The Earth Archives - DOES GOD EXIST? TODAY

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.

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 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

March 13, 2025March 13, 2025

Christopher Columbus’s Blood Moon

On the night of Thursday March 13 to Friday March 14, 2025, the Western Hemisphere, including the United States, will experience a total lunar eclipse. This eclipse has a connection to Christopher Columbus’s blood moon of 1504. Let me tell the story.

Of course, we know that Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. That’s when he “discovered” the new world. However, Columbus made three more journeys across the Atlantic, with the last one from 1502 to 1504. On that visit to Jamaica, he ran into difficulty. He was stranded as his ships were crawling with marine worms. He sent a small party in canoes to get help from the Spanish-occupied island of Hispaniola, a hundred miles away.

While waiting for rescue, the crew’s food supply ran out, and the indigenous Arawak people grew tired of supplying provisions for the small trinkets the Spaniards offered in exchange. As his crew members were starving, Columbus had to devise a plan.

Fortunately, Columbus had astronomical tables indicating that a full lunar eclipse would occur on March 1, 1504. He called the local chiefs together and told them that the all-powerful Christian God was displeased with their refusal to help him. He told them that as a sign of God’s wrath, on that night, the Moon would turn dark and become the color of blood.

At first, the natives laughed at Christopher Columbus’s blood moon threats. The laughter stopped when the eclipse began. Columbus told them he would ask God to restore the Moon if they would meet his demands. Then he withdrew and watched his hourglass to time the eclipse. As the eclipse ended, he returned to the Jamaicans, who were pleading for his forgiveness. Columbus and his crew had everything they needed until the rescue ships arrived six months later.

So, what does Christopher Columbus’s blood moon have to do with the one you can see a few hours from now? I invite you to observe the one that will occur tonight. In the Eastern time zone, the eclipse will begin shortly before midnight. The Moon will become gradually darker until it becomes blood red during totality from 2:26 a.m. to 3:31 a.m. Just subtract one hour from those times for each time zone going westward. I’m sure you want to know the connection of this eclipse to Christopher Columbus’s blood moon. That will be the subject tomorrow.

March 6, 2025March 4, 2025

Bad Geology and Theology

Young professionals with a church background often reject the Bible teaching they received, realizing it can’t be correct. Denominational dispensationalism teaches that the books of Daniel and Revelation predict Christ returning with His followers, defeating Russia and China in a war, and establishing a worldwide political system in Jerusalem for 1000 years. This dispensational teaching has several variations and is not only bad theology but also bad geology.

Christ’s return and establishment of a kingdom on Earth are not the whole story. This doctrine also teaches that creation took place only 6,000 to 10,000 years ago. That means all the geological events have happened in a few thousand, not billions, of years. Various video presentations by dispensationalists attempt to explain folded rock layers by saying they were laid down during the biblical flood when the rocks were soft and pliable. When the waters receded, those soft layers were folded and hardened as they dried.

Any young person with an earth science course or any college student with an introductory geology course can see the problems with this bad geology. There are different types of rocks, and they fall into three categories.

The first category is igneous rocks, molten material that can either be on Earth’s surface as lava or deep underground as an intrusive rock like granite. Erosion has exposed many layers of intrusive rocks, but they cool very slowly, allowing the formation of mineral crystals. You never see crystals in lava. The folded rock layers dispensationalists use in their presentations are granite or other intrusive rocks such as diorite or gabbro. They are not flood deposits and were never soft.

The second category is sedimentary rocks. They are usually produced by water. Chemical precipitates, like limestone, are produced by quiet water or sediment carried by moving water or wind. The size of the particles can vary depending on the violence of the water or wind. Sedimentary rocks can also be conglomerates made of cobble-sized particles or shale made of very fine grains, too small to be seen by the naked eye. Flood deposits are easy to identify and are not made up of a chemical precipitate or igneous rock.

The third rock type is metamorphic, in which the material has been changed. Marble is limestone morphed under heavy pressure. This brief summary of petrology shows that it is bad geology to suggest that folded rock layers, especially intrusive igneous rocks, were produced by a flood.

The Bible does not tell us Earth’s age. Jesus said that His kingdom was not of this world (Matthew 22:21), and Christ does not endorse war of any kind. The biblical message is spiritual, and the Kingdom Christ came to establish is His Church. The false teaching of dispensationalism drives many young people away from faith. Ignorance of what the Bible says makes a person vulnerable to false religious teachings. We offer free postage-paid Bible studies. Send your name and address to jncdge@aol.com, and we will mail you a course listing so you can choose a course to expand your Bible knowledge.

February 4, 2025February 3, 2025

UFO/UAPs and Common Sense

Over the 56 years of this ministry’s existence, we have heard many UFO claims. The only progress that has been made is to change “Unidentified Flying Objects” (UFOs) to “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena” (UAPs). We still see huge amounts of taxpayer money and large segments of the media devoted to UFO/UAPs when we can solve the issue with a little common sense.

On November 13, 2024, two subcommittees of the House Oversight Committee held a joint hearing on UAPs. One witness, journalist Michael Shellenberger, submitted 214 pages of testimony and published an article alleging that the government is running a highly secretive program called “Immaculate Constellation” with “hundreds, maybe thousands” of images and videos of UAPs.

Before we resort to common sense, let us clearly state this is not a biblical issue. Could God have created life elsewhere? Of course, He could. The Bible only describes Earth but tells us that there is a war between good and evil (Ephesians 6:12), and it could be happening in more than one place. Science fiction writers have proposed this for many years.

