creation Archives - Page 26 of 70 - DOES GOD EXIST? TODAY

June 21, 2022June 20, 2022

What Does the Solstice Confirm?

At 5:14 a.m. EDT this morning (09:14 GMT), the slow northward migration of the Sun reached its peak. As a result, daylight hours are maximized, and the hours of darkness are minimized for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. For those south of the equator, the opposite is true. In the north, we call the June solstice our summer solstice, and in the south half of our planet, it’s known as the winter solstice. So what does the solstice confirm?

In truth, the Sun has not been migrating north since December 21. It just looks that way. At a precise time this morning, the Sun appears to begin its trek southward, and daylight will be a little shorter each day. In North America, we think of this as the first day of summer, but people in Scandanavian countries call it midsummer. In Sweden, Norway, Finland, and other countries many people celebrate June 24 as Midsummer’s Day.

People living north of the Arctic circle will experience the “midnight sun” today. However, south of the Antarctic circle, it will be 24 hours of darkness. This is because of the 23.5-degree tilt of Earth’s axis relative to its orbit around the Sun. That is why we have seasons and the explanation of today’s solstice. But what does the solstice confirm?

Earth’s tilt is no accident. God planned it that way for good reason. (See Genesis 1:14.) As we have explained before, the hot sunshine would constantly beat down on the equator without the Earth’s tilt, making it inhospitable for life and leaving the northern and southern latitudes too cold. The lack of seasonal change would negatively affect life in many ways.

So, what does the solstice confirm? It is one more confirmation of design. We often overlook the well-designed features of this planet that make advanced life possible. Considering even a few of them, we have to say it didn’t happen by chance. When we realize all of Earth’s precision design features, we must admit that the best explanation is an intelligent Designer.

June 20, 2022June 19, 2022

Happy the Elephant Is Denied Personhood

Atheists claim that humans are just animals, so animals should have the same rights as humans. On June 14, 2022, the New York Court of Appeals denied a claim by a Florida-based animal rights group called “The Nonhuman Rights Project.” The group had claimed that an elephant named “Happy” in the Bronx Zoo was in illegal custody and should be released because the elephant was equal to humans. After four years of litigation, Happy the elephant is denied personhood by the New York Court of Appeals.

There have been stories by animal protection groups of elephants displaying emotions that they interpret as typical human responses to the death of a family member. Other people have ascribed similar arguments for humanizing a pet dog or cat. We call this anthropomorphism, and we have dealt with it before.

If you deny that humans are created in the image of God, then any animal can be considered equal to humans. However, because we are in God’s image, humans have spiritual characteristics that animals don’t have. For example, we can express creativity in art and music, feel guilt and sympathy, have a complete self-concept, appreciate beauty, and worship God. Some people may ascribe human characteristics to a loved animal, suggesting that it can do one of these things, but they would not argue that the animal can do all of them.

Chief Judge Janet DiFiore wrote, “While no one disputes that elephants are intelligent beings deserving of proper care and compassion, Happy, as a nonhuman animal, does not have a legally cognizable right to be at liberty under New York law.” She said that the legislature would have to decide to grant nonhuman animals the same legal rights as humans.

The court’s decision was five to two, with the two jurists strongly dissenting. So, at least for now, Happy the elephant is denied personhood unless the legislature decides to change the law. Interestingly, the New York legislature denies personhood for a human baby up to the moment of birth.

Reference: AOL News

June 17, 2022June 16, 2022

Do We Have Enough Water?

Parade Magazine published a question to Marilyn Vos Savant in which the writer asked, “If you had a cubic mile of water in a tank, and you start pumping it at 1000 gallons per minute, how long would it take to empty the tank?” Her answer was it would take over 2,000 years. There are many places on Earth where we have more than a cubic mile of water. The essential question is, “Do we have enough water?” The answer is that if we used what God has given us wisely, we would not have a water problem.

