DGE?, Author at DOES GOD EXIST? TODAY

December 16, 2021December 16, 2021

Why Zebras Wear Stripes

A child said that a zebra is a horse in striped pajamas. Of course, zebras are not horses, and they don’t wear pajamas. But have you ever wondered why zebras wear stripes? And I have another question—are they white animals with black stripes or black animals with white stripes?

There are at least five possible answers to why zebras wear stripes. Probably the best known is so they can hide in the tall grass. But not all zebras live in areas with tall grass. Also, their main predators (lions and hyenas) are not good at seeing far away. They are more likely to smell zebras before they see them.

Another possibility is that the stripes help to repel flies. In a study published in 2020, researchers put rugs on horses to test that theory. They draped solid-color rugs on some horses and striped or checked rugs on others. They found that fewer flies landed on the horses with striped or checked rugs, and those biting African horseflies carry diseases that can be fatal for zebras.

Still, another idea is that stripes help zebras stay cool. The black and white areas create differences in heat exchange patterns causing air to move over the zebra’s body. So we think the stripes make the zebras look “cool” too.

Every zebra has a different stripe pattern, like how every person has a different fingerprint. So maybe this allows the zebras to identify each other. We don’t have to look at people’s fingers to tell who they are. Instead, we look at their faces. However, zebra faces look pretty much the same except for those different stripe patterns.

Maybe those stripes work in another way to evade predators. Perhaps they fool predators by what is called “motion dazzle.” A bunch of striped zebras moving around might confuse a predator in the way a person can become confused or dizzy watching striped objects in motion. So it makes sense that it would be hard to pick out one animal in a herd of moving zebras.

So if we wonder why zebras wear stripes, the answer is–we don’t know for sure. As far as the other question, zebras have black skin, and their default hair color is black. However, some hair follicles have turned off the melanocytes that produce the melanin that gives the hair its color. So those hairs are white. So, therefore, you could say that zebras are black with white stripes.

But that brings up the question of why are those melanin-free hair follicles so nicely arranged in beautiful stripes instead of randomly, resulting in a dull gray appearance. People appreciate beauty, and since we are created in God’s image, He must also be a fan of beauty. I want to suggest that God just likes to add a little extra flair to His creations. He has certainly created many beautiful things, and zebras are just one of many examples. Perhaps that’s why zebras wear stripes.

Reference: livescience.com/zebras-black-and-white

December 15, 2021December 14, 2021

Seeing Is Not Always Proof of Reality

If you see a picture of it, it must be real – right? The answer is absolutely not. Human gullibility is astounding, and fake pictures are as old as photography. In 1839, Hippolyte Bayard convinced people that he had committed suicide by creating a photo showing himself as a drowned man. In fact, Bayard lived until 1887. Seeing is not always proof of reality.

In the early 1900s, there were many faked pictures using double exposures, cropping and rephotographing, or even using models. One of the most famous pictures was the “Loch Ness Monster.” The photo got worldwide distribution in 1934. However, in 1975, the son of one of the pranksters admitted that it was a picture of a toy floating in the water.

In our day of technological altering of photographs, anyone can doctor a picture to appear authentic. This is especially true when there is a lot of media hype about a monster, an alien, or a ghost. Reflections from a window have confused many people, even pilots who mistook what they saw as a UFO. Unfortunately, seeing is not always proof of reality.

Many years ago, I helped my wife on a hike with a bunch of young girls. We stayed too long in the woods and were walking back in the dark. An object that looked like a ghost appeared in front of us. It had two eyes, a round mouth, and a narrow nose. It had an odd green glow, and it didn’t move, but the girls started screaming and crying. When I turned my flashlight on it, we could see that we were looking at a hollow, dead tree with holes in locations that made it look like a face. It was glowing because of the northern lights. Around Lake Superior, there are veins of glowing minerals, and ghost stories have arisen when people saw that effect and didn’t know what it was.

Another personal ghost story involves a haunted house in Scotland where we were invited to spend the night (for a fee). We were told to expect haunting ghost sounds, including moans and screams and footsteps on the stone floor above us. The windows in the house were very old, and, given enough time, glass flows. Unfortunately, the glass had flowed to the point that there were holes in the windows. When the wind blew through the holes, it made sounds. The house cooled rapidly in the evening, and as the stones in the floor contracted, they made sounds that resembled footsteps.

Seeing is not always proof of reality. There is no credible evidence of ghosts, aliens, monsters, demons, or zombies roaming around. We do not live in a world full of non-human spirits trying to harm us. People often resort to ghost-like explanations when they see something they don’t understand. When Jesus walked on the water (Mark 6:49), the immediate response of His disciples was to cry out that they had seen a spirit. Jesus told them not to be afraid, and He would say the same to us.

