February 3, 2003
Recently visiting Toronto to publicize his new book, (which I have yet to read), was retired Royal Navy submarine commander Garvin Menzies, who claims that the Chinese were the first to "discover" America, having done so in 1421.
While this may come as a surprise to many, the general idea is nothing new to those who have an enquiring mind, and a good memory for unusual facts and information. In the past, I have read that the first explorers and travellers to the Caribbean were amazed to see massive Chinese junks, carrying up to 1,000 people or more, plying already-established trade routes. We are told that they disappeared soon after, in response to threats and unrest at home. I have also seen documentaries showing the discovery of pierced, doughnut-like rocks being found in the coastal waters of South America. These are typical of the anchors used by Chinese vessels of the Middle Ages and before.
The completion of the Great Wall of China in the early 1400’s undoubtedly allowed the Chinese to embark on ambitious plans to strengthen and expand their trade-routes; had internal pressures and external threats not later changed Chinese national imperatives, the world today could be vastly different. The great Chinese voyages are well-known, and no-one disputes the possibility that America was reached; it’s just that no-one cares, because the Chinese were unable to follow-through on their achievements.
The book, named "1421", is published by Random House Canada.
Considerably more controversial is a book which I have read, "The Tomb of God" by Richard Andrews and Paul Schellenberger. (Little, Brown). The basic theme, heretical to the main branches of Christianity, is that Christ was not resurrected and lifted to heaven. Instead, following the crucifixion, His body was buried in Jerusalem, and subsequently recovered during the Crusades and transported to the Languedoc region of southern France. It remains there to this day, at the end of a long, upward-sloping tunnel dug deep into a mountain, with the entrance buried under thousands of tons of rock.
The key to the location of the tomb is unlocked by a painstaking interpretation of a hidden geometry of lines and angles evident in maps, paintings and tombstones from across the centuries. And, while there is a limit to how much occult geometry I can handle at any given time, I struggled through and found an undeniable logic to it. Whether the authors’ interpretation is correct or not, it seems indisputable that a continuing fraternity of unknown individuals has gone to immense, concerted effort for almost one thousand years to both keep and conceal the information that the geometry conveys.
As one who was brought up in the Christian faith and attended a Church of England primary school, the basic tenet of Christianity, the Resurrection, has always seemed "unreal" to me. I have also been perturbed by the threats of eternal fire and damnation for those who do not "believe". Priests selling vials of goat’s blood as the "blood of Christ", and demanding huge sums of money from impoverished peasants for "dispensation" for their sins, played a larger part in the rift with Rome than Henry VIII’s problems in finding an heir. As is said in the after-word of the book, "The key to the success of the doctrine lay in the exploitation of human nature. The Catholic Church put the notion of guilt at the heart of its teachings, at the same time providing the means to alleviate that guilt. Confession, coupled with repentance, would- through the medium of the clergy--absolve the sinner. This could be guaranteed at any time, whatever the enormity of prior sins. One hardly needs to be versed in theology to understand why such a concept became popular.
Don’t wait for any excavations around Rennes-le-Chateau; the discovery of any evidence of the remains of Christ would destroy the core beliefs of the Catholic and Protestant churches alike.
This one will stay a mystery!
Jeff Goodall worked for the Metro Treasury and City Finance Departments for 25 years, and served as a member of the CUPE Local 79 Executive Board for 14 of those years.