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Originally posted by dbates
Planet alignment theories never pan out to amount to anything. Space weather can affect the earth, but it would have to be something more than the usual orbit around the sun to cause anything that we would notice. For instance, Did a stellar explosion cause the Boxing day earthquake? Now that's something interesting to ponder. Funny how all comments died off after I posted supporting links from NASA.
[edit on 6-9-2005 by dbates]
The Savior Himself had spoken of His death on the Cross, saying: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:14-16
The natural phenomenon which forms the basis of the Orthodox Church Calendar impressed the brilliant German mathematician and astronomer, Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855 ), so much that he constructed his own "Paschalion," reproduced herein as Addendum 2, "The Gaussian Formula for the Orthodox Calculation of Pascha." As far as modern science is concerned, Gauss' method is purely classical physics.
However, the theory of relativity, first introduced in the realm of physics, revolutionized our thinking by its discovery that there are no constant phenomena in nature. Yet it is wondrous to observe how the orderly Paschal theory of Orthodoxy stands up to all such new discoveries, and, furthermore, not only does not contradict them, but just the opposite, serves as the basis for the most modern astrophysical and chronometrical measurements. Perhaps this proves that genuine science merely rediscovers Biblical truths and should thus be guided by them
At first glance, these claims do seem interesting. Gravity is a long reaching force, and the planets are big. Can their influence reach across the solar system and cause all sorts of headaches here on Earth?
As always, it is not a bad idea to run a sanity check first. We have pretty good evidence that the Earth has been around a long time, like 5 billion years or so, without being cleft in two. As it turns out, planetary alignments are fairly rare. Getting more than three lined up is difficult; getting them all lined up is rare indeed. But 5 billion years is a long time! Alignments may be rare, but given enough time they do occur, and the Earth is still here. Even more, what most doomsayers say is an alignment is really more of a confluence, or loose gathering, of planets. Some say it is enough to just have them all on the same side of the Sun, which happens pretty often! This is a hallmark of crackpot science: using inflammatory words, then, when cornered, start being very vague and loose with your terms. "Alignment" sounds much better than "loose collection" and "a pattern somewhat weighted towards one side of the Sun", which are more accurate. I think we can rest assured that the Earth will not be destroyed any time soon.