Reference: Smithsonian magazine, December 2021, pages 14-20.

December 14, 2021December 14, 2021

Exoplanets and Life in the Universe

“Star Wars,” “Star Trek,” and other movies and television shows featuring space travel and alien life have fascinated people for decades. Yesterday, we examined how intergalactic travel would not be anything like what the movies depict. Other galaxies are many light-years away, and the laws of physics will not allow us to travel even one percent of light speed. Nevertheless, people are still concerned about exoplanets and life in the universe.

Regardless of whether we can go to other galaxies far, far away, or even solar systems within our own galaxy, astronomers are searching for “exoplanets.” An exoplanet is any planet outside of our solar system, and scientists are trying to find one that could support life. (We have dealt before with the question of why the universe is so large.)

Scientists look for planets orbiting stars that are so far away we can’t even see the stars with our unaided eyes. How is it possible to find planets that we can’t see, even with our best telescopes? They use at least three methods. When a planet transits in front of a star, it blocks a small amount of the star’s light. Very sensitive instruments detect that change. A star may wobble slightly because of orbiting planets, causing a detectable color shift due to the Doppler effect. Finally, astronomers sometimes use gravitational lensing to detect an orbiting planet if it causes bending of the light from a distant star.

Those are some methods astronomers use, hoping to find exoplanets and life elsewhere in the universe. However, unlike in the movies, the stars and their planets are so far away that we could never go there. Even sending a radio signal to those possible planets would take thousands or even millions of years, traveling at the speed of light. Getting a message back would take an equal amount of time.

There are so many requirements for life that the chances of any of those planets supporting advanced life would be almost infinitely small. If there is some form of life on any of them, how will we ever know? God could have created life elsewhere in the universe, but we have no evidence one way or the other. The Bible doesn’t tell us, and science can only look and hope for a clue. Whether or not life exists on other planets or moons, we believe the fine-tuning of Earth for life is evidence for God’s existence.

December 13, 2021December 12, 2021

Space-Travel Adventure Movies

Space-travel adventure movies and novels may be fascinating, but they are not very realistic. Traveling through space poses many hazards to humans beyond equipment failures. There is also the danger of radiation exposure when a person leaves Earth’s protective atmosphere and magnetic field. And perhaps the most significant of all is the issue of time.

Travel to the Moon will take days. Traveling to Mars will take months. A space-travel adventure to any planet outside of our solar system would take multiple lifetimes. Astronomers have toyed with the idea of traveling to a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, which is the closest star to us. That planet, Proxima Centauri b, is 42 light-years from Earth. Unless someone could find a way to travel through a wormhole, if such a thing exists, it would take 6,300 years to make the journey with present technology.

We are considering the present technology to be the speed of the Parker Solar Probe launched in 2018, which is 430,000 miles (690,000 km) per hour, or about .064 percent of light speed. According to Astronomer Dr. Hugh Ross, the laws of physics would limit the top speed of a spaceship to about one percent of light speed, but we are far from achieving that. Also, a factor to consider would be a way to slow down on approaching the destination to avoid going right past it or crashing into it.

So, if we sent out a space-travel adventure crew to Proxima Centauri b, it would take many generations to arrive. That means people would have to reproduce many times on the way. Factors to be considered would have to include having enough crew members and genetic diversity to have a healthy crew on arrival at the destination. Using computer modeling, scientists have determined that the minimum team required would be 49 males and 49 females. Ninety-eight crew members would need a large ship. In addition, there would have to be facilities for recreation and to grow food.

The vast majority of the travelers on this spacecraft would never see Earth or the destination planet. Exposure of many generations to the radiation of outer space could cause physical or mental deformities that we can’t imagine. What if this small community just couldn’t get along together in cramped quarters? Avoiding a mutiny or rebellion would be a significant challenge. Keeping hundreds of generations focused on the same mission would be impossible. Putting the crew into a cryogenic state for thousands of years to avoid the multi-generation problem does not seem to be realistic. (Remember the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey?”)

Producing food and recycling water would be essential for such a space-travel adventure. However, taking and preserving all equipment and materials needed for the crew to survive in a hostile environment on arrival at the alien planet would be impossible to plan or predict.

We may enjoy science fiction such as “Star Trek,” “Star Wars,” or “Lost in Space,” but none of them are even remotely realistic. God has given us a beautiful planet with everything we need to survive and thrive. What we must do is take care of it. That means using resources wisely, protecting the environment, and protecting the animals that share the planet with us. Stewardship of God’s gifts was a command from the beginning. (See Genesis 2:15.)

References: TechnogyReview.com, Space.com, and Why the Universe is the Way it Is by Hugh Ross.

