Hello... Do we have any sense any more? Do we think?
Now, OK... the moon is the closest and appears the biggest it has in 18 years... no problem with that. So, what's my beef?
What was it last month? Hummm... The 18 year cycle is how long it takes for a full moon to appear at perigee...the closest point in the orbit. Oh, wait, you mean last orbit it was that close too, but it just was not at full moon then? Yep. Ah, then maybe the light from the bright full moon could cause an earthquake... ya think?
I wonder how much less big and bright it was last month? Well... according to Wikipedia the Lunar orbit around the Earth causes it to display the same phase about every 29.5 days while the actual orbit takes 27.3 days. So, that is about 1.08 times around or close to an extra 1/14 of an orbit (.07) Now, imagine the elliptical orbit, put the Earth a little bit off center toward the perigee and think about that beautiful ellipse divide it into pie pieces... Go ahead... half to the apogee - the maximum distance - half again (2 slices from max to min), half again (4), half again (8), half again (16) is close. "Half it" 4 times. Now tell me this, if you compare the distance the moon is from the earth now and than the next full moon... how much difference would there be? Hardly any!
The news casters exclaim it is "30% brighter than usual"... now wait a minute... do they mean 30% brighter than average? Well, OK, that might be... but 30% brighter than next month is what EVERYONE infers, or seems to. 9 years from now will they do this again and find the month when the noon happens to be full at apogee and say "It is the darkest full moon in 18 years!" Well, sure, it will be, but there will be a hardly precipitable change from what it was the month before that and the month after.
Are we all so gullible that we take what the news-heads say and just react without thinking it through ourselves??? Do we run out with binoculars to see the great event... I fear that we are and do. It just takes too much energy to do the thinking ourselves. However, did you notice how similar all of the news casts and articles were? And even how similarly all the news casters presented the miracle? That causes me to infer that there was some common source and not even the news folks are thinking... they are just parroting some other source. Scary. I wonder who that source is, and what agenda there might be. Well, if there is no agenda now, could there be? Think about no one thinking for themselves. Not one newscaster saying... well 30% brighter than average, but hardly any brighter than last month or next month.
And even more insidious is the fact that what they are saying is true! Except for that little change from "average" to "normal". That seems like a perfectly OK change except that it totally changes the meaning in this case. Nois
Acts 20:30 NIV
Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.
Isaiah 53:6 NIV
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Matthew 24:24 RSV
For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect
Matthew 16:3 NIV
...'Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.
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