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The Elephant on the Moon - In Modern Times
There stands Butler's famous Elephant(1) for all to see,
Exposed for what it is, not for what it is said to be.
For the Elephant; size alone is enough to command attention,
As Scientist hold both the Elephant and us in suspension.
It's a new Elephant that's under the microscope,
(Or telescope, depending upon which end you stand to cope.)
The earth is known to be quite old,
Yet its many secrets; just begin to unfold.
Mother Earth is a restless one.
What was once a sea is long past gone.
The continents didn't stay where they were put,
But floated on the mantle, for themselves to suit.
If that's not enough, then consider,
The globe did tilt and cause the equator to meander.
Florida was once below that midpoint line,
And Northern climes basked in the sun's warm shine.
Across those states are vast plains,
That resemble Gulf coastal terrains.
In East Texas atop a sandy hill,
Lie massive boulders place there by other than Man's will.
It's known that under salt domes, Elephants may be found,
As well as on sea-shores, now buried deep under ground.
There are fault lines where the land mass did shift,
In pockets, the Elephant's treasures now exist.
Drilling deep within the earth's crust,
Are found fossils, and oil and gas in their trust.
When fossils with traces of oil arise,
It wasn't difficult for scientist to surmise,
That the oil's source must be from life, eons ago.
Tis selective evidence from rocks they know.
Animals, plants and such must have abounded,
To account for all the oil and gas that's been founded.
How did plant and animal life give up their carbon trove,
To become Oil and Methane in pools far below?
It's assumed that under conditions, heat and pressure driven,
Organic tissues were converted to oil and methane from the livin.
Since tis known that oil and methane gas are found where coal exist.
It's assumed that from this source they persist.
Plants to coal is most assured,
As fragments of leaves and stems have endured.
Through the plants, animals must have bounded,
Over the lush tropical grounds that the "tilt" founded.
Giving up their life when their pleasures over,
To yield petroleum which we discover.
What of the massive quantities of carbon resources man has discovered?
The answer: It was a long time in processing and land mass covered.
Seems obvious when reviewing all these "facts",
That Oil and Gas comes from detritus, densely packed.
It's known, that putting coal at high temperature and press,
Converts it to oil by the Fischer-Tropsch process.
What's strange is that no coal's found,
Deep in the recesses underground.
Was it all converted to oil and gas?
On that Answer, we'll have to pass.
But what of making gas and oil,
In that long-ago primeval boil.
Perhaps there was a different origin in the distant past?
It's time to examine all the evidence at last.
Which leads us to "abiotic" sources,
Of our major petroleum resources.
As written in "The Natural Selection of the Chemical Elements"
In textbook style, Drs. Williams and da Silva(2) presents:
Biological Nature's not the only source of these abundant fuels,
Since Creation didn't have to play by today's synthetic rules.
Gas and oil are likely products of combination in a lifeless stew,
Of hydrogen and carbon at temperatures and pressures for the brew.
Found when the earth was young and when elements existed alone.
Not the combinations found buried now where the sun hasn't shown.
So deep beneath the sand, clay, slate, rocks and such, lies,
A treasure for man to discover and use perhaps wise,
How it got there Heaven knows.
But theory isn't fact as history shows.
Sage Butler had this to say:
"That learned men, who greedy pursue
Things that are rather wonderful than true...
.
In vain endeavour Nature to suborn,
And, for their pains, are justly paid with scorn."(1)
So as Mr. Butler rhymed, what appears to be an Elephant,
Can be the subject about which scientist rave and rant.
In their papers, published without end,
Till it's discovered to be not as said by these knowing men.
Perhaps it's time for rational thoughts a turning,
About the sources of energy we've been burning.
Herbert Spencer wrote:
"... our ideas of matter and motion are (common sense)
but symbols of that which transcends
the possibilities of knowledge: and that hence,
any explanation of the order (pretends)
of the changes (evolution ingrained)
which the Cosmos exhibits,
still leaves unexplained
the nature and origin of them (for it)...".(3)
Or again Butler, we can quote:
"I only deal by rules of art,
Such as are lawful, and judged by
Conclusions of Astrology".(4)
So taking it all under consideration,
It time to consider the facts of creation.
