One of the biggest obstacles to recording the ChurchMag Podcast has been the fact that all three of us are in different time zones. Now, the reason for time zones is pretty clear—we measure time based upon the position of the sun in the sky. However, did you realize that the continental US only formalized its four time zones in 19th century to accommodate railroads? Prior to this, each town/region established its own time based upon the sun’s position in the sky, meaning that each town had its own, very specific answer to the question “What time is it?” This made scheduling very difficult for railroads. Thus, time zones were created for the sake of simplicity. I’d learned this in school but had forgotten it until I read this article from CNN’s “10 Ideas” collection last month.
The article by Jose Pagliery suggests that the US dumps the anachronistic “daylight savings time” and merge its four time zones down into two. The article argues that having DST and four continental time zones merely adds complexity to our lives. Four time zones made sense in an era when the nation wasn’t as connected, but now, due to a national highway system, air travel, and the Internet, we’re far more connected. Sure, you could argue that four time zones does give us more accuracy according to the sun’s position, but does that really matter? Since this nation is no longer based upon agriculture, our time doesn’t really need to accommodate it so heavily.
[Read more…] about Railroads, Time Zones and Church Vestigial Adaptions