DOES GOD EXIST? TODAY

March 11, 2024March 8, 2024

Mutualism Shows Life Design

We call it mutualism when various complex relationships occur between two species, producing codependency and benefits to both. There are two kinds of mutualisms. In obligate mutualism, both species depend on each other for survival. Facultative mutualism refers to relationships that benefit the species, but they could survive without it. Looking at life on Earth, we see many examples of how mutualism shows life design.

In Borneo, a carnivorous pitcher plant and wooly bats have a relationship of obligate mutualism. The plant lures bats in with an echo reflector, but the plant doesn’t eat the bat. The pitcher plant grows in soils with low nutrients and needs additional fertilizer. The droppings of the bats provide that fertilizer, enabling the plant to survive. The woolly bats are easy victims of predatory animals, but during the daytime, when the bat isn’t hunting insects, it finds refuge and protection inside the pitcher plant. The plant and the bat depend on this relationship, but no one would suggest they are related.

Legumes such as beans, peas, and clover form a mutualism with bacteria. The bacteria can fix nitrogen from the atmosphere, turning it into ammonia. The plants use the nitrogen from the ammonia to synthesize proteins needed for growth. The plants serve the bacteria by housing them in root nodules and providing them with sugars and oxygen so they can grow. Once again, mutualism shows life design.

There are a vast number of smaller organisms that depend upon obligate mutualism. An example is a green-brown spongy sludge that grows on the marshes of the Florida Everglades. It may look like a toxic algal bloom drawing oxygen from the water. But instead of being destructive, it is a mutual design of algae, fungi, microbes, and bacteria. This perfectly matched relationship is called a periphyton. It is a system of life that provides the basis for the entire food chain of the Everglades and another example of how mutualism shows life design.

Trying to explain how mutualism became part of Earth’s living systems by a chance process takes a huge imagination and a great deal of faith. It seems far more likely that mutualism is not an accident but part of God’s design for life. The more we know of the creation, the closer we get to the Creator.

References: BBC News for February 14, 2024, and Wikipedia

March 8, 2024March 7, 2024

Evidence for a Changing Climate

Those of us who live in the Great Lakes area are wondering what happened to winter. This year, we have had very little snow, virtually no frigid temperatures, and a lack of ice on our lakes and rivers. Usually, we see 53% of our Great Lakes covered with ice. We frequently travel to the lighthouses and bays to see ice piled up against the shoreline and other obstacles. The total ice coverage of the Great Lakes for 2023/2024 was 2.7%, and the chances of that number changing in March seem nonexistent. This is another evidence for a changing climate.

The United States experienced 28 weather-related disasters, causing over a billion dollars in damage. These numbers are gleaned from data on hurricanes, floods, and wildfires, but the damage goes far beyond the obvious causes of expense. A major industry in this part of the country is fruit growing. Apples, apricots, blueberries, and peaches provide a good income for growers, and we can purchase most of these crops at relatively low prices in this area. The problem is that the crop can be lost if the trees bloom too early and the buds get frosted. In the first week of March, we had temperatures in the 60s and 70s, increasing the prospect of losing the fruit crops if the temperature drops.

Some people say there is no evidence for a changing climate, so we don’t need to make serious changes in how we manage the planet. This ministry is built around the appeal to evidence. The Bible contains many examples of God calling people to look at evidence – for example, Gideon and the fleece and Thomas and the resurrection. Evidence shows that the Earth is going through a period of increasing temperature. We also know that at times in the past, Earth’s climate has been mu c h warmer than it is today.

Just as there is strong evidence for a changing climate, the evidence for God’s existence is massive. Ignoring the need to care for the Earth can be catastrophic. Ignoring the importance of changing how we use what God has given us will bring hardship to all of us. Ignoring God’s existence and the importance of living as He calls us to will be even more catastrophic, with eternal consequences. We need to deal with the evidence God has given us and change how we conduct our lives.

Reference: The Week for March 8, 2024, page 16.

March 7, 2024March 5, 2024

The Effects of Plasmas

Most people are familiar with the three states of matter—solid, liquid, and gas. However, they may not know there is a fourth state of matter—plasma. You may be surprised to learn that plasmas are the most abundant form of matter in the cosmos. The effects of plasmas can help us understand many UFO sightings and may be the method God used to accomplish some of His work on Earth.

