On 10 Jul 96 17:38:35 EDT, John W. Burgeson wrote:
JB>A month or so ago there was some info on this reflector about how
>an exhaustive search of the literature had turned up 0 about any
>"scientific" evidence of the long day. The account traced the story
>to a Mr.Hill, as I recall. At the time -- no interest -- but a week
>ago I heard a preacher friend refer to it in an otherwise excellent
>sermon as "factual scientific evidence." I'd like to send him
>appropriate materials, if anyone still has them around.
Ramm covers Joshua's long day well, giving a survey of various
theories. As to "`scientific' evidence of the long day", he says:
"There are two other matters that have been urged as evidence for a
lengthened day and this material the author has not been able to
track down nor confirm to his own satisfaction as to their accuracy
or validity. First, there are Egyptian, Chinese, and Hindu reports
of a long day. Short makes nothing more than a passing reference to
this. Harstad, The Bible Is Reliable, also makes mention of these
legends. Second, there is the claim made by Harstad, Black (Bible
and Science), and Rimmer (The Harmony of Science and Scripture) that
it is common knowledge among astronomers that one full day is missing
in our astronomical calculations and that Prof. Pickering of the
Harvard Observatory traced it back to the time of Joshua. Maunder of
Greenwich and Totten of Yale are then supposed to have taken it right
back to the time of Joshua, practically to the year and day. Then
Totten added to this the 10 degrees [sic] of Ahaz' dial to round out
the full day. This I have not been able to verify to my own
satisfaction. 31
..
31. Harstad, Rimmer, and Black give 40 minutes as the time reversed
on the sun-dial, but Butler gives 80 minutes. Op. cit., p. 13. Dr.
Kulp has tried to check this theory at Yale and in England, and has
found nothing to verify it."
(Ramm B. "The Christian View of Science and Scripture", Paternoster:
London, 1955, p109)
God bless.
Steve
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| Stephen E (Steve) Jones ,--_|\ sejones@ibm.net |
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