30 Apr 10 08:47, Roger Nelson wrote to Bob Ackley:

 RN> [...]

 BA>> Among other things the presence of lambs.  Lambs are born in the
 BA>> spring, not in the fall or winter.  One could also consider that the
 BA>> 'Star of Bethlehem' was in fact Sirius, which rises in the spring
 BA>> and which the Egyptians used to predict the annual Nile floods.

 RN> Maybe so, but during that time, and for all we know, the Earth could
 RN> have had Hawaii-like temperatures.  The "Star of Bethlehem" could
 RN> also have been Venus or Jupiter.  See what I mean?

Scientists have used computers to look at the way the sky looked during
that era, from the way it looks today and computing it backwards. Those
two planets wouldn't have been in the right place for them to even be seen
as one entity, which is what it would take to make the 'star' bright
enough to light the way (according to the biblical account). By the same
token, they can also use those computers (and actual earth samples of the
area) to compute ancient weather.

                R\%/itt

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