Hi! I’m Aaron Adair, a doctor of physics and education (degrees in math, physics, and astronomy), but I blog about more. From the sciences to skepticism, atheism and religion, history and politics, along with personal notes from time to time. I have done work at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, the SETI Institute in California, and I have completed doctoral research at (the) Ohio State University in Physics Education Research (PER), earning my PhD in 2013. Current I work as a physics professor at a private Augustinian school, Merrimack College in Massachusetts. I have published books, book chapters, and papers on the subjects of educational pedagogies, biblical studies, and science & religion. I have also given talks around the world and have been on radio in several countries.
I have used the name Gilgamesh as well, the earliest literary hero who sought immortality in life but found it in deeds and the words about him. As such, I flee Nergel (death) and seek for what lasts and is beyond me, especially in the stars.
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Email: adairaar (-at-) gmail (.dot) com
Fleeing Nergal, Seeking Stars 
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I wish you success in your work and studies. I will also pray for Jesus to cut you some slack as you navigate the treacherous seas of unbelief. He is real and is there for if you ask.
Nov 4th 2013- I was able to find your blog via a host tha thad one Raif Ellis on his radio show [ http://www.oneradionetwork.com with Patrick Timpone-mostly deals with alternative health and very good].Being a skeptic I did a search and voila.I hate it when researchers that know zero about any ancient history,languages are being touted as experts all over the net..
You might,if interested, have a look at the Nag Hammedi docs as main religions are now on the offensive vs them- making annual conferences() in order to re-interpret them via their various orthodoxies ; go here for the Nag Hammedi http://gnosis.org
Finally I am no scholar(zero U degrees)but decided as pensioner t start learning some bits of ancient languages like Classical Latin/Greek and as well as Akadian/Sumerian which I oddly find it easier to master than Greek with all them accents + rules etc..I was under the impresion that Greek was part of the Indo-European family-well experts say it is so but as an isolate !
When you go to Europe try to have a look at the infamous Bosnian Pyramids ( http://piramidasunca.ba )despite all the skeptics out there- even the alternative media is very reluctant to talk about them too much as they have come up with real artefacts etc and not just vaporous iffy stuff.Read what S. Osmanavig said in regards to his recent visit to Gobleki Tepe.
You might want to contact A . Jagersma of Leiden U (comp dept and ancien languages).He wrote his Ph.d dissertation “A Description of the Sumerian Language” in 2010- free on the Net; to be put out with many corrections by Odford U for 2014 I was told by him..
This is important as in my view it shows the fallacies of Z. Sirchin and hsi debunkers- both are wrong..
Remember – 80% of Akkadian- experts/scholars agree on its meaning and as Akkadian was used to decipher Sumerian..today it is about 25% of which is understood so in final analysis 80% of 25 % does not amount to much…
if still unsure I do invite you to read the Excursus E by Prof(retired) David I Owen,pages 335-354 taken from these 2 vols set- article in vol 1 of Excursus E “To Publish or not to Publish,that is the Question”,taken from Vol 1,Cuneiform Texts primarily from Iri Sagrig/Al Sarraki and the History of the ur III period,David I Owen,Nisaba #15 Coll. CDL press,2013(available from Eisenbraun,$119 US + 1,000 pages and they are heavy(+40 lbs)
[note- still affordble contrary to similar vols by Oxford/Cambrige U]
[Best grammar on Akkadian is by John Huenergard,A grammar of Akkadian, 3rd ed with a Key to exercises(2 vol-$75 or so,Harvard Semitic Studies #45(650 + 140 pages)
It is very short on the cuneiform script as are all modern grammars in Assyriology and no real good dictionary do exist-brielfy you have to try to learn it with 3-4 different books at same time + with usage of the net..very time consumming
.Ancient Egyptian language have many good books but serious lacking here as well but that is another story..Egyptologists after having demonizing E.A W Budge for decades are finally starting to re-introduce him-he was one of the few that(despite all his flaws) put the original text,then the transliteration and the transcriptions]
PS No,not looking for any polemics but found out that too many experts/scholars tend to stick to their guns no matter what and if you do not have a degree-preferably a ph.d besides your name they will seldom reply to you ,even to some basic questions nor will even click on a link you submitted to their attention (I was told- they knew better as they were right,right !]
[Z.Sitchin- if you read prof David I Owen Excursus E then you will realize that S tchin in all likelyhood had access to private collections,etc but he decided to write novellas from his incomplete mastering of Akkadian etc..next to zero supporters of Sitchin do posses basic knowledge of Akakdian/Sumerian as well as researchers that came after him- they all cite his novellas er I mean books as being the Gospel truth to stand on..]
Hi Aaron,
I have been following your blog for a while now. I am a recent atheist after being in a fundamentalist religion since I was very young. It has been a hard change to go through, and I still am in the process of reconciling a lot of things.
Every once in a while, I run across things from apologists that kind of freak me out— I thought I would run a couple by you since your are of expertise is astronomy. It seems that some try to tie various eclipses and earthquakes that occurred in other cultures to Jesus’ crucifixion and the supposed darkness
One such allegation comes from an eclipse that occurred in China. I gave attached an apologist article that goes into a lot of wacky stuff but towards the end, talks about the Chinese eclipse. My thought is that this was really an eclipse that happened in 31ad— but some Jesuits really wanted to tie it to crucifixion darkness. Gaubil seems to be the only reasonable one in the bunch. Here is the link:
http://www.christianhospitality.org/resources/first-church-rome-online/content/first-church-rome9.html
Another allegation comes from the Aztec writings. It seems that Catholics/ Jesuits are behind this one also. Here is a link on this:
http://scriptures.byu.edu/gettalk.php?ID=1127&era=yes
What are your thoughts on these things. Are these just people trying to find things that occurred in some recorded history but are trying to be projected into the Jesus story?
I would really appreciate any feedback you are willing to provide!
Kris