If someone walked day and night for a whole year, they could walk around the Earth. This idea has been handed down from ancient Babylon. The calculation is correct: at 4.5 km/h [2.8 mph], we could walk 108 km [67 miles] per day (and night), which comes to 39,420 kilometers [24,495 miles] in 365 days. That’s just a few kilometers short of the modern measurement of the Earth’s circumference. These numbers are like a shadow cast by the idea that the Earth’s measurements correspond with human beings. We find this in other places, too. Marine biologist Susanna Kümmell points out that the surface currents of the world’s oceans, as well as naturally flowing rivers and streams, move at a speed of 1–2.5 m/s [2.2–5.6 mph]. That is the same speed that we human beings walk or run. Water, the blood of the Earth, flows as fast as we human beings move. So, it is not surprising that in most religions and spiritual practices, walking has a ritual significance. Modern cosmology also supports this idea in its claim that the Earth is so perfectly set up for the development of human life that it cannot possibly be a mere coincidence.1
Translation Joshua Kelberman
Photo Andre Morales Kalamar
