A Beautiful Balancing Act

There is a really good PBS video called “The Secrets of the Sun,” on Nova. I am giving the link here, because watching it may be more interesting than reading about it on this blog. http://video.pbs.org/video/2226474716/ It is 53 minutes well-invested.

As a Christian apologist, two things stood out to me while watching this documentary about the sun. These provide evidence that the Universe has been purposefully created by God.

The first has to do with the composition of the Sun. Nuclear fusion in its core is the source of it’s great heat and light. There is a nuclear reaction going on in the core of the Sun that is equivalent to millions of atomic bombs going off each second. If that is so, then why doesn’t the Sun blow apart? A Princeton Scientist explains on the documentary, “Because there’s a beautiful balancing act that occurs. In the core of the Sun you’ve got this pressure, from all of this fusion pushing outwards; and the sun is huge so you have all this gravitational pressure pushing downward so you’ve got this gravity pushing down and the Sun trying to blow itself apart from the inside, and it is this beautiful balancing  act between the two, that keeps the Sun in one piece.[1]” It’s a “beautiful balancing act.” Just the right amount of push both ways to keep the Sun stable and dependable. I find it exciting how these types of balancing acts keep occurring over and over again in nature.

The second point that grabbed me in this documentary was the fact that the Sun is vibrating. Because of the massive movement of the Sun’s plasma due to convection, many, many sound frequencies are emitted from the Sun. Satellite studies of the Sun’s surface tended to show it vibrating. It was initially thought to be errors in the instruments. As the instruments improved, scientists finally realized the entire surface of the sun vibrates… with sound.

The sound is compared to notes on a pipe organ. Another web source quotes Stanford scientist Dr Amara Graps as comparing the sound to a bell.[2]  Professor Ken Lang of Tufts University writes, "The Sun is playing a secret melody, hidden inside itself, that produces a widespread throbbing motion of its surface. The sounds are coursing through the Sun's interior, causing the entire globe, or parts of it, to move in and out, slowly and rhythmically like the regular rise and fall of tides in a bay or of a beating heart." [3]

The sun is like a pipe organ. Like a bell. Like the rise and fall of tides. Like a beating heart.

Maybe now we begin to comprehend the meaning of the passage in Psalms: "Praise Him Sun and Moon, Praise Him, all you shining stars." [4]

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[1] Luc Peterson, Princeton Plasma Physics Lab, on the PBS Video, Nova: The Secrets of the Sun

[2] http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/ask/a10411.html

[3] Kenneth R. Lang http://solar-center.stanford.edu/singing/

[4] Psalm 148:3 (Revised Standard Version)

Sawtooth Miracle

Recently, I was in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho, one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Looking up at one of the towering peaks it was obvious where the mountains got their name. It was a huge, spiked tower of rock rising 2000 feet above me. All down the side of the mountain in front of me was a field of boulders of all sizes.

Sitting on a Toyota-sized boulder embedded in a creek my mind went to work. Either a massive landslide had occurred at some time in the distant past, or gradually, piece by piece, rocks of varying sizes had tumbled down the mountain and into the creek bed where I sat.

“If these rocks are continuously breaking off and rolling down the mountain, then the Sawtooths are getting smaller,” I thought. For every rock that comes down, whether it’s the size of a cantaloupe or the Toyota-sized one I sat on, the cliff-like mountains above diminish. It seemed certain that nothing can be done about it. I scanned the pock-marked cliffs above, worried about the fact that my tent was so close to the slide area.

The Bible says God made the mountains. “… His hands formed the dry land.” (1) But is there any purpose in this seemingly random event, this gradual breaking down of the mountains? In searching for an answer we can consider two facts about the mountains.

We have mountains!

First is the fact that mountains exist at all. Scientists say the mountains formed in the distant past as the result of “plate tectonics.” As superheated magma rose up from the earth’s core, gigantic plates of the earth’s crust moved and volcanic activity took place. These massive chunks of plate were forced downward and others upward resulting in… the Sawtooth mountains! “Then God said… ‘let the dry land appear’; and it was so” . (2)


Earth is the only planet in the Solar System that has mountain ranges formed this way. That is because the Earth alone, among the planets, has a molten core making it “live.” Mars, in contrast, is a “dead” planet with no interior heat. There are no known Sawtooth Mountains, Himalayas, or Rockies elsewhere in the solar system, although there are individual volcanic peaks on Mars (now dormant) and elsewhere. One of the things that make the Earth unique are mountain ranges.

