Continents; and small note about Dawkins & Evolution

Submitted by Michael S (United States), Oct 2, 2016 at 06:35

Hi, Moh

Yes, Australia is a separate continent: the child of Antarctica, not of Asia. Most earth scientists know that. On the other hand, Europe and Asia are not separate continents by the same reasoning, neither is India part of Asia (It split off from Africa). In terms of history and diplomatic ties, Australia is, of course, part of Europe; but in terms of trade, it is very, very much part of Asia. That was my reasoning in making my quick statement. Of course, the Oxford English Dictionary agrees with you; and in this, so do I.

By the way, I just came across an article mentioning Richard Dawkins (whom we talked about in previous posts). It is:

https://www.algemeiner.com/2016/09/23/atheists-still-waiting-for-the-origin-of-life-messiah/

It's written by a Jewish rabbi, whose views on the matter are similar to my own.

Back to continents, here is a view of the great land masses of earth, from a plate tectonics point of view:

1. Eurasia
2. North America (includes Mexico and NE Siberia -- including the Diomede Islands that you mentioned)
3. Antarctica
4. Africa
5. South America
6. Indian "subcontinent"
7. Australia
8. Arabia-Iraq
9. Oceania (E. of New Zealand and N. of New Guinea, extending to the California coast)
10. Nazca (between Easter Is., the Galapagos and the S. American coast)
11. Philippine Sea (between the Marianas, Japan and the Philippines)

and smaller masses, which one might dismiss as plate tectonic "islands"; and there are "sub-plates" splitting off, such as the Somali Plate in E. Africa.

-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics#/media/File:Plates_tect2_en.svg

Israel, interestingly, is not part of the Arabian Plate, but rather of the African Plate:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/AfricanPlate.png

From a cultural standpoint, the following might be handy:

1. Sub-Saharan Africa
2. S. Asia (India, Pakistan, etc.)
3. E. Asia (incl. Indonesia)
4. the rest (N. Africa, SW Asia, Russia, Europe, America and ANZ)
5. S. Pacific (incl. New Guinea)

One might also make a sixth group, the Muslims; but there's no end to such splitting.

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