Does God Exist Archives

October 16, 2023October 14, 2023

Annular Solar Eclipse

If you were in the path of the annular solar eclipse on Saturday, October 14, 2023, and had a clear sky, you were privileged to see something that won’t happen again until 2039. In an annular solar eclipse, as opposed to total or partial eclipses, the Moon passes directly between the Sun and Earth without totally blocking the Sun. That is because the Moon is at a distant point in its eliptical orbit. Because of that, it appears slightly smaller, so its shadow cannot completely hide the Sun from our view.

The Moon and Sun are on the same side of Earth once every 29.5 days. We call that event the “new moon” because it is invisible to us. When the Sun and Moon are on opposite sides, we see the monthly “full moon.” Because the orbit of the Moon is 5 degrees off from the Sun’s path (which we call the ecliptic), the Moon rarely falls precisely between the Sun and Earth. When it does, we see a total solar eclipse. When it is a little off from directly blocking the Sun’s light, we witness a partial solar eclipse. We have an annular solar eclipse on those rare times when the Moon is directly in front of the Sun but at its farthest distance from Earth (known as apogee). We see the “ring of fire” around the Moon’s shadow, which is what happened Saturday.

Although the lower 48 United States all experienced a partial eclipse, those in the direct path of the Moon’s shadow witnessed an annular solar eclipse. It began in Oregon, traveled across several western states, and exited from Texas into the Gulf of Mexico. It then covered several Central and South American countries before leaving into the Atlantic Ocean from Brazil. Millions of people could view this annular eclipse. In the U.S., the eclipse crossed several national parks, including Bryce Canyon, where Does God Exist? has often taken groups on our Canyonlands tours.

The wonderfully amazing thing is that we can accurately predict solar (and lunar) eclipses hundreds of years, even a thousand years into the future. That is because we live in a precision-designed universe and solar system. The next solar eclipse crossing North America will be a total eclipse at 2:10 p.m. Eastern time on April 8, 2024. You can put that on your calendar.

Eclipses have taught us many things about our Sun and the solar system design. Regardless of what some people may try to tell you, eclipses are not prophetic signs. They are part of God’s design for a planet where life can live and prosper.

October 13, 2023October 12, 2023

The Red Giant Star Mu Cephei

When you look at the astronomical data on the red giant star Mu Cephei, you can’t help but be amazed at the size and power of things we can see in the cosmos. We read passages like Psalms 19:1, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.” The Hebrew word “glory” is “kabod,” and the lexicon’s first use of that word is weight or power. Mu Cephei is an incredible demonstration of the power of the Creator.

If we could put Mu Cephei in the place of the Sun, the orbit of Jupiter would fit inside it. That means the size of this one star, which is relatively close to the solar system (2800 light years), would exceed the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. If our understanding of stellar evolution is correct, this giant star will eventually collapse into a supernova, producing the elements you and I are made of. We now understand that the stuff we see, the elements that make up everything on Earth, are only 5% of the universe. The European Space Agency’s Planck satellite has revealed that 68% of the cosmos consists of dark energy, 27% is dark matter, and only 5% is atomic matter. So the red giant star Mu Cephei and everything else we can see is only a tiny part of the cosmos.

Science has just scratched the surface of comprehending the fundamental nature of the universe. The words of Psalms 8:3-4 are magnified by what we see as we look into space with our instruments and technology: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you visit him.” The only answer that can come to thinking people is that we are summoned to a higher calling than the physical world in which we live.

After Job’s complaining, God answered him by saying, “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” Then, God challenged Job with many questions about creation in chapters 38 to 41. Humbled, Job responded, “Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.” Using our technology, we can examine the red giant star Mu Cephei and know much more about creation than Job ever could. But there are still many wonderful things that we do not know.

References: NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day for October 22, 2023, and American Scientist magazine for July/August 2023, pages 222-225.

October 12, 2023October 11, 2023

Art and Science – Faith and Science

Brian May cofounded the rock band Queen along with Roger Taylor and Freddie Mercury. He is known as one of the greatest guitarists in the history of rock music, and he is also an expert in astrophysics and a consultant to NASA. May combines his art and science, earning a Ph.D. in astrophysics in 2007 with a thesis involving the study of zodiacal dust, which fills interplanetary space in our solar system.

May worked with NASA on the asteroid sampling mission OSIRIS-REx. Finding a safe landing spot to take samples of the asteroid Bennu was one of the most significant challenges of the mission. May found a way to use images captured by OSIRIS-REx’s cameras and process them into 3-D images showing the rugged contours of the asteroid. Those images allowed NASA scientists to decide where to land the probe.

