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342 Comments
- craftyguy, on 10/12/2007, -11/+413Inaccurate. Pluto is not a planet.
/sarcasm - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -158/+463And then the christians came...
- jsg7, on 10/12/2007, -22/+184The key to knowing that this is a hoax is that the tablet in question is a tablet PC...
- spidoman, on 10/12/2007, -5/+167Each culture as advanced in it's own way. Native Americans had an extremely advanced understanding of medicine, and astronomy, but didn't have the wheel. That doesn't make them better or worse. Believe it or not, cultures can be different, and both still be good.
- blindsided, on 10/12/2007, -13/+151These articles always amaze me. It makes you think of exactly how much ancient civilizations really knew about science and technology.
- gert2, on 10/12/2007, -38/+163@haxity
Christianity didn't exist 4,500 years ago...
...or 2008 years ago... - ayeroxor, on 10/12/2007, -21/+105It was a Christian who proved to the masses that the Sun was in the center of the solar system.
- adamal, on 10/12/2007, -20/+101During the classical period, science and technology was quite advanced. However you can't blame the loss of that knowledge on Christianity. It was the barbarian hordes that destroyed the Roman empire that caused that. In fact we would have lost more knowledge if it wasn't for the monks writing a lot of it down, that and the eastern empire.
- Cyper, on 10/12/2007, -7/+81And on the far right, it looks like they've invented a primitive form of Tetris!!
- flernk, on 10/12/2007, -110/+182I'm so sick of the Christian bashing every time an article like this pops up. NOTHING in the Bible says the earth revolves around the sun. That was an ignorant misconception of few (granted, a powerful few). But quit lumping us all in with the Earth-centric crowd just because we're religious.
- roosterjm2k2, on 10/12/2007, -61/+132Hax, does your hate for christianity go so deep that it blinds your every thought and blocks any sense of logic?
Religion, yes, but not Christianity by far. Greeks, Egyptions, the Druids....all believed in an earth-centric view of the universe. Thousands of years before christ. Without the tools, early civilizations would reach the most obvious and simple conclusions. "I dont feel like im moving, so those things must be" - glucoseboy, on 10/12/2007, -5/+74quote: Aye Roxor "It was a Christian who proved to the masses that the Sun was in the center of the solar system."
Yes, but the church condemned him as a heretic, banned his books, and imprisoned him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo - Blizaine, on 10/12/2007, -2/+68My favorite part of the article:
"Something out there beyond the farthest reaches of the known solar system seems to be tugging at Uranus..." - snypa, on 10/12/2007, -5/+66http://duggmirror.com/offbeat_news/WTF_4_500_Year_Old_Tablet_Depicts_ALL_the_Planets_With_Sun_In_the_Middle
- thenativeraver, on 10/12/2007, -8/+59No digg.
Pluto is not a planet.
;-) - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -83/+132So even Egyptians 4,500 years ago are smarter than 100 million Evangelists of today?
- sonician, on 10/12/2007, -4/+51Zechariah Sitchin bases his entire theory of the existence of a tenth planet on ancient texts, including Sumerian and biblical writings. However, he is known to misinterpret Sumerian, sometimes grossly. His key finding is based on a seal that shows a diagram that looks like the solar system, with the Sun at the center. It appears to have eleven planets around it. Since Sumerians counted the Sun and Moon as planets, Sitchin says the extra one must be some unknown planet. He also says it has aliens on it who communicated with the ancient Sumerians.
But there are two major problems with this. Well, three, if you count having alien visitations as a problem (and I certainly do). But ignoring that, there are still two biggies. Sitchin claims that the picture shows Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. But the Sumerians didn't have telescopes, and therefore could only have known of them if aliens told them about their existence. But if aliens told them about those planets, why not about the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, or Saturn's rings? The seal doesn't show any of these features. And the Sumerians thought the Moon and Sun were planets, when they aren't. Certainly aliens would know that the Sun and Moon are not planets! Sitchin is picking and choosing things in the picture to support his arguments, and ignoring things that don't support it. That isn't science, it's fantasy. It's also wrong.
