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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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Here is how A.E. works.
A plague induced by extraterrestrial impact has never been observed to happen. Therefore, we are not permitted to invoke such an explanation for any unexplained phenomenon we imagine we detect in the historical record.
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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Funnily enough, driving past the Devil's Punchbowl it occurred to me that if a crater of that size were somewhere like the Arizona desert it'd be assumed to be the site of a meteor strike. Probably.
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| Hatty wrote: | | Funnily enough, driving past the Devil's Punchbowl it occurred to me that if a crater of that size were somewhere like the Arizona desert it'd be assumed to be the site of a meteor strike. Probably. |
Thank you for a clue, and a possible treat on Google Earth, regarding The Devil's Punchbowl. I'll look at its aerial photos. Maybe I'll get really excited. We have sites like this in the (USA) Midwest, notably one in Ohio (Serpent Mound). (But in our case, it presently appears that the huge impact crater was made millennia before the mound effigy were created.)
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| Ishmael wrote: | Here is how A.E. works.
A plague induced by extraterrestrial impact has never been observed to happen. Therefore, we are not permitted to invoke such an explanation for any unexplained phenomenon we imagine we detect in the historical record. |
Well and good: let's not get carried away. And our saint is Occam.
BUT, new insights, and also new discoveries, arise.
By your standards, you'd have aligned yourself with the 18th century savants who denied stones fell from the sky. But you do agree, now, that meteorites exist, and do indeed fall from the sky? And that the Kaaba is probably meteoritic iron?
It seems to me that the AE gospel you're proposing would impose a straitjacket on speculation. Which stricture I reject. (To quote Mick Harper, from his Book, "that which is, is what was." -- I accept this as a helpful corrective, but NOT as a rule.)
Perhaps I should just read others' posts; but I'll guff with you all until rejected.
Meantime, I'm interested in any data indicating extraterrestrial hydrocarbons of pernicious effect.
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| Hatty wrote: | | Funnily enough, driving past the Devil's Punchbowl it occurred to me that if a crater of that size were somewhere like the Arizona desert it'd be assumed to be the site of a meteor strike. Probably. |
Hatty, I've looked up The Devil's Punchbowl on the Web, and it appears that the geomorphologists are content to explain it as the result of normal water action, not as cratering from impact. But they also consider it a remarkable example of spring-fed erosion. (The upper layer of rock is sandstone, with no mention of impact-shocking.) But I'd sure like to visit it. And I've still gotta seek out a GoogleEarth picture.
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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The Punchbowl was almost certainly a former quarry, being so close to where one of the main north-south routes (the A3) intersects with a major east-west route (the Pilgrims' Way). The site is part of the badlands of southern England, an industrial wasteland.
Another crater, the Hole of Horcum on the North York Moors, is in similarly barren heath next to a main north-south route. Human activity rather than 'spring-fed erosion' seems a more likely explanation.
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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| Buck Trawicky wrote: | | ...you'd have aligned yourself with the 18th century savants who denied stones fell from the sky. |
Proudly so.
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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| Buck Trawicky wrote: | | (To quote Mick Harper, from his Book, "that which is, is what was." -- I accept this as a helpful corrective, but NOT as a rule.) |
p.s. You're actually quoting Mick, quoting me.
(though I originated only the phrase, codified as principle -- he originated the practice)
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Chad
In: Ramsbottom
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| Ishmael wrote: | | p.s. You're actually quoting Mick, quoting me. |
I bet he disputes it... again.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I certainly am. What was is what is.
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| Ishmael wrote: | Here is how A.E. works.
A plague induced by extraterrestrial impact has never been observed to happen. Therefore, we are not permitted to invoke such an explanation for any unexplained phenomenon we imagine we detect in the historical record. |
Things sometimes change with further knowledge.
I suggest you explore the 2001 'Red Rains' in Kerala State, India. Samples were collected, and sent to various labs for analysis. (Actually, Kerala-folk have reported several of these incidents, but nobody else outside of SW India, I think; strange in itself.)
One serious hypothesis is that this was weird stuff, organic but strange. Cardiff University was one of the testing labs.
The possibility being tested was that this red stuff was not of Earthly origin. The testers found weird anomalies. Other labs did or did not. -- It's still an iffy question.
And nobody says Kerala suffered a plague (I think).
BUT, a Proposition: New data, scrupulously examined, may well show that extraterrestrial hydrocarbons can be a current (though presently only rare) fact on Earth. Some may be poisonous. And the introduction of same may have happened hugely in previous centuries and millennia, with very bad effect. We should be open to this possibility.
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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You need an attested extra-terrestrial plague to support your hypothesis.
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N R Scott
In: Middlesbrough
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When reading Gildas I too couldn't help but think it was a forgery - in fact, it's how I first came across this site. This thread was the only thing Google threw up on the matter.
I think it was this particular line that first aroused my suspicions;
| I shall not follow the writings and records of my own country, which (if there ever were any of them) have been consumed in the fires of the enemy, or have accompanied my exiled countrymen into distant lands |
If there ever were any of them. This seems like a bit of a cop out to me.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Welcome, Mr Scott, you are the first person on the site from what is, I think you'll agree, currently the most benighted city in England. Which is appropriate because re Gildas, who and at what time would someone be so anxious to establish that the sixth century was the most benighted period in English history? After the Romans but before the Anglo-Saxons .... mmm ....
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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One thing. Is it really true that we are the only people who have even raised the question of Gildas being a forgery? Strewth, even if it is genuine there ought to be somebody out there testing the contrarian waters.
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