Introduction To This Blog System

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Image used by permission

Posting is usually done once a week, on Thursday.

Postings may be later combined into a compound posting on this blog. Many of the postings concern my observations in various branches of science, but there are also many on technology, religion, economics and, general world issues.

I would really like to thank everyone who reads any of these blogs for your interest.

 

SCIENCE WRITING

 

Most of the postings on this blog are visits to various places around the world, and articles about such topics as history and religion. But much of the writing is about science. I do not write about what is already known but only if I can write something new, or at least a new way of looking at things.

 

If you would like a quick background in the science and mathematics that everyone should really know in the 21st Century, the posting "Scientific Literacy" provides this in about a hundred paragraphs. Similarly, "The Way Things Work" provides a quick background in everyday technology.

 

I am a Christian and I want to show that belief in God is not unscientific at all. I was interested in science long before I was interested in religion, and have never had any trouble believing that God created everything.

 

There are six major scientific theories, each arranged in the form of a textbook. The first five of the following six are on this blog.

 

"The Theory Of Stationary Space" is my cosmological theory of how so much revolves around time being explained by us being in four-dimensional space, with the dimension that we cannot access being perceived as time. This is my version of string theory, with matter actually being strings in four dimensions rather than particles in three dimensions. Everything is ultimately based on negative and positive electric charges, with energy being able to overcome the laws of attraction and repulsion of electric charges. No one has ever explained exactly what time is, and a myriad of explanations of other things fall right into place around it.

 

"The Flow Of Information Through The Universe" is about how so much can be explained by seeing how there is a limited amount of information, and it must be the same information that constructs the highest levels as the lowest levels. A ready example is how the orbits of planets around the sun is based on the orbitals of electrons around the nucleus, in the atoms of which the sun and planets are composed. This concept is extremely useful because, understanding this, we can study things that we cannot directly see by analyzing things that we can see because all must be built on the same information.

 

"The Theory Of Complexity" is about what information actually is, how energy and information is really the same thing, and how we see the universe as we do because of our perspective of being at a higher level of information than our inanimate surroundings.

 

"The Lowest Information Point" is about how, since information and energy is really the same thing and the universe always seeks the lowest energy state, it also always seeks the "Lowest Information Point". So much is explained by how the universe prefers equalities to inequalities and related ratios where the numerator of one ratio is also the denominator of the other. This explains so much from why dust particles are as big as they to why the planets and stars are the scale that they are.

"The Theory Of Infinite Dimensions" is the most recent scientific theory. It is the second cosmological theory, after"The Theory Of Stationary Space". We see the universe as an infinity of distance in three spatial dimensions and light as always moving in straight lines. But this is another example of how we see the universe as we do not only because of what it is but also because of what we are. It is more logical that the universe has an infinite number of dimensions. We can see in all of the dimensions because light actually can turn corners but it requires energy. We can only see it as three dimensions because of our limited dimensional order. Light consists of two-dimensional waves and we perceive space as being three-dimensional. This means that we can see light as coming from different directions but can only perceive it as moving in a straight line.

 

"The Story Of Planet Earth", on the geology blog, is about how virtually every major feature of the earth's surface, both on land and seafloor, can be explained by lines of magma emergence from below that were affected by the landing of three Continental Asteroids. Many people believe that land originated from a past "super-continent", but there is no explanation of where it came from.

 

There are a few of what we could call "minor" theories, where there is not as much written as with the major theories. On this blog, there is "How Biology And Human Life Fits Into Cosmology". On the meteorology and biology blog, there is my theory of the nature of water, "Water Made Really Simple".

 

There are compound postings about science which are groupings of writing about a certain topic.

 

Scientific compound postings include, "Computer Science", "Atomic Science", "Measurement", "A Celebration Of The Inverse Square Law", "Our Solar System", "Mind-Bending Cosmology", "The Configuration Of The Solar System Made Really Simple", "In Appreciation Of Electrons", "The Science Of Human Society " and "Orbital And Escape Velocities And Impacts from Space".

