Evidence for God in Physical Design Archives

June 17, 2025June 16, 2025

Dealing With Disasters

One of the challenges that we all face is dealing with disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes, and floods. Skeptics claim that if a God exists, He wouldn’t allow these terrible natural disasters to take place. That claim displays a combination of scientific and theological ignorance.

Tornadoes result when hot air is trapped under a layer of cold air. Warm air rises, but if the cold air above it is dense enough, the warm surface air will become even warmer. Eventually, the hot air will rise through the cold layer. Hang glider pilots and soaring birds look for these vertical updrafts. When the ground is covered with vegetation, there is never enough heat to trigger a strong upward air movement. However, when thousands of acres of land are plowed up or paved over, the surface air becomes hotter and creates stronger vertical movement. Earth’s rotation spins these upward air movements, creating a tornado.

Areas around 30 degrees north and south latitude are usually deserts. The states of Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama are at or near 30 degrees north latitude. Hurricanes pick up massive amounts of water from the ocean and dump it on the land. Without hurricanes, there would be a water shortage in many places. In the past, storm surges were not a problem because the coastal areas were lined with mangroves and other plants on the barrier islands and along the mainland coast. Today, that protection has been stripped away and replaced with hotels, roads, parking lots, and beach-front homes. The result is that we are dealing with disasters.

God told humans to take care of the Earth, but greed, selfishness, and ignorance have often caused disasters. The more we learn about the creation, the more we understand that God designed it to work well, but humans have brought much pain and suffering on ourselves by misusing God’s gift. We must work together and avoid repeating past mistakes, or we will continually be dealing with disasters.

June 2, 2025June 1, 2025

Why We Care About Entropy

As a high school physics teacher, I frequently found myself challenged to keep my students interested. Some subjects were easy, but others were challenging, and the kids became bored very quickly. An example of the latter was a unit on the laws of thermodynamics. The second law, also known as the entropy law, states that a closed system tends to become increasingly disordered over time. Entropy is a statistical measure of disorder. During that unit of study, I once had a student who said, “Who cares?” There are good reasons why we care about entropy.

My response is that entropy is a design feature of the cosmos that produces black holes, but it also allows us to breathe and have engines in our cars. As a public-school teacher, I could not bring my religious views into the classroom, but it also disproves one of the atheist arguments against the existence of God.

When we say that God has always existed and He created the cosmos, atheists ask, “Then who created God?” They suggest it is easier to believe that matter has always existed. Why we care about entropy is that it shows that matter and the cosmos have not always existed.

Every reaction in the physical world reduces the amount of energy available to do work. The total energy in the cosmos available to do work is constantly decreasing, eventually becoming zero, and entropy will be maximum. That means the cosmos could not be eternal, and it must have had a beginning. There must be a cause for that beginning, and that cause is God.

May 12, 2025

The Creation of Matter from Nothing

In high school, I enjoyed science and decided that I wanted to be a scientist of some kind. I entered Indiana University and enrolled in an astronomy course at the feet of one of the great astronomers of the day. In that course, we studied the problem of origins — the creation of matter from nothing. As we discussed this subject, we went into various theories that had been proposed.

When we got to the conclusion of the discussion, I asked the professor which of the theories was the most acceptable one that satisfactorily explains the creation of matter from nothing. He leaned over the desk, looked me straight in the eye, and said, “Young man, you need to learn to ask intelligent questions.”

I did not appreciate the professor’s response, so I said, “Well, what do you mean?” He said, “This is not a question that a scientist tries to answer. This is a question for the philosopher or theologian, but this is not something that falls into the realm of science.” In today’s discussions of black holes and parallel universes, things have not changed. The fundamental question of the creation of matter/energy from absolutely nothing is not an area that can be scientifically explored.

I had always felt that science could ultimately answer all the questions humans have. I believed there was no challenge that science could not eventually resolve. Yet this learned man, an expert in his field, said that this was an area that the scientist should not even try to answer. It was totally beyond the capacity of science to explain and explore.

That was more than 50 years ago. Today there are even more questions science can’t answer, and one of the remaining unanswered questions involves the creation of matter from nothing.

This was adapted from “Why I Left Atheism” by John N. Clayton. You can read the entire story HERE.

