How Did We Know There Would Be an Eclipse Today?

Creationists or many stripes and colors have been going crazy over the impending eclipse.  These are the same groups that often malign real science with pseudo-science idiocy.  A quick question, how did we know there was going to be an eclipse today?  Not just today but exactly the time and the locations where it would be visible?

According to many theists, the only book you ever need is the Bible, so was today's eclipse listed in the Bible?  Not just a passing mention, but all the complete details?  Maybe it's in an appendix that my copy, or more accurately my copies, don't have?  Nope, nothing on the specific of an astronomical event, or any specific event.

How about any other theological book?  No, how about Nostradamus?  Nope, nothing worthwhile.  So how do we know?

It's called . . . and I know some of you might not like it . . . it's called 'Science'.  Yes, the same science that theological organizations tear apart on a daily basis.  Astronomers have been studying the sky for generations.  They have been documenting it and using that documentation for predictions for a very long time.  And, you know something, it works pretty well.

Astronomers, like biologists, physicists, geologists, paleontologists, and the rest all follow the same methodology.  That methodology includes:

Yet, for some unsupportable reason, when science is addressing anything a theist believes to be part of their religion, they come up with all sorts of excuses and rationalizations why the science is wrong.  The speed of light was different way back then, there wasn't anyone to see it -- so how do you know, radio-logical dating doesn't work . . . and the list goes on.  In each case the real science behind the physics, chemistry, biology, and the rest of the physical sciences stand on firm ground and are well-supported.  It's the theists who keep trying to change it to suit their religion.

And then, for some even stranger reason, they like to use the results of science to further their own belief systems.  I mean right now the folks of kennie ham's answers-in-genesis (AiG) are 'sharing the gospel along the path of the eclipse'.  Doesn't that sound like fun?  How about two of the Discovery Institute fellows are covering the eclipse via Facebook?  Another 'fun' way to kill a few braincells hours.  One of the two talking heads, I can never tell which is which because they are so hard to tell apart, is quoted saying

“If you watch videos of people during total eclipses they gasp and scream and cry, and so there is some kind of primordial connection that we have to eclipses that is very hard to account for.”

I don't have trouble accounting for it, I would check first the educational level of anyone gasping and screaming, and then I would check their religious beliefs and see what they have been told about eclipses.

Conspiracy theorists are hedging their bets.  The NY Post reports that 

"Conspiracy theorists are warning the “Eclipse of the Century” Monday could mean the end of the world as we know it — or, at the very least, Donald Trump’s presidency." (source)

Although for many conspiracy theorists, the two are pretty much the same thing.

What we have happening is a natural event, but there is always something trying to use it to further their own agenda.  Many theists organizations have been going eclipse crazy, even quoting Bible verses about a supposed black moon.  New flash, the Moon isn't actually changing color (Science can explain why it looks that way) . . . which is how they will be happy to rationalize things when the world doesn't end.  Just remember, if you hear a trumpet blowing, they might be right . . . or the Jazz club down the street left their doors open.

So, just wanted to pen this note, probably the last one in which I will discuss the eclipse.  Had to point out the hypocrisy of theists who denigrate some part of science, without anything resembling support, while trying to use other parts to push their theological agenda.  Science is a methodology, and they simply don't like it when it works -- in spite of their religious beliefs.

A side-note, during the peak of the eclipse, I was standing outside with several co-workers, we were enjoying the view of the 90% partial eclipse.  A lady from another company in this building commented:

"During the 1919 total eclipse my grandfather was alive and living in a remote region in Appalachia.  No radio, no television, no Internet.  They had very few ways of knowing the eclipse was going to happen.  He really thought the world was ending."

To an extent I can understand that . . . then . . . but today?  With all of the avenues of communication and the insane amount of time spent covering this 90 minute or so event.  Anyone who didn't know of its coming had to have their head buried in the sand.  And anyone who believes some dire event is about to occur because the Moon got between us and the Sun. . . really needs to get out more.  Put down the Bible and read a science book once in a while!

Here is the main reason for this post, I am always amazed at how the theological mind works.  They can denigrate science while using a computer that was created using the same scientific methodology they like to question.  They drive cars using the same science, they use medicines and medical treatments created using that same science, and they eat food created and even prepared using that same science . . . the list of the ways theists use science is endless, and yet when science even has the appearance of brushing up against their belief set, a belief set defined by men centuries ago, they become unhinged and start trying to re-define science to protect their beliefs.