If it’s too hot… turn down the thermostat

Secondly, the mountains exist for more than just the view. The affects of weather on the mountains gradually erodes and breaks them down. That causes the landslides that I saw. This process is called weathering. Scientists believe that as these rocks break down, particularly granite and limestone, that they react chemically with the atmosphere. The result is that the greenhouse gas (CO2) levels are affected. The net result is that the crumbling of the Sawtooth Mountains is part of an enormous thermostat system for the Earth. Two University of Washington scientists say, “Weathering of rocks … (such as granite) plays a crucial part in regulating the planetary thermostat… as a planet warms, … weathering on its surface increases… more carbon dioxide is removed, thus causing cooling. Yet as the planet cools, … weathering decreases, and the CO2 content of the atmosphere begins to rise, causing warming to occur.”(3) So every boulder that falls off the Sawtooth Mountains is part of a massive stabilizing effect in keeping the Earth’s temperature conducive to life.

Even something we take for granted like the existence of mountains or rocks falling off cliffs has a purpose in God’s creation. It is awe-inspiring to consider how brilliant God is in all He has made. So sleep tight tonight… but not too close to a mountain, God just might adjust the temperature.



(1) Psalm 95:5, New American Standard Bible (NASB)
(2) Genesis 1:9, New American Standard Bible (NASB)
(3) Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee, “Rare Earth,” (New York: Copernicus Books, 2000), 210

Billions and Billions of Years Ago (Part 1)

Billions and Billions of Years Ago… (part 1)

The best scientific guesstimates of the age of the earth are in the ballpark of 4.67 billion years old. That’s a humongous ballpark. It’s a ballpark in which you cannot see the fence. 4.67 billion years is a really big number. It’s a 467 followed by seven zeros. Even 467 years is a long time! If we look back in time 467 years, we would be looking at 1542. What happened in 1542? Henry VIII’s fifth wife Catherine Howard (right) was executed for adultery, which seems to have been missing the point, and Cabrillo landed in what is now San Diego Bay. That’s what we call the “olden days.” Yet 467 years is only one millionth of the commonly accepted age of the earth. A million 467-year periods, a million of them… would take us back to the guesstimated beginning of the earth.

Two Views
I called the figure of 4.67 billion years a “guesstimate.” I used that word, because it’s sort of an educated guess on the part of experts. I mean, the earth might have started 4.7 billion years ago, or maybe it was 4.5 billion years ago. What’s 20 million years when we’re talking about 47 ten million year periods? But 20 million years is itself an unfathomable period of time. Even the experts can’t fine-tune the calculations much more than millions of years! It’s such a long span that 20 million years is considered insignificant. So 4.67 billion is an educated guess.

Is there evidence that the earth is 4.67 billion years old? Yes. That is primarily in the radiometric measurements of the decay of elements like uranium in organic matter. This form of dating materials is a complicated subject that is too deep for me. Basically fossils and rocks are dated with numbers followed by lots of zeros. Knowledgeable people will say there are many other proofs for the old dating of the earth. So it is an educated, guess.

The figure of 4.67 billion years goes hand in glove with the theory of evolution. In fact, a staggering time period is required by evolution. If the earth was much younger, then evolution could not be true, as it is now taught. One website puts it this way, “Mutation, Gene Flow, Genetic Drift, Natural Selection + 3.8 billion years = Macroevolution.” [1] The widespread presupposition now popular is that the earth is very, very old, and it must be old, or the modern scientific perspective based on evolution would crumble. A lot rides on those billions of years.

Is there evidence for an earth that is not billions of years old? Yes. Many claim proof exists in things like the relatively thin layer of silt on the ocean floor. This and many other anomalies, according to “young earthers,” seem to indicate the earth’s age might have a few less zeros. Qualified scientists still contend the evidence shows that the earth is not billions of years old. They are a minority and are pretty much marginalized and discredited by the majority opinion. However, they do exist. There is a counterpoint no matter how it is derided.

