only thing Alex loves, besides himself, is the music of "Ludwig van" (good old Beethoven).

On a particularly violent night, Alex is betrayed by his droogies and is captured by the police.  In prison, Alex becomes the subject of a horrifying mind-altering experiment which causes him to become nauseous at the mere passing thought of committing violence.  And to Alex's horror, nausea upon hearing any music by his beloved Ludwig van.

Released as a totally reformed gentle man, Alex soon finds he has a very big problem.  His former victims remember him very well and he vomits at the thought of defending himself against them.  A true lose-lose situation.

The horrified authorities hadn't intended this outcome and feel that they have little choice but to change Alex bag to his old evil self.  Alex, of course, is delighted.

This film raises many questions: personal responsibility, free will, determinism, the nature of evil, and society's legitimate response to violence.  As surgical and pharmaceutical advances make transformations such as this entirely possible, should they be used in violation of the free will of the transgressor?  Would  a transformed criminal really be a reformed man?

Does society have the right to incarcerate or even to kill to maintain the public good?  Does society have the right to force individuals to submit to procedures which may "correct" their behavior?  Who decides what is "correct" behavior?  Does "correct" behavior include "correct" thought?  Does society have the right to screen and "treat" persons because their genetic profile says they may commit crimes in the future?

Realize if you decide to view A Clockwork Orange that it portrays extreme violence, rape, human medical experimentation, sexual situations, nudity, and phallic images.  Two excellent films with similar subject matter are Minority Report and GATTACA.

Film Comment: Splice

"She's not human ... not entirely."  This is the tagline for the truly disturbing 2009 Canadian science fiction film, Splice , starring Academy Award winner (2002) Adrien Brody, Canadian actress Sarah Polley, and French actress Delphine Chaneac in the role as the adult creature/specimen/thing/woman.  When I saw this film , I heard someone say that they felt like they needed a bath upon leaving the theater. It is that intense, bizarre, and perverse.

A male-female genetic research team (Brody and Polley) at the Nucleic Exchange Research and Development laboratory (N.E.R.D.) are working on creating hybrid animals (mixing genetic material from several species) for medical use.  When their funding is threatened they rush to accelerate their results and secretly add human DNA (their own) to the mix.  A viable little bird-like thing results.  They name it Dren (N.E.R.D. spelled backwards) because the female researcher almost immediately takes a mothering attitude toward the creature and insists that it is not a "specimen."

Dren cannot speak, after all, she is an animal; she coos like a bird.  She proves to be inquisitive, intelligent, graceful, and she grows at an alarming rate.  She is an adult within days.  She is tall and slender with a beautifully innocent face, her knees bend backward instead of forward, her feet resemble hands, and she has a long prehensile tail tipped with a poisonous stinger.

As she matures, Dren becomes very noticeably female and increasingly seductive. "Poppa" makes the mistake of spending time alone with her and willingly/unwillingly ends up as the object of her intense attention.  Then his wife catches them.  He is having sex with his "daughter," he is having sex with an animal, he is having sex with himself.  Dren is all three.

This film touches on the subjects of cloning, responsibility toward our offspring, aberrant sexuality, intense self pride, and amoral scientific research just for the "science."  It is, in reality, a variant on the Frankenstein theme.

The most disturbing thing about this film is that it is on the edge of no longer being science fiction.  Much of science fiction eventually becomes science fact.  Jules Verne wrote of space travel and submarines; now they are established fact.  On the first Star Trek television series, the characters would reach into their pockets and pull out their personal communicators; we now call them cell phones.

Modern molecular biology can already insert DNA sequences into bacteria and cause them to produce synthetic chemicals they would normally not produce.  The entire human genome has now been deciphered with the prospect of the ability to insert healthy DNA sequences in place of faulty ones.  The mutant genetic sequence which causes the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus to be resistant to methicillin (MRSA) can be detected in one hour from a nasal swab.

Artificial life may be just around the corner.  It may already be here.  In 2010, Dr. John Craig Venter of Utah, USA announced the creation of an artificial bacterium using synthetic DNA.  His research is aimed at producing modified microorganisms which can produce clean fuels and biochemicals.

Christians believe that God is the Creator.  There are so many questions. What will it mean if man also is a creator?  What will God think of our glorification of the human intellect?  Does God intend for us to learn all things?   Are there things we should not learn?  Are there things we should not do even if they are possible? Do scientists bear any responsibility for their discoveries?  What if our science creates a Dren?

Book Comment: Faith Reads

Faith Reads. A Selective Guide to Christian Nonfiction (2008), by David Rainey, is a library reference book published by Libraries Unlimited. It reviews hundreds of books, sorted into the following categories: Life Stories, Prayer, Worship, Spiritual Growth, Christian Self-Help, Evangelism, Arts, Culture, and Education, Business and Leadership, Science and Nature, and Bible and Theology.

Just to read this book would be boring, but if you are looking for a specific type of Christian non-fiction, this is a good place to start your search.

Film Comment: Island of Lost Souls

Island of Lost Souls (1933) is a truly perverse film and was recognized as perverse almost as soon as it was released. On Dr. Moreau's island there are some "strange looking natives."

The hyper-talented Charles Laughton portrays Dr, Moreau, who has created a tribe of animal-men who worship him as their God. He rules his subjects with an iron hand, always with the threat of returning them to The House of Pain, where he performed brutal unanesthetized surgeries on the island's animals to transform them into "men." He has deputized the Sayer of the Law (Bela Lugosi) to remind his "men" of the three laws: "Not to run on all fours. Not to eat meat. Not to spill blood."

This was bad enough, but then the real fun starts: Moreau attempts to spark a love match between a shipwrecked man and one of his "girls" named Lota (the beautiful Kathleen Burke), who began her existence as a panther.

This film was more than controversial. Remember that this was 1933. The film hints at brutality, sadism, animal abuse, torture, human-animal sexuality, unprincipled science run amok, and a man who has basically made himself into God the Creator. Add to this the fact that Laughton clearly portrays Moreau as a soft, self-pampering homosexual.

Moreau's world begins to fall apart when his subjects ask the question, "Are we not men?"

Book Comment: Ethics Without God

Ethics Without God, by Kai Nielsen, admits that a reasonable person can be a Christian but adds that a reasonable person who has had a full education cannot be a Christian. So, though Nielsen goes out of his way to seem reasonable, in the end his judgement of Christianity and Christians is an insult. He rejects the basic assumptions of Christianity as unnecessary and illogical. He believes that secularization is inevitable "as we move away from a peasant society."

Nielsen rejects the idea that only religion, and more specifically Christianity, can provide a purpose in life. He agrees that a life with no purpose would be awful. He finds purpose in science, logic, and ethical behavior and says that Christianity has "incoherence" in it. Another insult said with a sweet smile.

"Perhaps we have even more reason to love each other if there is no God for then the only thing we have is each other."

Nielsen, Kai, Ethics Without God (Rev. ed.: Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY, 1990)