In a National Geographic interview, Nadia Drake asked May about his approach to art and science and how he combines these two fields. May made an interesting statement about his personal approach to this issue:

“This is central to my life and my beliefs. I was told that I couldn’t do art and science as I progressed through school. I was very resentful about that because I loved them both. I feel like the rest of my life has been trying to prove them wrong. More and more and more, I’ve discovered that artistic thinking and scientific thinking are just different parts of the same thing. It’s a continuum. They’re inextricably linked. You have to have both sides to function at your full potential.”

According to Wikipedia, May describes himself as an agnostic, but his approach to linking art and science can apply to faith and science. Our quarterly magazine has a regular column in which leading scientists explain how they mesh faith and science. Those who try to use science to destroy faith are making a fundamental error. Our faith in the Creator makes us want to learn more about the creation. At the same time, science is a great tool to grow one’s faith because the more we know of the creation, the closer we get to the Creator.

Reference: National Geographic October 2023, page 20

October 11, 2023October 10, 2023

Nobody Is an Expert in Everything

Everyone knows that Albert Einstein, the father of relativity, was a genius. Over the years, we have published several articles dealing with relativity and how it helps us understand modern cosmology and the nature of God. One unintended lesson we can learn from Einstein is that a genius in one area of human endeavor may still be below average in other areas. Nobody is an expert in everything.

Reader’s Digest had a wonderful story of an area of human endeavor in which Einstein failed miserably – sailing a sailboat. In 1939, Einstein rented a cottage in Cutchogue, Long Island, New York. A sailboat came with the house, and Einstein decided to go sailing, thinking that he could be oblivious to the world while sailing.

The problem was that Einstein knew nothing about sailing and couldn’t seem to learn how to do it. On top of that, Einstein had never learned to swim. He capsized the boat over 30 times, requiring local people to rescue him and the boat, towing them to safety. Once, Einstein got caught in a strong wind that took him to Connecticut, where he was stranded and again had to be rescued.

Interestingly, movie stars or professional athletes often comment about politics, education, or how to raise a family, and the media presents it as an expert opinion. A star quarterback in the NFL is probably a poor choice to give a lecture on global warming or vaccines. Being good in one area does not mean you are good in all areas because nobody is an expert in everything.

The same goes for religious leaders commenting on cosmology or paleontology. Sometimes, when I have discussed rock types or methods of measuring time and distance in outer space, a preacher will counter with a comment showing a lack of understanding of those topics. I have heard statements from church leaders indicating that granite was laid down by Noah’s flood or that the Web telescope is looking at galaxies created less than 10,000 years ago.

Knowledgable young people recognize when a church leader makes a disproven scientific statement, and it causes them to see the Church as a relic of the past with no help in their daily lives. Those factors are part of the reason young people leave Christianity. Nobody is an expert in everything, but sometimes, we are better off being silent rather than displaying our lack of understanding.

Reference: Reader’s Digest, September 2023, pages 60-61.

October 10, 2023October 9, 2023

The Church is People, Not Buildings

When Christ walked among humans teaching God’s message, He did not call for building physical structures of brick and mortar but for changing lives. In John 4:21-24 Jesus said to the Samaritan woman: “A time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem … a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and truth.” The point is that the Church is people, not structures.

Despite the clear teaching of Jesus, humans continue to waste massive amounts of money on structures while poverty and starvation afflict most people on this planet. I am a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, and I was reminded of this fact by the Autumn 2023 issue of Notre Dame Magazine. It contained a fact sheet showing the cost of the golden dome at Notre Dame and the Virgin Mary statue atop it. The dome was built in 1883, and the statue was placed there in 1880. The total surface area of the dome and statue is 7,300 square feet, and it is gilded with 23.75-carat gold leaf.

The hollow cast iron statue weighs roughly 4,400 pounds. The gold leaf that covers the statue and dome weighs only 15 pounds. Because of weathering and wear and tear, the gold has to be replaced periodically. The most recent regilding in 2023 was the twelfth time. The price of gold in October of 2023 is $1848.47 per ounce, which is $29,575.52 per pound. That means the gold cost $443, 632.80 not counting labor, cleaning, lighting, etc. The advertising value of the gold dome for the university has to be weighed by the school’s administration. I know that the football team and the gold dome are great publicity for the school, and we do not intend to criticize what they do to promote their institution.