May 9, 2025May 8, 2025

Confidence in Astronomical Observations

Some people have asked how we can know that astronomers’ statements about the evolution and demise of stars are factual. This question is usually asked by those in religious denominations that demand a young Earth, which means a young cosmos. Even though the time factors are much longer than human existence, we can have confidence in astronomical observations.

Although humanity has not been around long enough to observe the complete life of a star, we have seen intermediate steps in star evolution. Astronomers plot the luminosity (brightness) of stars against their surface temperature (or color/spectral type) with graphs called the Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram. It’s a powerful tool for classifying stars, studying their evolution, and understanding their properties. An example is the Crab Nebula.

In 1054, astronomers saw a star explode. The debris pattern of the explosion resembles a crab, so astronomers call it the Crab Nebula. Almost a millennium later, measurements show that the nebula is roughly 10 light years in diameter and is expanding at 1,500 kilometers per second. Observations of the Crab Nebula by the Hubble telescope in 2005 and the Webb telescope in 2023 show steps in the life of a star. Observations of other stars provide more information about a star’s lifetime, giving us confidence in astronomical observations.

Even though I didn’t see the launch, if I see a rocket climbing higher in the sky with every passing second, I know it was launched. I can even compute the launch time. When a car comes to a stop, leaving tire tracks, I know the car was going fast when someone applied the brakes. Every day, we understand evidence of a process without seeing it from start to finish. Astronomers come to understand the life history of stars in the same way.

As we have pointed out before, the Bible does not tell us the age of the cosmos or Earth. We can have confidence in astronomical observations. Young-earth theology is not only in opposition to the evidence but is also inconsistent with the biblical account.

References: apod.nasa.gov for May 8, 2025, and Wikipedia.

April 28, 2025April 27, 2025

The Mantis Shrimp’s Design

Naturalistic evolution cannot explain many things in nature. For example, why do various birds display colors that offer no purpose and may make them vulnerable to predators? We see one of the most interesting examples that doesn’t fit blind mechanistic chance in the mantis shrimp’s design feature that can exert a blow 1000 times its body weight.

The mantis shrimp uses a club-like feature to strike its prey with a force so extreme that it creates imploding bubbles that increase the force. The question is how the design of the mantis shrimp’s club-like feature doesn’t harm the shrimp. Dr Horacio Espinosa at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, has published a study explaining the mantis shrimp’s design.

Mantis shrimps have layers of mineral-hardened chitin arranged in bundles, with each layer rotated slightly with respect to the layers above and below. You might compare it to a stack of papers that have been twisted, creating a helix-like corkscrewing shape. This arrangement dissipates the strike’s energy and prevents shear waves from damaging the soft tissue of the shrimp.

Engineers are trying to copy this design to increase the toughness of airplane wings and wind turbine blades. They are sure to find more uses in future high-performance materials. We have previously highlighted the mantis shrimp’s design features, including its club, eyes, and visual system. The shrimp’s protective layer is one more example of a design scientists discovered in the natural world that can aid the design of objects beneficial to humans. God thought of these features first, and they are the product of intelligence – not mechanistic, opportunistic chance.

Reference: sciencenews.org

April 25, 2025April 22, 2025

Soil Moisture and Water Shortages

Living on a river that feeds Lake Michigan, we tend to ignore messages of water shortages. There is some irrigation in our area, but nothing like what we see in other regions of the world. Recent studies of global soil moisture show a very different picture.

Drought events at various global locations have caused the loss of 1.614 gigatons of water between 2000 and 2002. (One gigaton is one billion tons.) In the United States, irrigation has been highly contested as rivers in Nebraska and Colorado cannot supply the water needed to grow wheat and other grain crops. Drawing from the water table has caused it to drop over 10 feet in recent years.

Studies at the University of Texas and Seoul National University show that the problem of water shortages will cause more hunger and human suffering if we don’t do something to stop the soil moisture loss. The solution to water shortages is available.

There was no way to recover water lost to the oceans in the Old Testament days, but now there is. We can use nuclear energy and various processes to desalinate seawater. Removing the salt from seawater provides the salt humans need while producing fresh water for irrigation and replacing soil moisture.

