The story – and it truly is a story – of evolution is the prevalent myth of our world. It is the narrative that shapes our culture and our systems of education. The creation account of Genesis offers a different narrative that challenges its readers, both ancient and modern. Think about the assumptions that an ancient reader might carry with them before reading the Genesis account. There are lots of [ Read More ]
If you are thinking about starting your own cult around a spectacular celestial object — and who isn’t these days — November may be the month for you. This year hosts a variety of potentially memorable heavenly displays for those interested in looking through a telescope, but the late Fall arrival of Comet ISON is being hyped as the comet of the century. If all the circumstances line up correctly [ Read More ]
In discussing the age of the universe, creationists are reminded on a fairly regular basis that the universe cannot be younger than the oldest star in the universe. If a star is discovered that is older than you think the universe should be, then you are quite simply wrong about your age estimate. This argument is broadly accepted and wielded to great affect in support of Big Bang cosmology. This line of [ Read More ]
Life as we know it is made up of carbon. We really have no knowledge or even strong speculation about how life could be formed without it. Unfortunately for a wildly chaotic universe, carbon is not the easiest thing to form. Famous scientist Fred Hoyle first predicted the outrageous requirements necessary to produce the carbon-friendly environment that leads to the potential for life, now called the Hoyle state. “The carbon-oxygen-nitrogen [ Read More ]
Once in a while I stumble upon an news article concerning astronomy or physics that I think might be important, but at that particular moment I don’t know why. It is like a piece in a much larger puzzle. I tuck these away and plan to return to them later. Today, I reexamined a few tidbits of news, many correlating to even more current announcements, and I have noticed a [ Read More ]
The universe should produce awe in each one of us, but how do we explore the universe? Here are a few options. 1. Watch This Video. This video gives a thrilling ride through the observable universe and gives a pretty good idea of what we can (and cannot) see. This is great because of its scale, zooming from the Himalayas all the way out to the biggest scale imaginable. It’s [ Read More ]
One of the most basic conclusions of modern astronomy is that the red-shift of an astronomical object (say a galaxy) is a measure of its distance and therefore its age. The red-shift is caused by the rapid expansion of space, and more distant objects are receding from us at a faster rate than closer objects. Thus, the higher the red-shift, the further the galaxy. Furthermore, the further the object, the longer the [ Read More ]
Bible believers have an awkward and often inconsistent relationship with modern science. In homage to my love of charts, I wanted to propose the following little illustration of this dilemma. Science can predict how the universe will end. We have equations that model the state of the universe and that predict as a mathematical byproduct the fate of the universe. Obviously, any scientific prediction beyond the next minute has to [ Read More ]
The physical universe is governed by laws, but describing those laws has proven a challenging task. Isaac Newton distilled the largest part of our knowledge of the physical realm down to a hand full of simple rules and principles. Three laws of motion. One equation for all forces. One law of gravity. It is a neat and tidy bundle for the physics student to explore and (this is the best [ Read More ]
It was the great and ancient Greek astronomer/philosopher Hipparchus (190-120 BC) who first attempted to catalogue the stars.1 The bewildering wonder of that fact is that over 1700 years before any serious telescope was developed, Hipparchus was already sorting stars, not just by location, but also by brightness to the naked eye. Take a moment on an upcoming clear night and see how successful you would be at that task. Plop down on [ Read More ]