If we have enough water, why is there a water shortage as lakes dry up in California and Arizona? Also, why are people facing water shortages in drought conditions worldwide? God has given us enough water, but we are not doing a good job of distributing it. We can take the minerals from seawater to make fresh water. The energy cost to do that is high, but technology has greatly reduced it from what it used to be.

We have pipelines that carry liquid fossil fuels to enormous distances. If you think that building a water pipeline from the ocean to a destination hundreds of miles away is too expensive, consider how much money humans spend on war and weapons to harm others. It is disappointing to hear and read skeptics blaming God for the suffering involved in water shortages when they result from human ignorance, greed, and politics.

Genesis 2:6 tells us that a mist from the ground watered the planet in the creation process. Verses 10-14 describe four rivers coming from a source that flowed out of Eden. The area of the world where those rivers flow is part of the Fertile Crescent, which has a history of producing vast volumes of grain to provide food for humans and animals.

Do we have enough water? The answer is yes. Anywhere on Earth can be an Eden if we merely take care of our planet’s God-given water supplies.

Reference: Parade Magazine May 22-29, 2022

June 15, 2022June 14, 2022

Strawberry Supermoon and What It Means

It’s the final full moon of spring 2022, and people call it the strawberry supermoon. The name “strawberry moon” dates back to colonial times and perhaps native Americans. It has nothing to do with the Moon’s color but the fact that the last of spring or first of summer full moon comes when strawberries are ripening. This year, it’s a supermoon because it comes when the Moon is closest to Earth.

Our Moon has a slightly elliptical orbit, bringing it closer or farther away during the year. On average, it is about 30 Earth diameters away, and the distance varies by about one Earth diameter. That is just enough to make the size difference barely noticeable. The point when the Moon is closest to Earth is called perigee, and today it just happens to be 222,238 miles (357,658 km). That isn’t maximum perigee, but it is close enough to earn the title strawberry supermoon.

No matter what anyone tells you, the Moon is not about to crash into the Earth. In fact, it is gradually moving away from Earth at about 3.8 cm per year. At that rate, you don’t have to worry about the Moon flying off into space in your lifetime. Also, despite rumors to the contrary, you don’t have to worry about the full moon making you crazy or increasing psychiatric traumas, murders, or other crimes. Since criminals like the cover of darkness, perhaps the extra light at night might discourage nefarious activity, but I haven’t seen any statistics on that. Everyone knows that the gravity of the Moon is the main cause of ocean tides, but the slight difference in gravity from supermoons makes a negligible difference.

The strawberry supermoon peaked at 7:51 a.m. EDT (1151 GMT) on Tuesday morning, June 14, but you may not have been able to see it then. It will still look almost full tonight, so as you admire it, thank God for our wonderful Moon. It won’t crash into Earth, make you crazy, or cause an increase in crimes. However, our Moon does have many life-supporting functions, as we have discussed before. Below are links to some of our previous postings.

Planet-Moon Size Ratio

Why Does the Moon Look Larger Near the Horizon?

Our Essential Moon and Life on Earth

Opening the Suez Canal by the Moon’s Gravity

Moon Record in the Solar System

Moon Causes Tides

Moon Mass and Life on Earth

Just Right Moon

June 13, 2022June 12, 2022

Ancient Trilobites Had the Solution to Focusing Problems

Most of us have faced the problem of focus when taking a picture or looking through binoculars. If you focus on something close to you, things in the distance are out of focus and visa-versa. Historians credit Benjamin Franklin with inventing bifocals to solve this problem, but researchers have found that ancient trilobites had the solution to focusing problems long before him.

Trilobites were sea creatures that needed to focus on prey up close without losing sight of predators approaching. Studies of fossils of a trilobite known as Dalmanitina socialis have led scientists to create a new camera lens. The trilobite’s eye was so well-designed that an object an inch away and another a mile away would both be in perfect focus. Amit Agrawal of the National Institute of Standards and Technology wrote, “To the best of our knowledge, this type of compound-eye visual system is unique…in contrast to the single focal vision system present in all-known living arthropods that exist today.”

