Sunspots 964

 

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

Politics: S. E. Cupp analyzes the effect of spending lots of money, your own, or other people's, on political races.

Quanta has a report on a newly discovered protein, that puts a microbe into a dormant state, in unfavorable conditions.

NPR reports that Bill Anders, who took the iconic photo of the earth, as background to the moon, has died.

NPR also reports on how big business pushed the use of one-time-use plastic.

Sunspots 969

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

Phys.org reports on a study of the interaction between Supreme Court justices. It's not just  "conservative" vs. "liberal."

Phys.org also reports on research that indicates that dogs can think about objects, not just people.

The Tri-State Livestock News reports on feeding algae to bees to fight bee viruses.

Newsweek reports on why cheetahs are so fast.

Phys.Org reports that some crab spiders work together to mimic flowers. Amazing.

A Conversation writer tells us that the so-called Deep State is a good thing.

ScienceAlert reports that coral reefs have a soundscape, and that this changes when the moon rises.

Sunspots 962

According to Gizmodo, drivers with electric vehicles are wearing out their tires rapidly. This doesn’t affect me – the article says that someone who “drives like a grandmother” won’t have such quick wear.

Gizmodo also tells us that the moon is shrinking. Really.

Sunspots 895

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

The Arts: (and Christianity) a Tor author discusses the fate of Susan Pevensie in the Narnia books, by C. S. Lewis.

Christianity: (and Politics) Christianity Today examines the question of how behavior changes in Southern whites who have stopped going to church.

Finances: Gizmodo reports that the oil industry has received lots of profit over the past few years, but has cut its workforce drastically.

CNN reports on how Russia is financing the war in Ukraine with African gold, and propping up African dictators.

Science: The Scientist on why a humpback whale recently collided with a small boat.

NPR reports that, although the moon has been thought of as divided into two regions, one too hot, and one too cold for living things, certain geological features on the moon are habitable throughout the lunar cycle, neither too hot or too cold.

*I try not to include items that require a password or fee to view.

Thanks for reading.

 

The moon can be an absentee ruler: Problems with reading Genesis 1 and 2 as history.

Some Christians believe that Genesis 1 was meant to be read as history, and sets forth events in sequence. (See my previous post for further discussion of interpreting Genesis 1.) 

There are some problems with reading Genesis 1 as history, setting forth events in sequence. Here are some of them:

1) Light appears on the first day, but the sun and moon (which are not named, probably as a warning against worshiping them) are not mentioned until the fourth day.

2) The sun is described as ruling the day, and the moon as ruling the night. Surely the ancient Hebrews (and God!) knew full well that the moon appears during the day on most days, for periods up to almost the entire length of that day, and is not always present during the night. How can the moon rule the night on nights when it doesn't appear?

The above photo, taken in daylight, shows that the moon was clearly visible, and the sun was clearly shining. That means that, on the other side of the earth, neither the moon nor the sun was visible in the sky, at that time. Photo from Laura Suarez (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu).

3) Genesis 1 describes a firmament (or expanse) as being created on the second day. The problem with that is that there is no firmament. Ancient peoples believed that there was one, and supposed that various celestial objects, and clouds, were held up by this structure. There is no firmament. The moon, the sun, the stars, galaxies, planets, comets and asteroids are not held up by any sort of glass sphere, or invisible framework (unless you count gravity as such). They are at distances that vary by orders of magnitude -- the moon is relatively close to us, the Magellanic Clouds much further away, so that there is no way that both of these could be held up by one structure surrounding the earth. The earth is not the center of the solar system.

How do I explain these problems? Is the Bible wrong?

I would argue that the Bible is not wrong. It was not meant to be a textbook of astronomy, or geology, or biology. It was meant to tell us about God, the single wonderful, wise creator, and His sovereignty over the creation. God used the language and ideas of the culture of the time. People of that day believed that there was a firmament, so God allowed the description of the creation to include this. Today, we say "sunset" and "sunrise," even though the sun doesn't really rise, or set -- the earth's rotation makes it seem that it rises and sets. If, for example, a news reporter or a novelist says that an event happened at sunrise, we don't accuse her of ignorance or deception.* These ideas are part of our culture, and communicate within that culture, whereas saying "the earth rotated so that the sun appeared on the horizon in Central Africa," is unnecessarily cumbersome and confusing. The idea of a firmament, in Bible times, communicated with others.

Added Dec 13, 2021: For more on the firmament and the Hebrews, see here.

Thank you for reading!

*There are other examples of this sort of thing, such as acting as if or communicating that gravity is an attractive force, because it's ingrained in our culture. If I understand Einstein, gravity is because of space being warped, so that two objects travel toward each other in space-time, and it isn't really an attractive force. The more up-to-date Einsteinian explanation of gravity was used frequently in Star Trek. ("warp speed") But we write and talk about falling downstairs, for example.

