Did the Moon split in two in the 7th century?

a reply to: Mickey763

And yet human understanding of the phases of the moon dates back thousands of years.

With the observations and comprehension of the moon's changing appearance having played a crucial role in various cultures and civilisations throughout recorded history.

No, the moon didn't spit in two in the 7th century.
Science easily proves it false.
That's just one of many Muslim myths that are false.
Christianity and Hinduism have lots that are false too.
Just stories. Fun to speculate on but nothing to them IMHO.

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: rickymouse

I can remember being in Spain one year when i was about 17.

Lloret de Mar i think, where the Moon in the night sky appeared to be the size of a beach ball and really low on the horizon.

I just put it down to viewing the object from a different longitude and latitude but the thing appeared huge.

Comparatively speaking i would suggest the Moon generally appears to be the size of a volleyball or size 4 football here in the UK for the most part.

Haven't you ever seen a really big harvest moon? It can circle a whole building or look huge over the lake or cresting a mountain. It is supposed to have something to do with magnification do to ice crystals, and they seem to only be around here in the fall. We did have a big moon here about four days ago, but not near the size of the one I had mentioned around the church when I was growing up. I have seen some pictures on line of huge moon illusions created naturally too. But some of the pictures are also CGI too, but when you have multiple pictures and sitings from an area at the same time, it is probably real. About twenty years or so I saw that comet every night that was huge and close, I doubt if I will ever see one like that in my lifetime anymore. We Looked at it lighting up the sky out of our patio door for weeks, it was way better than that comet you could see all day long about forty years ago.

a reply to: rickymouse

Haven't you ever seen a really big harvest moon? It can circle a whole building or look huge over the lake or cresting a mountain.

The Moon i saw in Spain that time sticks in my mind.

It was majestic, so bright, yet the detail was crisp and sharp.

Young eye's i suppose at the time.

Just a shame it was before the likes of camera phones, which I'm sure would not have done it justice.

It can circle a whole building or look huge over the lake or cresting a mountain.

Perspective i suppose.



Here is a cracker i came across earlier and its where i hail from or near enouth.

It's a picture of the moonrise over the River Clyde with Helensburgh and the Luss Hills as a backdrop.

originally posted by: rickymouse
Haven't you ever seen a really big harvest moon? It can circle a whole building or look huge over the lake or cresting a mountain. It is supposed to have something to do with magnification do to ice crystals, and they seem to only be around here in the fall.

I don't know where you get the ice crystals thing, but yes I've seen the moon look much larger when it was low in the sky and thought the atmosphere was magnifying the size somehow. Then I read that was just an optical illusion and it only appeared bigger, but that appearance was an illusion. I didn't believe that at first, so I had to make some measurements, and sure enough, the measurements proved to me once again that we can't trust our eyes/brains completely, because they can fool us, and boy was I fooled. From your post, I see I'm not the only one. It's a very convincing optical illusion. Photographers can combine that "moon illusion" as it's called, with "forced perspective" to create dramatic images of the moon:

Photographer’s Optical Illusion Photos Make the Moon Look Gigantic


Ice crystals can cause halo effects and such, but they don't change the size or apparent size of the moon, unless you have a link to what you're talking about you want me to review.

What is a moon halo?

a reply to: Arbitrageur

It is some kind of magnification. The ice crystal halo you are probably talking about is probably right, I looked that halo up one time too and could have mistaken it for the giant moon...it was many years ago I did that, maybe around the year two thousand or so, things can get blended together in your mind sometimes in twenty years or more.

a reply to: Terpene

a reply to: andy06shake

aye same grew up along side kids from every religious background you can imagine
and in Scotland muslims and religious clashes take a back seat , wayyyyy at the back when it comes to the old protestant catholic divide.

Ive rarely seen any anti muslim stuff , aye ye get the daftie from school who has clearly been indoctrinated by their family to be prejudice or an outright bigot and openly says they hate x,y, and z people for whatever daft reason.
I dont think there is much muslim hate in Scotland.
I think that Muslims co exist among other religions in Scotland really well. They adjust to Scottish society well.
The wee muslim guy Muhammed I know from the barras has been in Scotland for 60 years and had a stall at the barras near 30 years and everyone likes him.
A lot of the guys in my basketball group are muslim and they are all really lovely dudes.