God has provided humans with the water we need. In ancient times, humans lived by bodies of fresh water. With the expanding human population, not everyone could live on the shores of lakes or along rivers, so water had to be moved from places of plenty to places of drought. The Romans did this with aqueducts stretching for miles. In the western United States, we can allow rainfall and mountain ice melt to replace soil moisture while supplementing the need for water in cities by the ocean, like Los Angeles, using desalination.

The teachings of Jesus were ones of peace and concern for others. Water shortages have fueled greed and rivalry in areas of our planet. We need to use the nuclear energy God has given us to desalinate water rather than as a tool of war.

Reference: “Earth’s soil is drying up” by Kasha Patel in the Washington Post

April 24, 2025April 22, 2025

Martian Surface Is Inhospitable for Life

As we have reported on this website, the Martian surface is inhospitable for life. New discoveries show that no life exists there now, and the chemistry of material reached by drilling into Mars’ surface does not show that life has ever existed on that planet.

The media suggest that life on Earth is not exceptional while the scientific data shows that our planet is the only place in the solar system where life can exist. Skeptics would like to find life beyond Earth because they feel it would show that God did not create and design Earth for the existence of humans. Unfortunately, the media often cherry-picks previous data while ignoring more recent findings.

In a USA Today article, Erik Lagatta reported that the Curiosity rover detected some strange spheres in the past. At that time the media claimed that biological processes could have produced these spheres. Further tests showed they were mineral deposits that had nothing to do with life. They were probably formed by groundwater circulating through rock pores.

NASA is interested in the rocks on Mars because they can tell us much about the planet’s geological history. Taking a fresh look at a previously collected sample, NASA scientists found fragments of fatty acids, the largest organic molecules so far discovered on Mars. However, fatty acids do not necessarily indicate life because they can be generated by chemical reactions related to geological processes.

The Martian surface is inhospitable for life, but as we have pointed out before, whether life exists elsewhere in the cosmos is not an issue for the biblical account of life on Earth. If there is life elsewhere, God created it. However, we will probably never know because the distances to other galaxies are so vast that we can never travel there to find out.

First Peter 3:15 tells us to be ready to “give an answer to anyone who asks about the hope that we have.” There is vast evidence for the existence of God, and it is essential to know why we believe what we believe so we can answer our children’s questions.

Reference: Eric Lagatta in USA Today, April 1, 2025

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April 23, 2025April 22, 2025

Hadley Cells and God’s Design

One of planet Earth’s many unique design features is the atmosphere’s circulation pattern, allowing advanced life to exist on our planet. This pattern was first noticed in 1735 when George Hadley was working with the motions of wind recorded by scientists. Realizing that wind currents were not just accidental, he originated the idea of what we call Hadley cells. We know today that the circulation of the atmosphere is much more critical and complex than anyone understood in Hadley’s day.

A feature designed into Earth’s weather pattern is how the insolation moves daily. Insolation is the amount of solar radiation that reaches the surface of a planet. Of the other planets in our solar system, only Mars has a tilt, which spreads the insolation from one latitude to the next, but Mars does not have enough atmosphere for this to be a significant factor. The other planets don’t change their tilt, so the Sun’s radiation is constantly over one latitude. The temperatures at that latitude climb very high, and everywhere else is unbelievably cold.

On Earth, the Sun’s energy gradually changes daily, moving to 20 degrees north or south latitude and striking at the Earth’s equator only two times a year. The Sun is over the equator at the equinoxes on about March 20 and September 22, and the day and night length is the same. Around June 21, the Sun is as far north as it gets, and around December 22, it reaches its southernmost point.

In the Hadley cells, air rises in tropical zones, where it drops its moisture as it cools. At 30 degrees latitude, the cooler air sinks and has very little moisture. Virtually all of Earth’s major deserts are around 30 degrees latitude north and south. In the western United States, we find the Mohave Desert, but the eastern U.S. does not have a desert even though it is at 30 degrees. Hurricanes and the Atlantic Ocean bring a large amount of water to states located at 30 degrees latitude in the eastern U.S. So many things make advanced life possible on this planet that trying to attribute all of them to chance requires far more faith than believing that God designed and created the weather on Earth so you and I can exist.