When matter becomes hot enough or is altered by strong magnetic fields, the electrons may split away from their parent atoms. When that happens, the electrons and the ionized nucleus give off light. Stars are made of plasma produced by the intense heat of their nuclear fires. We see examples of plasmas in our daily lives in fluorescent and neon lights and lightning.

Plasma can move in various ways and become attracted to solid matter. People have observed plasmas following aircraft and around nuclear power plants. NASA astronauts have seen large plasmas moving through space. When they descend into Earth’s atmosphere, they become attracted to almost anything, especially things with great heat or a strong magnetic field. Plasmas can have many shapes, including balls, cigar shapes, and disks. Many UFO sightings are almost sure to be the effects of plasmas.

Could God have used plasmas to produce some of the visual effects the Bible describes? The star of Bethlehem, the bush Moses saw that was not consumed, and the pillar of fire that led ancient Israel are all possible plasmas. How about the extended sunshine in Joshua 10? God can use natural methods for many of the things the Bible describes. Relegating them to superstition or myth is ignoring the reasonable causes we know exist. In the Bible or UFO sightings, observers may see the effects of plasmas and not understand what they are.

Reference: Wikipedia

March 6, 2024March 5, 2024

The Beautiful Ugly Opossum

Perhaps you have seen this animal prowling your neighborhood and looked at the ugly opossum with disdain. When Captain John Smith of the Jamestown Colony in Virginia first saw an opossum in 1611, he described it as a cross between a pig, a rat, and a cat. Although people often consider them unattractive, we appreciate the beautiful, ugly opossum design as they serve a unique purpose in America.

Opossums are the only marsupials in North America. Like kangaroos and other Australian marsupials, opossums birth their young shortly after conception. The newborn must find its way into the pouch, where it will nurse for up to four months before emerging.

Opossums have 50 teeth, allowing them to eat just about anything. Their omnivorous diet includes rodents, frogs, birds, eggs, insects, fruit, and grain. They will eat dead animals, including the bones, and they remove pests from our gardens. They don’t burrow, and unlike raccoons, they are not dexterous enough to get into trash bins or your house or garage by digging into a wall or roof. Although people often describe opossums as ugly, they are among our best animal friends.

Opossums are nocturnal, so we rarely see them except when they get hit by a car. They are not aggressive, and when frightened, they often play dead. Their low body temperature of 94 degrees (F) prevents them from getting rabies and other viruses, and they are not affected by snake venom.

The beautiful, ugly opossum is part of God’s design for life on this planet. All animals serve a purpose in the natural world, but we often vilify opossums because of their appearance, not realizing the ways they benefit us.

References: Wikipedia and Saturday Evening Post for March/April 2024, page 21.

March 5, 2024March 4, 2024

The Habitability of Mars Is Bogus

The media presents Mars as the next home for humanity. The main reasons include that it is our closest planet, has received massive treatment by science fiction writers, and scientists say it has an earth-like history. However, a significant amount of data from robotic spacecraft has exposed the fact that the habitability of Mars is bogus.

Mars doesn’t even begin to approach the conditions necessary for humans to exist on its surface. We are realizing that planet Earth is a very, very unusual place. Discover magazine published an excellent summary of what Mars is like and how difficult it would be for human habitation. The enormous distance to Mars is an obvious problem, but consider these facts:

1) Mars is a barren desert with temperatures regularly hitting -81 degrees Fahrenheit.
2) The air on Mars is 95% carbon dioxide, and no liquid water has been found on its surface.
3) Mars’s magnetic field and atmosphere would not provide adequate protection against cosmic radiation, known to cause massive health problems for humans.
4) The Martian soil contains perchlorates, toxic compounds of chlorine. Growing plants on Mars for food would be impossible because of this and because the amount of sunlight reaching the surface of Mars is about 60% of that on Earth.
5) Mars is smaller than Earth, and thus, its gravity is less. Experiments show that constant physical training would be required for anyone staying on Mars for any significant time.

The bottom line is that the habitability of Mars is bogus. Living there would be extremely difficult. People would have to take with them the things God has provided on Earth. Living on Mars would require synthetic buildings that duplicate Earth-like conditions. They may have to be underground for radiation protection.

Something that the media and most of the general population have not understood is that the planet God has given us is unique, and the habitability of Mars is bogus. There is no place in our solar system where humans can exist without making extreme provisions. Please don’t take what we have on planet Earth for granted. It is an incredible gift created for us, and the Creator expects all of us to take care of it.

