22 December 2007

Star of Bethlehem on bethlehemstar.net

A fascinating discovery is reported in this clip on Breitbart TV. There is more on bethlehemstar.net, where the author of the discovery goes into more details.

Apparently, according to the author, the Star of Bethlehem was a natural event - a juxtaposition of several heavenly bodies that created an optical illusion of one great star. And this conclusion was reached mainly by looking in the calendar dates of a few key events that date the birth of Jesus and by operating the existing body of astronomical data backwards to see which celestial entities could have created this juxtaposition.

Well, there is a difficulty related to the real occupation of the professor: you see, he is in fact a professor of law, and astronomy is just his hobby. But he invested ten years in his studies, and after all astronomy is not rocket science... er... at least not directly. Anyhow, one has to tread carefully here.

My problem with his theory is less in the realm of astronomy, more in professor's "adjustment" of a few dates to match his results. Here it becomes a bit hairy. Reminds me about one famed professor of linguistics that decided to jump into politics, twisting or ignoring some facts... lots of them, as it appears.

All in all, I prefer to stick to the miracle version. Vatican version of events, at least, guarantees me a formidable defense team if the worst happens.

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