 

Compound postings about history and the world include "The House Of Holy Wisdom, Where The Modern World Began", "Niagara Stories", "Economics", "How History Repeats Itself", "The Meaning Of Freedom", "The Western Hemisphere", "Our Language" and, "America And The Modern World Explained By Way Of Paris".

 

There are two compound postings about prophecies and the Bible. There is "The Aztec Prophecy" than, for prophecies that are directly made in the Bible there is "New Insight Into Bible Prophecy".

 

"Investigations" is the compound posting that is a collection of any posting about an investigation.

 

The rest of the postings are individual postings. For more detailed information about this blog, see the posting "Thanks To Readers". For general topics of conversation, see "Thoughts And Observations", on the world and economics blog.  

Other Blogs And Books

                                                                                                                                                                           

Lights at night 

Here is a quick look at my other blogs before you start this one.

On this blog, you can see a list of all postings by clicking on the year or month to the right. But on the topical blogs, that is not the case. If you click on a year or month on those blogs, it will display the postings themselves, but the list on the right will still only show those postings that were added most recently.

To access a list of all postings on those blogs, it is necessary to click on the arrow in front of the year or month in question.

http://www.markmeekeconomics.blogspot.com/ is about economics, history and, general human issues.

http://www.markmeekprogress.blogspot.com/ concerns progress in technology and ideas.

http://www.markmeekearth.blogspot.com/ is my geology and global natural history blog for topics other than glaciers. My natural history blogs concerning the impact of glaciers is http://www.markmeekworld.blogspot.com/ .

http://www.markmeekniagara.blogspot.com/ is about new discoveries concerning natural history in the general area of Niagara Falls.

http://www.markmeeklife.blogspot.com/ is my observations concerning meteorology and biology.

http://www.markmeekphysics.blogspot.com/ is my blog about physics and astronomy.

http://www.markmeekcosmology.blogspot.com/ is my version of string theory that solves many unsolved mysteries about the underlying structure and beginning of the universe.

http://www.markmeekpatterns.blogspot.com/ details my work with the fundamental patterns and complexity that underlies everything in existence.

 http://www.markmeekreligion.blogspot.com/ is my religion blog.

 http://www.markmeekcreation.blogspot.com/ is proof that there must be a god.

http://www.markmeekphotos.blogspot.com/ is my travel photos of Europe.

On my photo blogs, Blogspot will not hold all of the photos in each blog in a straight line. To see all of the photos, you must click on the bottom posting listed on the right at the top of the blog after seeing all that there are in the initial showing. The last posting in the North America blog should be "Tijuana, Mexico" and the last posting in the Europe blog should be "Notre Dame Cathedral Door And Arc De Triomphe, Paris". Each photo in the photo blogs can be clicked on to enlarge it to full screen.

My autobiography is http://www.mark-meek.blogspot.com/

My books can be seen at http://www.bn.com/ http://www.amazon.com/ or, http://www.iuniverse.com/ just do an author search for "Mark Meek".   

Kathmandu

Kathmandu is an ancient city, high in the Himalayas, that is the capital of Nepal. Also in Nepal, the summit of Mount Everest is the point of highest elevation on earth. 

Nepal is the only country with a national flag that isn't rectangular or square. Image from the Wikipedia article "Flag of Nepal".

ALL IMAGES ARE FROM GOOGLE STREET VIEW 

Nepal used to have a monarchy. The former Narayanhiti Palace is not an old palace, being built in 1963 on the site of previous palaces. Nepal is prone to the earthquakes in the Himalayas and this has damaged previous palaces.

The Royal Coup took place in 1960. This established an absolute monarchy and abolished political parties. I see this as Nepal's version of Japan's Meiji Restoration. There was a revolution in Nepal in 1990, which resulted in a change from absolute to constitutional monarchy. I see this as Nepal's version of the French Revolution.