Worse, his interpretation of the picture is wrong. The Sumerians have an unambiguous symbol for the Sun: a circle with four triangles around it like rays, and squiggly lines between the triangles. That is emphatically not the symbol in the seal. The symbol used is that of a bright star, but not the Sun. So even Sitchin's basic premise is wrong. Michael Heiser, a Sumerian scholar, outlines all this on his website.
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/planetx/nutshell.html - UGM2099, on 10/12/2007, -4/+50Like how did the Dogon tribe know Sirius had dark twin (companion star)?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius#The_Dogon - yourdaftpunk, on 10/12/2007, -34/+80One verse you say? Well, for flat Earth's lets start with Daniel
"4:10 Thus were the visions of mine head in my bed; I saw, and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great.
4:11 The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth:
Daniel's tree is tall enough to be seen from "the end of all the earth." Only on a flat earth would this be possible."
But I think we are ruling out a transparent Earth here guys...
What about an Earth that doesn't revolve around the sun? The Fixed Earth :)
Chronicles 16:30: “He has fixed the earth firm, immovable.”
Psalm 93:1: “Thou hast fixed the earth immovable and firm ...”
Psalm 96:10: “He has fixed the earth firm, immovable ...”
Psalm 104:5: “Thou didst fix the earth on its foundation so that it never can be shaken.”
Isaiah 45:18: “...who made the earth and fashioned it, and himself fixed it fast...” - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+50yeah, all the planets...
...aaaaand "nibiru."
the story's a lot less interesting and a lot more ***** once you actually click the link :/ - korimickster, on 10/12/2007, -1/+36Wiki-
"Planet X is a large hypothetical planet with an orbit beyond that of Neptune. The scientific basis of the Planet X hypothesis was broadly discounted in the early 1990s and today no significant portion of the scientific community believes it to exist." - TrevorBradley, on 10/12/2007, -17/+51@flernk:
"NOTHING in the Bible says the earth revolves around the sun. That was an ignorant misconception of few (granted, a powerful few)."
I think in your frustration you got that backwards.. No worries. - AnteChronos, on 10/12/2007, -5/+37Dugg down for being a crackpot website. From the link:
"There are articles and studies showing that, at one time, all of Earth continents were on one side of the planet. What the stories don't explore is the question, if all the continents were on one side, what was on the other?"
Ocean, perhaps? But no, the linked website says "The other side has been described as a tremendous gap, matching the Sumerian story of how the Earth came about. The Sumerians said Earth was really half a planet called Tiamat, which broke up in a collision with Nibiru, [or Planet X]."
Sorry, but my crackpot meter's needle is buried in the red here. - skotski, on 10/12/2007, -4/+35huh huh..."seems to be tugging at Uranus..."
-Buthead - lagrange, on 10/12/2007, -38/+68Its just Satan trying to shake your faith.
The tablet is only 53 years old, Jesus told me. - omaryak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+25Medieval Christians' argument against a heliocentric universe:
"And the sun stood still..." Joshua 10:30
Modern (fundamentalist) Christians' argument against stem cells:
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you..." Jeremiah 5:3
Modern (fundamentalist) Christians' argument against evolution:
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1
I am a Christian, and I am proud of my faith, but I am not proud of how many in my faith have a simplistic knowledge of the literacy of the Bible. If we have absolute faith in the literalness of the Bible, we must have absolute faith in our ability to interpret it. I cannot have both. Simplistic interpretation of the verse in Joshua proved medieval Christians wrong – the sun stopping in the sky does not mean the Earth is fixed. In the case of Jeremiah, a statement of God's omniscience and omnipotence does not mean that He would preclude any intervention in the reproductive process (man has free will). And in the case of Genesis, evolution does not exclude the possibility of a creator. When I've spoken to fundamentalist Christians about this, they say that "God's knowledge is superior to our own." Of course. Then why do we presume to know His with absolute certainty? - bryan879, on 10/12/2007, -6/+29@Elranzer
Ever think of responding in a constructive manner? Bashing doesn't bring another to your side it simply hardens the opposition of the person who disagrees with you. - killerofkiller, on 10/12/2007, -49/+71it was put there to test our faith.. like dinosaurs... /sarcasm
- johnhummel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+22Or they actually used mathematics, like the mayans did, observed the path of the planets, and realized that what worked the best at predicting the location of the stars/planets was a heliocentric model.