April 10, 2025April 8, 2025

Changing Climate Nonsense

It is amazing to see that some people in the religious community are making climate change an issue. As a public school teacher, I can attest that this destructive attitude is often a result of ignorance. Is climate change happening? The answer is yes! Is this the first time humans have had to deal with changing climate nonsense? The answer is no! It would help if religious people would read their Bibles and not rely on religious con artists for their belief systems.

In Genesis 41:53-57, we read about Joseph and the drought that led to famine in Egypt and its neighboring countries. This was not due to insects or war but to climate change. Second Samuel 21:1 and Jeremiah 14:1-6 recount droughts that significantly impacted the history of Israel. Those of us who are older will recall the Dust Bowl era in the United States, which drove many farmers to California due to the changing climate affecting the central part of the Country.

The public schools need to educate young people on the history of climate change in America’s past because we are entering a period of intense changing climate. It is a scientific fact that the climate is changing worldwide. Areas of the United States that were once deserts are now receiving rain, which alters the animal and plant life in those regions.

The water levels in Lake Michigan have changed dramatically over the course of my lifetime. I used to take my earth science classes on field trips to Lake Michigan. We had been experiencing climate change in those days, which produced unusual amounts of moisture, and the lake was higher than at any time in recent history. Houses built along the lake when the water was low were being threatened by erosion. One place I took my classes to was Michigan City, Indiana, where I knew property owners were battling the higher water levels. As we stopped to look at the beach, a more expensive house than any of my students lived in suddenly slid into the Lake right in front of us.

The causes of climate change are very complex. The extent to which human activity contributes to climate change is a subject of debate, but it is certainly not the only cause. When today’s children face a changing climate, we hope they will be better prepared to adapt to it than their parents were. We all must be prepared in advance for a changing climate.

March 14, 2025March 14, 2025

Learn From a Lunar Eclipse

Yesterday, we told you that the total lunar eclipse visible in the Western Hemisphere last night was connected to the eclipse of 1504, which Christopher Columbus used to get the supplies he needed from the people of Jamaica. It’s an interesting story that you can read HERE. What can we learn from a lunar eclipse, and what is the connection between the eclipse of March 13-14, 2025, and the eclipse of March 1, 1504?

Eclipses come in groups or families called saros. One saros is approximately 18 years, 11 days, and 8 hours, slightly varying depending on the number of leap years. The end of each saros has an eclipse similar to the one at the beginning. Astronomers use saros to predict when an eclipse will occur.

A hypersaros consists of multiple saros cycles and lasts for 521 years. Eclipses separated by one hypersaros will appear very close to the same location in the sky and occur at nearly the same time of year. How far apart are 1504 and 2025? They are separated by 521 years, and both eclipses occurred in March about two weeks apart.

This means the eclipse of 1504 would have appeared in the same location in the sky. If you saw last night’s eclipse, you would have seen the same stars surrounding the blood moon as the natives of Jamaica saw 521 years ago. You had a chance to learn from a lunar eclipse by reliving the historical event of 1504.

Chances are you didn’t watch last night’s eclipse for the full length of totality—about an hour. However, I am sure the Jamaicans continued to watch it as they agonized in fear. Meanwhile, Columbus sat smugly in his quarters, watching his hourglass to know when the eclipse would end. Then, he could emerge to tell the natives that God accepted their apology and would restore the Moon.

You can certainly question Columbus’s tactics and his deception of the Jamaicans, but we can learn from a lunar eclipse. The pagan islanders were fooled because they were ignorant of science. Knowledge of science gave Columbus the edge. Knowing that God has designed an orderly and predictable solar system and universe frees us from the ignorance of worshiping His creation. It also frees us from believing that so-called “blood moons” are some special sign. They are part of the system God designed, making them predictable.

We can see God’s eternal power and divine nature by the things and systems He has made (Romans 1:20). The laws that govern the universe show fine-tuned design. The cosmos is not chaotic. It is the work of a God who has a plan and purpose for each of the human creatures He created in His image.

P.S. As I watched the total eclipse at about 3:15 a.m. my time, a meteorite appeared just below it. I suspect that did not happen to the Jamaicans, but it could have. For more about “blood moons” and “shooting stars,” read THIS POST. R.E.

References: iopscience.iop.org and Wikipedia