In 2001 the Palace Massacre took place at the Narayanhiti Palace. I see this as Nepal's version of the killing of the Romanovs in Russia. The crown prince, the next in line to the throne, killed most of the royal family including the king and queen and then shot himself. 

He survived for several days and technically became king. His uncle, the previous king's brother, became king upon his death. The fact that he was the only senior royal not at the dinner when the massacre took place led to conspiracy theories. It also drew attention that the prince was right-handed but the fatal self-inflicted gunshot wound was in his left temple.

The uncle had previously, and temporarily, been king as a child. In 2005, this king attempted to effectively restore absolute monarchy. It led to the monarchy being abolished altogether.

It is not entirely known what led to the 2001 Palace Massacre, by Prince Dipendra, at the family dinner in the palace. One story was that the king had ordered him to his living quarters, because he was under the influence of drugs, and he returned with the gun. Another story is that he got the gun after arguing with his parents about someone who they didn't want him to marry.

This is the former Narayanhiti Palace.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow before you can move onto the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow. After clicking the up arrow you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Narayanhiti+Palace+Museum/@27.7132759,85.3179499,1316a,75y,14.32h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sxizXAdMEwM1jW_CiPFeU_A!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D0%26panoid%3DxizXAdMEwM1jW_CiPFeU_A%26yaw%3D14.323581029319795!7i13312!8i6656!4m6!3m5!1s0x39eb191ca61437a3:0x13b2693c01ed2c18!8m2!3d27.714758!4d85.3181019!16s%2Fm%2F03nnysg?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDkwMi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

The center of the old part of Kathmandu is Durbar Square. A Durbar Square means a royal square and this is not the only one. It is an ancient palace site with other buildings, such as temples, being added over time.

This is the narrow streets of the old city around Kathmandu Durbar Square.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Kathmandu+Durbar+Square/@27.7038011,85.3076766,1304a,75y,205.4h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sCIHM0ogKEICAgIDbpP60Gw!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh3.googleusercontent.com%2Fgpms-cs-s%2FAFP8RcPQKRjxCJQj5WrsneciKQ8JbL4H5CiymvkVXlyNkw9bHcDS0hmOH98fWhbPc694ffHFdxo7UJFuAHOOWFcOsSP-htdpSHxBbYQWjPefR0iJWlUZlo01qyLBqpCL2QzKjFM8Kms%3Dw900-h600-k-no-pi0-ya314.07347592307417-ro0-fo100!7i4096!8i2048!4m6!3m5!1s0x39eb1857d1f77871:0xc5b0391005a641fd!8m2!3d27.7042737!4d85.307463!16s%2Fm%2F0h1g8vq?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDkwMi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

This is a newer part of Kathmandu, beginning with the Ghanta Ghar Clock Tower and the Skywalk Tower.

This is the Rani Pokhari, or Queen's Pond, built in 1670. It is a memorial to a prince that was killed by an elephant.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Skywalk+Tower+Kathmandu/@27.7080291,85.3181669,1306a,75y,180.44h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1swmx1ubCp1mbH9ttv2H5e-w!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D0%26panoid%3Dwmx1ubCp1mbH9ttv2H5e-w%26yaw%3D180.43938314549519!7i13312!8i6656!4m6!3m5!1s0x39eb19237fbbd959:0x6a954cd8c7e32a46!8m2!3d27.7081546!4d85.3187892!16s%2Fg%2F11tfvllzfl?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDkwMi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

