'Asteroid impact could have prompted Constantine's conversion'

More scientific review of the history of the bible. Very cool though!

An asteroid which exploded like a nuclear bomb may have converted the Roman emperor Constantine to Christianity it is now being claimed.

Scientists have discovered an impact crater dating from the fourth of fifth century in the Italian Apennine mountains.

They believe the crater in the Sirente mountains, which is larger than a football field, could explain the legend of Constantine's conversion.

Accounts from the 4th century describe how barbarians stood at the gates of the Roman empire while a Christian movement threatened its stability from within.

It is said the emperor saw an amazing vision in the sky, converted to Christianity on the spot, and led his army to victory under the sign of the cross.

www.ananova.com...

Not that this isn't possible, as it is a great theory but I doubt it.
It is written that;
While he/Constantine was praying for such assistance, God sent him a vision of a cross of light at midday, bearing the inscription "in hoc signo vinces " ("in this sign you will be victorious").
Now if he saw a cross with an inscription, how could he get this from a huge mushroomed cloud?

I believe the dates to cross check the impact site are
320-330, as that is when Constantine began to attack paganism. Dragon as a geologist, is it possible to date a lake bottom acurately? how many layers must be gone trough to find the original layer created by the impact?

Some argue as to whether or not Constantine's conversion experience was authentic. It is hypothesized that the "vision" Constantine saw was nothing more than a form of the rare natural event called the "halo phenomenon." This is caused by the sun reflecting off of ice crystals instead of rain in a rainbow. However, most historians accept Constantine's statement since he gave the testimony on oath. Also, Constantine showed sound judgment many times over in other situations. Further, Constantine did not recount this vision to Eusebius until long after that battle had been won and he was in power. Thus, he was not using the story as a tool to gain acceptance. There is no way to "prove" the event, of course, but what is important is that Constantine believed it to be true.

320-330, as that is when Constantine began to attack paganism. Dragon as a geologist, is it possible to date a lake bottom acurately? how many layers must be gone trough to find the original layer created by the impact? Posted by ADVISOR

Is it possible? Yes. In this case, to find a diffinitive answer though, I would estimate an expedition would cost somewhere around $100,000 or more. This is mainly because you would have to drain the lake and likely build a suitable road across the bottom of it for the drilling rig.

If it were my project (damn, would love to do something like this!) I would make 2 traverses at right angles, with at least 4-5 borings on each traverse, and would likely drill at least 20 feet each. The soil and rock samples collected would likely provide a goldmine of information.

Because this lake has no intake or output of water tributaries, I would think the bottom sediment would be relatively thin, however, I would truly love to examine the rock under the impact site, to see what kind of metamorphism was caused by the impact.

In terms of dating, you would be looking for any number of radiologically unstable compounds with a known decay rate (irridium comes to mind).

Depending on what radiological material you find, you have a large number of options for radiological dating techniques. However, the down side to this is that they often have a significant margin of error. For example, Uranium- lead dating can have a margin of error of more than 1000 years or more, which in this case would be almost as great as the time frame from the presumed time of impact to present.

I do kind of favor this theory (I also like the theory that the guiding star of Bethlehem was acutally an exploding supernova), but scientists tend to gravitate to things like that.

As far as the description of the cross, keep in mind, this was in the day when the people would lake the ability to truly define something out of the ordinary like this: IE, a mystical description and explaination would be a far better part of thier psyche than trying to say it was a rock that fell out of the sky and blew up a big piece of realestate.

Dragon..

I was just about to post this, but you beat me to it...

I think that the story intends to say he heard the command, "In this sign shall you conquer" in his head at the moment the meteor hit the earth and detonated with the force of an a-bomb. the mushrrom cloud produced by the hit may, the, have resembled the Chi-Ro symbol as it rose through the air. For those who don't know, the ChiRo looks like a 'P' with an 'x' through it. Sorta like this:

D
\I/
/I\

A mushroom cloud kinda looks like this:

O
I
^^^
I

OK, I admit that's bad text graphicing!

At any rate, this theory is interesting because it doesn't necessarily discredited the religious tale, as a meteor strike at the EXACT moment that decided the fate of christianity would have to occur against, literally, astronomical odds.

As a historical note, the battle of the Milvian Bridge marked the destruction of the Praetorian Guard... and, if you feel bad for the pagan emperor and are one of the many rabid anti-catholics on this site, keep in mind that the dude Constantine took down was a depraved weirdo (read Edward Gibbons' description of the battle in "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire". it's pretty good.

Jim

I like the idea of "slant" drilling, that way we can pocket the dead prez's. Here's another for you Dragon, just how accurate is the most accurate dateing technique, geologically speaking? Is this an exact science, becuase after you said U-lead dateing has a marginal error of about 1000 yrs. I started to ponder things, hypothetically, given proper or decent equipment. Could you personally date things/earth chunks to a more specific/exact date by useing composition, and how long does it take to do so?

Slant drilling, or more commonly referred to as horizontal drilling is indeed a great way to find all kinds of subsurface resources... but you still need a good idea of where you are drilling, so you need a good seismic reflection survey, geophysical survey, resistivity survey, ect to guide you. Otherwise, you are still just drilling blindly, hoping you hit something.

The most accurate radiometric dating technique? I would have to do some research on that... its been years since I did one (which was on 20+ year old university equipment, not exactly up to date).

I remember reading that a new method for Carbon 14 dating was being used that gave an accuracy of around 70 years (which is super super accurate in geologic terms). Keep in mind, ALL radiometric dating methods are going to have some kind of margin of error, and usually in the 100s of years.

You can indeed date things "relatively", IE, if you are looking at stratigraphy, you can be assured that the layer at the bottom of the profile was likely deposited well before the layer at the top. However, that doesnt give you an absolute age... unless one of these layers has something you can date radiometrically or through paleo index fossils (the method of dating by finding fossils that were only alive in a known timeframe... However, this method is far less accurate than any radiometric dating)

I hope that answers your questions.

Constantine is known to the Christians as a Saint.....
He brought Christianity about .........many Christians suffered severe tortures and martyredom in the hands of the pagans(idol worshippers)........He became a Christian at his death bed........His mother St Helen was a Christian.......

I dont think that an 'Asteroid' was what made Constantine convert to Christianity...(there is alot on his life if one looks to learn)
Even to think of it sounds pretty foolish.......Today people look at U.F.O'S and search for answers to why we are here and dedicate their whole time looking for answers in the sky.........That to me is foolish .........
helen...(I did have more info but I clicked the wrong button and erased the whole thing! )
so this all for now..
helen.

Uhhhhhhh, I thought Constantine converted on his death bed. Never before, he just helped the Christians become the major religion by mass conversions.

[Edited on 6/26/2003 by FoxStriker]

Originally posted by FoxStriker
Uhhhhhhh, I thought Constantine converted on his death bed. Never before, he just helped the Christians become the major religion by mass conversions.

[Edited on 6/26/2003 by FoxStriker]

Conversion as in receiving Babtism........without babtism there is no truth in what you believe.