CONSIDER THE PRAIRIE LUPINES, HOW THEY GROW
Luke 12:27a
Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not;
The remarkable recovery of flora and fauna around Mount St Helens, since the devastating eruption of 1980, was aided in large measure by a seemingly insignificant little plant, called the Prairie Lupine. It grows no taller than 24 inches, but is usually much smaller, with tiny blue flowers. Today, it grows in abundance in the areas most affected by the eruption and landslide.
Like all lupines, it is a legume. This means that it makes its own nitrogen compounds – an essential mineral for plants to grow. We say that it fixes nitrogen. The volcanic soil is deficient in this mineral, so the value of the plant is obvious, as it fixes more than enough for itself, and provides extra nitrogen for other, neighboring plants.
To be exact, it is not the plant itself that does the fixing. This is done by soil bacteria, called rhizobia, which reside in nodules in the roots of the lupine. What is even more interesting is that these bacteria cannot fix nitrogen, without attaching themselves to a suitable host plant, such as the lupine. So, the lupine needs the rhizobia, and the rhizobia need the lupine. This interdependency is known as a symbiotic relationship. A problem for the evolutionist is to explain whether the rhizobia evolved before the lupine, or vice versa. A far more scientific explanation is that both were designed by God for just such interdependence. Once again, the area around Mount St Helens, and the plants that live there, reveal the magnificence of God’s creative work.
Thank You, Lord, that nothing in this world has been left to chance by You. We see Your marvelous design, even in the way that flowers grow, and we thank You that You care for us much more than these flowers. Amen.
Luke 12:27a
Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not;
The remarkable recovery of flora and fauna around Mount St Helens, since the devastating eruption of 1980, was aided in large measure by a seemingly insignificant little plant, called the Prairie Lupine. It grows no taller than 24 inches, but is usually much smaller, with tiny blue flowers. Today, it grows in abundance in the areas most affected by the eruption and landslide.
Like all lupines, it is a legume. This means that it makes its own nitrogen compounds – an essential mineral for plants to grow. We say that it fixes nitrogen. The volcanic soil is deficient in this mineral, so the value of the plant is obvious, as it fixes more than enough for itself, and provides extra nitrogen for other, neighboring plants.
To be exact, it is not the plant itself that does the fixing. This is done by soil bacteria, called rhizobia, which reside in nodules in the roots of the lupine. What is even more interesting is that these bacteria cannot fix nitrogen, without attaching themselves to a suitable host plant, such as the lupine. So, the lupine needs the rhizobia, and the rhizobia need the lupine. This interdependency is known as a symbiotic relationship. A problem for the evolutionist is to explain whether the rhizobia evolved before the lupine, or vice versa. A far more scientific explanation is that both were designed by God for just such interdependence. Once again, the area around Mount St Helens, and the plants that live there, reveal the magnificence of God’s creative work.
Thank You, Lord, that nothing in this world has been left to chance by You. We see Your marvelous design, even in the way that flowers grow, and we thank You that You care for us much more than these flowers. Amen.
WHERE ARE YOU, GOLDILOCKS?
Isaiah 45:18
For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.
Secular astronomers have defined a region around each star as the Circumstellar Habitable Zone. It is in this zone that it is assumed that life as we know it, Jim, could exist. The closer a planet is to its star, the higher its average temperature would be, unless there are other factors (like the runaway Greenhouse Effect on Venus). On planet Earth, life depends on liquid water, but the liquid phase of water actually has quite a narrow temperature range, compared to many other liquid phases – just 100 degrees on the Celsius scale, or 180 degrees on the Fahrenheit scale. If the planet is too close to its star, all the water will be steam, but if it is too far away, all the water will be ice. In fact, there is only a narrow circular band where water would be in the liquid phase, and this is the Circumstellar Habitable Zone, or CHZ – not too cold and not too hot! The CHZ is often popularly called the Goldilocks Zone, after the little girl in the nursery rhyme, who, when trying the porridge belonging to the bears, found one bowl too hot, and one bowl too cold, but the other bowl just right.
It is assumed, then, that water could exist mostly as a liquid in the Goldilocks Zone, and that, therefore, life similar to that on the Earth could evolve. Astute listeners will realize that this is all highly presuppositional. God, who decreed that it is the Earth that is inhabited, does not appear to have placed life anywhere else. No amount of water of the right temperature can cause to appear what only God can create.
Thank You, Lord, for making this world just right for us to live in. Thank You for the gift of water, which quenches our thirst, and revives our bodies. Thank You especially for the Living Water, which Jesus provides. Amen.
Isaiah 45:18
For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.
