HOW DID NEW YEARS FIND ITSELF 11-DAYS LATE?

Northern Hemisphere Winter Solstice + 11 Days = New Year’s Day

That is some strange math.  Why do we start the New Year eleven days after the winter solstice? Frankly, I do not know, but it seems more fitting that the day after the solstice should be January 1^st.  However, delaying time by eleven has a history in our calendar.  In 1752 A.D., Britain skipped eleven days to fix an eleven-minute reoccurring disagreement the accepted calendar had with Earth’s yearly cycle.  Compound this eleven-minute disparity over 1440 years; one gets an eleven-day problem.

Solve for y: (11m/(24*60))*y=11    y=1440

Thus, what year did we begin to drift:

1752 AD - 1440 = 321 AD

Which begs the question, what happened in the year 312?  It wasn’t known as the year 312 on that January 1st, when it began it was the year 1066 A.U.. I have heard some Christian apologists state that because our calendar's epoch is based on Jesus' birth year; the Jesus stories therefore, represent historical figures and events - rather than the more logical explanation that the Gospels were Jewish Midrash developed by Jews after the destruction of the Temple in 824 A.U.. The story of the Passion was written to provide a permanent replacement for Jewish temple sacrifices.  Which is somewhat of a different topic, but we will come back to it later in a follow-on post.  Circular logic is the main problem with arguing Jesus was historical, not mythical, based on the epoch of our calendar.  As the idea of resetting the timeline was not thought of until 10+ generations later than the stories it is based on.  The people who reset the calendar would have no more direct knowledge of the times they were targeting then we have today!

In 1066 A.U. Christians reset the epoch of the calendar 754 years forward, but they were a still the new religion at the time.  And because they were not the ruling party, they didn’t have the power to make the change universal.  Not yet.  Remember Rome accepted Christianity as one of many faiths in 313.  They were new to the Roman political scene, but Christians were on the move up.  For Rome to officially adopt this change, it took 213 years.  In 1279 A.U., Rome fully adopted the Christian modifications from 312 C.E. (as we recognize it today).  1279 A.U. was reset to 525 A.D..  What began in the 4th-Century was standardized in the 6th-Century, the new epoch of the empire, and a religion that now went by the name of Catholic.  From there, the new date took more than a millennium to reach the outside world, spreading by the power of trade and the pain of the sword.  The west began to drift off the Earth’s yearly calendar.  Fascinatingly the 11-day compounding mistake is linked to the complications of dating Easter – of course it was, right?  Luckily today we have Google, and smart-watches to remind us when to hide the eggs.

The main topic I wanted to address with this example is; Once an idea blossoms in a complex society, it takes a long time for it to take hold.  Then in future generations, when that idea is proven false, it can take a millennium, or two, for humans to correct their belief system. Why is this true? Why when new information is presented does society not change its viewpoint based on the new evidence in the same generation?

In the last two decades, many evolutionary biologists have presented evidence on how human preconceptions change gradually over many generations.  The paradox is: Both history and biology tell us fundamental acceptance of new information requires multiple generations to gain critical mass in the human conscience.  Therefore the populace on the eve of 2018 is not ready to absorb evidence gathered during our own contemporary.

The mind has evolved in such a way that many children who reject the nonsensical ideas (such as sacrificing a goat to crocodiles will cause the rains to fall) from their parents, also reject the sensible ideas (such as don't swim with the same crocodiles). Because of this, the 'rejectors' are many times eaten by crocodiles. The obedient survive and continue to pass both sensible and nonsensical ideas once again.

If an American travels to a tribal village where the practice of animal sacrifice is still practiced, we think "how do they still believe this on the eve of 2018?"  However, there is a 50% chance that same American believes the following:

"A celestial Jewish baby, born from a virgin mother, died for three days so that he could ascend to heaven on a cloud and then make you live forever.  Only if you symbolically eat his flesh, drink his blood and telepathically tell him you accept him as lord & master.  So he can remove an evil force from your spiritual being that is present in all humanity because a woman made from a man’s rib was hoodwinked by a talking reptile possessed by a malicious angel to secretly eat forbidden fruit from a magical tree."

If a college or high school graduate were exposed to this story for the first time, the adult nonpartisan mind would reject it as nonsensical.  However when one is exposed to these stories at a young age, the idea of "belief in belief" is embossed on the mind, it takes a toehold.  And then as adults, we dismiss as unconvincing any information that contradicts the nonsensical ideas we were exposed to as children.

The lifeblood of Religion is depended on the vulnerability of the child brain.  Religious leaders are aware of this, and the importance of getting the indoctrination in early is well documented.  Western society turns a blind eye to this tradition.  How many generations will we continue to allow this practice?  It took a long time to remove lead from paint and refined petroleum.  It took a long time after understanding cigarette smoking was harmful to humans for society to change.  We have known for many years that marijuana is better for the body and the mind then opioids, but are still at least a decade away for society to fully admit it.  But the dangers of childhood religious indoctrination has not reached the point where American society is ready to start a conversation about what might be the most detrimental practice to holding back expanding the human potential.

I hope future generations will decide to expand the human potential by encouraging and stimulating young minds on 'how to think' without succumbing to the manageable appeal of proselytizing to the next age 'what to think.'

And maybe, just maybe to skip eleven days in the calendar one more time, to enable humans to recognize New Year’s Eve on the Winter Solstice