All will agree that one plus one plus one equals three,
Thus we're told to accept the biological explanation. Let it be.
But there's lots of ways to get to the number three,
Take five from eight and you get the same number with no excesses free.
So subtraction can account for the number just as addition can be of use
To arrive at that number found by the muse.
Perhaps Francis Bacon said it best:
"But as the mind (upon its owner does foist),
Hastily and without choice,
Imbibes and treasures up (to the surface brings)
The first notices of things,
From whence all the rest proceed,
Errors must forever prevail (if logic doth not succeed),
And remain uncorrected,
Either by the natural powers (selected)
Of the understanding (of what to choose and pick)
Or the assistance of logic;
For the original notions (one may conclude)
Being vitiated, confused,
And inconsiderately taken from things,
And the secondary ones (elephants have not wings)
Formed no less rashly (but with stealth),
Human knowledge (in) itself,
The thing employed in all researches (sojourned),
Is not well put together nor justly formed,
But resembles a magnificent structure
That has no foundation (and is pure conjecture)." (5)
In conclusion:
It's known that oil and methane gas are found where coal exist
So naturally, its been assumed that from the same source they persist.
Giving not a thought to perhaps a different origin in their past.
Can not the abiotic explanation be accepted at last?
Notes:
In the time of Samuel Butler, the possibility of men living on the moon was debated by the learned societies. Peering through a telescope, details of the moon could be dimly seen which was the basis for Butler's famous poem "Elephant on the Moon" which heaped ridicule upon the Royal Society and in particular one of its members, Sir Paul Neal. Robert Burton(6) in his Anatomy of Melancholy, considered the possibility of men on the moon. Yet, Sir Thomas Browne(7), in Pseudodoxia, who was a most antagonistic toward those who used the Aristotle approach to learning (building on past writings rather than experimentation and discovery) chose not to enter into this fray, except to say that Aristotle, "Nor doth he only sport in speculative Errors, which are of consequent impieties; but the unquietness of his malice hunts after simple lapses, and such whose falsities do only condemn our understandings. Thus if Xenophanes will say there is another world in the Moon".
"Natural" gas is for the most part methane (C=1, H=4), however, ethane(C=2, H=6), propane(C=3, H=8) and butane(C=4, H=10) are also present in lesser quantities. Helium occurs as a accompanying gas in large quantities in gas found in areas of West Texas. Helium's presence lends support to the abiotic source of gas and petroleum, as when the Universe was new, hydrogen was converted to all other elements and some of the Helium formed became entrapped deep in the planet we call Earth.
In the hard rock mines of Pennsylvania, a different coal exist. Anthracite is a step away from graphite and diamond and differs from lignite and bituminous coal, being free from the skeletal remains of plants.
If we considered that earth is just another moon revolving about a sun. And, then the term, Elephant, is used to describe really massive oil fields discovered of late (which it is). Mr. Butler is no less timely in his comments than he was in 1660.
****
(1) Poetical Works of Samuel Butler, Elephant on the Moon, James Nichol, Edinburgh, 1854. (Portions of Poetical Works were published in 1663)
(2) The Natural Selection of The Chemical Elements, Williams, R. J. P., Frausto da Silva, J. J. R., Oxford University Press, 1996, Oxford. Chapter 9.
(3) Life and Letters of Herbert Spencer, pp 334, vol II, D. Appleton and Company, 1908, On the Filiation of Ideas. He discussed the parentage of the idea of evolution attributed to Charles Darwin was written by Spencer in 1899, (rhyming words in parenthesis added by jsw)
(4) Hudibras, Samuel Butler, Siderophel to Hudibras, Part II, Canto III, line 582 Siderophel was a caricature of William Lilly, a famous astronomer of the day (1660), who foretold Parliamentary victories in his yearly almanac. First published in 1663.
(5) Advancement of Learning, Francis Bacon, Announcement of the Author, Willey Book Company, New York, 1900. First published in 1605. (rhyming words in parenthesis added by jsw)
(6) The Anatomy of Melancholy, Robert Burton, William Tegg and Company, London, 1854 First published in 1621.
(7) The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, vol I, pp199. John Grant, Edinburgh, 1927. First published in 1654.
****
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