Deep Time

When we talk about billions of years we enter into what we call “deep time.” Basically deep time means it’s so long we cannot comprehend it. P.H.D. John Morris says, “One billion years cannot be grasped, neither can 4.67 billion years for the supposed age of the Earth or 14 billion years or so since the Big Bang. These words may be easy to say, and within our mathematical calculations, but I suggest they carry no meaning. The invariable accompaniment of the outward rolling of the hands, suggest that tales of "billions and billions" of years are nothing more than arm-waving, perhaps capable of impressing or intimidating, but not of communicating understandable information.”[2] The only way we can think about one billion years, let alone a 467 followed by seven zeroes… is by making a metaphor. Many geology students are given an assignment of creating a metaphor to give some kind of a concept of this time length that we can grasp. So how long is a billion years? One metaphor I liked says that if we compressed the 4.67 billion years into a 24-hour period, man only showed up in the last two seconds. For 23 hours, 59 minutes and 58 seconds came all the formation, cataclysms, evolution, extinctions, mutations, and natural selection prior to man.

To count from one to a billion would take 95 years. A fish tank that would hold 1 billion goldfish would be the size of a stadium. These word pictures describe the immensity of this number. But the common opinion across the board is that we can’t grasp it. It’s just too much for our puny brains to digest. The GSA website states, “For many people, however, deep time is a critical barrier to learning science; the meaning of immense spans of time is elusive and unfamiliar…”[3]

If we go back 4670 years, we’re kind of back at the dawn of recorded time. That’s the age of the earth minus six zeroes. That is 2670 years before the events of the life of Jesus Christ. Forty-seven centuries ago is a staggering amount of time. Yet that would be one ten thousandth part of the entire history of the world. You would have to have 10,000 lengths of recorded history, 10,000 – to equal the age of mother earth.

How do we reconcile this enormity of time with belief in God? That's coming in part 2.

[1] http:// evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/

[2] www.icr.org
[3] http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2009NC/

The Shout of the Sunrise (Conclusion)

“And they who dwell in the ends of the earth stand in awe of Thy signs; Thou dost make the dawn and the sunset shout for joy.”[1]

C.S. Lewis wrote during the World War II era, “There is no reason why our reaction to a beautiful landscape should not be the response, however humanly blurred and partial, to a something that is really there.”[2] In the first part of this article, I presented the debate that exists between the humanist with his evolutionary presuppositions and the Christian theist with his biblical perspective of creation. I conclude this article with two arguments in support of the latter point of view.

Proof 1: The sense of beauty and awe



It is a fact that nature’s spectacles such as a sunrise attract people all over the world. Today, thousands of photographs will be taken of the dawns and sunsets around the world. Travellers will upload photos of the rising sun onto various web sites. We gaze at the bright, shining beauty of the dawn. We ponder the precision that brings about the sunrise at the exactly predicted moment. As Lewis observed, we have a “reaction” to what we see.

We call this reaction an aesthetic sense. We’re attracted to the beautiful, the inspiring. Even scientists, in their quest to discover what makes the universe tick, employ language that often sounds strangely theological. Two time Apollo astronaut Eugene Cernan is one of the few human beings to have viewed the earth from the moon. Being interviewed in a documentary of the Apollo missions Cernan recalled, “I felt I was literally standing on a plateau out there in space, a plateau that science and technology had allowed me to get to. Now what I was seeing, even more importantly what I was feeling at that point in time, science and technology had no answers for. Literally no answers. Because there I was, and (looking up) there you are… there you are, the earth, dynamic, overwhelming, and I felt that there was just too much purpose, too much logic, it was just too beautiful to have happened by accident. There has to be someone bigger than you and bigger than me, and I mean this in a spiritual sense, I’m not religious, but there has to be a Creator of the universe who stands above the religions that we create to govern our lives.”[3]

It is a reality that man has a sense of beauty and amazement. Why? If we are random products of nature with no purpose for being here beyond survival of the species as evolution states, then why does the Divine “shout for joy” attract us? Why do we feel inspired to paint the scene, photograph it, and plan our honeymoon to see it, or memorialize it in a song? From a strictly evolutionary basis, why would humans have this sense of appreciating beauty that leads us to higher, nobler thinking?

