MDDM Ch. 65 strange inconsistencies

[jbor]

632.5 "If," says the Geomancer, "like all Christian nations, you accept the
reckoning of Dionysus Exiguus,-- then Herod died in four B.C.,-- yet the
Gospels have him alive when Christ was born ... "

See Gould, Stephen Jay. 'Dousing Diminutive Dennis's Debate (or DDDD=2000)':

http://www.dilettantepress.com/Essayisthtdocs/Stephen_Jay_Gould.html

In _Dinosaur in a Haystack: Reflections in Natural History_. New York:
Harmony Books, 1995; and _Questioning the Millennium: A Rationalist's Guide
to a Precisely Arbitrary Countdown_. New York: Harmony Books, 1997.

      "Unless the death of Herod be wrongly dated, for Dennis the Meager, as
    *we* know him,-- was an agent of God." (Mason, unattributed)
      "God should've found another Agent," remarks Dixon, in the same side-
    of-the-mouth delivery as Mason. (632.10-13)

http://www.blather.net/archives/issue1no49.html

http://www.nobeliefs.com/exist.htm

http://www.friesian.com/century.htm


631.29 the star that bought the Magi

See Molnar, Michael R. _The Star of Bethlehem: The Legacy of the Magi_.
Rutgers University Press, 1999.

Something does not make sense: The Star appeared in 6 BC, not AD 1 the start
of the Christian system of counting the years. Why?
 
The system of counting the years was miscalculated by Dionysus Exiguus, a
Christian monk in AD 533 (pp 55-57). Even his colleagues thought he dropped
a few years in counting the lengths of the reigns of the Roman emperors.
Well-meaning people, however, have tried to move various dates around to
rectify this discrepancy. For example, that Herod died in 4 BC has been
challenged by a few people, but mainstream historians and numismatists (coin
experts) stand firm with the spring of 4 BC for Herod's death (pp 55-57). If
Jesus were born during the reign of King Herod, he had to be born in or
before 4 BC.

http://www.eclipse.net/~molnar/

      "Gentlemen, surely," the Revd, as mildly as he may, advances, "Christ
    was not born any time before Christ?" (632.3)

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