There is big money in UFO/UAPs with movies, books, newspapers, magazines, video games, and television shows providing a gold mine for people with great imaginations. Common sense says that there will be people who will see this and get rich from it, but there are some common sense reasons not to take these claims too seriously:

1) There is no reason for aliens to play games with us. If they had the technology to prevent us from seeing them, they would have used it without giving us a fleeting view.

2) A vast percentage of UFO/UAP claims have been exposed as frauds or shown to have an understandable cause. Reflections off the canopy of military aircraft at high speeds and weather phenomena have caused many military pilot sightings.

3) Satellites in orbit could make UFP/UAP sightings. However, the claims have all come from sightings on the ground or planes in the Earth’s atmosphere. To reach these locations, an alien must pass by the International Space Station, and no unexplained sightings have come from that source.

4) Nobody has suggested good reasons for aliens with the technology to travel huge distances to Earth. The closest galaxy to us is 152,000 light years away. That means it would take well over 152,000 years traveling at the speed of light to get here. Why do it? What would we have to offer? Saying that relativity would cause time to slow down does not answer the fact that the home planet would age more than 300,000 years while the aliens journey to Earth and back.

We need to work at solving our problems here on Earth and not obsess over the paranoia of UFO/UAPs. Jesus Christ gives us a way to solve the issues tearing America and the world apart. Will we allow God to bless America or continue to entertain ourselves with fictional stories and claims that offer no help for what ails us? Stay tuned!

— John N. Clayton © 2025
Reference: “Inside Capitol Hill’s latest UFO Hearings” in Time magazine, December 9, 2024, page 16.

January 16, 2025January 12, 2025

Life on Mars in Fiction and Fact

Our fascination with Mars goes back to American sci-fi, with War of the Worlds, written by H. G. Wells and published in 1898. It was recreated as a radio drama by Orson Welles on Halloween in 1938, causing panic in America. In 1950, Ray Bradbury released a novel called The Martian Chronicles, which ended with the Earth destroyed by nuclear war. In 2005, Steven Spielberg directed a movie based on the Wells novel starring Tom Cruise. In 2015, The Martian was a science fiction movie starring Matt Damon. We have now scientifically investigated the red planet, resolving the question of life on Mars.

Measurements made by NASA’s Curiosity Rover from four Gale crater sites show that there is no life on Mars and that there has never been life on Mars’ surface. The ratios of carbon and oxygen isotopes indicate that no biosphere existed on the planet. Rock samples show extreme rates of evaporation and carbon flowing into the atmosphere like bubbles from a pressurized can of soda.

Previous measurements on Mars have been made in ice, which forms and melts there with some degree of regularity. For the first time, science has isotopic readings from rock samples. One can argue that there has been life on Mars in the distant past preserved many feet below ground, but drill cores have not backed up that theory.

The more we learn from scientific data gathered in space, the more we realize how extraordinary life is on Earth. Mars is NOT our twin planet, and no planet in our solar system is. Travel to another star and another solar system would not be within human capacity at any time during the lives of those living today. Humans may destroy Earth by nuclear war, but Bradbury’s story of The Martian Chronicles is not a predictor of how that might happen.

The Bible says God created time, space, matter-energy, and life. It doesn’t tell us when or how many steps were involved in creating the planet on which we live. The Bible does tell us how to live and avoid the things that can destroy this planet. Albert Einstein is purported to have said that if nuclear war is used in World War III, World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. Moving to Mars is not an option. We can avoid wars by following the words of Jesus Christ in Matthew 5-7.

November 25, 2024November 20, 2024

Fine-Tuning the Universe

I recently attempted to bake some pumpkin bread. It was a disaster because I failed to use the proper proportion of one ingredient. When baking any pastry, having all the right ingredients in the right proportions is essential. Equally important is having the correct oven temperature for the right amount of time. Every factor must be just right. This is a simple illustration of fine-tuning the recipe. Far more complicated than baking any pastry is fine-tuning the universe.

Scientists have realized that the universe requires fine-tuning to make the existence of complex life possible. The number of factors that must be fine-tuned is vast, but five significant ones are these:

Gravitational Force Constant – This is the force that pulls us toward Earth. More than that, it holds the planet together and makes it round. It also holds the Moon in orbit around the Earth and the planets in orbit around the Sun. It holds together the Milky Way and all other galaxies. This force has to be strong enough to form stars and planets, but if it were too strong, stars would quickly burn up, and no planets would form.

Electromagnetic Force Constant – This force holds atoms together. It must be just right for chemical bonds to form, creating molecules that everything is made of, including our bodies.

Strong Nuclear Force Constant – This force holds together the protons and neutrons in the nuclei of atoms. It must be just right to form stable atoms.

Weak Nuclear Force Constant – This force regulates radioactive decay and must be precisely correct to form stars such as our Sun.

Cosmological Constant – This force controls the universe’s expansion speed, balancing the attractive force of gravity with the repulsive force causing space to expand. It must be extremely precise to prevent the universe from flying apart or collapsing on itself.

A properly “baked” universe requires that all of these constants and many more parameters be just right. The chance of all of them coming together by accident is beyond impossible. Fine-tuning the universe requires intelligent planning far beyond that of any human baker, and it could not have happened by accident. It is evidence of an intelligent creator God.