A few weeks ago I was googling Antarctic artifiacts (you don’t have to be around me very long to know that I am fascinated by Antarctica) and stumbled onto a map called The Piri Reis Map on www.world-mysteries.com Basically, it is the earliest known map accurately showing the Antarctic region, dated 1513.
This is an excerpt from the world-mysteries article:
In 1929, a group of historians found an amazing map drawn on a gazelle skin.
Research showed that it was a genuine document drawn in 1513 by Piri Reis, a famous admiral of the Turkish fleet in the sixteenth century.
His passion was cartography. His high rank within the Turkish navy allowed him to have a privileged access to the Imperial Library of Constantinople.
The Turkish admiral admits in a series of notes on the map that he compiled and copied the data from a large number of source maps, some of which dated back to the fourth century BC or earlier.The Controversy
The Piri Reis map shows the western coast of Africa, the eastern coast of South America, and the northern coast of Antarctica. The northern coastline of Antarctica is perfectly detailed. The most puzzling however is not so much how Piri Reis managed to draw such an accurate map of the Antarctic region 300 years before it was discovered, but that the map shows the coastline under the ice. Geological evidence confirms that the latest date Queen Maud Land (Antarctica) could have been charted in an ice-free state is 4000 BC. [...] The Piri Reis map shows that the northern part of that continent has been mapped before the ice did cover it.
Further and more accurate studies have proven that the last period of ice-free condition in the Antarctic ended about 6000 years ago. [...] It is well-known that the first civilization, according to the traditional history, developed in the mid-east around year 3000 BC [...] So, accordingly, none of the known civilizations could have done such a job. Who was here 4000 years BC, being able to do things that NOW are possible with the modern technologies?
Other than the fact that the dates we’re talking about roughly corrolate to the time of biblical Adam, I’m not trying to draw any spiritual conclusions. I just think it’s really cool that this map exists, and that it raises a lot of interesting questions. If you’d like to read the article in it’s entirety, click here.
Posted in A Cacophony of Posts, Mike O | 19 Comments »I was writing about the secular humanist tenet of ethics when I was alerted to this particular article in the Sunday Papers.
Did you know that, in England, Jewish Beth Din courts have operated within the secular legal structure for more than a century to resolve civil cases? Now sharia law will be used to resolve civil cases in Islamic disputes. Both sides need to agree to be judged in the religious court but I think that is beside the point.
I want everybody in my country to be judged by the same standard. Of course a person’s religious view is one factor that could be taken into account by a secular judge. That is if it is relevant. I don’t want to see a woman receive half the inheritance of a man just because she is a Muslim woman. I want to see domestic violence cases treated fairly with due consideration to the welfare of the woman as well as the welfare of the man.
Are there such things as Christian courts? I have a vague recollection of some Puritan courts existing in history but these must have been short lived as secular law took over. All I can think of other than that is the extremes like the Inquisition enforcing Roman Catholic rule or the witch burnings. Clearly these archaic ideas have seen their day. That said I wouldn’t want a Christian court ruling over a civil contract.
Religion simply has no place in law. I like the idea of a separation of church and state. People are allowed to have their own religions without interference from the state. The state is allowed to rule by law without interference from the churches. That, at least, is the idea. It’s a shame that no such separation exists in England and that we have no constitution to enforce such a separation.
Posted in A Cacophony of Posts | 12 Comments »Last week, Jason wrote a really good piece about the Secular Humanist view of This Life. I’ve spent some time since then considering what he wrote and what the corrolating Christian view might be. One thing I see is that the secular humanist view seems to look at history on a grand scale, and then consider how this life fits into history. Christians, on the other hand, seem to look at the future (eternity) on a grand scale, and consider how this life fits into eternity (the future). Not that either is particularly right or wrong, just that they seem to be mirror images of each other.
And maybe that difference plays into where I’m going with my “epic view” of this life. I agree with Jason that this life is very important. But I see this life - my life - fitting within a grander tapestry - an epic story that isn’t about me. A story where I am not the main character but rather a bit player in one sub-plot of a more important epic about God that spans eternity. Read the rest of this news item »