Evidence for God in Physical Design Archives - Page 7 of 58

September 4, 2023September 3, 2023

A Lesson from the Dart Experiment

In September of 2022, NASA steered the DART spacecraft into an asteroid named Dimorphos, attempting to alter its orbit. The experiment was designed to see if we could change the path of an asteroid moving toward a collision with Earth. We can learn a lesson from the DART experiment.

It sounded like a good way to protect our planet from an asteroid impact. Scientists believe an asteroid collision may have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, and a similar one might cause human extinction. The collision did alter the orbit of Dimorphos, which is comforting to know. However, it also caused more potential problems.

The Hubble Space Telescope observed 37 previously unseen objects accompanying Dimorphos in its orbit around the Sun. These are boulders probably blasted off from Dimorphos by the DART collision. They are not just little pieces of rock or dust. Some of the boulders are as large as seven meters in diameter. Calculations show that the weight of the 37 boulders adds up to 5,000 metric tons – the weight of 300 gravel-filled dump trucks.

This incident reminds us of the story of Frankenstein when a scientist created a being that turned into a monster. Dr. Frankenstein did not comprehend where his creation might go once it was out of his control. These boulders do not pose an immediate danger to the Earth but understand that meteorites striking Earth’s surface are generally quite small. The boulders caused by DART’s impact with Dimorphus would cause significant problems if they hit the Earth.

Humans can learn a lesson from this incident. We are not God, and our wisdom and knowledge are incomplete. As God said to Job, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” (Job 38:2) In our day of rejecting God and His Word, we must be reminded that altering the design God built into the creation of everything from galaxies to viruses can have tremendous consequences. We have seen that in COVID, and again, we can learn a lesson from the DART experiment.

Reference: Science News for August 26, 2023, page 10.

August 30, 2023August 29, 2023

Once In a Blue Moon

You have probably heard the expression, “once in a blue moon.” People use that as a way of saying that something very rarely happens. For sky watchers, a blue moon has a different meaning. It refers to those times when a full moon occurs twice in the same month. That will happen tonight, Wednesday, August 30, 2023.

Although the “once in a blue moon” expression indicates something rare, astronomical blue moons are not all that rare. They occur on average four times per year, although they can happen as few as three times or as many as five times. The lunar cycle takes 29.5 days, so we usually have one full moon monthly. This year, we experienced a full moon on August 1, so we will see another one on August 31.

The “blue moon” title has nothing to do with its actual color. The Moon will appear white, yellow, or orange depending on its location and how much dust and other particles are in the air. If it is near the horizon, where its light has to travel through more of our atmospheric dust, it will appear white, yellow, or orange. High in the sky, it will look whiter unless there are perhaps pollutants, such as from wildfires.

In addition to being a blue moon, this full moon is also called a “super moon.” That is because it will be near its closest point to Earth. The Moon’s elliptical orbit averages nearly a quarter of a million miles from Earth. At the time of tonight’s full moon, it will be about 222,043 miles (357,344 km) from Earth. That means it will be the biggest and brightest full moon of 2023.

Despite people calling it a blue supermoon, it will not appear “blue,” and you may not think of it as incredibly “super.” It will be slightly bigger and brighter than other full moons this year, but you may not be extremely impressed. If you see it near the horizon, where it appears with buildings or trees, it will look more prominent compared to when you see it high in the empty sky. That is called the “moon illusion” and happens all the time, not just once in a blue moon.

So enjoy seeing tonight’s super blue moon, and thank God it’s there. Without it, we might not be here either. Our Moon is always “super,” as we have said many times. You can read more about that HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

August 28, 2023August 27, 2023

The Tragic Fires of Lahaina

The tragic fires of Lahaina destroyed the train station — Lahaina train station before the fire

Those who have not been to Maui may be unable to comprehend the tragic fires of Lahaina and what happened there. I lectured on Maui several times, visited Lahaina, and even lived in the area for a short time in Kehei. Knowing the area, I can understand the conditions leading to the wildfire that destroyed the town and killed so many people.

