The Cosmos

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Webers_Home

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The theological idea of creation ex nihilo (out of nothing) is looking better all
the time as inflation theories increasingly suggest the universe emerged
from no tangible source. And although theorists energetically fantasize an
endless parade of explanations for the origin of the universe, they have been
doing so within the context of the known laws of physics; the meanwhile
having no clue about the origin of those physical laws. In other words: they
cannot explain where those laws came from in the first place-- nor can they
explain why the known laws control matter and energy the way they do
rather than some other way.

When people reach what is commonly called the age of reasoning; some of
their very first questions are: Why am I here? Where did I come from? What
is the meaning of life, and is there a purpose for mine? Am I here by
chance?

I think it's very normal (or at least very common) for people to seek a
justification for their existence; and without it, they can only conclude that
the human experience is futile; which can be roughly defined as serving no
useful purpose; for example:

Nobel Prize winner, author of several best-selling books, and recipient of at
least a dozen honorary degrees, physicist Steven Weinberg (who views
religion as an enemy of science), in his book "The First Three Minutes"
wrote: The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it seems
pointless. But if there is no solace in the fruits of our research, there is at
least some consolation in the research itself . . . the effort to understand the
universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the
level of a farce and gives it some of the grace of tragedy.

What a dismal appraisal. In Mr. Weinberg's opinion, the human experience
scarce escapes the categories of farce and tragedy; its quest for knowledge
seems the only thing that gives humanity any justification to exist at all. The
universe? It's just a meaningless void decorated with fascinating objects --a
carnival side show of cosmic curiosities, so to speak.

Wouldn't it be sad if we only lived and died like insects and fungi? I mean,
what would be the point of it all? They say a mind is a terrible thing to
waste. What real advantage is it to have something so useful as a human
mind if it's only going to die and stop working after many years of learning
and experience? And what real advantage is it for the mind of the present to
make the world a better place for the next generation of minds if the mind of
the present doesn't live to see it? That's really no more significant an
existence than that of the individuals in a bee hive or a termite colony.

I think people find comfort in perceiving themselves part of a grand scheme
instead of walking across the stage of their all-too-brief life as an
insignificant speck in a pointless cosmos. Belief that there's someone
somewhere above and beyond themselves gives people's existence value,
meaning, and purpose which, in my opinion, is at least one of the reasons
why supreme beings are so popular.

Galileo felt that science and religion are allies rather than enemies-- two
different languages telling the same story; a story of symmetry and balance:
heaven and hell, positive and negative, weak and strong, right and left, up
and down, night and day, hot and cold, God and Satan. Science and religion
are not at odds; no, in reality, science is just simply too young to
understand.

Dr. Robert Jastow, founder of the Goddard Institute for space studies at
NASA, in his book "God And The Astronomers" says: "Strange developments
are going on in astronomy. One of these is the discovery that the universe
had a beginning. And that means there has to be a beginner. The scientist
has scaled the mountain of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest
peak, and as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of
theologians who have been sitting there for centuries."

Agnostics and atheists claim there is no empirical evidence supporting the
existence of a supreme being. But they are foolishly invalidating perfectly
good evidence all around them and within easy reach. There exists more
evidence in the world of nature and in the sky to prove the reality of a
supreme being than there does to prove otherwise.
_
 
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Webers_Home

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Q: If the Earth was without a Sun to warm if for the first three days:
wouldn't it have gone into deep freeze and killed all the vegetation?

A: The dark side of the Moon gets down to -279º F so it's possible that the
Earth would've gone into deep freeze. However, the creation of the Earth
wasn't left up to nature; viz: it wasn't a natural event; it was a supernatural
event.

One of the creator's names in the Old Testament is Shadday (shad-dah'-ee)
which basically means all powerful; viz: controller of everything, including,
but not limited to; the cosmos' natural laws, i.e. physics. Left up to nature,
the Earth likely would've frozen over and all the vegetation perished; but not
with Shadday in charge.

Scientists will never, ever figure out the origin of the cosmos because
they're searching for a natural cause; which is tantamount to a blind man, in
a dark room, looking for a black cat that isn't there.
_
 
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Webers_Home

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According to the 2016 World Almanac, there were a combined
5,060,258,000 adherents of the six major religions believing in some form of
supreme being-- Baha'i, Christianity, Hindu, Judaism, Islam, and
Zoroastrian. That accounted for roughly 68% of the world's population
around that time.

Atheists came in at 136,483,000, which was roughly 1.84% of the world's
population around that time.

Agnostics came in at 692,111,000; roughly 9.3% of the world's population
around that time.