Another example of how culture makes communication unscientific is the use of heart for the seat of the emotions.

It is likely that some current ideas about how things work, from the submicroscopic to the galactic, will seem foolish to people in the future centuries. (If there are to be future centuries.)

We aren't capable of understanding how God created light - God spoke. In what language?

We aren't capable of understanding how God created, except very superficially. If, for example, we believe that light came about instantaneously because God spoke, what words and language did He use? Did He speak aloud? Was "God" God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, or all of them? Was anyone listening? Was light created from something else, or did it just appear? Did it appear throughout the entire universe at the same time? Why does Genesis 1 seem to indicate that light was created on the first day, but the sun and moon were created on the fourth? The moon is a reflecter, not an independent source of light -- did Genesis 1 take that into account? We don't know the answer to these questions, and many others, and aren't going to. If we understood these things fully, we would, in effect, be gods, and we aren't. 

This paragraph is modified excerpt from a longer post on this blog, published in 2013.

Sunspots 804

 Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Christianity: (and Politics) John Piper, an important evangelical, explains, without mentioning names, why he won't be voting for Donald Trump.

The editor of Christianity Today, on white male evangelical supremacy, and the history that led us to this point.

Computing: (And Christianity) Christianity Today reports on young TikTok evangelists.

Education: Listverse tells us some interesting facts about mountains.

Environment: Gizmodo reports that a feasible method to break down polyethylene plastic has been found.

Philosophy:  The Society of Catholic Scientists argues that human minds cannot be completely explained by physics and chemistry.

Science: Gizmodo reports on a beetle that can withstand being run over by an automobile.

The Scientist reports that previously unknown salivary glands have been found in us humans.

The Scientist also reports that water (frozen) has been found on the moon.

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 692

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

 Christianity: A Relevant writer discusses the importance of hope.

The family of Mollie Tibbetts, who was murdered, has expressed forgiveness for the probable murderer, according to Relevant.

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, according to Relevant, plans to establish chapters on all US campuses with more than 1,000 students, over the next few years. They say that "about 53 percent of 2,500 schools currently don’t have any known campus ministry. ..."
 
Computing: (and Food) USA Today reports that IBM has patented drones that can fly around work spaces and dispense coffee.

Education: Grammarphobia tells us whether we should use "in Jesus's name," or "in Jesus' name."

Ethics: (or something) Gizmodo reports on an agency in Brazil, which is trying to protect isolated tribes. According to the report, there may be as many as 11 tribes in the rainforest which have never interacted with "modern" man.

Food: Gizmodo reports that the state legislature of Missouri has tried to define "meat." There are questions about cell/tissue cultured products, which aren't available in grocery stores, but which may be in the future.

Health: Scientific American reports that marijuana-derived substances are found in breast milk for 6 days after the last use.

History: National Public Radio reports that there is a drought in some of Europe. That has exposed "hunger stones" in some rivers -- stones with inscriptions telling of previous droughts. One such inscription is in 1417 AD. See also here, for marked stone exposure in a different part of Europe.

Politics: FiveThirtyEight looks at research on the effect of voter identification laws.

National Public Radio reports that the Department of Homeland Security presented a rosier picture of conditions in countries that actually exists there, in order to justify sending refugees back to them. Sigh.

Science: Analysis of data collected by an Indian spacecraft show that there is water on the moon.

USA Today reports that some farmers in Mexico have been growing corn that is associated with Nitrogen-fixing bacteria. (Usually, Nitrogen-fixing bacteria are associated with members of the pea family, such as soybeans. Plants that have such associations need less (or no) Nitrogen in fertilizer, and the plants are a better source of protein building blocks in people that eat them.)

Space.com reports that an asteroid seems to be about 95% metal, which is very unusual, and could be commercially important, if we can get there to mine it. Here's the Wikipedia article on that asteroid, Psyche.

Lifehacker on how to get a cat to like you (or at least act like it does).

Scientific American on how to tell if a comatose patient is conscious.

Scientific American also reports that we can have only up to about 150 real friends -- people we interact with regularly.

Thanks for looking!

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 474

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Christianity: The Huffington Post has an article telling us that we may be using "I've been blessed" entirely too much.
Computing: (or something) One of my photos was used by a Fox News web page, without my permission. Hardly a shock, and it could have been some other web site (and has been, sometimes.) Here's the original photo. They didn't spell my name correctly, but that happens a lot. Oh, well.
Education: (Or history, or politics) Robert Krulwich posts on people who had a parent, or grandparent, who remembered things from over a century ago -- human wormholes. Interesting.