Maui is a beautiful island. There are two huge mountains and two primary sections of the island. Haleakala is a popular tourist area with a road to Hana on the east side of a volcanic mountain where there are many gardens and lush vegetation. The other side is a barren area of relatively recent lava flows.

On the island’s northern side, a mountain area known as Kahakuloa has an observatory at the top. Lahaina is located on the west side of this mountain. I worked with a church on the east side of Haleakala, a wet area with lush vegetation. Between these two mountains is a relatively flat area with the villages of Waikapu and Pounene and the main shopping area for locals and tourists.

Unlike Haleakala, Kahakuloa has weathered igneous rock on its west side, which has led to soil capable of supporting crops, primarily sugar cane. When we were there, the growers used fire to remove the processed sugar cane. The area was very dry, with a vast cattle ranch and people living in open houses and sheds because rain was infrequent.

What we have described here is a classic example of a rain shadow. Moist air moves up the sides of the two mountains, and as it cools, it drops its water as rain. All the moisture is gone by the time it gets to the top of the mountains. As a result, very dry air goes over the mountain and cascades down the other side, creating desert-like conditions. This is not an area to attract tourists, but with irrigation, it’s a productive agricultural area.

A fire on the mountain’s east side would not spread since lush green trees and grass do not burn easily. On the mountain’s west side, any dead cane, grass, or bushes would be great tinder. People must plan for climate changes, avoiding towns where drought conditions can produce the tragic fires of Lahaina.

Agriculture must use places to plant crops based on understanding the movement of air and water. The tragic fires of Lahaina were not an act of God but the result of human mismanagement of what God has given us. The question is whether we will learn from our mistakes or repeat them.

August 21, 2023August 21, 2023

How Fast Are You Spinning?

You may think you are sitting still as you read this, but you are actually moving at tremendous speeds in various directions. You are on planet Earth which is rotating on its axis. The planet is also orbiting around the Sun. More than that, our solar system is spiraling around the Milky Way. Yes, the Milky Way is also moving in relation to other galaxies. It’s enough to make your head spin but let’s just look at Earth’s rotation. How fast are you spinning?

Earth’s circumference at the equator is about 24,900 miles, and a day, the time when Earth makes one rotation, is 24 hours. Therefore, if you are on the equator, you are moving at about 1040 miles per hour. Where I am, on the same latitude as Chicago, I am spinning around at 773 miles per hour. That’s because the circle at that latitude is much smaller. Those who live in Anchorage, Alaska, are moving at a leisurely 504 miles per hour. How fast are you spinning if you are standing on the North Pole? I doubt if any of our readers are doing that, but if so, you are just spinning in the same place like a top every 24 hours. Try not to get dizzy.

This spinning of Earth creates centrifugal force, which works against the pull of gravity. At Earth’s present rotational speed, if you moved to the equator from the North Pole, you would weigh about one pound less. Not a very efficient way to lose weight.

What would happen if Earth’s spin increased by one mile per hour? Centrifugal force would raise the ocean’s water level at the equator by a few inches and lower it in the Arctic Ocean. More noticeable would be that geosynchronous communications satellites would be out of their proper positions disrupting GPS services, satellite communications, television broadcasting, and military operations. A ten percent increase in Earth’s rotational speed would make the days only 22 hours long. And you thought you were having trouble getting everything done now. How fast are you spinning, and is the whole universe and our place in it just an accident?

What’s the point of all this? We have often discussed the many things that make this planet suitable for advanced life. Abundant water, a just-right tilt of the axis, the right spin, and a just-right Moon to stabilize the spin and speed. Those are only a few of Earth’s remarkable features. It almost seems that it was designed for a purpose by an intelligent Designer who knew we were coming.

August 10, 2023August 9, 2023

Tell the Clouds What to Do

Yesterday, we asked the puzzling question, “How can clouds float in the air?” Clouds are made of water, which is heavier than air, so how can clouds float on air? The short answer is they don’t. We have two things to learn: the clouds are falling, and only God can tell the clouds what to do.