It's sometimes claimed that most of those five billion+ peoples who
practiced some form of theistic religion were undereducated, and many lived
in countries where the law of the land requires them to believe.

However; of the six deistic religions listed above, in North America there
were 292.833 million adherents and a mere 2.269 million atheists. That's a
whopping 129:1 ratio in an area of the world known for religious liberty and
educational opportunity.

A movie based upon Carl Sagan's novel "Contact" came out in 1997 starring
Jodi Foster. Her character was at first rejected to pilot an alien space-travel
machine for the reason given below.

"Our job was to select someone to speak for everybody; and I just couldn't
in good conscience vote for a person who doesn't believe in God-- someone
who honestly thinks the other 95% of us suffer from some form of mass
delusion."
_
 
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Webers_Home

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The cosmos is expanding in all directions, and not only expanding, but the
rate of its expansion isn't uniform.

The latest data suggests that the expansion is roughly 73.24± kilometers
per second per megaparsec. (Parsecs are a measure of distance; with a
megaparsec amounting to roughly 3.26 million light years.)

For example: the center of the Virgo Cluster is roughly 16.5
megaparsecs from Earth. So the rate of expansion relative to that area of
the universe is about 1,208 kilometers per second. (751 miles)

To put that in perspective: the muzzle velocity of a 55 grain, .223 caliber
rifle bullet is roughly 3,200 feet per second; which translates to a mere
6/10ths of a mile per second. Were someone to try to shoot the Virgo galaxy
cluster in the back with a .223 the exact moment it passed the spot where
they were standing, the bullet would never catch up fast enough to hit it.

Anyway; scientific reasoning says that if the universe is getting bigger, then
there must have been a time when it was smaller: much, much smaller; in
fact so small it was a mere speck. But scientific reasoning has a fatal flaw; it
doesn't reckon with intelligent design.

According to Genesis 1:16, God set the stars in place. In other words;
instead of beginning the expansion of the universe from a starting point; the
creator began its expansion with a starting lineup.
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Webers_Home

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Some years ago I reasoned within myself how lucky we are to live on a
magnetic planet because without Earth's polarized magnetism, compasses
wouldn't work. Well; I love compasses, and in point of fact own several.

But then I found out that were our planet not magnetic, living organisms as
we know them couldn't survive here due to bombardment by charged
particles hurled our way by the solar wind. The Earth's magnetic field
deflects a very large percentage of the solar wind's charged particles, thus
protecting life on Earth from annihilation. So as it turns out, the Earth's
magnetism is by design rather than by fortune.

But this is a very important consideration in science's search for exoplanets
suitable for life. If a candidate planet lacks polarized magnetism then forget
it; that planet would be no more suitable for life than Venus or Mars because
its host star's solar wind would be keeping it perpetually devastated.
_
 

BobRyan

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Rev 14:6-7 . . And I saw another angel flying through the sky, carrying the
everlasting gospel to preach to the people who dwell on the earth-- to every
nation, tribe, language, and people. Fear God! he shouted. Give glory to
Him! For the time has come when He will sit as judge. Worship Him who
made heaven and earth, the sea, and all the springs of water!

Although most Christians readily agree that the cosmos is the result of
intelligent design; they're divided over the very first two verses of Genesis
which read like this:

1. In the beginning God created the Heaven and the earth. 2. And the earth
was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."

Some sincerely believe the second verse indicates that the cosmos pre
existed its current form. In other words: a great cataclysm wrecked the
Earth so that God had to reconstruct it. Thus; we today live on a renovated
Earth. This posit is the so-called Gap Theory; which is explained pretty
well on Wikipedia.

Others, just as sincere, believe that the six days of creation shouldn't be
taken as 24-hour events; rather, as epochs of indeterminate length. This
posit is based upon Genesis 2:4, which reads like this:

"These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were
created, in the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven."

The Hebrew word for "day" in that verse is yowm (yome) which is the very
same word for each of the six days of God's creation labors. Since yowm in
Gen 2:4 refers to a period of time obviously much longer than 24 hours; it
justifies suggesting that each of the six Days of creation were longer than 24
hours too. In other words: yowm is ambiguous and not all that easy to
interpret sometimes.
_

Exodus 20 -- the TEN Commandments -- give specific details impossible to bend/wrench/twist on this topic.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

the time frame for creation of all life on Earth is clear - 6 days.... just like the work week is also "six days"
 

BobRyan

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There was a time when many foolishly believe that the earth was flat, that the sun revolved around the earth, but these had the excuse of living in the dark ages,

True. We are now well past the days when we had an excuse for believing in junk-science religion of evolutionism, or in a flat earth.