Reference: March/April 2024 issue of Discover magazine

March 4, 2024March 3, 2024

Blaming God For Human Mismanagement

Our hearts go out to those who have lost property and maybe even loved ones to the so-called natural disasters that have increased in frequency and size. Few of these disasters are the typical product of nature. What God created has always been in balance and functioned without the massive changes we are seeing in today’s world, but skeptics are blaming God for human mismanagement.

Among the disasters that have increased in number and ferocity are wildfires. They destroyed massive numbers of trees, causing a shortage of wood and wood products, destroying homes and businesses, and even entire towns. The Nature Conservancy reported that the average wildfire size today is 23,000 acres. In the 1980’s, the average wildfire size was 7,000 acres. A currently burning wildfire in Texas has destroyed more than one million acres.

Those of us with some training in environmental management know that the “Smokey the Bear” idea of preventing any kind of fire was an ignorant practice. In the natural world, lightning and spontaneous combustion produce small fires. When you allow leaves and dead wood to accumulate for decades, a lightning strike can cause a massive fire with lots of fuel for combustion. Even the amount of smoke these huge fires generate threatens people living thousands of miles away.

God has used fires in surprising ways. There are some trees whose seeds do not germinate unless they have been exposed to fire. Some animals depend on naturally burned-over areas to produce food such as berries and nuts. Still, we have been in some areas where the fire’s massive heat sterilized the area, preventing anything from growing.

Skeptics are blaming God for human mismanagement that has caused the devastating fires we are seeing today. A major cause of today’s catastrophic fires is human prevention of naturally occurring small fires. We need to recognize that the intelligence of design has kept woodlands healthy and stable in the past. We must work with that design intelligently to avoid the tragic pictures we see on the news.

We also need to understand that there are some places where humans should not build buildings. We all know that Los Angeles and San Francisco straddle the San Andreas fault, which has produced severe earthquakes in the past and will do it again. When that happens, skeptics will be blaming God for human mismanagement, even though the warnings were there. We know what we must do, but greed and selfishness seem to rule the day instead of intelligent management of what God has given us.

References: The Nature Conservancy newsletter first issue for 2024 (page 13) and NBC News

March 1, 2024February 27, 2024

What the Church Is Not and What It Is

One of the challenges we receive from people is to describe what the Church is. Jesus Christ, in Matthew 16:18, described the Church as built on the rock that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. The biblical Church does not even remotely coincide with what people tell us are the reasons why they don’t want to become part of a local church and live as Christ taught. People today are often confused about what the Church is, confusing it with what the Church is not:

1) The Church is not a building, and no money is involved in the construction of the Church described in the Bible.
2) The Church is not a political entity of any kind. (Matthew 22:21)
3) The Church is not made up of perfect people. The only thing Christians have that is not enjoyed by those outside of the Church is God’s forgiveness.
4) The Church’s message is not a bunch of “Thou shalt nots.” The message of Christ is what men and women SHOULD be doing, not the evil they might have done.
5) The Church is not a social club. Fellowship does not revolve around playing Bingo. The fellowship the Bible describes is support and help for hurting people. (James 5:13-20)

We find the biblical description of the Church in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, Ephesians 1:22-24, and Acts 2:44-47. Those passages describe the nature and power of the Church. Who cares for those who desperately need help – the homeless, the abandoned, those needing food, water, clothing, and shelter? Who reaches out to those in prisons and their families? Who reaches out to those broken by their previous mistakes and desperately wanting forgiveness from God and people? It isn’t the atheists, agnostics, or skeptics, but those who are part of the biblical Church.

People often confuse what the Church is not for what the Church is. Those who attack the Church are usually those unwilling to be part of the solution to today’s deepest problems. (John 3:17)

February 29, 2024February 28, 2024

Should Only the Fit and Wanted Be Allowed to Survive?

People in the abortion debate avoid the question of when a baby in the mother’s womb should be called a human. The scientific facts do not support attempts by abortion supporters to say that the baby is just an extension of the mother’s body and, like hair or fingernails, can be removed at the discretion of the mother. Should only the fit and wanted be allowed to survive?

One of the many evidences that the baby is a human and not an extension of the mother’s body is the issue of morning sickness. A new study reveals that the nausea may be caused by a protein called GDF15 produced by the fetus. The mother’s body rejects the protein as coming from a foreign object. Claims that morning sickness is psychological have been disproven and are “widely refuted.”