People’s attraction to majestic, powerful, or beautiful sights is not only pleasing to our senses. It also often causes us to consider transcendent things, as was the case with Cernan. Philip Yancey writes, “Despite the awesome emptiness of our universe, despite the pain that haunts it, something lingers, like a scent of old perfume, from that moment of beginnings in Genesis 1. I too have sensed it. The first time I rounded a bend and saw Yosemite Valley spread out before me, its angel-hair waterfalls spilling over the snow glazed granite. On a small peninsula of Ontario where five million migrating monarch butterflies stop to rest, their papery wings adorning every tree with shimmering, translucent orange… In the beginning, the very beginning, there was … Only joy.”[4]

Man’s aesthetic capacity is an observable fact. This is a universal phenomenon. People all over the world watch, admire, and wonder. When we look at a vast sunrise panorama, a waterfall or the massive rolling waves, we feel small and our thoughts are drawn upward.

Proof 2: Religions everywhere!

That inner attraction and curiosity at the natural world contributes to a second proof that the creation announces a Designer. The universal presence of religion supports the biblical claim regarding nature’s origin. It is partly this fearfulness of nature that explains the worldwide presence of religions. In every culture there is a belief in something beyond what is seen. Often the form of the world’s religions has been the worship of nature. This is human religion in its most primitive form. The ancient Egyptians worshiped the sun and the Norse, among other things, venerated thunder. Other civilizations worshipped the moon, the sea, or other observable phenomena. Why? Partly at least because of the admiration they inspire. Through observing the dawn, the moon, the lightening, through hearing the thunder, men were drawn to look beyond themselves and worship. Bible translator J. B. Philips reasoned, “Arguing… from what we know to what we don’t know, we may fairly say that as food is the answer to hunger, water the answer to thirst, and a mate to sexual desire, this universal hunger for Truth is unlikely to be without its answer and fulfillment...”[5]

Many mistakenly say that nature itself is god. Because this tendency to worship nature was so strong, in the pre-Christian era, God strictly forbade Israel from this practice. He wanted no confusion between creation and Creator. Some equate the two, but that’s not the scope of this article. The Christian view is the uniqueness and separateness of the Creator and the created.

Many would have us believe religion exists because of what our parents and their parents, and their parents ad infinitum have taught us. It is social conditioning. From an evolutionary point of view, how would this contribute to the survival of our species? Is it not reasonable to say that religion is in every place and culture down through history at least in part because nature “shouts for joy” that ‘something big’ is up? For me, this is a self-evident truth.

The Mercy of God

The Apostle Paul declares that the Lord is not hiding. He writes, “…because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”[6] The Creator has made Himself evident through His handiwork. In the Old Testament for a human to see God’s actual being was fatal. Maybe His indirect revealing of Himself through the exquisiteness and greatness of nature is done in mercy? Is it possible that God simply cannot wait to show Himself to us? He wants to share his glory with us but not destroy us in the process. First light attracts us because of its color it doesn’t kill us! To fix your eyes on the divine inventions draws us to worship; it does not end our lives.

Final Word

Have you ever stared at the blurring wings of a hummingbird? Or considered the tiny foot and toes of a newborn? Looked up at the enormity of the towering clouds? Have you ever commented on the color of the sea? The entire universe is an evidence of God’s creative work that communicates to our senses that someone is its Architect. This “general” revelation from God, as theologians call it, is obvious to men. To deny this is a denial of us in some sense. We appreciate nature through an inner artistic-like capacity. Due in part to this detection of God’s fingerprints in nature, man is religious everywhere. The Lord has surrounded us with the works of His hands and they shout with joy to us. Let us not lightly stand by as scoffers declare there is no substantiation for God in the natural world. The proof is all around us! Just get up early tomorrow morning and see!

[1] Psalm 65:8 (NASB)
[2] C.S. Lewis, “Christian Reflections,” (William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd, Glasgow, 1967) p 96-97
[3] “In the Shadow of the Moon,” 2007, a film by Ron Howard
[4] Philip Yancey, “Disappointment With God,” (Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, 1988) p. 59
[5] J.B. Philips, “Your God is Too Small (Touchstone Books, New York, 2004 (from 1952 original)), p. 71
[6] Romans 1:19-20 (NASB)

The Shout of the Sunrise (Part 1)

The Shout of the Sunrise

(Part one of 2)
I have a favorite picture of my wife and me with two of our daughters taken early one morning in South India. We’re standing on the roof of a hotel at Cape Comorin, at the very southern tip of India. The four of us are in silhouette against the beautiful morning sunrise. As we watched the sun come up over the Bay of Bengal, it was an amazing light show.

