There is a very obnoxious Young Earth Creationist named Kenn Hamm whose answer to every question is, "It's all in Genesis." Regular readers will know that I find the Young Earth claim absurd and not Biblically-based. Furthermore, the reason that some Creationists cling to the Young Earth claim, is a belief that only by denying enough time, can the evolutionary model be debunked. As I have previously pointed out, the oldest plant fossils are less than 200 million years younger than the end of the Late Heavy Bombardment, when the Earth's surface was 600 degrees. Running Out of Time would be a fine title for a book about the battles over the age of the Earth. (May get to that at some point.) 9/15/17 Fox News:
A Christian numerologist claims that the world will end next Saturday when a planet will, supposedly, collide with Earth.
According to Christian numerologist David Meade, verses in Luke 21:25 to 26 are the sign that recent events, such as the recent solar eclipse and Hurricane Harvey, are signs of the apocalypse.Imagine my surprise to find a thorough debunking of this apparently widely heralded claim at Kenn Hamm's site:
First, there is nothing particularly unusual about the sun appearing in the constellation Virgo. As we orbit the sun each year, the sun appears to move through the 12 constellations of the zodiac, spending about a month in each one. The month that the sun appears in Virgo is around the time of the autumnal equinox, from mid-September through late October. Nor is it unusual to find the moon near the feet of Virgo. The moon takes 27 1/3 days to orbit the earth with respect to the stars. Therefore, for a day or two each month, the moon appears near the feet of Virgo. (I keep mentioning the feet of Virgo. Although I am very familiar with Virgo, I have never been able to see a woman in the sky there, so I can hardly pick out what is supposed to be her feet, and I seriously doubt anyone else can either.) Therefore, for a day or two each September or October, the sun appears in Virgo with the moon at her feet, so this is not that remarkable.
It was more than 15 years ago that I first heard the suggestion that this annual event might be a fulfillment of Revelation 12 in some particular year. Since then, interest in this idea has increased, with some people speculating or even predicting that “this is the year,” only to forget about it when nothing significant transpired before moving on to the next year’s occurrence.
It used to the Jean Dixon Theory. Now if might better be the Al Gore Theory. Keep making a particular prediction often enough, for long enough and it will eventually come true. Yes Chicago Cubs did eventually win the World Series.
ReplyDeleteJeanne Dixon at least would preface her "predictions" with words to the effect of, "Unless so and so is careful, X will occur."
ReplyDeleteGore doesn't even use that figleaf.
The two things I think of is the experience of the Millerites, who expected to be hauled into heaven from their hilltop in the Midwest in 1842 and 1844, IIRC, neither hauling, of course, occurring.
The second is that if these people are using the Bible as authority, while Genesis says that the stars are put in the sky for signs and seasons, Jesus said that no man knows the hour of his coming. Therefore, a Bible-based end-of-the-world prediction cannot predict the hour and day it will occur, no matter how someone counts letters or words or years.