Sunspots 1004

Things I have spotted that may be of interest to others:

An extensive web site on Charles Wesley.

Gizmodo reports on terrible conditions for living things in ancient times. Probably these threats were caused, or enhanced, by ferns. That's right, ferns.

An article in The Conversation, discusses testosterone levels carefully. Unlike some.

NPR, and other outlets on a rogue artificial intelligence, which hacked into another AI, without help from real humans.

SpaceDaily reports on exploration, deep in ocean tranches, by a Chinese group, which found large ecosystems, getting their energy from methane and other molecules.

Joel Duff has posted a careful analysis of Intelligent Design ideas.

Heart, Mind,, Soul and Strength gives a list of Greek words for kinds of love, and, also, Greek words for love that weren't used in the New Testament.

Sunspots 1001

 

CNN and other outlests are reporting on possible dangers from the geological faults in Southern California.

Gizmodo reports on research on laughter. There are two kinds of laughter. One spontaneous and one not so  much.

BioLogos has an article about the apparent long lives of people in Genesis.

MSN, and other outlets, report that Pope Leo has excommunicated priests who reject some of the changes proposed and adopted during the 20th Century.

The flag seen in "the dawn's early light" near Baltimore, which was under attack by the British, was real. Here's more on Francis Scott Key who wrote what we now know as the "Star Spangled Banner." Key freed at least some of his slaves.

Gismodo reports that dust from the Sahara Desert is blowing across the Atlantic to North America.

Sunspots 998

 

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Joel Duff examines the oft-repeated claim that the amount of salt in the earth's water was not deposited over a long period of time -- there's not enough salt, the argument says. Duff argues that the amount of salt is, in fact, an argument for an old earth.

Duff also shows that the Young-earth Creationist explanation of why about 140 types of marsupial mammals came to exist in Australia and nearby land areas, but only a handful of types of  placental mammals are found there.

Gizmodo reports that China is successfully transforming a desert into growth that acts to remove Carbon from the atmosphere.

Gizmodo also reports that the Vera Rubin observatory, in Chile, ia locating lots of asteroids, previously unknown. Like hundreds or thousands' of them.

Ken Schenck argues, from the Bible, that heaven will be on earth.

UTNews reports that a large group of chimpanzees has split into two groups, and they are engaging in violence toward between the two.

Thanks for reading!

Sunspots 996

 

Gizmodo reports on betting on Christ's return.

NPR points out two simple tests to tell us if food is ultra-processed,

The Naturalis Historia blog has a solid post on how Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis have dismissed the strong Christian faith of the founders of the science of geology.

NPR on why we say "um" so much.

Also from NPR, a report that the Food and Drug Administration has acted to make genetic therapy on patients with rare diseases more treatable.

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 978

Things that I have spotted that may be of interest to others: 

SciTech Daily reports that fish can recognize and react to human divers.

Naturalis Historia concludes a series on the Bible and the geology of the Dead Sea,

ZDNet describes 10 on-line sites that carry free, or inexpensive digital books.

NPR and other outlets report on progress towards bringing live mammoths back, Their work has involved changing the genes of mice, so that they have long, fuzzy hair, and are able to use fat efficiently to keep warm.

Neuroscience News reports that detecting pain and itch is accomplished with two different sets of neurons.

NPR tries to keep track of President Trump's tariffs.

Thanks for reading!

Sunspots 972

Some things that I have spotted that may be of interest to others:

Joel Duff is perhaps the most articulate anti-Young-earth creationist blogger. He understands criticism, and knows the literature. When I  previously looked his posts, they were not entirely textual, but were mostly YouTube videos. That's not true now. His work includes videos, but the content of the video is generally also presented in text form, where it can be quoted, and where users can see what Duff has to say without disturbing anyone who doesn't want to listen. A recent post concerns the realization, by many Young-Earth Creationists, that it is impossible to explain supposed effects of the Flood, over a brief time period. Here's Duff's post: (The title begins with "Divine Intervention in Geology." an intriguing subject.)

One of my readers noted that the post above had an incorrect link. I believe that it is now corrected, and thank that reader.

Scientific American has a good article on how and why many trees change color in the fall.

Thanks for looking! I hope to publish Sunspots from time to time, but have ceased publishing every week.

Geology and a world-wide flood (or not)

 I am not a geologist, but a recent article, written by a geologist, presents abundant geological evidence that the arrangement of rocks and fossils does not support the Young-Earth Creationist belief in a world-wide flood.

Thanks for reading.

Heat caused by a world-wide flood -- Answers in Genesis says the amount is too great for a natural explanation

A recent article in Answers Research Journal, the science publication organ of Answers in Genesis, states that Young-earth/world-wide flood models would mean that there would have been an enormously too great an amount of heat for the earth to have survived as we know it. Here's a quotation from the article:

"The main conclusion of this article is that the total amount of geological heat deposited in the formation of the ocean floors and of LIPs [Large Igneous Processes] is overwhelming: it cannot be removed from the biosphere within a biblically-compatible timescale by known natural processes. Using CPT-style [Catastrophic Plate Tectonics] Flood models as our theoretical framework, no more than a tiny fraction of the total could have been released into the atmosphere and oceans during and after the Flood."