The point is that Christians should realize that the Church is people, not buildings. Expensive structures are not what Christianity is about. In Matthew 25:21-46, when Jesus pictured God’s judgment, it is not the buildings, crosses, or educational institutions that indicate who is saved and who is lost. The point is how we have used what God has given us to benefit the lives of others. Those skeptics who condemn Christianity as extravagant in wasting money should look at what Jesus taught, not the wastefulness of misguided human efforts.

October 9, 2023October 8, 2023

Misunderstandings About Weather and Climate

The cause and control of the weather has been one of the great human misunderstandings throughout the ages and even today. In ancient times, pagan societies invented gods to explain weather phenomena. They had gods and goddesses of rain, hail, lightning, wind, snow, and even rainbows. As human knowledge increased, we have come to understand these things are design features of the Earth. However, we still have misunderstandings about weather and climate. The current climate change debate makes that obvious.

The Bible doesn’t embrace the pagan misunderstandings of weather and related phenomena. Essential to our weather is the water cycle beautifully described in Ecclesiastes 1:7, “All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; the place from which the rivers come they return again.” You will also find this in Job 36:27-28. The ancients viewed lightning as weapons of the gods, but the Bible repeatedly references the fact that lightning is a natural occurrence. (See Jeremiah 10:13 and 51:16.) Recently, a local weather person said that lightning never hits the same place twice, but between 2015 and 2020, lightning struck the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) in Chicago 250 times.

Tornadoes are a significant issue for those who want to blame God for destructive weather. However, few understand that tornadoes are pretty much an American phenomenon that seems related to how we have used the land. Every year, roughly 1,200 tornadoes are reported in the U.S. That is 75% of all tornado reports in the world. I have talked with indigenous people in America, and they tell me that their ancestors never saw a tornado and had no word for it. (They did have a word for dust devils.) Between our plowing and blacktopping the land, we may have provided a catalyst for these terrible storms.

Now, we are seeing global changes in climate and weather. Scientific evidence indicates that the way we use what God has given us is at least a contributor to these changes. Misunderstandings about weather and climate cause some to believe that destructive weather is a vindictive act of an angry God. The truth is that we have caused a very high percentage of our misery from dust storms to recent fires and flooding. We must listen to and obey God’s admonition to “Take care of the garden” (Genesis 2:15).

Reference: Reader’s Digest for September 2023, pages 26-28.

October 6, 2023October 2, 2023

Otzi Had Dark Skin

“Otzi” was the name given to a frozen mummy found on the border between Austria and Italy in 1991. The mummy, also known as “the iceman,” was in such good condition that researchers could complete a DNA analysis of his genome in 2012. Recently, more advanced studies of that DNA show that the earlier sample was contaminated by modern DNA, and Otzi had dark skin.

The Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, compiled a new genome for Otzi. Johannes Krause, writing for the Institute in the August 16, 2023, issue of “Cell Genomics,” reported that there is no connection between Otzi and modern residents of Austria or Italy. The revised genome shows that Otzi had dark skin and was related to Neolithic farmers.

Modern genomes of ancient humans show that dark skin has been the norm for humans until relatively recently in human history. Light skin tones only appeared in the genomes 3 to 4,000 years ago, showing once again the foolishness of racism. The ancient humans described in the Old Testament were undoubtedly dark-skinned.

You cannot use the Bible to justify racial prejudice. The statement that God “has made of one blood all nations of men to dwell upon the face of the earth” (Acts 17:26) is absolutely true. The name “Eve” in the Hebrew of Genesis means “life-giving,” and she would have had dark skin. Genetic studies have shown that all humans have a common DNA fragment indicating a common origin. Those who have viewed Otzi as proof that ancient humans were Caucasians have no scientific support for that claim and now have to admit that Otzi had dark skin.

There is too much scientific support for the biblical account of early humans to write it off as a fantasy or a myth. Science and the Christian faith are symbiotic – they support each other. Let us put racial prejudice to rest and embrace the claim of Galatians 3:28 that we “are all one.”

Reference: Science News September 23, 2023, page 5.

October 5, 2023October 2, 2023

Marijuana is a Hyperaccumulator

One of the tragedies of modern drug use is that scientific research has not had time to study the long-term effects of drugs on the human body. Recent studies have shown that marijuana plants are highly effective at absorbing contaminants without harm to the plants. Marijuana is a hyperaccumulator of pesticides, petroleum solvents, crude oil, and heavy metals such as lead and cadmium. Because of that, growing hemp has successfully removed heavy metals from soils around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and pesticides from contaminated farms in Italy.

