Second Sun on China MSM Today 3/2/2011, page 14

Originally posted by Soylent Green Is People

Originally posted by soficrow
...I apparently have more faith in our ancestors' powers of observation, analytical skills and intelligence than you do...

I have lots of faith in their intelligence; just not their knowledge (intelligence and knowledge are different).

I've argued before on ATS that ancient man (such as the Egyptians) were anatomically the same as us, so they had the same brains we have, and were capable of the same critical thinking and problem solving skills as us. However, they lacked our aggregated knowledge

But they built the pyramids and stonehenges, and despite our aggregate knowledge, we can't figure out how they really did it. …I also recall something about roadmaking around Rome(?), and a particular material we cannot duplicate, also despite our aggregate knowledge.

Even intelligent people today who lack knowledge can misidentify a natural phenomenon and/or incorrectly correlate it with an preceding event.

Otherwise intelligent people can be misled if they lack knowledge. It's human nature to try to create an understanding of the world around them but that understanding can only be as good as their frame of reference provide by their knowledge base.

Agreed.

Myths persist because such correlations are historically supported - if they weren't, they would have died out eons ago.

…Intelligent people can devise clever and intelligent explanations of the world based on what they know. Add a little extra knowledge, and those otherwise clever explanations could be found to be wrong.

Agreed. But all is never as it seems, including your examples methinks.

You might find this thread interesting:

Science.com: China's 2 sun effect not fully explained by science.

And for what it's worth:

Several related atmospheric optical effects are fully explained by science. Sun dogs, sunset mirages, sun pillars and sun halos are all relatively common and well understood. But not this effect.

I completely agree that IF this video is real (perhaps it could have been faked, or it could have been a reflection in a window, or it could be a camera lens reflection), our present knowledge of atmospheric optical phenomena does not explain it. However, our knowledge of atmospheric phenomena is most likely by no means 100% complete.

ALL the videos showing this phenomenon are probably real - as the scientists also conclude - ideas of faking and reflections have been pretty much dismissed. …As it happens, I'm fairly certain I remember seeing this effect at some point it my life - granted, it could be another experience in another lifetime I remember - but there was a major catastrophe that happened around the same time, as I recall.

Seriously though, based on personal experience I know the 2 sun optical illusion is quite possible. Whether or not its appearance means anything is another question.