The trilobite eye had two concentric lenses that could focus near and far at the same time. Based on that design, Agrawal and his team developed a “spin-multiplexed bifocal metalens array capable of capturing high-resolution light-field images over a record depth-of-field ranging from centimeter to kilometer scale.” The metalens is a flat lens made up of millions of rectangular nanopillars that bend light differently depending on their shape, size, and arrangement. A computer algorithm brings these multiple images into a single picture with all objects in focus.

Potential applications of this new technology are many and varied. For example, Metalenses could be used for 3-D photography, self-driving cars, and Mars rovers. Ancient trilobites had the solution to focusing problems, and scientists date these creatures to some 400 million years ago. Human technology and engineering are just now learning to mimic what the Creator did in forming the trilobite eye. Everywhere we look in the natural world, we see that a wonder-working hand has gone before, and the trilobite is one more example.

References: Science News for June 4, 2022 page 12 and Nature Communications April 19, 2022.

June 11, 2022June 9, 2022

Why Does Anything Exist?

Why is there something rather than nothing? Most scientists today agree that the universe had a beginning. They disagree on how it began, but they largely accept the idea that it began to exist. However, another question many ask is, “Why does anything exist?” If there was nothing before the universe began, why are we here?

If nothing existed before the universe began, it is difficult to explain why there is anything at all. Some scientists have tried redefining “nothing” to make it “something.” Sometimes they suggest that something is gravity. So, if gravity existed before there was anything, where did the gravity come from? What they are doing is to substitute gravity for God, but how can there be gravity without mass?

Isaac Newton described gravity as the attraction between objects that have mass. The more mass, the more gravity pulls them together. That was the accepted theory until Einstein devised a new idea. His theory defined gravity as a curvature in space-time, which is the accepted concept today. But, according to scientists, the cosmic creation event (usually referred to as the big bang) was also the beginning of space and time. So, where does gravity come from if there is no space-time or matter-energy? That still does not answer the question, “Why does anything exist?”

Of course, if science says that gravity existed before anything else, atheists argue that it is no different from saying that God existed before anything else. Who or what made God? Everything that begins to exist must indeed have a cause. However, God is eternal. He did not begin to exist. God is the first cause, the unmade Maker, the necessarily existing uncaused Being. If God created time and space, He is outside of time and space. God existed before time, but even using the term “before” shows that we are limited to thinking in time terms. There is no before or after with God. He knows the future because He can see the entire timeline of the cosmos, viewing it from the outside.

So back to our original question, “Why does anything exist?” We can say that everything exists because God exists. God chose to create this fine-tuned universe of space, time, matter, and energy. Since God is outside of time, He can hear the prayers of millions of people all over the world at the same time. There I go using that “time” word again. We can’t think outside of time because we can’t live outside of time. If we could, for just a moment (another time word), step outside of history’s timeline and see it from God’s perspective, we could understand why God allows things to happen. We could understand the things that make us ask, “Why doesn’t God stop that from happening?” We could see the conclusion of all things. We would know that because of God’s wisdom, justice, and love, the conclusion is good.

June 10, 2022June 8, 2022

Earth Is a Complex Living Planet

In 1883, an Indonesian volcano named Krakatoa, or Krakatau, erupted. In August of that year, the volcano exploded with such fury that 70% of the island collapsed into the caldera. The explosion was so violent that people heard it thousands of miles away. On January 15, 2022, Tonga’s Hunga volcano exploded. That island nation was devastated, and people heard the booms in Alaska, 6,200 miles (almost 10,000 km) away. Events such as those remind us that Earth is a complex living planet.