Politics: (Sort of) National Public Radio reports on the death of the last of the Navajo Code Talkers, who used their own language to communicate secrets for the US military, in World War II. Navajo is so complex, and was so obscure to the Japanese, that they were unable to decipher the communications of the Code Talkers.
Science: Fox News reports on evidence that the moon and the earth have always been separate, but collided a long time ago.
The New York Times on a new procedure -- testing for all the DNA in a diseased person's body, and checking that DNA against all known disease-causing organisms, including parasites.
National Public Radio reports that spiders tune their webs, much like violinists tune their violins, although not for the same reasons.
  Image source (public domain)

"Blood Moons" and Christ's return

I don't know when Christ is returning. As I understand the Bible, no one else does, either. Bible scholars do not even agree on a timetable for His return. Some believe that the Biblical signs of His return have all been fulfilled already. Some believe that the indications of His return are for our spiritual warning only. Some believe that there will be a Rapture, with Christians taken away. Some don't. Some Christians believe that there will be a seven-year tribulation. Some don't. See here for a conservative (in the sense that he takes the Bible very seriously) scholar's take on some of these beliefs. Based on prophecies that the Bible, itself, tells us have been already fulfilled, it seems that interpreting prophecy is a difficult job. The Bible says a lot less about End Times than some people seem to think that it does.

Nonetheless, throughout history, there have been many people who have proclaimed that something or other is a sign of Christ's return, and even predicted the date of that return. See here for a recent unfortunate, and well-publicized, example. The result of all these predictions seems to have been that people take the prospect of Christ's return much less seriously than as if those explicit predictions hadn't been made.

Why do we try to predict the future, when Christ, Himself, said that we don't know what it will be? One reason is curiosity. There was clearly some of that, about end times, in the New Testament church, so it's not surprising that there should be some now. It's not up to me to judge the motives of other Christians, so I won't go further to answer the question.

A recent prediction is that, because of the connection between lunar eclipses and the Jewish festivals, great events, most likely the return of Christ, are imminent. This has been proposed by a Mark Biltz, and also by TV preacher John Hagee. Perhaps. If you do a Google search for "Biltz blood moon," as I did, you will find that there are some people who believe Biltz and Hagee on this matter, and some who don't. In fact, the first web site that came up was a site that said it debunked Biltz's theory about the eclipses and End Times.

I looked at Answers in Genesis, a ministry that, whatever its faults, is steadfast in its belief in the Bible as the word of God. A scientist who writes for their web site has an article, casting considerable doubt on the blood moon prediction, and explaining, in terms understandable by lay people, what causes so-called blood moons. I recommend that anyone interested in this subject read that article.

Thanks for reading! I thank one of my introductory biology students for bringing this topic to my attention.

*    *    *    *    *
Added September 23, 2015: Mr. Hagee is predicting that something important is about to happen, involving Israel, associated with the current tetrad of "blood moons." He mentions September 28, in particular. Perhaps he is right, perhaps not.

You may want to look at the most negative reviews of Mr. Hagee's book, Four Blood Moons: Something Is About to Change. (The first review, and the majority of other reviews on Amazon, are very positive, but the rest of them from that link aren't positive at all, citing errors, such as in the book's use of history, and scriptural problems, as well.)

". . . until the moon is no more."

Psalm 72:1 God, give the king your justice;

your righteousness to the royal son.

2 He will judge your people with righteousness,

and your poor with justice.

3 The mountains shall bring prosperity to the people.

The hills bring the fruit of righteousness.

4 He will judge the poor of the people.

He will save the children of the needy,

and will break the oppressor in pieces.

5 They shall fear you while the sun endures;

and as long as the moon, throughout all generations.

6 He will come down like rain on the mown grass,

as showers that water the earth.

7 In his days, the righteous shall flourish,

and abundance of peace, until the moon is no more.

(World English Bible, public domain. This was apparently written by Solomon.)

I recently attended a worship service, where the above passage was part of the scripture reading for the day. I had never noticed the emphasized phrase, or verse 5, which is similar. These are striking phrases!

I can find no scientific predictions that the moon is going to disappear from the sky anytime soon, presumably because it will eventually fall into the earth.

This is poetry, not astronomy or geology, and Solomon may have just been using a figure of speech. I don't know. But my guess is that he was referring prophetically to Christ's reign, with will last forever. Amen.

Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 360

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Science: National Public Radio reports on a study that suggests that eating moderate amounts of chocolate helps keep weight off.

NPR also reports on potential problems in giving a heart transplant to a patient who is as old as former Vice President Cheney.

And NPR also reports that the earth has more than one moon. (No, that's not an April Fool's joke!)

The Arts: The BBC reports on the remains of what appears to be the oldest stringed instrument ever found in Europe.

Image source (public domain)