It is not hard to understand why a woman with an unwanted pregnancy would choose abortion. However, from a scientific sta n dpoint, the fetus is a human. We need to emphasize the alternatives to killing an inconvenient child. Our culture must understand the value of human life. If we accept the idea of destroying anyone who places a burden on others, then killing Alzheimer patients, cancer patients, elderly people with limited life expectancy, and people with severe mental illness will be acceptable.

The Bible makes it clear that we are created in God’s image. All human life is precious, and each person has a purpose for existing. On the other hand, should only the fit and wanted be allowed to survive? Evolution says “yes.” While that may work for raising chickens, it is not what we want for the future of our children and grandchildren.

Reference: “Fetuses make a protein that causes morning sickness in pregnancy” in Science News magazine’s January 27, 2024 issue.

February 28, 2024February 26, 2024

Ice Worms and Ooligans

The National Park Service website has a page on ice worms that live in the glaciers of the Pacific coast of North America. This reminds me of a children’s book by Charlsey Ford that we published in 2005. Charlsey worked with us for many years in our efforts to show that science and faith are symbiotic and not adversarial. Charlsey’s book Animals of the Cold was illustrated by John W. Davis III and Alyssa Cain. It shows that God has placed life, such as ice worms and ooligans, even in the most hostile locations on Earth.

Tiny ice worms live in colonies of thousands in a square meter of a glacier. According to the National Park Service, they are so well suited for the cold that they will “melt” at room temperature as their cells become liquified. Ice worms live in tunnels in the glacier ice and eat algae, bacteria, pollen, and dust that falls on the glacier. Ice worms produce soil that allows plants to grow in a desolate place. Birds such as the snow bunting feed on the worms. Being at the bottom of the food chain, ice worms provide the basis for life in glaciated areas.

The ooligan is another life form uniquely designed to live in very cold climates. Ooligans are sometimes called “candlefish” because they contain so much oil that if you dry the fish and light a wick in its mouth, it will burn like a candle. Native people in the Bering Sea area have used ooligans for centuries as food and medicine. Ice worms and ooligans are two of the beautifully designed organisms that allow life to exist in extreme environments.

Life on planet Earth fits well with the words of Romans 1:19-22 which tells us we can know there is a God through the things He has made. From deserts to dark, deep ocean habitats, we can see that a wonder-working hand has gone before.

Reference: “Glacier Ice Worms” on the National Park Service website.

Note: Copies of Animals of the Cold are available for $2.00 to cover postage from the Does God Exist? Ministry, 1555 Echo Valley Drive, Niles, MI 49120, or you can purchase the entire set of Does God Exist? children’s books from the PowerVine.store website.

February 27, 2024February 26, 2024

The IVF War is Not Nearing a Solution

In-vitro fertilization has become the latest issue in the political battle. In IVF, multiple eggs are harvested from a woman and then are fertilized and implanted to create a pregnancy. The usual method is to freeze the embryo produced for later implantation. The National Embryo Donation Center says that the number of frozen embryos nationwide is around a million, and nearly 100,000 babies are born annually by IVF, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The IVF war has become a problematic political issue.

After Roe v Wade was made law in 1973, frozen embryos were treated by the courts as private property, and donors could implant them, give them away, or have them destroyed. In February 2024, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos created during the IVF process are “extrauterine children” and have the same rights as any other child.

This issue has produced massive legal hassles. Two couples have sued the company that accidentally destroyed their frozen embryos. Vice President Kamala Harris has been giving speeches that she calls “The Reproductive Rights Tour.” The Democratic party has brought back the overturning of Roe v Wade to make this issue a major one for their 2014 campaign. Various Republicans have taken the view that embryos are babies, but the leaders are in favor of IVF. The IVF war is not nearing a solution.

In the IVF procedure, multiple eggs are taken from the woman, fertilized, and then implanted in the woman’s uterus. The medical experts pick the one or two that look the most promising to implant in the womb and often discard the others. If there are ten eggs and eight are discarded, have eight people been murdered? Advancements in IVF technology have reduced the number of errors in this process, but there are still mistakes.

Any time humans try to take over what God has created, the result is complicated. IVF is one of many issues that resulted from advancements in medical technology. Christians need to be aware of the IVF war and try to help find solutions, not just engage in a battle of words with unbelievers.

References: National Embryo Donation Center, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and USA Today for 2/23/24 and 2/21/24.