Tomorrow, in the wee hours of the morning throughout much of the United States, there will be a total eclipse of the full moon. During a lunar eclipse, the Earth is positioned between the moon and the sun, and the moon is obscured by the shadow (there are two regions of shadow, the penumbral and umbral regions)- during a total eclipse of the moon (as opposed to a total eclipse of the sun or of the heart), sunlight passing through Earth's atmosphere colors the moon a shade of red. This reddish hue has inspired the term "Blood Moon" for eclipses of this sort.
Religious nutbars being what they are, whackaloon John Hagee believes that four coming lunar eclipses signal Earthshaking events, perhaps even the dawn of the "End Times". Religious fundies can even spoil the beauty of the celestial dance.
Religious people are often characterized as humble people, but I think that's total B.S. Every religious fundamentalist sees him-or-herself as the center of momentous events, a witness to the climax of history. In reality, each and every one of us is a tiny speck of matter on a slightly larger speck of matter, as Douglas Adams put it far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy, and I would add, not even a particularly distinguished galaxy at that.
We are not that important in the grand scheme of things, no matter what interpretation of an ambiguous passage in a book written by Bronze Age goatherders and passed through many translations over the course of the last couple of millennia is favored by a crazy religious fundamentalist in Texastan. Get over yourselves, fundies. Enough of this bloody lunacy.
Cross posted at Rumproast.
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- Big Bad Bald Bastard
- The Big Bad Bald Bastard is a character played by Monsieur _______ of the City of Y______. The role of the Bastard is a handy one to play on subways, walking the streets, and in dive-bars, when being a nerdy, bookish sort is not to one's advantage.
4 comments:
Hear hear! Very well said.
The other one that bugs me is the endless prattle about this planet or that one being 'in retrograde' so life events take a turn for the worse.
Jeez, people, get a handful of marbles and lay out a model solar system on your floor. Note that basic Newtonian orbital physics requires that the planets closer to the central star have shorter orbital periods. Now choose one of your planets to be 'earth', and from that vantage you'll quickly see that your precious 'retrograde' is nothing but an illusion based on relative periodicity...
We are not that important in the grand scheme of things
Yes, but I am very, very important in my own little scheme of things.
As usual, here in the Pac Nor'west -- the portent of endings and disasters was swathed in cloud-cover. Miserable cloud cover that could not even be bothered to drop a bit of rain on my thirsty yard.
Sadly, the "retrograds" we see in human behavior is not as illusory as the astrological sort...
Jeez, people, get a handful of marbles and lay out a model solar system on your floor. Note that basic Newtonian orbital physics requires that the planets closer to the central star have shorter orbital periods. Now choose one of your planets to be 'earth', and from that vantage you'll quickly see that your precious 'retrograde' is nothing but an illusion based on relative periodicity...
As Willy S. put it, "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves."
Yes, but I am very, very important in my own little scheme of things.
Yeah, but one session with the Total Perspective Vortex will fix you good!
Sadly, the "retrograds" we see in human behavior is not as illusory as the astrological sort...
Yeah, we're kinda blowing it.
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