On January 14, 2022, the Hunga volcano erupted, apparently sinking the volcano’s main vent below sea level. That set up conditions for the volcano to explode the next day. Because of the capabilities of modern science, a team of 76 scientists in 17 nations studied the atmospheric waves created by the explosion, concluding that they were the strongest since the Krakatau explosion nearly 140 years ago. David Fee of the University of Alaska Fairbanks said, “Our hope is that we will be better able to monitor volcanic eruptions and tsunamis by understanding the atmospheric waves from this eruption.”

Earth is a complex living planet with massive forces at work, constantly changing its surface. The North American land mass is unusually stable, allowing us to build huge buildings and large cities, but much of the world is not that stable. In recent years, we have learned that the continents move, bringing to the surface new minerals and nutrients needed for life. In addition, in the ocean trenches, material is taken back into Earth’s core to be reworked and brought back to Earth’s crust.

The more we learn about our planet and the forces that have molded and shaped it to make life possible, the more apparent it becomes that life is extraordinary and the habitat that supports it is unique. Therefore, taking care of this beautiful creation of God is essential, and part of that is understanding that Earth is a complex living planet.

Reference: National Science Foundation and the journal Science.

June 7, 2022June 6, 2022

Planet-Moon Size Ratio

What is the optimum size for a planet to form a just-right moon? According to a new study, the short answer to that question is, “Just about the size of planet Earth.” Is that another coincidence or a matter of design? First, let’s consider the planet-moon size ratio.

The radius of the Moon is a little more than one-fourth of Earth’s radius. That four-to-one ratio is unlike any other planet-moon size ratio in our solar system. The solar system’s largest moon is Ganymede which orbits Jupiter. It is one-third larger than our Moon, but Jupiter is more than 11 times the diameter of Earth. The essential factor is that our Moon is larger in relation to the size of the planet it orbits than any other moon in the solar system.

Scientists believe that our Moon was formed when a planet the size of Mars collided with the early Earth. The heat caused by the collision vaporized the material, which eventually congealed to form the Moon and planet Earth. (See Genesis 1:1-2.) The angle of that collision was precisely fine-tuned to result in a planet and moon with the exact size ratio for the Moon to control Earth’s tilt, rotation speed, and ocean tides, as well as perfectly covering the Sun during a total solar eclipse.

To suggest that the creation of a planet perfect for advanced life could have been an accident requires that you have a lot of faith in chance. But a new study by researchers from the University of Rochester in New York adds even more evidence for design. They found that a planet more than 1.3 to 1.6 times Earth’s size could not form a moon that would have the “life-enabling effects” that our Moon has.

Computer modeling shows that if larger planets collided, the energy of the impact would vaporize the material, but a stabilizing moon could not form. The vaporized material would cause drag on the planet, slowing it down so much that gravity would cause any material that congealed to crash into the planet. Not only is the planet-moon size ratio essential, but so also is the size of the colliding bodies.

Numerous factors beyond the planet-moon size ratio must be just right for a functional, life-supporting planet to form. Our planet meets every one of those requirements, and so far, astronomers have not found any other planet that does. The Bible does not tell us whether God chose to create life on another suitable planet anywhere in the universe. However, scientists will never stop looking for it. In the meantime, they keep finding factors that show evidence of intelligent design everywhere in the universe.

References: Space.com and Nature Communications

June 1, 2022May 31, 2022

Where Do We Find Dinosaurs Mentioned in the Bible?

Yesterday, we pointed out that words like “behemoth” in the original language of Genesis 1 would not have included animals like dinosaurs but referred to animals the ancient Israelites knew. So the next logical question would be, “Where do we find dinosaurs mentioned in the Bible?” The answer to that question is “nowhere.”

Why would the Bible mention dinosaurs? Consider how you would explain bacteria to a man with no microscope, or how could a person living in the jungle make sense of an octopus? When an explorer brought a stuffed platypus back to England for the first time, people thought it was a fake. Millions of different plants and animals have lived on Earth, and many of those still exist today. The purpose of the Genesis account is to say that God created everything, not to identify the millions of species that have lived on Earth. Genesis mentions only the animals the Israelites could identify and name.

