Restoring the sight of the watchmaker

Seven reason why we should accept millions of years - Part 7 - radiometric dating is not unreliable

Seven reasons why we should accept millions of years - part 2: it fits Genesis 1

Seven reasons why we should accept millions of years - part 1

Is morality and religion an evolved vestige of our past?

Wisdom vs Power

Sustained by the Word of His power

Does Jesus have omnipotent and unlimited power?

Omniscient, Omnipresent, Omnipotent.

Blowing in the wind

A young soldier survived a wayward shot from a German sniper, at Arnhem. His mother was quick to claim it as God’s hand. Noted theological philosopher, CS Lewis was not impressed. He argued that the bullet was influenced by the moral choice of the marksman and the forces of nature.

No Lewis is not a cynic, he was just trying to arrive at a first cause for everything. He opposed the idea that nature begat itself, and I agree. I see the hand of a creator.

Now, of course I think his argument is a tad simplistic, but like Paul, Lewis is a virtual final authority.

As old as ....

I read an article by a leading associate of Answers in Genesis, Ken Ham, and whilst I do sincerely respect AIG, I feel the article (Did Jesus Say He Created in Six Literal Days?, Ken Ham, 2007) is worthy of some rebuttal.

He opens his arguments from Mark 10:6, “But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female.” That is used to argue that Adam and Eve were with God from the outset, so the creation had to be young. That is just simply not biblical. Adam and Eve were created on day 6, not on day 1. Thus Jesus had something else in mind.

The breath of life

The discovery of pristine Oxygen on a comet, has puzzled scientists. The problem that the ESA probe, Rosetta, has now posed, is how oxygen can exist in a virgin state when it is so renowned for combining or oxidizing just about every possible element in the periodic table.

Originally the earth acquired its oxygen via photosynthesis, hence plants had to precede animal life, just as Genesis 1 confirms. Plants could feed on the carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere and reproduce oxygen, but it evidently took a long time for the earth to acquire enough oxygen to support life.

Let's just make it fit

It amazes me what lengths new earth thinkers will go to squeeze the creator into seven calendar days, when the bible does not presuppose that a day equals a day. Even our vernacular accepts that a day can mean an era, an epoch, a season, or a 24-hour moment of time.

The bible uses the word interchangeably – as in the moment Jesus stood in the synagogue to echo Isaiah’s words, “… to proclaim the year of God’s favor”, which ended up being 2,000 years. The 70 weeks of Daniel alluded to 490 years, the 3.5 days in the two semesters of tribulation implied 3½ years, and Peter confirmed that a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day.

And God said ....

The Big Bang concept was first postulated by Belgian priest and astronomer, Georges Lemaître. However, the expression was coined by noted astrologer Fred Hoyle.

The latter chose the term pejoratively, because he had so long advocated a dying theory, that of a steady state universe. The irony is that Stephen Hawking had hoped to have Hoyle as his supervisor, but fate conspired to leave him in the more inspirational hands of Dennis Sciama.

What a difference that little decision made. Sciama brought the very best out of Hawking and continued to promote his ideas long after Hoyle walked away in disgust over the threats posed by Hawking’s Black Hole research.

A world in crisis

In June 1967, the Arab states surrounding Israel, initiated the Yom Kippur war. They chose to attack on Israel’s most unguarded, vulnerable day: a day when that nation always bows in solemn contrition to make atonement for their sins. 

September 23, 2015 marks the start of the 49th year since the June 1967 uprising. We are entering the 49th year and that is how the bible dealt it. The seventh day is day of the Sabbath, the seventh year was a Sabbath year and the 49th year is a Jubilee year. 

It marks 7 x 7 years or seven Sabbath periods. It was a time defined by God to release all debts and free all slaves. On that day, many slaves would voluntarily choose to remain in the house of their masters, bound by love, through a hole drilled in their ear lobes.

Footprints

How do you know I am writing this right now? I could be a robot or ghost-writer, or this could even be plagiarized material. However, over time enough of the persona of the writer does start to emerge for us to be convinced of their presence and authenticity.

That line of thinking was prompted by something Doctor House said last night when faced with a patient who had a mystery illness. In counseling his colleagues he said, “If we cannot find the root cause we must be guided by effect.” What he meant was that they had to deduce, in this case that there was a small tumor, without the benefit of evidence.

Creation without a creator??

It is impossible to understand our universe without first understanding the motives behind its formation.

My last post argued that objects like an Italian sports car or a new building or a house, reflect a combination of functional and aesthetic design. It reminds me of a general rule of thumb in aeronautics, which simply states that “if it looks good, chances are it will fly well”.

The fact that our universe is both functionally and aesthetically remarkable, speaks volumes about its maker and His heartbeat. Had we been solely a product of evolution, diversity of species and the preservation of their specificity, would not have happened.

Creationism points to Jesus

It is a reflection on how sensitive the issues I now stand between Creationist and Intelligent Design postures.

I agree that a literal interpretation of Genesis is over simplistic.

I find it hard to believe that the worlds as we know them were created in seven calendar days. More than that I don't think the bible makes that point - so much for literalism. We read elsewhere that a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day, so we could then argue for a seven thousand year period of creative wonder, but that still doesn't fit the evidence.

The coming storm

The outstretched hand of the Lamb of God and the great coal of fire that is in His hands, portends a coming age of great struggle on earth. Thanks to Hubble there is a growing gallery of profound images emerging from space and this image is right up there with the best of them.

Actually one of the most amazing discoveries of late is a dark chasm in space, spanning billions of light years, which contains nothing - no stars, no gas, no matter, nothing. It is a dark void.

All of the signs currently visible and yet to become visible, predict a coming world crisis followed by the return of the King. 

Awesome power

My firstborn son is an amateur scientist. Having blown up all he could find, whilst burning house and home and shaking foundations or launching surface to surface missiles against neighbours, he also found time for the academic side of science. As far as he is concerned, if he spent all day at shool just doing science, he couldn't be happier. Isn't there a specialist science school out there? I suppose not. Sadly a not so good mathematics teacher has caused him to lose confidence in that vital link to a future engineering qualification, but its all coming back - a little bit of encouragement and support is doing wonders. 

In the process of helping him I took him out for some coffee. On the way, he pointed towards a red indicator light and said, "Dad there is enough energy in that small red dot to light a city". The point he was making related to Einstein's groundbreaking energy formula.