This is the Hindu Pashupatinath Temple. This is the oldest Hindu temple complex in Kathmandu and goes far back into ancient times.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pashupatinath+Temple/@27.7098564,85.3490561,1358a,75y,333.29h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sCIHM0ogKEICAgID73ffGVg!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh3.googleusercontent.com%2Fgpms-cs-s%2FAFP8RcOe-LWFPGK7V5s2Vwh1vfvQrw-vZS7vZSY2NNgvbxHogueaqkHTE9RdrIFQZyxDWH7BaimlwWEWG8x88W4xp3B66RbUqlXs7hFFVOwSn0fR4P-vdCqtH8fXGxuVakDlIEYcnbIz%3Dw900-h600-k-no-pi0-ya182.92789281984648-ro0-fo100!7i4096!8i2048!4m6!3m5!1s0x39eb191aaaaaaaab:0x424c7d0a60df9091!8m2!3d27.710512!4d85.3488125!16zL20vMGNzX2hz?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDkwMi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

This is the Buddhist Boudhanath Stupa. It goes far back into medieval times. Many Buddhist Tibetans arrived in Nepal after the 1959 uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet.

https://www.google.com/maps/@27.721055,85.36232,3a,75y,151.62h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sCIHM0ogKEICAgIDK1P6w1wE!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh3.googleusercontent.com%2Fgpms-cs-s%2FAFP8RcPQ4j2qI1RuXcFOzBGuzgSqrSEjD16aiKeqbG1kIYU4dEF7GTlM0MJWJ52eYayTJKH3kA7oho59xs5uv4jr-vtVW3dCWDQrF6O1ThIuWtblnU2jH_4IkP4VSoCnpkOHDv-OKRtjFg%3Dw900-h600-k-no-pi0-ya265.36159438357106-ro0-fo100!7i5760!8i2880?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDkwMi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

Jerusalem And The Rock Music Era

Kathmandu was a destination on the Hippie Trail of the 1960s. Why don't we review this while we are on the subject of Kathmandu?

I was only a boy during the 1960s but could feel what a special time it was, and have always been fascinated by the Sixties and it's music. Although, from a cultural and spiritual point of view, my feeling is that the "Real Sixties" did not exactly fit the chronological decade and actually only lasted for eight years, from 1964 to 1972.

The Sixties were the youth of the Baby Boom generation, the demographic bulge in the population brought about by millions of soldiers returning from the Second World War and starting families. The first of the Baby Boom generation reached adulthood in 1964. 

This is why there was such an emphasis on youth culture. But the devastation, horrific weapons and, genocide of the Second World War were recent memories. Before that there had been the market crash and the Great Depression, and before that the First World War.

Could the new Baby Boom generation be the one that had learned the lessons and would change the world for the better?

Considering the world wars, and countless other wars, can you believe that, as secularism spread in the late Nineteenth Century, many people thought that it was a very good thing, since wars were primarily religious in nature, that secularism would bring peace to the world?

The Bible foretold that, far in the future, the nation of Israel would be reestablished and this, particularly the return of the original city of Jerusalem to Jewish control, would initiate the one-lifetime countdown to the Return of Jesus to establish His Millennial Kingdom on earth, when the world would be the godly paradise that it was intended to be. But, of course, the world had to go through the reign of the Antichrist and the Tribulation first.

My speculation, as described in "The Failed Millenniums", December 2025, and in the section "17) Crossing The Red Sea", in the compound posting "New Insight Into Bible Prophecy" October 2016, was that there was a nineteen-year delay between the reestablishment of the nation of Israel in 1948 and the addition of the original city of Jerusalem in 1967 to give the idealistic Baby Boom generation a chance to see if it could build the Millennium itself, by following God, without going through the Antichrist and the Tribulation. It would follow the pattern of the establishment of the Millennium in the Bible, with Hitler representing the Antichrist and the Second World War the Tribulation.

Of course, as we saw in those postings, it was not to be because we were just too sinful. The return of the original city of Jerusalem marked the beginning of the countdown, and the world will go through the reign of the Antichrist and the Tribulation, before Jesus returns to establish the Millennium.

The Baby Boom generation saw material prosperity like no generation had before. International travel, other than with the military, had previously been limited to the relatively wealthy. But with the postwar development of passenger jets, global travel became widespread. People saw the world outside their own countries like never before.