Secular astronomers have defined a region around each star as the Circumstellar Habitable Zone. It is in this zone that it is assumed that life as we know it, Jim, could exist. The closer a planet is to its star, the higher its average temperature would be, unless there are other factors (like the runaway Greenhouse Effect on Venus). On planet Earth, life depends on liquid water, but the liquid phase of water actually has quite a narrow temperature range, compared to many other liquid phases – just 100 degrees on the Celsius scale, or 180 degrees on the Fahrenheit scale. If the planet is too close to its star, all the water will be steam, but if it is too far away, all the water will be ice. In fact, there is only a narrow circular band where water would be in the liquid phase, and this is the Circumstellar Habitable Zone, or CHZ – not too cold and not too hot! The CHZ is often popularly called the Goldilocks Zone, after the little girl in the nursery rhyme, who, when trying the porridge belonging to the bears, found one bowl too hot, and one bowl too cold, but the other bowl just right.
It is assumed, then, that water could exist mostly as a liquid in the Goldilocks Zone, and that, therefore, life similar to that on the Earth could evolve. Astute listeners will realize that this is all highly presuppositional. God, who decreed that it is the Earth that is inhabited, does not appear to have placed life anywhere else. No amount of water of the right temperature can cause to appear what only God can create.
Thank You, Lord, for making this world just right for us to live in. Thank You for the gift of water, which quenches our thirst, and revives our bodies. Thank You especially for the Living Water, which Jesus provides. Amen.
GOLDILOCKS AND THE WOLF STAR
Genesis 1:16b
… he made the stars also.
In a previous Creation Moments, we talked about the Circumstellar Habitable Zone, or CHZ, which is a region around a star, where astronomers think that water is likely to be in liquid phase. This zone, not too hot and not too cold, is sometimes called the Goldilocks Zone.
A star, known as Wolf 1061, approximately 14 light years away from us, is thought to be orbited by at least three planets. The third of these, reckoned by distance from the star, is within the Goldilocks Zone. Therefore, there is speculation about whether it could support life.
One astronomer, studying the planet, known as Wolf 1061c, has noted that its orbit is more eccentric than that of Earth. Additionally, the host star is a red dwarf, so the orbit of the planet is shorter, and the orbital period faster, than that of Earth. He speculates that the climate of the planet could therefore be somewhat chaotic.
It should be noted that these so-called exoplanets are not actually observed by telescope. Their existence is inferred from observed data, such as spectroscopy, and variations in the star’s light and movements. We find nothing wrong per se with the educated guesswork used, to paint word pictures of these supposed environments, but it is disingenuous to describe the planets as if life had almost already been discovered. As we have previously noted, much of the speculation is based on evolutionary presuppositions. It is better to base our legitimate imagination on the hard reality of what God tells us about how He made the universe, in the pages of the Bible.
When we look at the heavens that You have created, Lord God, we stand in amazement. We thank You that, in Your creative power, You were still mindful of us. Thank You for being our Father. Amen.
San Francisco State University. (2017, January 19). Astronomer searches for signs of life on Wolf 1061 exoplanet: Searching for signs of life in one of the extrasolar systems closest to Earth. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 22, 2017 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170119161546.htm
Image: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, credits ESO/M. Kornmesser
Genesis 1:16b
… he made the stars also.
In a previous Creation Moments, we talked about the Circumstellar Habitable Zone, or CHZ, which is a region around a star, where astronomers think that water is likely to be in liquid phase. This zone, not too hot and not too cold, is sometimes called the Goldilocks Zone.
A star, known as Wolf 1061, approximately 14 light years away from us, is thought to be orbited by at least three planets. The third of these, reckoned by distance from the star, is within the Goldilocks Zone. Therefore, there is speculation about whether it could support life.
One astronomer, studying the planet, known as Wolf 1061c, has noted that its orbit is more eccentric than that of Earth. Additionally, the host star is a red dwarf, so the orbit of the planet is shorter, and the orbital period faster, than that of Earth. He speculates that the climate of the planet could therefore be somewhat chaotic.
It should be noted that these so-called exoplanets are not actually observed by telescope. Their existence is inferred from observed data, such as spectroscopy, and variations in the star’s light and movements. We find nothing wrong per se with the educated guesswork used, to paint word pictures of these supposed environments, but it is disingenuous to describe the planets as if life had almost already been discovered. As we have previously noted, much of the speculation is based on evolutionary presuppositions. It is better to base our legitimate imagination on the hard reality of what God tells us about how He made the universe, in the pages of the Bible.
When we look at the heavens that You have created, Lord God, we stand in amazement. We thank You that, in Your creative power, You were still mindful of us. Thank You for being our Father. Amen.
San Francisco State University. (2017, January 19). Astronomer searches for signs of life on Wolf 1061 exoplanet: Searching for signs of life in one of the extrasolar systems closest to Earth. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 22, 2017 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170119161546.htm
Image: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, credits ESO/M. Kornmesser
IS THE UNIVERSE A HOLOGRAM?