If you didn’t read yesterday’s post, I suggest you read it for background. But, for now, let’s return to where we left off in Job 38, where God speaks of clouds as He challenges Job and his friends. These are God’s words in verses 34-38:

“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,
That an abundance of water may cover you?
Can you send out lightnings, that they may go,
And say to you, ‘Here we are!’?
Who has put wisdom in the mind?
Or who has given understanding to the heart?
Who can number the clouds by wisdom?
Or who can pour out the bottles of heaven,
When the dust hardens in clumps,
And the clods cling together?”

God asks Job if he can tell the clouds what to do, sending rain when the ground is dry. Of course, the answer is “No.” Human wisdom and understanding can’t do that, but God can. Before God spoke to him, Job seemed to believe that sometimes God used rain as a form of punishment (Job 37:13). God did withhold rain from Israel for years because of the evil leadership of Ahab and Jezebel, but Elijah’s prayer brought it back.

So does God make a practice of withholding rain as a punishment? Not according to Jesus. He told us to love our enemies, “that you may be sons of your Father in heaven, for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:44-45).

We cannot tell the clouds what to do, whether we want it to rain or not rain. Only God can do that, but He is not a punishing old man in the sky ready to withhold rain or zap us with lightning if we misbehave. Many people have that confused idea, but the Bible does not support it. God sends sunshine and rain on the just and the unjust through the weather system He created. All weather conditions occur naturally according to God’s designed system, except in rare cases when He intervened with a timing miracle.

Let’s get back to our original question about clouds. They are water and sometimes ice, so how can they float in the air? The answer is that they don’t float. They are falling very gradually. Any unsupported object will fall to the ground because of Earth’s gravity. As it falls faster, the friction of the air molecules increases.

Any falling object will eventually reach terminal velocity when the friction force equals the pull of gravity. We can ignore the air friction for a bowling ball because it is minuscule compared to the ball’s weight. However, the weight of a water droplet in a cloud with a diameter measured in microns is minuscule, so the terminal velocity may be less than a hundred feet per hour. When you consider that clouds are thousands of feet in the air, that “falling” is too slow for us to notice. The water droplets may “dissolve” into the air before they fall very far. When they converge into larger droplets, they fall more quickly as rain.

The bottom line is, yes, the clouds are falling, but you will only notice it when they fall as rain. The more important point is that only God can tell the clouds what to do. The most important thing to remember is that God’s love sends sunshine and rain for everyone, even for those who refuse to recognize His existence.

August 9, 2023August 8, 2023

How Can Clouds Float in the Air?

The sky is falling! Well, not exactly. Actually, the clouds are falling, or are they? Clouds are made of water, and everyone knows water is heavier than air, so how can clouds float in the air? Have you ever wondered about that? Are clouds floating, or is it an optical illusion? I’m baffled. How about you?

Before we answer those questions, here is another one. What does the Bible say about clouds? Clouds are mentioned many times in the Bible. God gives us a creation story in the Book of Job that expands on the Genesis account. These are some of the words God used to challenge Job and his friends in Job 38:8-9:

“Or who shut in the sea with doors,
When it burst forth and issued from the womb;
When I made the clouds its garment,
And thick darkness its swaddling band;
When I fixed My limit for it,
And set bars and doors;
When I said,
‘This far you may come, but no farther,
And here your proud waves must stop!”

In this poetic account, when the early Earth was a water world, God shut up the ocean “with doors” and told it, “Here your proud waves must stop!” I love that word picture of the creation process! God speaks, and the seas listen! But we are talking about clouds, and how can clouds float in the air?

In this Job passage, God explains something we wonder about in Genesis 1:1, where it says, “darkness was on the face of the deep.” The garment of clouds explains the darkness covering the oceans. Otherwise, we have to wonder why the first part of Genesis 1:1 tells us, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” The heavens would have to include the Sun, Moon, and stars, as well as all of the galaxies and everything in them. Why, then, was there darkness on the water-covered Earth? God answers that question by saying: “I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band.”

Genesis tells us that God divided the water covering the land from the water in the sky, meaning the clouds. (See Genesis 1:9-10.) We read further in Genesis 1:14-18 that God caused the clouds to clear up enough to allow the Sun and Moon to be fully visible “for signs and seasons, and for days and years” and to “give light on the earth.”