Mass movements of idealistic young Baby Boomers began. The Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco became the epicenter of 1967's "Summer of Love".

In the U.S. there was the Woodstock concert, in New York State in 1969. 400,000 young people converged on a farm for a great concert. Certainly their hearts were in the right place to change the world, they were together for three days and there was not a single act of violence.

Later in 1969, there was a west coast version of Woodstock at Altamont Speedway. Unfortunately it didn't go as peacefully as Woodstock.

There was the "Hippie Trail", which began in Istanbul and proceeded across central Asia. The Hippies were in search of adventure, enlightenment and, of course, drugs.

But then, in 1967, just as Hippies were converging on Haight-Ashbury, Jerusalem opened up as it came under Israeli control. Pilgrims had been going there before that, but the number of visitors now greatly increased.

Could it be that God planned it this way? God knew that this generation was looking for the way to a better world, the world as God intended it to be. Young people had access to international travel like never before. So God opened up His Holy City, Jerusalem, in the hope that they would make a pilgrimage there.

Maybe God intended Jerusalem to be the catalyst that would spur the Baby Boom generation on to building the Millennium themselves, so the world would not have to go through the reign of the Antichrist and the Tribulation.

God was not to be found at Haight-Ashbury, nor on the Hippie Trail nor at Woodstock. The Sixties ironically had the patterns of the Kingdom of God. Notice the close similarity between psalms and rock songs. But the rock songs mostly put romance in place of God. Finding the Holy Spirit was replaced by getting high. The angels of the Sixties were girls in miniskirts.

There was a Christian side to the Sixties counterculture, the Jesus Movement, and there was a Christian version of Woodstock, Explo 72 in Dallas. But this was a relatively minor part of the total counterculture movement.

But can you believe the predominance of the number 19 in relation to the prophecies of the "Last Days"?

7 is an important number in the beginning of the Bible. There were 7 days in a week and the Book of Revelation describes the 7 spirits of God. 12 is another important number, there were 12 tribes and then 12 apostles and the Book of Revelation describes the 12 precious stones used in the foundations of the New Jerusalem.

If we add 7 and 12 we get 19. So shouldn't 19 also be an important number, maybe later in the events leading up to the "Last Days"?

We saw that there was a 19-year delay between the prophecied reestablishment of Jerusalem and the addition of the original city of Jerusalem. There is a 1 and a 9 in 9/11 when, with 19 days left in September, 19 hijackers flew planes into buildings. This changed the world 19 years before a virus, Covid-19, would also change the world.

The Inverse Topological Rule

The highest mountains in the world are in Nepal. On the subject of mountains, here is something that I cannot see has ever been pointed out. The Inverse Topological Rule and how it supports my geological theory of Continental Asteroids And Lines Of Magma Emergence.

We know that there are processes that balance themselves by inducing opposites. One of Newton's Laws is that "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction". When an electric current in a wire or coil induces a current in another wire or coil the induced current will flow in the opposite direction from the original current. When a magnet is used to magnetize another piece of metal it will induce poles opposite to those in the original magnet.

But what about the basic nature of the universe? Topology is about the shapes or forms of objects. Some entities that make up the universe are functions of others, meaning that one must come first before the other can follow. How might this affect their topologies?

The space in the universe must come before any objects. But space has it's topology. The dimensions of space form right angles. We can easily see this by stacking boxes or looking at property lots. The simplest shape that fits together with no space left over has right angles, most basically squares in two dimensions or cubes in three dimensions. This proves that three dimensional space is cubic, the dimensions form right angles.

If anyone was asked what shape was the opposite of a cube, with no more information added, the logical answer would be a sphere. So if a sphere is the opposite of a cube, and if space was going to induce it's opposite topological form then we should expect to see spheres somewhere in space.

