Things Not So | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 15, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 36.

Things Not So.

At the tenth annual session of the Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of America at Green Bay, Wis., Prof. C. Pickering, the president, with a good deal of rough emphasis struck against some of the popular beliefs with which the daily papers delight to regale their readers. “The public,” he tells us, “should not be deceived into believing that we will ever be able to signal to or talk with Mars. It is the veriest rot.” He also declares that those who fear the earth will be destroyed in a collision with some hobo comet, are indulging in pure idiocy. Another wild suggestion that was placed in the impossible class was going up in a balloon with telescopes in order to make observations. The only reason Prof. Pickering could give why scientists would write of these things is “the lure of gold.” As professional scientists they are not very well paid, while the big sensational newspapers pay princely sums for their articles. The information in regard to this earth’s destruction is found in the word of God. That gives us a knowledge that is far above that of science.