Romans 1:21
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Many astrophysicists have speculated that the universe is like a four dimensional sphere. If we imagine that we were ants, living on the surface of a very large beach ball, we might think that the surface on which we stood was a flat surface, even though it stretches around and back on itself in a sphere through the third dimension. In the same way, astrophysicists surmise that our impression of a 3D universe is just that; it is really stretched back on itself, through a 4th physical dimension (this 4th dimension being physical, not like the 4th dimension of time proposed by Einstein). Why do scientists imagine such a complex scenario, without any real evidence for it? It is because certain measurements give every indication that our galaxy is near the center of the universe, but this is philosophically uncomfortable for secularists. The 4D sphere enables them to imagine that every point in the universe is central, so nowhere is special.
Difficulties with this model are legion, so, recently, a team of astrophysicists at the University of Southampton, England, have supposed that the universe is like a 4D hologram. Holograms that we see on some credit cards look as if they are 3D, but actually the information is encoded in 2D. In a similar manner, the Southampton scientists imagine a sort of 4D encoding, which is really in 3D.
As we have often noted, these complex scenarios are necessary only because secular scientists cannot imagine that God has special purposes for the planet that we live on, and for the human race, of which we are a part.
Help us to remember, O God, that Yours is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory forever. Amen.
Romans 1:21
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Many astrophysicists have speculated that the universe is like a four dimensional sphere. If we imagine that we were ants, living on the surface of a very large beach ball, we might think that the surface on which we stood was a flat surface, even though it stretches around and back on itself in a sphere through the third dimension. In the same way, astrophysicists surmise that our impression of a 3D universe is just that; it is really stretched back on itself, through a 4th physical dimension (this 4th dimension being physical, not like the 4th dimension of time proposed by Einstein). Why do scientists imagine such a complex scenario, without any real evidence for it? It is because certain measurements give every indication that our galaxy is near the center of the universe, but this is philosophically uncomfortable for secularists. The 4D sphere enables them to imagine that every point in the universe is central, so nowhere is special.
Difficulties with this model are legion, so, recently, a team of astrophysicists at the University of Southampton, England, have supposed that the universe is like a 4D hologram. Holograms that we see on some credit cards look as if they are 3D, but actually the information is encoded in 2D. In a similar manner, the Southampton scientists imagine a sort of 4D encoding, which is really in 3D.
As we have often noted, these complex scenarios are necessary only because secular scientists cannot imagine that God has special purposes for the planet that we live on, and for the human race, of which we are a part.
Help us to remember, O God, that Yours is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory forever. Amen.
SHOULD WE TEACH OUR CHILDREN EVOLUTION?
Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
In creation ministries, such as this, we are very eager that people should see the fallacies and the lack of a good scientific basis for evolutionism. Instead, we point people to the factual basis for science, found in the pages of God’s Word. It is particularly important that we do not allow our children to be indoctrinated by the godlessness of secular philosophies. It is for reasons such as this, that many parents prefer their children to be educated in Christian schools, or to be homeschooled. For those parents, the question will surely arise; is it a good thing to teach my children about evolution, or should we teach them only about biblical creation?
It is our opinion that children do, in fact, need to know about the theory of evolution. It is a fact that the majority of the world’s scientists believe in evolution. So, if we are telling our children that evolution is wrong, then they need to know why it is wrong.
For example, it is good for students to study the life and work of Charles Darwin. They need to understand how his mind was working, and how this affected the ideas that he presented. Of course, we also want to teach our children to analyze these ideas critically, and to explain why we do not accept them. In fact, I would argue that children of Christian parents should be better educated about evolution than their non-Christian peers!
None of this should detract from our primary purpose, however, to show our children that the God we worship is the Creator God, who has made everything well.
Please help us, Lord, to bring up our children, the way that You would have us do. Above all, we pray that You will draw them to Yourself and save them, for the honor and the glory of Your Name. Amen.
Image: Adobe Stock Photos, licensed to author
Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
In creation ministries, such as this, we are very eager that people should see the fallacies and the lack of a good scientific basis for evolutionism. Instead, we point people to the factual basis for science, found in the pages of God’s Word. It is particularly important that we do not allow our children to be indoctrinated by the godlessness of secular philosophies. It is for reasons such as this, that many parents prefer their children to be educated in Christian schools, or to be homeschooled. For those parents, the question will surely arise; is it a good thing to teach my children about evolution, or should we teach them only about biblical creation?
It is our opinion that children do, in fact, need to know about the theory of evolution. It is a fact that the majority of the world’s scientists believe in evolution. So, if we are telling our children that evolution is wrong, then they need to know why it is wrong.
For example, it is good for students to study the life and work of Charles Darwin. They need to understand how his mind was working, and how this affected the ideas that he presented. Of course, we also want to teach our children to analyze these ideas critically, and to explain why we do not accept them. In fact, I would argue that children of Christian parents should be better educated about evolution than their non-Christian peers!
None of this should detract from our primary purpose, however, to show our children that the God we worship is the Creator God, who has made everything well.
Please help us, Lord, to bring up our children, the way that You would have us do. Above all, we pray that You will draw them to Yourself and save them, for the honor and the glory of Your Name. Amen.
Image: Adobe Stock Photos, licensed to author
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