We see that God’s description of the creation process in Job clarifies some questions that the Genesis creation account leaves unanswered. But that isn’t all God said about clouds in Job 38. He challenges Job with this question in verse 34:

“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,
That an abundance of water may cover you?”

God verifies that clouds are made of water, and as Genesis tells us, God divided the water on the surface from the water in the air. So how did God make the water float in the air? Are the clouds defying gravity, or is this an optical illusion? Is God breaking His own laws of physics, or is He fooling us? The answer is – we are out of time for today. But tomorrow, we will answer the puzzling question, “How can clouds float in the air?”

July 25, 2023July 24, 2023

Acceleration of Time in the Cosmos

The Webb space telescope has shown an acceleration of time in the cosmos. Dr. Geraint Lewis and Dr. Brendon Brewer at the University of Sydney’s School of Physics and Astronomy authored a study of quasars that provides a way to measure time.

Quasars are highly luminous objects in space powered by supermassive black holes. The Webb telescope has observed a quasar that is so luminous it outshines the Milky Way galaxy by 100 times. As a quasar, its variations in brightness act as a cosmic clock. The researchers have determined that time flowed five times slower in the past than in our galaxy today.

This makes no sense to most of us until we remember that God created time. Time had a beginning, and the Hebrew of Genesis 1:1 makes that clear. The Bible also talks about things that happened before time began and describes God as being outside of time. (See Proverbs 8:23. Revelation 1:8, 1:11, 21:6, and 22:13/) The discoveries of the Webb telescope and quantum mechanics clearly show that time is not an ethereal substance but a created thing that flows through the physical world.

The measurements of time by the Webb telescope and in laboratories on Earth show an acceleration of time in the cosmos. The Bible refers to God stretching out the cosmos (Isaiah 40:22, 44:24, 45:12, and 51:13). That fits well with the evidence that the creation began with a singularity that was not merely a physical process but also the creation of space and time by the God who exists outside of space and time.

Ancient people looked to the sky and were amazed at the creation they observed. Now that we have better tools and a fuller understanding of the processes, the wonder of creation is even greater than it was in Moses’ day.

Reference: The journal Nature Astronomy for July 3, 2023

July 19, 2023July 19, 2023

Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence

It’s known as the Sagan standard and abbreviated ECREE. Carl Sagan, an American scientist, and agnostic, hosted the PBS program Cosmos in the 1980s. He said in the series, “I believe that the extraordinary should be pursued. But extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” He was talking about claims that aliens from space had visited Earth. But we can apply the principle to more than alien visitations.

The truth is that Sagan did not originate the ECREE concept. He just popularized it on television. The idea had been previously expressed many times by others. Even Thomas Jefferson described it in a letter he wrote in 1808 about the existence of meteorites, but he was much more wordy. (He used about three dozen words instead of Sagan’s five.)

What does the Sagan ECREE standard mean? It tells us that when we make an extraordinary claim, we must back it up with extraordinary evidence. How about the extraordinary secularist claim that everything we see came from nothing by means of nothing? If matter, energy, time, and space all originated at the “big bang,” and nothing existed before that, where is the extraordinary evidence to back up that claim? Could an eternal God existing outside of time and space be a better explanation for the universe?

If one claims that life originated from non-living chemicals without intelligent guidance, what is the extraordinary evidence for that? Even if science succeeds in creating life from non-living chemicals in the laboratory (and they are far from doing that), it would merely prove that intelligence can create life from non-life. That is what the Bible has said for thousands of years.

Once life got its start, what is the evidence that it evolved from species to species until it reached homo sapiens? We don’t see any extraordinary experimental or fossil record evidence of that either. To prove that natural selection acting on random mutations could accomplish a task that defies the second law of thermodynamics requires extraordinary evidence, which we don’t have.

We agree with the Sagan standard that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” (ECREE). The question is, does all that we see in the universe and on our planet give extraordinary evidence of unguided random chance or design by an intelligent Creator?