On a side note Scotland has always had a pretty decent relationship with Russia as well , I recall that John Maclean leader of the Red Clydeside revolution had his face on a Russian stamp.

I think that people just need to come together outside of their governments, we the people should extend our arms across the seas and lands to our neighbours despite what the governments "agendas" may be.


other than that dont really know where I was going with this other than that i think muslims have integrated well into Scotland , that may not be the case for the rest of the UK , but maybe its because Scotlands population is only nearly 6 million and we have loads of room everywhere really for new people to settle.
saying that Scotland isnt obviously for everyone and so I think only certain people remain here , rain has a lot to do with it.
Funny Muhammed sells thermal work gear doon the barras , all the rain jackets and waterproofs, thermal gloves haha he hates the rain but loves Scotland

a reply to: RussianTroll

Many ancient calendars had 360 days in them. It sounds like a little bit of our history in that legend of yours..

a reply to: Arbitrageur

Use you history..


Isaiah 38

This is the sign to you from the Lord that the Lord will do this thing that he has promised: See, I will
make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps.” So the sun turned
back on the dial the ten steps by which it had declined


12 hours of light a day on a sundial

360 / 12 = 30)

one hour would be 30 steps..

ten steps would be aprox 20 mins...


The difference in speed between 365.2425 days per year and 360 days per year is equal to 20.9688
minutes per day (5.25 days X 24 hours X 60 minutes equals 7,560 minutes divided by 360 days equals
21 minutes per day


adds up pretty well eh..

originally posted by: purplemer
a reply to: Arbitrageur

Use you history..


Isaiah 38

This is the sign to you from the Lord that the Lord will do this thing that he has promised: See, I will
make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps.” So the sun turned
back on the dial the ten steps by which it had declined


12 hours of light a day on a sundial

360 / 12 = 30)

one hour would be 30 steps..

ten steps would be aprox 20 mins...


The difference in speed between 365.2425 days per year and 360 days per year is equal to 20.9688
minutes per day (5.25 days X 24 hours X 60 minutes equals 7,560 minutes divided by 360 days equals
21 minutes per day


adds up pretty well eh..

Lots of problems here. The translations don't agree. King James version mentions a sundial but it translates as 10 degrees, not steps.

Isaiah 38:8

King James Bible
Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.

But the NIV or New International Version may have a more accurate translation, it doesn't mention sundial, the steps it mentions sound like actual steps on a stairway, not graduations on a sundial:

New International Version
I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.’” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down.

So unless someone has something to suggest the steps on the "stairway of Ahaz" are calibrated, I wouldn't assume it means 1 degree per step or any other calibrated value.

After finding out Santa Claus isn't real, I would think we would all doubt every story everyone tells us, especially those allegedly involving miracles. Like stories that suggest the rotation of the Earth changed direction (which the author of that passage may not have known is what it suggests, if he had a geocentric view of the universe). If the Earth actually changed direction as that passage suggests, the results would be catastrophic.

So it seems like the authors were thinking "this story sounds implausible, so we need to put something even more implausible in there like the sun changing direction to convince people it was a miracle and really true", and indeed scholars had to filter though numerous documents trying to decide which implausible stories to include in the bible, and which were too implausible to include. Protestants sometimes leave those even more implausible stories out of their bibles (The apocrypha).

a reply to: Arbitrageur

Pick it apart if you i have happy to share other 360 day calendars they are not uncommon. It does suggest a change in the spin of the earth sometime in the past.. There is a reason ancient cultures used Sirius as a time keeper instead of the sun. Its more accurate...

a reply to: purplemer
The bible isn't a very reliable source, especially when citing supernatural miracles.
But I have no doubt the number of days per year has changed. I already explained the science of that in a previous post in this thread, here. But the science is there used to be more days per year, not less, and you have to go really far back to notice the difference.