The beauty, color, and intricacy of nature tend to inspire us. People everywhere pause, gaze, and comment on the sheer glory of what they’re seeing. Some write poems or compose songs. The Bible says, “They who dwell in the ends of the earth stand in awe of your signs; You make the dawn and the sunset shout for joy.”[1] The word translated “signs” in Psalm 65:8 is interesting. The Hebrew word is “oth,” which can also be translated flag, beacon, or evidence. The point is these attention-getting events communicate a message to us. God shines like a beacon, or lighthouse, each morning and evening. He waves a flag to get our attention. These “oth” are evidence that, “I am here. I am big. What you are seeing reflects who I am.”

Scripture is telling us that the Lord gives man daily evidence of His reality. The rising and the setting of the sun are two of these signs. They literally “shout for joy” to those who are watching them. As a heavenly drum roll to begin the day and solemn bugle call to end it, we look on admiringly. There is no music; no voice is heard, yet for us that morning at Cape Comorin, the sunrise literally shouted with joy to our family.

Modern Thinking

Today, many disagree with the biblical claim that God communicates to us through natural events. Science can break down a sunrise into its components and explain why it happens. Sunrises, and natural events, are reducible to basic physical principles. Given these elements of angle, light, clouds, the earth’s atmosphere and rotation, it is no wonder that a sunrise or sunset occurs! Unfortunately, the fashion today is proving that a rising sun is “no wonder.” In this climate of scientific reductionism modern man has minimized God in our perception. Man-centered secularism says the sunrise and sunset are natural and just ‘happen’ given all the conditions that have evolved. Claiming proof for a Creator in nature is labeled hogwash.

This perspective is the result of decades of humanistic, post-Christian worldview. Denial of evidence for God in the universe around us leaves us with an evolutionary worldview. A God who is mighty enough to create everything would be scary to many. That would mean He is really God, and cannot be ignored. So man promotes the notion of a god that fits his lifestyle and that can be controlled. Learned men pay attention to the whys and hows of the universe and interpret what they learn to explain away God. The Biblical account is ridiculed. Influential scientists, professors, intellectuals and even judges say there is no evidence for design in the universe. Those who deny design in the facts of nature around us, are like those who the Psalmist says “…do not pay attention to the deeds of the Lord, nor do they consider the work of His hands.”[2]

The Biblical Perspective

We were meant to consider the works of Gods hands! The Christian believes that the entire creation “shouts for joy” that God exists. Well did Isaiah say, “That they may see and recognize, And consider and gain insight as well, That the … Holy One of Israel has created it.”[3] This was evident to scientists in the past such as Johannes Kepler. He said, “The chief aim of all investigations of the external world should be to discover the rational order and harmony which has been imposed on it by God.”[4] He saw science’s role as studying Gods creation, not explaining God out of it!

As we turn to the words of Scripture, we learn over and over that the very creation itself is a “sign,” or evidence for mankind to see, hear, smell, and sense. Literally all creation exists to reveal God, the Creator. Rick Warren writes, “The ultimate goal of the universe is to show the glory of God… Where is the glory of God? Just look around. Everything created by God reflects his glory in some way. We see it everywhere, from the smallest microscopic form of life to the vast Milky Way, from sunsets and stars to storms and seasons. Creation reveals our Creator’s glory.”[5]

What is True?
So this is the modern debate. Many people oppose the biblical view of God’s revelation in nature and deny evidence for design. Yet we Christians sing, “...early in the morning, I will celebrate the light...” [6] as we observe the beauty of a sunrise. Two opposing views! What does the evidence suggest? Does reality, that which is observed, support the Biblical account or the naturalistic explanations that began with ´´the Age of Enlightenment and Newton’s mechanical description of the universe? ``[7] We turn in the next installment to proofs in support of the biblical account.


References[1] Psalm 65:8 (NASB)[2] Isaiah 5:12-13 (NASB)[3] Isaiah 41:20 (NASB)[4] Charles Colson, “Developing a Christian World View of Science and Evolution, (Tyndale House Publishers, 2001) p 17[5] Rick Warren, “The Purpose Driven Life,” (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002) p 53-54[6] Marc Byrd & Steve Hindalong, “God of Wonders”, Copyright 2000 by New Spring
Publishing
[7] Norman L. Geisler & Chad V. Meister, `Reasons for Faith, Making a Case for the Christian Faith, (Secunderabad, India, Authentic Books, 2007) p 219