Because marijuana is easy to grow and absorbs lead and cadmium from the soils, those elements show up in the blood and urine of cannabis users. Cadmium and lead stay in the body for a long time and are linked to kidney and lung cancer. There is no safe level of lead, which affects the brain. Studies of cannabis users have shown a 22% higher presence of cadmium and a 27% higher level of lead in their blood than non-users.

Poorly researched recreational drugs are contributing to the increase in cancer in America today. With the relaxing rules on drug sales and use, this problem will get worse. Skeptics point out the increasing rate of diseases like cancer as if that disproves God or that God is to blame.

We should not blame God for the tragedies we bring on ourselves. Every plant in the creation has some use that benefits the ecosystem or humans directly or indirectly. Marijuana is a hyperaccumulator of harmful chemicals and can be used for that purpose. However, problems occur when we misuse what God has given us.

Reference: CNN “Marijuana and the Brain”

October 4, 2023October 2, 2023

This Fish Sees With Its Skin

The many unique characteristics we see in animals enabling them to survive give evidence of God’s design and planning. Romans 1:20 says, “We can know there is a God through the things He has made.” Our daily posts here and on Facebook, as well as our Dandy Designs book series, show hundreds of examples. A new example is the hogfish (Lachnolaimus maximus) living in the Atlantic Ocean reefs from the Carolinas to Brazil. You can almost say this fish sees with its skin.

Like many animals, the hogfish’s primary method of survival is camouflage. They hide by changing colors and altering skin patterns. Many animals, such as chameleons, squid, and cuttlefish, have chromatophores, which are pigment-bearing cells that can change color to match the environment. Hogfish also use chromatophores in their skin to change colors, but they have a layer of opsin, a light-sensing protein, under the chromatophore layer.

The hogfish moves through different kinds of background material as the reef has quite varied colors and textures with corals, sponges, and sediment. The fish can change its color to match the environment, but it can’t turn its head to see what color it is. The opsin layer acts as a primitive eye looking at the chromatophores to see that the color matches the surroundings. In that way, this fish sees with its skin.

The design of fish survival in a reef involves a wide variety of techniques. Some can swim rapidly, some can bury themselves in the bottom sediment, and others have immunity to stinging organisms. There are fish who can fly (glide), some can swim in schools, and some, like the Hogfish, can camouflage themselves. Together, they make the reef a place full of life and beauty. Perhaps that beauty will encourage humans to preserve the reefs of the world as places of great aesthetic worth.

Reference: Scientific American referenced in The Week for September 8/15, 2013.

October 3, 2023October 2, 2023

Children Seeking Gender Reassignment

One of the most serious problems facing parents, schools, and churches is what to do with children seeking gender reassignment. This has become a political football, a money-making enterprise, a lawyer’s paradise, and a parent’s nightmare. Teachers deal with kids who are wearing several names and pronouns depending on what their day-to-day feelings dictate.

Those who promote gender reassignment confront unwilling parents with questions such as, “Do you want a dead daughter or a live son?” Studies show that the number of teenage girls with gender dysphoria has risen by 5,000% in seven years. This has become a massive money-maker for various groups, from Planned Parenthood to doctors and hospitals.

A British book by Hannah Barnes titled Time to Think provides a wealth of data on this issue in Europe, and it’s getting some attention in the United States. Here are some interesting facts from Barnes’ book:

*A large number of children seeking gender reassignment had other psychological issues. In one study, 97.5% had one or more disturbing issues, including having been in foster care, endured parental divorce or death, been abused, or endured personal trauma. Seventy percent had five or more difficulties of this kind. Twenty-five percent had histories of self-harm.

*Information given to children about sex change has been generally inaccurate. Kids have been told that puberty blockers would not affect bones, muscles, and brains or that effects were completely reversible. None of those assertions are true.

*Studies done since 2011 on the effects of puberty blockers in England showed no improvement in patients’ mental state. Sweden, Norway, and Finland have severely curtailed the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, saying that the risks outweigh the benefits.

There is a strong name-calling campaign against anyone who questions sex change. “Transphobic” has joined “homophobic” in the vocabulary of promoters of sex-change medications and surgical procedures. We are facing an uphill battle because greed and money are involved. The disintegration of God’s plan for the family and the selfishness and greed of adults have resulted in the use of children to satisfy adult issues. Working on children’s psychological problems is far better than throwing drugs and surgery at the needs of disturbed kids.

Reference: Time to Think by Hanna Barnes