The article indicates that this problem for Young-earth creationism has been known among Young-earth geologists for decades. I am not a geologist, and make no claim to understand the geology behind the article. I do understand, however, that a Young-Earth Creationist is stating, in a publication dedicated to the proposition that the earth is but a few thousand years old, that there are no natural processes that would explain the state of the earth's crust now, if a young earth explanation is attempted. Not surprisingly, the author suggests that there was miraculous intervention associated with the Flood.

"calculated the dust of the earth in a measuring basket..." - God and nature in Isaiah 40

 "calculated the dust of the earth in a measuring basket..." - Isaiah 12:2b. (Scripture from the World English Bible, public domain.)

Isaiah 40 is probably best known for verses 30-31:

30 Even the youths faint and get weary,

    and the young men utterly fall;

31 but those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength.

    They will mount up with wings like eagles.

    They will run, and not be weary.

    They will walk, and not faint.

This passage is partly, or completely, poetic -- it uses figurative language. We don't expect to fly like birds, even if we do wait for Yahweh.

There's more non-literal language in this chapter. Consider the verse which is the source of the title of this post:

12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
    and marked off the sky with his span,
    and calculated the dust of the earth in a measuring basket,
    and weighed the mountains in scales,
    and the hills in a balance?

Here is more poetic wording:

11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd.
    He will gather the lambs in his arm,
    and carry them in his bosom.
    He will gently lead those who have their young.

and

22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
    and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
    who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
    and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in,  

23 who brings princes to nothing,
    who makes the judges of the earth meaningless.

23 They are planted scarcely.
    They are sown scarcely.
    Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground.
    He merely blows on them, and they wither,
    and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble.

and 

26 Lift up your eyes on high,
    and see who has created these,
    who brings out their army by number.
    He calls them all by name.
    by the greatness of his might,
    and because he is strong in power,
    not one is lacking. 

All of these not-literal passages refer to nature. Nature was, and should be, important to believers. In this one chapter, we have more than one section of nature-related material:

putting forth non-human creatures as a goal to aspire to, and/or as divinely designed;

an admonition that God understands the natural world, and we are just not capable of that;

care for animals as an illustration of God's care for His people;

God's sovereignty, even over the heavenly bodies;

God as creator.

Nature is not the main theme of Isaiah. Here's a quotation from the Wikipedia article on the book of Isaiah: 

The book can be read as an extended meditation on the destiny of Jerusalem into and after the Exile. ... Isaiah speaks out against corrupt leaders and for the disadvantaged, and roots righteousness in God's holiness rather than in Israel's covenant.

But, although it's not part of Isaiah's main message, nature has always been important to God. Here, the emphasis is not on caring for nature, or on nature's beauty and diversity, but on God's greatness, and His sovereignty over nature. The ancient Hebrews could probably distinguish a few thousand stars (more than all too many of us can see with the naked eye, looking directly at the sky) in the heavens that they saw. (They believed that the stars were held by a firmament. We now believe that there isn't any such thing, but God is just as much in charge of spatial objects as if there was. See also this post.) They could not have imagined stars of various colors, sizes, and age, or double stars, or asteroids, or billions of galaxies, and the other entities that we can see today. But God could imagine them, and, as Isaiah says, he brings them out by number, and knows the names of each of them. 

God also understands geology better than the best scientists of our, or any future time. He calculates the very dust -- not a single grain of silt, mud or soil is unseen by God, or not understood by Him.

Thanks for reading!

Todd Charles Wood, Young-Earth Creationist, on the death of Glenn Morton, ex-Young-Earth Creationist

Todd Charles Wood is a young-earth creationist, perhaps the most significant scientist who believes that the earth is not very old. He has had helpful discussions with old-earth creationists, as well as other young-earth creationists. His blog is must reading for me. He recently published a tribute to Glenn R. Morton, who died a few days ago. Morton was a young-earth creationist geologist who came to doubt young-earth creationism because YEC explanations didn't explain the geology he found as a petroleum geologist. Not only that, but Morton asked other practicing geologists, trained by the Institute for Creation Research, as he had been, if there was anything they were taught there that actually helped them in their work. None of them could name one fact or phenomenon that did so.

In his tribute, Wood laments the treatment of Morton, whose Christianity was frequently questioned, as he began to be more open about his doubt of  YEC. And, says Wood, he's been there, although he is a staunch proponent of YEC. A prominent YECer called him a heretic last week, apparently for questioning some part of YEC doctrine.

Says Wood: There's something really defective in a group that deals with disagreement by demonizing the opposition and excommunicating people who think differently.  That's how cults work.  That's how con artists work.  But I think it's even worse than that.  If you say you can only be a good Christian if you believe in young-age creationism, you just added something to the gospel.  That makes the you the actual heretic!

Beliefs in origins are secondary to the gospel, and Christians should remain in fellowship with others who differ in their beliefs on this subject, as Wood tries to do.

Thanks for reading!

 

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Added August 15, 2020: The Panda's Thumb, a mostly anti-creation blog, has published a tribute to Morton.