{"id":3424,"date":"2013-09-29T07:41:41","date_gmt":"2013-09-29T07:41:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/?p=3424"},"modified":"2013-09-29T07:42:46","modified_gmt":"2013-09-29T07:42:46","slug":"the-star-of-bethlehem-a-skeptical-view-my-upcoming-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/2013\/09\/29\/the-star-of-bethlehem-a-skeptical-view-my-upcoming-book\/","title":{"rendered":"The Star of Bethlehem: A Skeptical View \u2014 My Upcoming Book"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly two millennia ago, a story was told of a wondrous star in the heavens, beaming forth to proclaim the birth of an infant, destined to rule. Coaxing priests from an eastern kingdom to travel in search of this infant, the object led them to their destination and allow for the worship of the savior of the world.<\/p>\n

Or so the story goes. But did it really happen, and if so, what was this magnificent star? A comet? An exploding star? An astrological portent? Something more bizarre? These theories and more have been put forward to explain the legend of the\u00a0Star of Bethlehem<\/a>, perhaps the most famous celestial light in all of religious literature. Inspiring scientists and theologians to search and fiction authors to write, including the great Sir Arthur C. Clarke, the Star of Bethlehem has been the perennial science story of the holidays. It is a project that finds its roots in the work of the influential astrophysicist Johannes Kepler, and numerous other astronomers have written about the Star over decades and up to today, such as David Hughes, Michael Molnar, Mark Kidger, and the late Sir Patrick Moore. Every year or so a supposedly new explanation is released to the press. Was it Jupiter and Venus or Jupiter and Saturn this time? Or how about the discovery of Uranus? Perhaps a variable star? The zodiacal lights? What other speculation will come about to show that there was a light guiding magi from the East to the birthplace of Jesus?<\/p>\n

\"9780956694867-<\/a><\/p>\n

These speculation should begin to find its end in the newest book on the subject:\u00a0The Star of Bethlehem: A Skeptical View<\/em>\u00a0(Amazon:\u00a0US<\/a>,\u00a0UK<\/a>,\u00a0FR<\/a>,\u00a0DE<\/a>). Based on nearly a decade of contemplation and research, this volume seeks to prove that no natural phenomenon, no astrological alignment, no physical interpretation of the Star of Bethlehem is plausible and comports to the story as told in the Gospel of Matthew. In fact, the story likely isn\u2019t historical at all.<\/p>\n

Published by\u00a0Onus Books<\/a>\u00a0and including a foreword by astronomer and columnist at\u00a0Astronomy<\/em>\u00a0magazine,Bob Berman<\/a>,\u00a0The Star of Bethlehem<\/em>\u00a0goes through all of the major theories for the Star as something in nature, including the astronomical, the astrological, and even the alien. The volume also explores the history of these sorts of interpretations and the motivations behind them. Lastly, it is demonstrated that the legend is a literary artifice, one that shows the author of the Gospel to be gifted as a story-teller but not someone interested in science and history as modern researchers are. To continue to look for the Star in the skies is to misunderstand the story.<\/p>\n

Exploring the science of supernovae, the mechanical computers of the ancient Greeks, the astrological beliefs and practices of the Persians, and the nature of ancient religious texts,\u00a0The Star of Bethlehem<\/em>\u00a0presents science and history without the need to fit to an apologetic goal.<\/p>\n

Praise for\u00a0The Star of Bethlehem: A Skeptical View<\/em>:<\/h1>\n

A fascinating and readable feat of hardcore historical legwork and keen scientific analysis.
\n\u2014David Fitzgerald, author of\u00a0The Complete Heretic\u2019s Guide to Western Religion: The Mormons.<\/p>\n

Well researched, scientifically reasoned, elegantly concise, this book will long be required reading on the \u2018Star of Bethlehem\u2019. Full of fascinating historical facts, and better informed and more careful than any other book on the subject, this should be on the shelf of everyone interested in that legendary celestial event.
\n\u2014Richard Carrier, Ph.D., author of\u00a0Proving History: Bayes\u2019s Theorem and the Quest for the Historical Jesus.<\/p>\n

The Star of Bethlehem\u00a0is a concise and rigorous must-read for anyone interested in religion, history, and modern efforts to understand the past.
\n\u2014Jason Colavito, author of\u00a0The Cult of Alien Gods.<\/p>\n

While the argument that the \u2018Star of Bethlehem\u2019 story is a myth isn\u2019t a new one, Aaron Adair\u2014an astronomer and physicist at The Ohio State University\u2014offers a look into the past through the eyes of a scientist, while not once ignoring the value of New Testament scholarship. This is a must-read, and perhaps the definitive, book on this subject.
\n\u2014Thomas Verenna, co-editor of\u00a0\u2018Is This Not the Carpenter?\u2019 The Question of the Historicity of the Figure of Jesus\u00a0and undergraduate student at Rutgers University<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If you enjoy\u00a0The Star of Bethlehem<\/em>, you may also enjoy another skeptical look at the Nativity story of Jesus:\u00a0The Nativity: A Critical Examination<\/em><\/a>\u00a0by Jonathan Pearce.<\/p>\n

About the author:<\/h1>\n

Aaron Adair<\/a>\u00a0is a soon-to-be PhD in physics education from the Ohio State University and holds three degrees in science and mathematics from Michigan State University. He has previously worked as a planetarium show presenter, a SETI researcher, and a part of the ATLAS detector collaboration at CERN. He has written on the Star of Bethlehem previously in\u00a0Sky & Telescope<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Zygon: Journal of Science & Religion<\/em>, and has been invited to participate in\u00a0a conference<\/a>\u00a0about the Star at the University of Groningen. This is his first book. Adair may be contacted through his book\u2019s\u00a0Facebook page<\/a>\u00a0and through email.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly two millennia ago, a story was told of a wondrous star in the heavens, beaming forth to proclaim the birth of an infant, destined to rule. Coaxing priests from an eastern kingdom to travel in search of this infant, the object led them to their destination and allow for the worship of the savior of the world.<\/p>\n

Or so the story goes. But did it really happen, and if so, what was this magnificent star? A comet? An exploding star? An astrological portent? Something more bizarre? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,21,23],"tags":[29,32,188,573,39,609,45,700,574,612,1748,198,370,209,580,983,104,982,107,110,969,980],"class_list":["post-3424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biblical-exegesis","category-cosmology","category-science-and-religion","category-skepticism","tag-aaron-adair","tag-aliens","tag-astrology","tag-astronomy","tag-atheism","tag-bible","tag-christianity","tag-christmas","tag-history-2","tag-history-of-science","tag-jesus","tag-nativity","tag-new-testament","tag-pseudoscience","tag-religion","tag-research","tag-science-2","tag-science-fiction","tag-skepticism-2","tag-star-of-bethlehem","tag-the-star-of-bethlehem-a-skeptical-view","tag-war-of-christmas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3424\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}