Astonishing Myths

11/24/2021

Julius Caesar was born by caesarian section

Caesar was born by natural birth in the customary way. The Caeserian section surgical birthing procedure draws its name from the Lex Caesarea (law of Caesar) which stated that a child is to be cut from the womb if the mother died during childbirth. Apparently, the ancient world had precedent for C-section births, though it's unknown if the procedure had a statistically significant survival rate for the mother.

10/08/2021

Hi**er created the Autobahn

Germany is famous for beer, engineering, Hi**er, and the Autobahn. Hi**er had no connection with beer or the Autobahn. He was also not an engineer. He was a teetotaler who didn't create Germany's “Federal Motorway.” Hi**er could not have overseen the Autobahn since it was already in existence in 1931, two years before her became chancellor. Hi**er's rise to power and the development of the Autobahn did happen at almost the same time, but they occurred in the wrong order for Hi**er to take any credit.

09/10/2021

George Washington chopped down a cherry tree🎁

One of the most famous American legends is that George Washington, as a 6-year-old boy, chopped down his father's cherry tree. When asked about it, so the story goes, he said with the utmost virtue, "I cannot tell a lie, I did cut it with my hatchet." This event never happened, but was invented by early Washington biographer, Mason Locke Weems, to illustrate the remarkable virtues of that remarkable man. Washington was a legend in his time, and books and stories by Weems sold like hotcakes. Weems, who was also an itinerant minister, drew attention to Washington's private virtues with this uncorroborated story.

08/27/2021

Jesus was born on December 25th💖

The winter solstice was celebrated by the Romans from December 17 to 25. This yearly festival included gift-giving, family time, and revelry. When Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in the early 4th century, the traditional Roman holiday date was appropriated by the Christian church as a parallel holiday to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Easter was already a holiday, so a holiday was needed to celebrate the date when Jesus born. Later, the feast of St. Nicholas was assimilated into the festivities, since St. Nicholas famously distributed gifts on December 25. But there are no records suggesting that Jesus was actually born on that day or its equivalent in the Jewish calendar. There's no unanimity on the official date, but many scholars believe the historical Jesus was born between 6 and 3 BC, probably some time between spring and fall.

08/18/2021

Flat earth👀

Occasionally, a poorly informed history teacher might suggest that Christopher Columbus was trying to prove to a skeptical world that the earth wasn't flat but round. Unfortunately, this teacher has fallen for one of the most baseless myths about ancient people in history. Hardly anyone in history seriously thought that the earth was flat. It's a modern myth that the ancients somehow believed in a flat earth. Even the ancients could see that the twilight glow during sunrise and sunset formed an arc over the horizon. They could also see that the top of an incoming ship at sea, viewed from the shoreline, appeared before the rest of the boat. These and other clues suggest a curving landscape consistent with a spherical earth. If you're not persuaded by the evidence, check out the Flat Earth Society. You'll fit right in. Meanwhile, be sure to avoid buying a ticket for an around-the-world cruise. It's just a scam organized by round-earth profiteers.

08/11/2021

It has been suggested that about six billion people have died since the time the Egyptian pyramids were built. That would be about a billion fewer than the number of people on earth today. But, even if we used the most conservative dating methods for the age of the earth (young earth theories attribute an age somewhere between 6,000-10,000 years to the earth), the pyramids were still a relatively “late” event. There would have to have been many millions of people, perhaps billions of people, who died before then. Our current global population just can't keep up. Moreover, one has to exclude infanticide, which has a relatively long history and yet is often overlooked or explained away in formal reporting. That phenomenon is sure to throw off this comparison. It is true, however, that life expectancy is generally improved in many parts of the world, though not by that much.

08/07/2021

Silhouette of Angkor Wat sunrise at Siem Reap. Cambodia

08/01/2021

locana buddha statue closeup

07/28/2021

Scary sculpture close up😭

07/26/2021