That is exactly what happens when matter collects together by gravity. A sphere is the default geometric form of matter that collects by gravity. All we have to do to see this is look at the sun or moon or a globe of the earth. A gravitational mass is said to form a sphere because it is the three-dimensional form with the lowest energy state, or the lowest surface area per volume. But the topological reason is that matter is a function of space and a gravitational mass takes the opposite topological form from that space.

So if the earth is spherical because it is made of matter, and matter is a function of space, and space is cubic and, according to my Inverse Topological Rule, a gravitational mass of matter had to take the opposite topological form from space, then what about the earth? Does it induce it's opposite topological form into anything?

We are used to opposites coming in pairs, such as left and right, up and down, or negative and positive. Topology doesn't necessarily work in the same way. The topological opposite of a cube is a sphere, but the opposite of a sphere isn't a cube. This is because a sphere contains less information than a cube. A cube has to have it's directional alignment specified but a sphere doesn't. A topological form cannot induce another form with more information so the induced opposite of a sphere must be something else.

The topological opposite of a sphere is actually a pseudosphere. A pseudosphere has a continuous negative curvature, just as a sphere has a continuous positive curvature. This is a pseudosphere, from the Wikipedia article "Pseudosphere".

What do you notice about this pseudosphere? A tornado is caused by the spin of the earth. What form does it take? The form of half a pseudosphere.

Have you ever drained a sink full of water so that the water swirls around into a whirlpool? What form does it take? The form of half a pseudosphere.

What about Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity? There are two theories of Relativity. The first, and the one that I refer to the most here is the Special Theory of Relativity. But there is also the General Theory, about how gravity bends light. A mass theoretically curves space so that an object in orbit is moving in a straight line, but through curved space. That is what gravity is, a mass curving the space around it.

But what form does the curvature take? It takes the form of half a pseudosphere. If we charted the acceleration of a falling object due to gravity it would take the form of a pseudosphere.

A question arises as to why a sphere, the default gravitational form of matter, is the topological opposite of a cube, the dimensions of space, but contains less information than a cube. Remember my cosmology theory. Matter originated from the two-dimensional sheet of space which was scattered by the Big Bang over four dimensions of the background space, one of which we perceive as time. So it's two dimensions against four.

Tornadoes and whirlpools are not the only cases of pseudospheres being generated by the earth. If there were no outside factors involved, mountains should also be shaped like pseudospheres if they are produced by the earth. Look at the following image of Mount Fuji, from the Wikipedia article by that name. It is shaped like an upside-down tornado.

Mount Fuji is a volcanic mountain so it did emerge from the earth. So if all mountains emerged from within the earth then they should all look like Mount Fuji. But they don't, mountains come in all different shapes. This can only mean that they were shaped by information from somewhere else, and not from within the earth.

This shows that my geological theory about the Continental Asteroids must be correct, because information must have come from beyond the earth. Even volcanic mountains in other lands don't resemble a pseudosphere as neatly as Mount Fuji. That's because Japan is a volcanic land mass, and is not tectonic. We saw in the theory that all tectonic land masses, meaning that they are not of volcanic origin and move tectonically, originated with one of the three Continental Asteroids. 

Here is a link to the introduction to the theory. The full text of the theory is on the geology blog, "The Story Of Planet Earth".

https://markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2024/03/geology-theory-with-satellite-imagery.html?m=0

Apocalyptic Developments

This is in regard to the parallel postings "The End Of The World As We Know It" and "Inducing The Apocalypse", both June 2026.

We saw in those postings how I believe that Ezekiel's prophecy of an attack in the war of the Last Days looking like "a cloud that covers the land" likely means paratroopers. With Europe cooperating together against Russia, a military exercise between Britain, France and, Germany is centered around paratroopers. 