So how refreshing to find that we have actual Christians who accept the Word of God stating that the "Two Great Lights" - the sun, moon were created on day 4 of creation week.

How laughable to argue for blind faith evolutionism's claim that dust rocks and gas "turn into bunnies" given enough time and chance.
 
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Harvest 1874

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True. We are now well past the days when we had an excuse for believing in junk-science religion of evolutionism, or in a flat earth.

So how refreshing to find that we have actual Christians who accept the Word of God stating that the "Two Great Lights" - the sun, moon were created on day 4 of creation week.

How laughable to argue for blind faith evolutionism's claim that dust rocks and gas "turn into bunnies" given enough time and chance.

Only naive Christians believe such nonsense.

"How long, O naive ones, will you love being simple-minded? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing and fools hate knowledge?” (Prov 1:22 NAS)

How long, children, will you love childishness, and you mockers desire mockery, and you fools hate knowledge?” (Aramaic Bible in Plain English)

“There are three categories listed here, (1) simple ones, (2) scorners, and (3) fools.

First we have the simple ones. They are satisfied and in need of nothing (they already have everything, know everything)—a criticism particularly of Laodicea.

Next we have “scorners.” Scorners (or mockers) are outwardly critical of others and they find fault with good advice. Scorners are bolder than the simple ones. Filled with self-esteem and self-confidence, they oppose the counsel and advice of true wisdom, and they refuse to listen to the Lord’s counsel. Thus they fail to make progress or grow in grace and knowledge. Scorners oppose wisdom parse or whomever wisdom is moving (instructed) to pronounce her message.

The third category is “fools [who] hate knowledge (enlightenment, understanding).”

The three categories are in an ascending order of wrong: simple ones, scorners, and fools. The fool is the worst category. The simple one does not want knowledge, (chooses to live in ignorance), the scorner mocks knowledge (because of his own lack of understanding), but the fool hates knowledge. Each category gets bolder and more active. In fact, the fool actively opposes truth.”

Pray that you do not reach this third level of ignorance.
 

BobRyan

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BobRyan said:
True. We are now well past the days when we had an excuse for believing in junk-science religion of evolutionism, or in a flat earth.

So how refreshing to find that we have actual Christians who accept the Word of God stating that the "Two Great Lights" - the sun, moon were created on day 4 of creation week.

How laughable to argue for blind faith evolutionism's claim that dust rocks and gas "turn into bunnies" given enough time and chance.

Only naive Christians believe such nonsense.

"How long, O naive ones, will you love being simple-minded? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing and fools hate knowledge?” (Prov 1:22 NAS)

How long, children, will you love childishness, and you mockers desire mockery, and you fools hate knowledge?” (Aramaic Bible in Plain English)

good point only very shallow thinking Christians "believe" blind-faith evolutionism and its stories about rabbits coming from dust rocks and gas "given a sufficiently large and talented pile of rock and enough time and chance"

Or as we like to say "given a sufficiently talented pile of rocks and a sufficiently long period of time". Belief and acceptance of blind-faith evolutionism, is utter nonsense to a Christian.

Real life observations of over 50,000 generations have proven their blind faith mythology of evolutionism dead wrong.

Their blind faith religion is not merely "apparently wrong" it is demonstrably wrong. science fact. Not their much beloved junk-science fiction.

BOTH the atheist and the T.E. however argue that "a single celled animal will -- sure enough -- turn into a rabbit over time no matter the impossibility of it -- given a sufficiently talented and long period of time filled with improbable just-so-stories to be told all the way up mount improbable". And in their new "twist" all they need is an infinite number of other entire universes (multiverses) to make it happen "just-so".

If it weren't so sad it would be very very funny!! :)
 
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BobRyan

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I wish the OP had included this - as the opposite of God's Word: "a single celled animal will -- sure enough -- turn into a rabbit over time no matter the impossibility of it -- given a sufficiently talented bacteria and a sufficiently long and talented period of time and chance filled with improbable just-so-stories, all the way to the top of mount improbable"

As the well-known atheist and evolutionist Colin Patterson lamented regarding the "stories" of his religion of blind faith evolutionism "stories easy enough to make up - but they are not science"

How "odd" then that there exist some Christians who would gladly trade in their Bibles for such "fluff".
 
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Who said anything about the bible teaching the the earth is flat or that the sun revolves around the earth. We merely said that these were at one time believed, we never implied that such beliefs came from the bible.