So from today’s perspective, when did those animals exist? Some fundamentalists have suggested that we don’t find dinosaurs mentioned in the Bible because they didn’t exist. They say that God miraculously created dinosaur fossils to give the appearance that the animals lived when they did not. That explanation makes God a liar trying to fool us into a false conclusion.

Others suggest that dinosaurs were there but simply weren’t mentioned in the Bible. There is no evidence that animals like T-rex lived at the time of Adam and Eve. In reality, the atmosphere and temperatures necessary for such an animal to survive would be detrimental to humans.

Since we don’t find dinosaurs mentioned in the Bible, what was God’s reason for creating these huge animals? God knew that humans would need an environment optimized for their survival. In Alaska today, the survival of various life forms depends on salmon bringing nutrients into an environment lacking those essentials to support life. Like the salmon, the dinosaurs were the vehicles that provided resources needed for humans to exist and flourish later. The plant-eating dinosaurs consumed massive amounts of vegetation and excreted processed plant materials and seeds. They spread the vegetation and produced topsoil and critical elements necessary for human life. No animal living today could accomplish that task.

When Genesis 1:1 tells us that God created the heavens and the earth, the result would be a functioning universe and a dynamic planet where humans could eventually live. Earth was not a blob of molten rock or hydrocarbons but a functional planet, and dinosaurs were one of the tools God used to prepare it for humans. The big animals and plants helped create topsoil, coal, and a variety of trace elements human life would need. The oceans nurtured diatoms that produced the massive amounts of hydrocarbons humans would need for oil and gas. We don’t find bacteria, diatoms, or dinosaurs mentioned in the Bible because they are included in Genesis 1:1.

God could have zapped the hydrocarbons into existence, but if He had done it that way, humans could never have located them. God not only created the resources we would need, but He did it in a way that we could find them. He gave us the intelligence to study His methods to find the resources and obtain them for our use.

The wisdom of God in designing Earth to sustain human life is incredible. Every day, science finds new clues about how the planet was designed and how things we might consider insignificant are critical to our existence.

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May 31, 2022May 30, 2022

Interpret the Bible Literally

We hear from both skeptics and biblical fundamentalists about taking the Bible literally. However, even those who claim to interpret the Bible literally often don’t, resulting in some ridiculous errors. Furthermore, those misinterpretations cause faith challenges for better educated young people because they realize that some things people ascribe to the Bible are not logically or scientifically possible.

To interpret the Bible literally, you must take the whole Bible and not cherry-pick individual passages to support what you already believe. It also means looking at the original language and asking how those to whom it was written would have understood it. Let’s take a modern example. What does the Spanish phrase “Juan tiene frio” mean? Translated literally, the words would mean “John has cold.” It could either mean John is cold or John has a cold – he is sick. How would you know what the writer intended?

Sometimes the wording looks like it is unrelated to what it actually means. For example, what does “Juan me cae bien gordo” mean? The words are “John me falls well fat.” So is this a comment about my waistline? My Spanish-speaking associates tell me it means “John really bugs me.” You would know that by understanding the culture and how those who speak the language would understand it.

This is also true of Hebrew and Greek. When the first chapter of Genesis lists the animals God created, the Hebrew words refer to creatures the readers knew. “Behemah” in verses 24 and 25 did not include dinosaurs, platypuses, giraffes, or elephants. People would have understood it to refer to the cattle the readers knew. “Remes” in the same verses would not have meant snakes and komodo dragons but rather the smaller examples of livestock like goats and sheep the readers knew. In Genesis 9:1-3, “remes” is included as an animal that God said would be food for the Israelites. We know that the Jews had food restrictions that would not have included snakes, worms, and komodos, so the meaning of “remes” is clear.

Those who attempt to include dinosaurs on Noah’s ark are not taking the Bible literally. When they do that, they provide fuel for those who say the Bible is a book of myths. We must understand what it means to interpret the Bible literally. We will deal with more on the dinosaurs tomorrow.