Ezekiel also foretells that the northern invader who invades Israel to set off the final series of wars of the world, which can only be Russia and Moscow is due north of Israel, will have a number of allies. These allies include Ethiopia. But I have wondered if "Ethiopia" is a general term for Africa. Russia has a number of allies in Africa and this week the leaders of several African countries went to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin.

We know that the Antichrist will have great control over the world, at least for a while. Just as an example of how much control one person can have nowadays, Elon Musk can control a country's fortunes simply by turning Starlink on or off.

We know that the base of power for the Antichrist will be a united Europe. A pressing reason for Europeans to cooperate together is emerging as the need for a satellite system of their own.

Europe really needs a great leader with all of the answers. Not only for external reasons, being pressured by Russia and unable to depend on America, but also for internal reasons. Uprisings against social conditions are sweeping across Europe.

In the posting "The End Of The World As We Know It" we saw that the prophecy of the Last Days of "being burned by the heat of the sun" could have a technical meaning, since modern technology was utterly unknown in biblical times. It could refer to a powerful solar storm, such as the one in 1859, shutting down the electronics on earth. What about the new data centers that we are getting dependent on? Such a solar storm could certainly shut those down.

The Waving Of Palestinian Flags

Across Europe we often see the waving of Palestinian flags. Image from the Wikipedia article "Flag of Palestine".

What is actually happening is that we are going far back into history, to the time of the Crusades.

There is something that I have never seen pointed out about the Middle East of today, and it is about how history tends to repeat itself. That is why it is important to understand history, because we tend to repeat it often without realizing it. 

Have you ever wondered why there seems to be such a preponderance of militias in the Middle East? By militia I mean a paramilitary force that is not a national army. Some people refer to such militias as "non-state actors". 

The best-known militia in the Middle East is Hezbollah, which means "The Party of God". But there were many more in the present and recent past. There is the two Palestinian militias, Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Fatah in the West Bank. There has been the Amal Militia, which used to be a rival of Hezbollah in Lebanon. There has also been a Druze militia and older movements like the PLO, Palestine Liberation Organization, and the PFLP, Popular Front For The Liberation of Palestine. 

All of these militias are related to the founding of Israel in 1948. But why should this region have so many militias that are not national armies? There is a clear answer and it goes back nearly a thousand years. 

That answer is the Crusades. 

The militias of the Middle East today are the direct descendants of the medieval orders of knights at the time of the Crusades. Those knights were first tasked with protecting and assisting Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land and then to liberate the Holy Land from Moslem control. The militias of the Middle East today have a very similar role, and operate in the same area, but the role is reversed. They are tasked with regaining control of the Holy Land for the Moslems from the restored state of Israel. 

While only the First Crusade was a great success, the knights established several "Crusader States" in the Middle East. These orders of knights were Catholic but independent of any nation, which today would be referred to as militias or "non-state actors". The descendants of these temporary states today are Gaza, ruled by Hamas, and the West Bank, ruled by Fatah. 

Hezbollah, operating in Lebanon and the best-known of the militias of the Middle East, is sometimes referred to as a "state within a state". That is exactly what was being said about the Knights Templar eight hundred years ago. They were named for Solomon's Temple, which some Crusaders mistakenly believed the Al-Aqsa Mosque to be. The Knights Templar accumulated a tremendous amount of wealth and power until they fell out of favor with both the Pope and the King of France.

They were followed as the predominant order of knights by the Knights Hospitaller, or the Knights of St. John. When they were given control of Malta, as we saw in "Malta And Jerusalem", they became known as the Knights of Malta. So great was their influence that places where the sick and injured were cared for became known as hospitals. 

We see the long-lasting influence of orders of knights such as these most of all in how the militias of the Middle East seem to be their direct descendants, except that the militias are Moslem while the orders of knights were Catholic. 

The orders of knights had their banners. This is the banner of the Knights Hospitaller. Image from the Wikipedia article by that name.

The widespread waving of Palestinian flags today is a reenactment of the long-ago waving of the banners of the orders of knights.