December 12, 2021December 11, 2021

Life After Death – A Concept Common to Humans

Humans from the earliest times have believed in life after death. One of the unique human properties is that we alone believe in a continued existence when our physical life has ended. Most animals simply abandon a dead member of their species. There has been some attempt to claim that elephants, whales, and apes exhibit mourning and stay with the body of a deceased member of their group. However, many researchers agree that interpreting their actions as mourning is not justified. Humans tend to view animal behavior in our image, a process known as anthropomorphism.

As science discovers more fossils of ancient humans, the pattern of preparing a deceased member of the group for another existence becomes apparent. Anthropologists are interested in a South African cave system burial site. There they have found 28 skull fragments and six teeth of what appears to be a child with human characteristics 35 feet (10.6 m) below ground. The bones do not seem to have been washed into the cave or dragged in by scavengers or predators. Researchers gave the specimen the scientific identity of Homo naledi.

Lee Berger of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg reports that this fossil shows strong evidence of a “ritualized body disposal” of the specimen, which they nicknamed “Leti.” Ancient burial sites have almost always indicated that others prepared the deceased for life after death. Sometimes the body is mummified, and sometimes jewelry or weapons are left with the body. There are even cases where an animal or mate was buried with the deceased.

There is a scant reference to life after death in the Old Testament. In 2 Samuel 12:23, David expressed faith that he would see his deceased baby in the future. Job said that after his body had been destroyed, he knew he would see God (Job 19:25-27). Daniel saw a “man clothed in linen” who told him he would “rest” and then “at the end of the days” he would rise and “receive his allotted inheritance” (Daniel 12:13).

The New Testament is full of references to life after death, especially in the teachings of Jesus Christ. The war between good and evil is rooted in the understanding that death is a product of this physical world and Christ has conquered it. (See 2 Timothy 1:10; Revelation 20:14 and 21:4.)

Human spiritual nature is unique because God created us in His image. Our soul allows us to think beyond this life and anticipate an eternal, time-independent relationship with God. That concept has been present in humans from the very beginning and is still present today. Our spiritual nature allows us to express ourselves in art, music, and worship. It also gives us the hope of eternal life in an existence beyond anything this world has to offer.

Reference: Science News 12/4/21, page 15.

December 11, 2021December 10, 2021

Elephant Trunks as a Model for Robots

New research shows that using elephant trunks as a model for robots, engineer-designers may soon create machines capable of doing things that no current robot can do. For example, the elephant trunk has 40,000 muscles that work together to allow the animal to pick up a single leaf or lift and move a large log easily.

Researchers used motion capture technology similar to that used to create movies where the movement of animated characters is mapped to the motions of real actors in a studio. Studying elephant trunk movements by this method allowed the researchers to carefully examine the myriad ways an elephant uses its trunk.

The elephant’s trunk has an infinite number of degrees of freedom. We can see a similar property in a limited way in the human tongue. Like the elephant’s trunk, our tongues have no bones, and some of us can curl, twist, and contort them in various ways. The ability to speak requires complex tongue movements.

Using elephant trunks as a model for robots is a real challenge to engineers. Designing a robotic arm with complex movements and strength is an important goal. Looking at the elephant’s trunk design, it does not seem possible that this could be a product of chance. Yet, the elephant’s survival is only possible because of this highly complex appendage.

Some animals have tongues that can do interesting things, but the elephant trunk is unique. By using elephant trunks as a model for robots, we can gain some essential insight into making a robot that can do the things we can do with our hands. It becomes clear that all of nature shows God’s handiwork and teaches us important lessons.

References: Scientific American, December 2021 (page 18), and the journal Current Biology.

December 10, 2021December 9, 2021

Egg Shape and the “Egg-quation”

When you look at the eggs of different birds, you will notice that they have different shapes. Some are round like the eggs of most owls, and some are elliptical like the eggs of an emu. Others are oval, such as chicken eggs, or pear-shaped like the eggs of a penguin. Why is egg shape important? There has been a need to know how to pack eggs to support them to prevent cracking. This is not just important for people who raise chickens and sell eggs at your local grocery store but also for conservationists protecting birds in the wild.

This need to understand egg shapes led to studies by scientists at Kent University in England. They came up with a mathematical formula with four essential inputs: 1-egg length, 2-maximum breadth, 3-diameter where the pointed end terminates, and 4-location of the egg’s maximum diameter in relation to the midpoint of its length. The problem was that the earlier mathematical analysis didn’t work on pear-shaped eggs, but the formula works for any egg shape by adding the fourth variable.

This is a classic example of two things. One is that research that may seem pointless to a casual observer frequently provides needed information. So, for example, people wanting to transport eggs, incubate eggs efficiently, and restore bird populations in areas where they have become extinct will use this equation.

