Eclipse

Sep 28, 2015 12:22

Last night really helps demonstrate why science is important. There was an eclipse. The moon turned red. We knew this was going to happen, knew its cause, and so it was a cool and beautiful rare treat to behold.

In another time and place, this would be the sign to go to war and slaughter your neighbors or sacrifice some children to your angry God or that the end times were upon you. Imagine what an eclipse would be like to you if you didn't know what it was, had never seen one, had no electric lights, depended on the moon to help you keep the time to know when to plant and when to harvest, travel at night, predict the tides, and now, for the first time in your life that you could remember, the moon was suddenly dying, being eaten away, soaking red with blood. A god being murdered before your eyes. Would the Sun even be there tomorrow or has Fenris come to stay?

Even when we figured out how to predict an eclipse, it was centuries before us common people knew that the moon would return. Religions and governments used them to control the masses. Here is but one example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_1504_lunar_eclipse
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