>
>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000113078204876&rtmo=ln7Hwlvt&atmo=99999999&pg
>=/et/00/4/20/ecfeas20.html
>Electronic Telegraph. 20.04.00 ... How the date for Easter was set many moons
>ago A ruling 1,700 years ago made Holy Week late this year - but kept science
>alive during its darkest hour .... Thanks to a Church ruling 1,700 years
>ago, the
>date of its most important festival is determined by an unlikely
>combination of the
>lunar cycle, the solar year and our tradition of dividing the year into
>365 days. ...
>THIS HAS MADE DATING EASTER A SOURCE OF CONTENTION, CONFUSION AND EVEN
>BLOODSHED FOR TWO MILLENIA, BUT IT BENEFITED SCIENCE. The efforts to
>predict the festival stimulated science during the Dark Ages and
>paved the way for modern astronomy. ... [Leaving aside the misnomer "Dark
>Ages", this is another example of the crucial role that Christianity
>played in the
>development of modern science.]
The sentence above in all caps was excised by Stephen. I thought it would
be fun to restore it. :-) The Dark Ages was *caused* by Christianity
smashing, burning, and suppressing "pagan" knowledge. If a thief takes
everything you've got and later gives back $5, I think you don't have to
shake is hand for it! Christianity prevented the development of modern
science every chance it got. Yes, the search for the exact Easter may have
kept astronomy alive, but the scientsts kept all other observations a
secret in order to keep *themselves* alive.
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>"Setting aside the problem of the origin of ribose, the synthesis of
>nucleosides (base and sugar linked together as in present-day nucleotides)
>also poses problems. Purines react with ribose to yield the corresponding
>nucleosides in small amounts. The analogous reaction with pyrimidines
>seems hopeless. The phosphorylation of nucleosides to nucleotides can be
>done in dry-phase with relatively good yield, but all sorts of isomers with
>varying degrees of phosphorylation emerge. This lack of purity is important
>because accurate replication of a polymer depends on chemical purity."
>(Maynard Smith J. & Szathmary E., "The Major Transitions in Evolution,"
>W.H. Freeman: Oxford UK, 1995, pp.31-32).
>Stephen E. Jones | sejones@iinet.net.au | http://www.iinet.net.au/~sejones
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
:-) My fiancee owns this book. I shall dip into it this evening!
Susan
----------
For if there is a sin against life, it consists not so much in despairing
of life as in hoping for another and in eluding the implacable grandeur of
this one.
--Albert Camus
http://www.telepath.com/susanb/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon May 08 2000 - 15:53:04 EDT