A second thing this research shows is the incredible design of the egg. An engineering equation allows the design of precise egg shape construction to fit all environments. This is a complex engineering problem with practical applications, and it shows that even the ordinary egg speaks of the Creator’s wisdom and skill in providing for His creatures.

References: Science News 12/4/21 page 11. Scientific report in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

December 9, 2021December 8, 2021

Study Challenges a Basic Assumption of Neo-Darwinism

A long-term study of 27,224 mice over 26 years challenges a basic assumption of Neo-Darwinism. The assumption is that natural selection guides evolution by removing “unfit” individuals. Therefore individuals that are more fit survive to pass on their genes. The study involved white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus) in the wild.

Researchers identified mice with broken, missing, or deformed limbs, missing eyes, cataracts, and missing or mutilated tails. Evolution predicts that these unfit mice would be removed from a population, and the researchers set out to see how quickly that would happen. The data shows that the survival rate of the impaired mice was no different from that of mice who had no physical impairments.

For humans, this observation would be even more dramatic. That is because humans crippled for many years have lived long lives, supported by family members or group associates. That kind of support has never been observed in mice. Moreover, human history is full of terrible acts by racists and political leaders, such as Hitler, who viewed minor physical characteristics as justification for persecution and even execution of other humans.

The evidence is that physical impairments in the animal kingdom do not necessarily cause the demise of an individual. This challenges a basic assumption of Neo-Darwinism which, like uniformitarianism, is not supported by the evidence.

Reference: National Science Foundation Research News November 30, 2021.

December 8, 2021December 7, 2021

The Wall Hezekiah Built Is Uncovered

The winter 2021 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review contains an announcement by the Israel Antiquities Authority of what they call a “groundbreaking discovery.” Archaeologists have uncovered the wall Hezekiah built around 701 B.C. Isaiah 22:9-10 describes the wall’s construction, and 2 Kings 25:10 tells of its destruction during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem about a century later. In addition to the wall itself, the archaeologists found various objects, including seals, along the wall’s base to confirm its date.

The archaeologists say that the wall was 10 feet (3 m) tall and more than 15 feet (4.5 m) wide. It was built along the slopes of the steep-sided Kidron Valley, making an imposing barrier on that side of Jerusalem. Researchers previously found other sections of the wall Hezekiah built, but this find connects those sections and provides more verification of the biblical account. The same issue carries a report of finding evidence of the powerful earthquake that occurred during the reign of King Uzziah and is described in Amos 1:1 and Zechariah 14:5.

Many people don’t realize that archaeological work in the Middle East is in its infancy. Hundreds of identified sites have not been excavated because of the expense involved. In addition, the field of archaeology is complicated by politics, nationalism, funding, and the prejudice of some of the people directing the digs and the museums displaying the artifacts.

To help people learn more about biblical archaeology, we have produced a video series titled “Beyond Reasonable Doubt” with John Cooper. The videos are available for free viewing on doesgodexist.tv, or you can purchase the series on DVDs. The series is an introductory presentation of positive evidence for the reliability of the Bible and is recommended for class use and individual viewing.

Reference: The magazine Biblical Archaeology Review has a section called “Strata” in which they announce new discoveries made in the field.

December 7, 2021December 6, 2021

Drug Safe-Havens Don’t Work

On December 1, 2021, the United States joined Canada, Australia, and Europe in allowing drug safe-havens for people who wish to use heroin and other narcotics. Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City announced that having monitored facilities where someone watches for overdoses will save lives. The first facility in New York was set to open immediately.

Federal laws ban operating a place for narcotic use, but those laws have been poorly enforced. It is interesting that there is no evidence that these facilities provide help for those who are addicted. There have been negative results in other places where governments have tried legalization. Other moral issues such as prostitution and sexual abuse become part of the scene.

Setting up drug safe-havens, making it easier for people to use narcotics, is sanctioning people to harm themselves. Even though they may not die immediately from drug usage, the long-term result is not good. Should the government provide a way for people to become addicted? The news releases on the New York City plan do not say that drugs will be provided. If that is true, drug dealing and the problem of contaminated drugs will continue.

Licensing sin has never worked, and neither will drug safe-havens. Instead, the legalization of gambling has increased crime, prostitution, economic damage, and family breakdown. As the world turns away from God and denigrates the teachings of Jesus, we are not surprised that politicians will seek to condone the sin industries and tax them.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22, Paul admonishes Christians to “Bring everything to the test and cling to that which is good and rejecting all that has a look of evil about it.” Therefore, let us oppose the movement of our nation toward embracing the sin industry as it offers an alternative to the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Reference: Associated Press for 12/1/21.