Or- something like that. No mumbo-jumbo needed - just math and observation and an openness to the truth rather than dogma. - sancho, on 10/12/2007, -36/+58@flernk:
The one where the devil took Jesus to the highest mountain in the world to show him all the kingdoms of the Earth.
Such an act is impossible on a spherical world. - Hetman, on 10/12/2007, -2/+24You can tell that the sun is the center of the universe by mapping out the stars in the sky. Copernicus was not the first to know this. Once u map the stars if you have any logic you will see that it would be impossible for the earth to be in the center of the universe.
- insomniac8400, on 10/12/2007, -15/+34@adamal
If I recall it was a monk who tried to destroy the last copy of The Method. The fact is if mathmaticians and scientists were just a little bit faster in their development they could have explained things before the church decided god made everything and science was the devil. Imagine where we would be at if science had progressed for 2000 years instead of being completely halted. Think of all the people who died due to archaic technology and crappy faith. Religion sucks. - flernk, on 10/12/2007, -28/+46@zybch
I've actually read the Bible. Show me ONE verse that even implies that the Earth is either flat or the center of the universe. I double dog dare you. - JQP123, on 10/12/2007, -8/+26The simple people who wrote the Bible were obviously scientifically illiterate. There is absolutely nothing in the Bible which reveals any superior insight into the physical world beyond what one could gather from observation. In fact, a careful study of the Bible reveals that the authors shared all the common misconceptions and ignorance one would expect given the period.
For example, the world was flat, the sun and moon moved but the earth did not, and the sky was a solid dome (the "firmament" in the KJV) and God lived on the other side of the dome. And just to prove this last fact, Genesis goes to great lengths to tell how the people tried to build a tower (the Tower of Babble) tall enough to reach this dome and thus make their way into heaven. God was so offended by their obvious ignorance that he scrambled their lanuage as punishment and to prevent any further attempts.
Frankly, I expect a lot more than common ignorance from any book that is truly the word of God. - anagoge, on 10/12/2007, -3/+204,500 years ago, teenage males were sitting in front of their dual-cave displays waiting for their naked cavewomen to download on a 2b/s connection.
- fires, on 10/12/2007, -22/+39@flernk
Reading a bible verse now and then hardly qualifies someone as an authority on biblical scriptures.
The following verses imply either a flat, static or geocentric earth:
Joshua 10:12-13
Then spoke Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord gave the Amorites over to the men of Israel; and he said in the sight of Israel, "Sun, stand thou still at Gibeon, and thou Moon in the valley of Aijalon." And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stayed in the midst of heaven, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day.
Habakkuk 3:11
The sun and moon stood still in their habitation at the light of thine arrows as they sped, at the flash of thy glittering spear.
1 Chronicles 16:30
tremble before him, all earth; yea, the world stands firm, never to be moved.
Psalms 93:1
The Lord reigns; he is robbed in majesty; the lord is robbed, he is girded with strength. Yea, the world is established; it shall never be moved.
Isaiah 48:13
My hand laid out the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand forth together.
Psalms 104:5
Thou didst set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be shaken.
1 Samuel 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.
Edit: yourdaftpunk beat me with some of the scriptures. - paladin144, on 10/12/2007, -3/+19@sonician said, "And the Sumerians thought the Moon and Sun were planets, when they aren't. Certainly aliens would know that the Sun and Moon are not planets!"
Uh, hate to burst your bubble, but WE don't know what planets are. Don't you remember that we just "lost" a planet -- Pluto? Remember that? It really wasn't that long ago. The word "planet" is an arbitrary distinction. Personally, I'm fine with Pluto being a planet. Sure it's small, but who cares? It's not that much smaller than Mercury. If we chuck Pluto out of the planet club then maybe we should get rid of Mercury, too.
Oh, and as far the ancients go, the word planet was generally taken to mean "wandering star." Basically, a planet was any star that moved, relative to the others. They could barely distinguish between stars and planets, dude. They didn't have neato telescopes. They probably thought that the sun and the moon were roughly the same size, and I think we can all understand why. Can we cut the ancient ***** Sumerians a little slack, please? - gbarger, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17Actually the flat earth theory from history is mostly a myth. Humans have known as long as we've been sailing that the earth is not flat because the sails could be seen on ships before the ship itself.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18Antiquity != ignorance.
