Krakatoa

After many weeks of reading nothing but religious/skeptic topics, I turned my attention to some light read.



Krakatoa - the day the world exploded by Simon Winchester.

The title may be a bit of an exaggeration, but this was a real great read. I expected a book about the catastrophe, much like you'd expect to read about the recent Tsunami. In this respect, it did not fail. It provided fascinating eye-witness accounts to a major event such as not witnessed before in modern civilization.

But this ended up being a romp through many areas of interest including Sociology, History, religion & science.

A fascianting tidbit was a discussion of the so called Wallace line http://kjett.bol.ucla.edu/wallace4.htm

Wallace observed an imaginary dividing line in the region that separated two distinct sets of plant and animal life that logically could not be in such close proximity to each other. With great foresight and without an understanding of Tectonic plate theory, he partially explained how Geologic forces played an important role in the evolution of life.

So while I tried to get away from skepticism, it just seems to follow me around. The real amazing thing is that so many of the natuarl sciences fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.

This does not negate God, but it sure sounds like an ancient earth to me.

The book also touches on the role the eruption came to play in Islamic fundamentalism which led to one of the first outbreaks of Islamic violence in modern times. This too is fascinating. In the Jewish world, there are often rumors of impending disasters, comets, etc. If a Kabbalist's prognostication would happen to coincide with a calamity in the Jewish world, that Kabbalist will achieve instant fame and status despite all failed predictions of the past.

And finally, my completion of the book just a few days before Shavuous, could not help but make me wonder if Kabbollas Hatora at Har Sinai was indeed related to some volcano activity in the past.

The book could have been a little shorter, but it's worth getting past the boring beginning.