[muir_redwoods]

We need leap year because there is no connection whatsoever between the rotation of the earth and it’s orbit around the sun. Remember that the next time someone starts feeding you the Cosmic Watchmaker line.

[U-238]

William Paley was one of the first people for the Cosmic Watchmaker arguement

[U-238]

Although Cicero, Voltaire and René Descartes, for example, used timepieces in arguments regarding purpose

[Boogieman]

Well, that’s a non sequiter if ever I heard one.

[count-your-change]

And how did you deduce that there exists no connection between the two?

[Alberta's Child]

That's exactly right. There isn't supposed to be any direct relationship between the rotation of the earth and its revolution around the sun. As humans we have simply acclimated ourselves to a self-made world in which "time" is expected to be measured in defined increments even if they make no sense in the physical world.

A "day," for example, is a measure of real time -- as is a "year." But the notion that a "year" begins and ends at the exact start/finish of a "day" is purely a human construct.

A "month" is loosely based on lunar cycles, but there is nothing that ties months directly to days and years, either.