Reference: Wikipedia

July 17, 2023July 16, 2023

An Astronaut Who Believes in the Bible and Science

“There are no atheists…on top of rockets” is the title of an article by B. T. Irwin, interviewing NASA astronaut Victor Glover. Glover has served on the International Space Station and will pilot NASA’s Artemis II Mission to the Moon next year. Glover is an astronaut who believes in the Bible and science. He talks about how the creation gives evidence for the existence of God.

What is especially interesting is that Glover’s interview was published in The Christian Chronicle, a Church of Christ periodical. The Christian Chronicle has been antagonistic to our ministry because we refuse to dogmatically say the Earth is less than 10,000 years old. The Chronicle has also supported dispensational efforts by promoting Ken Ham’s material and the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter amusement park. Ham’s program promotes the 6000-year age of the Earth to support his dispensational doctrinal views. Victor Glover is an astronaut who believes in the Bible and science, as he explained it in these words:

“The moon is a time capsule for the Earth, and we think it’s old – about 4.5 billion years. And my preacher used to say to me, ‘Yeah, but NASA is wrong because I know the Earth is about 10,000 years old.’ I said, ‘How do you know that?’ He walked me through the lineages in the Bible, and I said, ‘But that doesn’t mark any specific time period.’ And it doesn’t need to because the power of the Gospel is not in a timeline. It’s in that message, in that promise, and that promise being kept. So they don’t actually work against each other like some people like to claim that they do. I had to navigate that because of my faith and my belief in science. I believe in both, and I don’t find them to be in conflict. And I think it’s helped me to be an ambassador to both sides.”

For 55 years, the “Does God Exist?” ministry has shown that science is a friend of faith. We have seen much opposition from the religious establishment as we struggle to undo the collateral damage of the rejection of science. Physical evidence continues to reveal the truth of the Bible. Even when it conflicts with human religious tradition, science is in total agreement with what the Bible says. Let us all pray that some who will not listen to us will listen to an astronaut who believes in the Bible and science. Many young souls are at stake in this false conflict between science and faith.

Reference: The Christian Chronicle for July 2023, pages 22-23.

July 12, 2023July 11, 2023

Searching for Signs of Alien Life

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is searching for signs of alien life in the universe. NASA’s astrobiology program is renewing efforts to answer the question, “Does life exist elsewhere in the universe?” We find life all over this planet. Life is everywhere on Earth, from frigid climates to arid deserts and ocean depths to mountaintops. But does it exist anywhere else?

Currently, NASA is searching for microbial life on Mars with two robotic rovers, Curiosity and Perseverance. Those rovers are exploring rocks in fossilized waterways on the planet, seeking any indication that microbes once lived there. NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are working to develop a Mars sample return mission to bring rocks back to Earth for closer examination.

In December of 2018, NASA spacecraft “Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer” (OSIRIS-REx) arrived at the asteroid Bennu after traveling for two years. It orbited Bennu to map the surface and find a good landing spot to obtain samples. In October 2020, OSIRIS-REx touched down on the asteroid, procured a sample, and prepared it for delivery to Earth. In May 2021, the spacecraft departed from Bennu and is expected to arrive back home in September 2023. Scientists will then study this very expensive rock sample, searching for signs of alien life.

Astrobiologists are hopeful that Enceladus and Europa, moons of Saturn and Jupiter respectively, might support some form of life now or in the past. The new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is also involved in the search for alien life. It can detect “biosignatures” around exoplanets, planets outside of our solar system. In all these ways, NASA is searching for signs of alien life in the universe.

Heather Graham, a NASA astrobiologist at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, says, “We don’t actually know yet how life on this planet began….” Of course, NASA is looking for some natural explanation of how life began. Graham further said that we must “roll back that clock to see how life began.” Why not roll back the clock all the way to the beginning? Science can’t explain how the universe began. Not very long ago, scientists thought the universe was eternal, and they made fun of the idea that the universe had a beginning. However, they reluctantly had to admit that the evidence shows there was a beginning, as Genesis has said for thousands of years.

Perhaps some are motivated to search for signs of alien life to show that God is unnecessary. Will science someday find that there is life, even microbial life, elsewhere in the universe? Perhaps, but if there is, God created it since He created the universe.

Reference: “Is There Life Beyond Earth?” on YouTube