I know in the recent history of our world, that seems to be the case, but I think the assumption that an ancient culture couldn't possibly know the things that we've relatively only recently discovered is somewhat ethnocentric. Certainly, technological advances have made the progression of knowledge much more rapid and accessible, but, again, technological superiority only reveals a culture's knowledge of technology.
While it doesn't seem likely, and while there is currently no evidence, I am certainly open to the possibility that we may one day find that there was an ancient culture that had, at some point, attained a great deal of knowledge, even technological superiority surpassing ours. - spidoman, on 10/12/2007, -9/+24Read the article? But why read when I can just digg and make a smarmy anti-christian comment? /sarcasm
- altjeringa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14A ancient civilizations having a helo-centric universe isn't that amazing unless you think history started with the collapse of Rome. Ya know almost all the math you learn up to high school existed before Christ was born.
- bryan879, on 10/12/2007, -9/+23@HaxityHaxHaxed With notable exceptions such as Copernicus, Sir, Francis Bacon (Established the Scientific Method), Kepler who amount other things came up with the math for the motions of planets, Galileo, Descartes, Newton, William Kelvin and so on.
- giid, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15A sublink from a link someone else posted:
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/planetx/nutshell.html
This article shows the same picture as the original article's site. Basically, the Sumerians couldn't have known about the last 3 planets, because they can't be seen with the naked eye, and telescopes weren't invented yet. Unless you believe in aliens telling them, which sounds like a lot of hooey to me, and Occam's razor tends to agree. So what's the symbol mean? Not sure, but it sounds like the "sun" in the picture is actually just a symbol for "bright star", so it could be just any old constellation.
I'm not buying it, burried as inaccurate. - rubbishk, on 10/12/2007, -7/+20for those who say the bible does not say the sun revolves around the earth: many christians scientists rediscovered again and again a theory of astronomy where the earth revolved around the sun but they discarded them like Oresme who noted under his calculations that he must be mistaken because in the bible it states "for God hath established the world, which shall not be moved" [Psalm 93:1] - and it was this that led him to ultimately drop his ideas and for other to dismiss them
- littlebylittle, on 10/12/2007, -5/+18New York Times
June 19, 1982
Something out there beyond the farthest reaches of the known solar system seems to be tugging at Uranus and Neptune. Some gravitational force keeps perturbing the two giant planets, causing irregularities in their orbits. The force suggests a presence far away and unseen, a large object that may be the long- sought Planet X. The last time a serious search of the skies was made it led to the discovery in 1930 of Pluto, the ninth planet. But the story begins more than a century before that, after the discovery of Uranus in 1781 by the English astronomer and musician William Herschel. Until then, the planetary system seemed to end with Saturn.Today, scientists accept theories concerning plate tectonics. There are articles and studies showing that, at one time, all of Earth continents were on one side of the planet. What the stories don't explore is the question, if all the continents were on one side, what was on the other? The other side has been described as a tremendous gap, matching the Sumerian story of how the Earth came about. The Sumerians said Earth was really half a planet called Tiamat, which broke up in a collision with Nibiru, [or Planet X].
The discovery of new planets has, in the last two hundred years, owed more to the science of mathematics than it has to the design of bigger and better telescopes. The unaccounted-for mathematical irregularities in the orbits of the outer planets have prompted astronomers to speculate upon the existence of a further, undiscovered planet. Astronomers are so certain of this planet's existence that they have already named it 'Planet X' - the Tenth Planet. - SlyProfanity, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13yes
- omnithought, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12Praise Science!
- runeasgar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10The level of paranoia in this digg is inspirational even to someone as paranoid as me..
- kakwakas, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12Yeah, I thought it looked somewhat interesting until I saw "Planet X." I thought no one believed that crap anymore.
- SamKellett, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12"It makes you think of exactly how much ancient civilizations really knew about science and technology."
Reminds me of when there was a story about finding cannabis in Tutankhamun's tomb which told us two things. Not only was he a legend but the Ancient Egyptians must have crossed the ocean thousands of years before anyone else. -
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