ta a) ila pea ea aaa Weber State College Comment, October 1987, Page 9 Harmonic convergence notlikely ll e Stronomers are, for the most part, amazed at what ancient civilizations were able to discover about the heavens and the bodies that move in the night sky, but an age of “Harmonic Convergence” based on an ancient Mayan calendar is a little hard to swallow. It’s not that the scientists wouldn’t like an era of peace and harmony, but rather, that they have learned the art of gazing at the stars without getting many of them in their eyes. “Scientifically there appears to be no foundation in astrological studies,” said Dr. Dale Ostlie, an astronomer at Weber State, and with that simple statement he discounts horoscopes, ancient Roman, Greek, Mayan, Egyptian and Oriental legends about the gods of the sky, and the golden” Age of Aquarius” hoped for by so many during the 1960’s. But what else is to be expected from a man who uses large computer programs, linear algebra, advanced calculus and “great deals of physics” in order to under- stand nature’s night lights. “Is there a force that correlates the planets and human behavior? The moon and the sun affect the earth’s tides, but in terms of correlation to human behavior there is virtually none,” Dr. Ostlie said. He admits to never reading his own horoscope, and his students have to remind him of his zodiac sign, but he does concede that for ages stars have revealed, and will continue to reveal, the secrets of the universe. “The Anasazi Indians wanted to know when to plant their crops. Their culture was governed by nature, so they spenta lot of time watching the sky. Every other culture was the same. They had to know what nature was going to doto them. It was the way to survive.” The result was that they understood a great deal about what was going to happen and usually when. They could predict the seasons, high tides, large river flows and the like, but they failed to comprehend the why’s of nature, so they created the gods, Dr. Ostlie said. They believed that their gods were in the heavens, controlling their lives, so the natural sequence was that the stars first symbolized, then actually became those gods. Legend said that the North Star, or Polar Star, was placed in the heavens by Norse gods who created all things and then drove a huge spike into the center of the universe around which the heavens re- volved. The Chinese believed that as long as life on earth followed the patterns of the Star world in every detail, there would be peace and happiness on earth:-‘Fou Mu, a Chinese goddess, was so virtuous and wise that she became a goddess and dwelt in the palace of the Pole. For the Egyptians and Arabians the Pole Star was evil, associated with death and a coffin. But the North Star was not the only mystified celestial body. In fact, through the ages almost every cluster of light came to stand for a heavenly beast or person that was either saintlike or demonic. “Now we have a different mind set,” said Dr. Ostlie. “We have the ability to look at the stars differently.” The last 25 years have produced a revolution in the area of astronomy, and many of the basic questions about why heavenly bodies do the things they do have been answered. “That makes it exciting because we understand so much more,” he said. Thanks to Albert Einstein and his theories of relativity a whole new host of possibilities have appeared in the night sky. “The number of principles we operate under are really very small, and, while the math is very complicated, the theories are much easier to understand than we originally thought. In a sense, the more we understand, the less complex it becomes,” he said. But modern-day scientists, with all their complicated machinery and advanced thinking, have not altogether thrown out the knowledge of the ancients. “Most are amazed at what cultures who were supposedly primitive were able to do. They accomplished more than we’re almost able to believe. Scientists now look back with some sense of awe that they did the things they did,” Dr. Ostlie said. The tools of the trade have evolved ‘There is no functional need forthe starsnowlikethere was during ancient civilizations. People have lost contact with thesky.” Dr. Dale Ostlie from Stonehenge, the Mayan calendar and the great pyramids of Egypt to scientific models, theories and quantum mechanics, but contemporary astronomers have not forgotten the lessons of history. “If there’s one thing scientists have leamed it’s that what we’re getting is successive approximations to what we think is the truth. Every era in the past has decided how the universe was put together and then said, ‘This is it. We’ve got it figured out.’ Those ideas have been overthrown again and again, and, having been burned so many times, most astronomers are very reluctant to say they have all the answers. But the directions we’re going now are giving us a pretty fair idea of what is happening,” he said. Two thousand years down the road, however, current theories will most likely be replaced or outdated by findings from another Einstein or Newton. But for now science will continually close the gap between the known and the unknown, while at the same time a lack of dependence on nature for day-to-day living means most people will fall further and further from an understanding of what shines overhead. Many city dwellers can not even see the sky anymore, Dr. Ostlie said. “We have modified our immediate environment to the point that we almost control it. We don’t even get up or go to bed with the sun anymore. We just create our own artificial sun,” he said. “There is no functional need for the Stars now like there was during ancient Civilizations. People have lost contact with the sky.” Contemplating a night sky still stirs the same human emotions that were responsible for ancient wonder, and that does not require an advanced degree in astrophysics, Dr. Ostlie said. “T still stare up at the sky and think it an awesome universe. It’s unfortunate that we’ve lost our perspective with the stars, because we lose the appreciation of who we are and where we came from, whatever our beliefs are. When we lose touch with the sky we don’t understand our role and place in the universe.”