The man in the moon,
Came down too soon,
And asked his way to Norwich.
He went by the south,
And burned his mouth,
Supping cold peas and porridge...
What do we really know?
Came down too soon,
And asked his way to Norwich.
He went by the south,
And burned his mouth,
Supping cold peas and porridge...
What do we really know?
The Possibility of Intelligent Design
The Moon is certainly the most puzzling object in our corner of the universe. The many visits made by mankind to the Moon during the 20th Century did little to answer any of the pivotal questions regarding its origin or importance. Our closest neighbor in space is probably more of an enigma now than it has ever been. In Who Built the Moon (Watkins 2005), authors Christopher Knight and Alan Butler have opened a discussion for new questions regarding the existence of the Moon. They suggest that there are more than enough anomalies about the Moon to come to the conclusion that it is not a naturally occurring body and was quite possibly engineered to sustain life on Earth.
The authors virtually tripped over the Moon while researching ancient measuring systems in their first book together, Civilization One (Watkins 2004). In this book, they recreated a way of measuring distance, mass, volume and time that flourished at least five thousand years ago. The basic unit of length, the megalithic yard, is incorporated into the vast majority of the Megalithic monuments in Britain and France. Their work in Civilization One proved to Knight and Butler that this very specific measurement of 82.966cm had been deliberately designed to fit neatly into the circumference of the Earth. They also discovered a series of mathematical ratios regarding the relationship of the Earth, Sun and Moon.
The authors virtually tripped over the Moon while researching ancient measuring systems in their first book together, Civilization One (Watkins 2004). In this book, they recreated a way of measuring distance, mass, volume and time that flourished at least five thousand years ago. The basic unit of length, the megalithic yard, is incorporated into the vast majority of the Megalithic monuments in Britain and France. Their work in Civilization One proved to Knight and Butler that this very specific measurement of 82.966cm had been deliberately designed to fit neatly into the circumference of the Earth. They also discovered a series of mathematical ratios regarding the relationship of the Earth, Sun and Moon.
Knight and Butler then set out to discover everything they could about Earth’s Moon. The very latest scientific discoveries show that its existence has been pivotal to the development of life on Earth. The presence of the Moon stabilizes an otherwise very ‘wobbly’ Earth, keeping it upright and sitting at exactly the right angle to ensure an even warming of its surface as it glides around the Sun. What is more, the Moon is now thought to maintain plate tectonics, a crucial factor in the development of the Earth and a phenomenon that has allowed nutrients to be constantly released to the planet’s surface – another essential to life.
Despite our present knowledge of the Moon one thing we don’t really know is how it came to be there in the first place. All previous models of the Moon’s birth have now been discounted for various reasons, leaving only one suggestion – the big whack theory. This most unlikely scenario suggests that the Earth was struck, way back in its history, by a Mars sized body, which gouged from its surface the necessary material to build the Moon. The only problem is that for the theory to work at all, the Earth would have had to be struck in just the right way by an equally large body going in the opposite direction. Even those postulating the big whack theory are far from happy about a level of coincidence that defies logic.
Despite our present knowledge of the Moon one thing we don’t really know is how it came to be there in the first place. All previous models of the Moon’s birth have now been discounted for various reasons, leaving only one suggestion – the big whack theory. This most unlikely scenario suggests that the Earth was struck, way back in its history, by a Mars sized body, which gouged from its surface the necessary material to build the Moon. The only problem is that for the theory to work at all, the Earth would have had to be struck in just the right way by an equally large body going in the opposite direction. Even those postulating the big whack theory are far from happy about a level of coincidence that defies logic.
This is all fascinating stuff but it does not address the very unlikely nature of the Moon in a physical sense. Although it is extremely large relative to the Earth, the Moon is very light in mass, in fact only 1/81st part the mass of the Earth, despite being just under 1/3rd the size. This is all the more perplexing now that it is known for certain that the Moon is made from exactly the same sort of rock as the Earth – though with very few of the heavy metals that give our world is mass. What is more, studies of the Moon since humanity has walked on its surface have given us a much better idea about its composition but this has merely added to the mystery.
The same observable facts about the Moon that made it so attractive and mysterious to our ancient ancestors still display themselves on a regular basis. The most significant of these is the Moon’s ability to exactly cover the face of the Sun at the time of total eclipse. This is possible because the Moon is ‘exactly’ 1/400th part of the size of the Sun and also that its orbit takes it to a position 1/400th of the distance between the Earth and the Sun. In so large a universe as ours outrageous coincidences are certain to happen but this is far from being the end of the story. Such are the orbital characteristics of the Moon that its movements in the sky, when seen from Earth, exactly mirror those of the Sun. As an example, when the Sun sets north of west at midsummer, the full Moon sets south of west at the same time. Although not immediately obvious, this phenomenon might be even more remarkable than the possibility of total eclipse.
The size of a planetary body such as the Moon has little or nothing to do with its orbital characteristics, which are specifically tied to its speed. Yet time and again Knight and Butler came across number parallels that simply defy logic. For example the Earth is 3.66 times larger than the Moon and takes 366 days to go around the Sun. Another peculiarity emerged when it was realized that the Moon, which orbits the Earth in 27.322 days, takes a very neat 10,000 days to complete 366 orbits.
“We discovered so many peculiar mathematical relationships that we were astounded, but we eventually pared them down to a few very specific facts,” said Knight. “It amounts to this: The Earth is 109.3 times smaller than the Sun and the Moon is 400 times smaller than the Sun. This inevitably means that the Moon must be 3.66 times smaller than the Earth. Add to this the fact that the Moon orbits at a distance exactly 1/400th that between the Earth and the Sun and what you are left with is so unlikely that it cannot be accounted for by simple chance.”
When all their evidence was in place, Knight and Butler were faced with one, massive, but inevitable conclusion. The Moon is an artificially created object, deliberately placed into the Earth/Sun system to serve the very functions it has managed so well for more than 4 billion years.
The problem that remains is trying to ascertain who the engineer might be. The immediate response of the religiously inclined would be to suggest that this is definitive proof of the existence of God. Meanwhile, those of a science fiction bent might be looking for beings that created and added the Moon in order to create a life-bearing planet.
The claims sound far-fetched but that doesn’t worry Knight and Butler. According to author Christopher Knight, “Much of our evidence concerns relationships shared by the Moon, Earth and Sun that simply cannot exist by chance. We believe that most readers will remain open-minded. It’s time to put past prejudices aside and take a long and deliberate look at one of the most mysterious bodies in space.”
When all their evidence was in place, Knight and Butler were faced with one, massive, but inevitable conclusion. The Moon is an artificially created object, deliberately placed into the Earth/Sun system to serve the very functions it has managed so well for more than 4 billion years.
The problem that remains is trying to ascertain who the engineer might be. The immediate response of the religiously inclined would be to suggest that this is definitive proof of the existence of God. Meanwhile, those of a science fiction bent might be looking for beings that created and added the Moon in order to create a life-bearing planet.
The claims sound far-fetched but that doesn’t worry Knight and Butler. According to author Christopher Knight, “Much of our evidence concerns relationships shared by the Moon, Earth and Sun that simply cannot exist by chance. We believe that most readers will remain open-minded. It’s time to put past prejudices aside and take a long and deliberate look at one of the most mysterious bodies in space.”
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