The superstitious have often believed that the weather could be predicted by noting the phases of the moon. Mention the moon to the man on the street and he thinks of America winning the race with Russia to have a few men set foot there.
But what is the moon really for? What are its effects upon the earth and upon man? The words lunatic and loony come from the supposed maddening influence of the moon, especially the full moon, on unstable minds. The word month has its origin in the name moon. We see that the moon is a light-giver, yet fail to see clearly its timekeeping role in man's affairs.
Suppose a farmer were to "plant in the moon," expecting rainfall to follow soon after his planting — surely that would be superstition. Or would it?
Farmers have always known somehow that a relationship exists between the weather and the moon . . . One of the old, now shattered myths of scientists has been that there was no such relationship . . . the data on the relationship between the earth's weather and the moon has been available all along to anyone who cared to examine routine U.S. Weather Bureau reports. . . . A very careful analysis of reports over a fifty-year period has shown that) very clearly . . . there is a strong tendency for the extreme precipitation to fall near the middle of the first and third weeks after the new moon, especially on the third to fifth days after the new moon and full moon. In the same way, the weeks after first quarter and third quarter were lacking in such heavy precipitation, the low point falling about 3 days prior to full moon and new moon. (Quoted from Pictorial Guide to the Planets by Joseph H. Jackson, p. 52-53)
Briefly explained, the moon's position with regard to earth and sun produces the moon's phases. But as an added item — "a bonus" —the moon's position affects the number of particles coming from the sun and entering the earth's atmosphere. And these particles form the nuclei for raindrops! Is this an accidental arrangement to be mused over and then forgotten? Not at all.
Who hasn't heard of a "Harvest Moon" and a "Hunter's Moon"? During the nights of the Harvest Moon, rainfall (according to the U.S. Weather Bureau) is going to be considerably less (on the average) than during the following week. The farmer who scheduled planting and harvest to take advantage of the nights of the Harvest Moon has had (on the average) the added blessing of little rainfall to mar his harvest. A full (or almost full) moon, rising in the east within an hour or two of sunset (before or after) night after night, has given him the illumination to work added hours in the field.
His modem neighbor ignores the lunar phases, turns on his tractor lights to work late and keeps his ears open to the changing weather forecasts. The odds would have been somewhat better had he been aware of this subtle lunar pattern.
While local weather is surely dominated by local conditions, and there is of course a seasonal pattern for the weather, yet this lunar pattern does exist and works for the man who works with it.
Then one would conclude that the moon ought to be one of man's timekeepers? Correct.
But how many moons (months) in a year? Twelve, and a fraction left over. What about this fraction? Some years require the addition of a thirteenth month to keep the calendar in line with the seasons. How many additions? Seven times in nineteen years an extra moon (month) is needed to bring the sun, moon and earth into the same alignment — and with a very astonishing accuracy!
Consider the accuracy of this pattern: 235 lunar months (a lunar month is the time from new moon to new moon) equal 6939.688 days, just slightly over 19 years, which total 6939.60 days. The approximately .09 of a day — 2.11 hours — difference (in 19 years) would need no correction for many centuries.
Early man followed such a lunar-solar calendar. The Hebrew Sacred (Jewish) Calendar today is founded on this same nineteen-year cycle.
Who set the pattern of the heavens so that twelve years of this 19-year cycle would have twelve months each, while seven would have an additional month? Christian and Jew alike say God did. To find His numbers seven and twelve indelibly stamped on His two main timekeepers (sun and moon) is more than a remarkable coincidence. The pattern of the heavens was obviously set. It is the result of design and requires a Designer.
Our moon is a multipurpose satellite. No college astronomy book dares to place the whole story squarely before its readers. The distance of the moon, its diameter, its apparent size in the heavens, its role in solar and lunar eclipses, its role in modifying rainfall patterns on earth, its aid to the farmer who follows a lunar-solar calendar in planting his crops, its provision of added light for working late evenings during harvest time, and its partial restraint of rainfall for that harvest, these all make the moon far more than just a romantic symbol in man's affairs.
Theologian, astronomer and farmer all acknowledge that the moon occupies a most unusual place in the heavens. How can anyone fail to acknowledge that it was put there?
Then the Russians were not the first to place a satellite into orbit around the earth? No, atheistic Russia was second, and doubting America was third.