MISSING DAY STORY; MYTH OR REALITY

 MISSING DAY STORY; MYTH OR REALITY

 A 48 hours- long day… and 48 hours- long night.

PROF WAQAR HUSSAIN

                The missing day story has been around us for about 30 years. This story gets new life in every December, however, it is somewhat masked by the doomsday prediction. Its first episode started when American astronomers were checking the current position of the sun, moon and planets and were estimating, where they would be in the next 100 to 1000 years from now. They were doing so to make space traffic safe.

                                                                                                                                     They feed data to the computer and ran the computer measurements back and forth over the centuries.  Suddenly, at one point computer halted and blinked red signal. They informed service department about unpredicted behavior of the computer to seek it out. The astronomers team was informed “One day is missing in elapsed time”. They were baffled, confused and astonished as it had no scientific answer. A Christian man in the team said “I remember, someone told me in my 

childhood, about the sun standing still for a day. Other team members didn’t believe him and questioned veracity of the statement and asked him “to show!”  He got the Bible, opened the Book of Joshua and read out the lines in which the Lord was addressing to a Hebrew Leader Joshua:

               “Fear them not, I have delivered them into thy hand; there shall not a man of them stand before thee”. Joshua was surrounded by enemy and if darkness fell, they would over power him. So Joshua requested the Lord to make the sun standstill. The Lord conceded his request by notion ‘That is night!’ The sun stood still and the moon stayed and hurried not to dusk about a day! On hearing this, the astronomer team convinced and said, “There is the missing day, they were looking for.” The astronomers again plunged into the computer program and ran it back to Joshua’s period and found a missing day having duration of 23 hours and 20 minutes. 

                        Now the question arose. It was not a complete day, rather 40 minutes shorter. Again team went into perplexity; how to account for this 40 minutes shortage. The same Christian man put another remembrance of the Bible, that once sun went backward. He again opened the Bible and read out lines from the Two Kings: “Hezekiah, on his death-bed, was visited by the prophet Isaiah who told him that he was not going to die. Hezekiah asked him for a sign of proof. Isaiah said, “Do you want the sun go ahead by 10 degree.” Hezekiah said “ It is nothing for the sun go ahead 10 degree, but let the shadow return backward 10 degree………”. Isaiah spoke to the Lord and the Lord brought the shadow 10 degree backward. As everyone knows, 1 degree is equal to 10 minutes so 10 degree measures to 40 minutes. So the sun went back for 10 degree and time went back for 40 minute. So, 23 hour 40 minutes in Joshua time plus 40 minutes of Isaiah time made a complete day of 24 hours, missing in the chronology of the Universe. Therefore, the entire question of the missing day was worked out. The above story was disclosed by Harold Hill.

 

                       Astonishingly, Harold Hill’s NASA story of missing day was not the newer one as Dr. Harry Rimmer wrote a book in 1930: “Harmony of Science and Scripture” in which he narrated the encounter that took place at the end of the 19^th century between Professor C.A. Totten (Bible believer) and Sir Edwin Ball, a British astronomer. Ball underwent puzzling calculations and found a day missing in time for which no scientific justification was available. He contacted Totten who suggested that answer might be found in the Holy Scripture. Ball went through the pages of the Bible and get to solution in 10^th chapter of Joshua where it was written that God managed the sun and the moon to standstill for one day. But there was incongruity as the day lasted for 23hours and 20 minutes in Joshua is time. Ball told Totten, “If the Bible made a mistake of 40 minutes, it is not the book of God!” Totten pointed out another chapter of king where God reversed the sundial for 10 degree. Ball’s calculation found the solution.

                     Totten went further and said the world was created on Sunday 22 September, 4000 BC. However, calendar calculations showed that September 22, falls on Monday and not on Sunday and that error was probably because of Joshua’s missing day.

                        Lets see, how science and rationalism response to the missing day story. First, NASA scientists clarified the missing day story from scientific point of view in March 25, 1997. “The future orbits of the planets aren’t calculated by going back and forth over the centuries to plot their position of a planet based on its current position. This calculation wouldn’t cover any time before the present, so some missing day many centuries ago, if it had occurred, couldn’t be uncovered with this method. In general, trying to prove events that are said to have occurred in the Bible, using scientific principles, doesn’t work. Most scientists draw a clear distinction between things that are taken on faith and those that are testable and therefore falsifiable. Science deals with the latter, religion with the former”.

                      Second, according to astrophysicist, there are only two explanation of sun stand still in the sky for a day. Either earth had stopped spinning on its axis or sun had moved in solar system in a direction appearing to the inhabitants of earth as stand still. There is no evidence for above both occurrences.

                    Third, the standing still of sun and then start of its revolution is against Newton’s first law of motion, “Everybody preserves in its state of rest or uniform motion unless compelled by force impressed on it.” So the stoppage of sun’s motion and again restart of motion have violated twice the law of motion.

                     Fourth, Sun moving backward in Isaiah time-- first it stopped, and then moved backward then again stopped and re started its journey. Here it transgressed quadruple times the law of motion.

                     Fifthly, if one day was missed and the sun had been on shinning for about 48 hours long. Then there must be a 48 hours night in other hemisphere of earth but nobody finds any talk about of 48 hours night which is most ominous, dreadful and pernicious and such events are remembered long and finds mention everywhere. In reality, nobody had ever heard about 48 hour night in any scripture, fiction, poetry, etc.

                       So, Science and logic don’t endorse any such event. But one finds many miracles (a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature) reported in different religions. All are against the norms of scientific principles but are believed by many. Here comes the conflict between science and religion. Religion moves from totality to partiality (kull say juzz) where science move from partiality to totality (juzz say kull), both proceed in opposite directions ; religion presents an absolute statement that cannot be proved or disproved whereas science evolves from relative statement  that can be proved as well as disproved; religion quenches the thirst of human soul where science satisfies human curiosity; religion promises to ease out human soul especially in hereafter where science eases out human’s physical needs here by introducing technology;  religion requires total faith without evidence and nothing is open to criticism where in science rational methods are employed and everything is open to criticism. In sum, both have different objective, modus operandi and liberty for human response but both are up for the betterment of human beings. Thus, it becomes hard to question the authenticity of both, till the time, mankind would attain the level of divine understanding. So, at present, the missing day story is myth for scientists and reality for religious pundits.