Spike Jones wrote:
>
> Ah yes, but you see Grahss Hopahh, Hebrew calendah not count 240 years
> when Israel ruled by Phonecians!
I vaguely recall that it was 160, or possibly 120, during the time of
the Second Temple.
The Jews know about this, BTW - maybe not *all* the Jews, but it's an
acknowledged fact among those who've heard of it. The author of the
original "Seder Olam" (the calendar calculations) knew that he'd lost
track, so he operated on the assumption that the reign of any given king
is only as long as the last year mentioned in the documentation; e.g.,
if the only thing said about a given kind is that he raised taxes during
the third year, it's assumed that he reigned for three years. In modern
times, I think, they went back and refigured the times with the
assistance of archaelogy and other nations' calendars. With that gap
covered, there's a complete, calculable timeline from the creation of
the Universe around 59xx years ago to modern times. (I know it's not
5980 or 5990, because I once figured the actual calendar and was amused
that the controversial - according to some, theologically prohibited -
prediction that the world will end in 6000 is actually going to be off
by at least a few decades.)
> These kinds of practical difficulties are never hard to explain away
> by religion incorporated, Spud. Explanations flow around hard facts
> like a river past the rocks. spike
And despite all of the above, most Orthodox (but non-Ultra-Orthodox
Jews) are perfectly aware that the Universe is fifteen billion years
old. And, while claiming to see no dissonance between the two, they
will simultaneously attend seminars on how to reconcile the two numbers.
*Shrug*.
--
sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
http://singinst.org/home.html
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