The Bible does teach that, contrary to popular belief, the earth is motionless and stretched out by the span of God's hand under the canopy of the heavens. The ancient Hebrew cosmology (as well as many other ancient cultures) teaches precisely this cosmological model.

Genesis 1:6-8, Genesis 1:14-18, Genesis 1:20, Genesis 7:11, Genesis 8:2, Job 9:8, Job 26:7, Job 28:24, Job 37:3, Job 37:18, Psalm 19:1, Psalm 150:1, Proverbs 8:28, Isaiah 40:22, Isaiah 42:5, Isaiah 44:24, Isaiah 45:12, Isaiah 48:13, Ezekiel 1:22-26, Ezekiel 10:1, Daniel 12:3, Amos 9:6, Acts 7:56, Revelation 4:6, Revelation 6:14

Copernicus, Galileo and co. hoodwinked the Church into abandoning their scriptural heritage in favor of the white lab-coated priesthood called "scientists".
 

BobRyan

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The Bible does teach that, contrary to popular belief, the earth is motionless and stretched out by the span of God's hand under the canopy of the heavens.

contrary to popular belief Einstein did teach that describing motion from the stand point of the observer's frame of reference being motionless is a scientifically accurate process.

Also it is the Bible that accounts for the "expansion of the universe " being more like a curtain where every point is distanced from ever other point over time -- rather than extend out as a beam of light or a chalk line continuously extended out. Today the term used for the unknown force causing that expansion is "dark energy" where the observer on each planet in the universe would be expected to view every other galaxy as expanding out away from them and they would appear to be at the center of the universe due to that expansion "like a curtain".
 

farouk

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The Bible does teach that, contrary to popular belief, the earth is motionless and stretched out by the span of God's hand under the canopy of the heavens. The ancient Hebrew cosmology (as well as many other ancient cultures) teaches precisely this cosmological model.

Genesis 1:6-8, Genesis 1:14-18, Genesis 1:20, Genesis 7:11, Genesis 8:2, Job 9:8, Job 26:7, Job 28:24, Job 37:3, Job 37:18, Psalm 19:1, Psalm 150:1, Proverbs 8:28, Isaiah 40:22, Isaiah 42:5, Isaiah 44:24, Isaiah 45:12, Isaiah 48:13, Ezekiel 1:22-26, Ezekiel 10:1, Daniel 12:3, Amos 9:6, Acts 7:56, Revelation 4:6, Revelation 6:14

Copernicus, Galileo and co. hoodwinked the Church into abandoning their scriptural heritage in favor of the white lab-coated priesthood called "scientists".
Isaiah 40.22 speaks of 'the circle of the earth'...
 
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Isaiah 40.22 speaks of 'the circle of the earth'...

Yes, the bible is very specific. That verse says "circle" (like a flat round pizza) not a ball or sphere. The same prophet was well aware of the difference between a ball and a circle. For example he uses the word ball in Isaiah 22:18 but not in reference to the earth.
 

farouk

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Yes, the bible is very specific. That verse says "circle" (like a flat round pizza) not a ball or sphere. The same prophet was well aware of the difference between a ball and a circle. For example he uses the word ball in Isaiah 22:18 but not in reference to the earth.
It the earth is flat, why don't travellers fall over the edge from time to time?:confused:
 
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It the earth is flat, why don't travellers fall over the edge from time to time?:confused:
A frequently asked question. The answer is that the earth is encompassed by a wall of ice which contains the seas. The full dimensions of this area is unknown. There is no "edge" of the earth from which to fall. However, there may be a boundary far beyond the ice wall perimeter where the firmament dome which encloses our atmosphere meets the earth.
 

farouk

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A frequently asked question. The answer is that the earth is encompassed by a wall of ice which contains the seas. The full dimensions of this area is unknown. There is no "edge" of the earth from which to fall. However, there may be a boundary far beyond the ice wall perimeter where the firmament dome which encloses our atmosphere meets the earth.
Do you think that, if the earth is flat, Captain Cook, or Magellan, or Qantas flights wouldn't have eventually bumped into this wall of ice that you speak of?
 

BobRyan

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Yes, the bible is very specific. That verse says "circle" (like a flat round pizza) not a ball or sphere. The same prophet was well aware of the difference between a ball and a circle. For example he uses the word ball in Isaiah 22:18 but not in reference to the earth.

The Bible says that the Earth enscribes a circle at the boundary between light and dark. This is exactly what happens when a sphere is exposed to a larger light source -- the boundary is a plane that intersects the sphere and forms a circle at the boundary between light and dark.