June 10, 2008
Hagioscope
Back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Percival Lowell, astronomer for whom the Lowell Observatory in Arizona is named, spent some fifteen years looking at Mars and sketching what he perceived as a network of fine lines connecting the polar cap with a number of dark areas. He argued that these were canals built by an intelligent civilization to move water from the polar ice caps to deserts, similar to phenomena he also saw on Venus.
Years later, subsequent studies revealed that he had so configured the aperture on his telescope as (unintentionally) to make it mimic an ophthalmascope, an instrument used to examine the interior of the eye. What Lowell saw as spokes on Mars and Venus were actually shadows of the blood vessels and other structures in his own retina.
The way some of us churchers these days are making such certain claims and big threats and even signing proclamations and petitions and all makes me wonder when’s the last time we configured the apertures on our hagioscopes.
No Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post.
| TrackBack URI
You can also bookmark
this on del.icio.us or check the cosmos