Our moon covers the sun perfectly in a total solar eclipse, which can be seen in a path 115 miles wide across the U.S. today. In the shadow of the moon (that is, from a position within that path) all you can see (through the proper filter of course) is the corona of the sun.
Doesn't it seem unlikely that our little moon would ever perfectly cover the huge sun which is 93,000,000 miles away? Yes it does, what a coincidence.
Here's the explanation. The sun is about 400x bigger than our small moon--but it's also about 400x further away. From our point of view on earth's surface, the moon matches the size and shape of the sun. A total eclipse isn't visible in any other place in our solar system, and it doesn't matter because there are no observers to see it.
Keys to understanding space and light have been discovered because scientists on earth were able to observe total eclipses (discoveries explained here).
"So the best place to view total solar eclipses in our solar system is just where there are observers to see them. Let that sink in a minute."
"The universe seems to be designed not just for life but also for discovery."
Human beings do consist of material things: blood, bone, muscle, fat, etc. But most of us believe we are more than material. We have dreams, values, choices, loves, convictions - in short, we have a mind that goes beyond the physics and chemistry of our brain. You are not just a collection of body parts. You are more.
Back in the 1970's, popular scientist Carl Sagan was speaking with conviction to millions of people on tv, standing in a place of breathtaking beauty, when he famously said:
How much of reality does that point of view leave out? A lot - the conviction and experience of millions of people throughout history, as the 6-minute video below explains.
A bacterium is a one-cell organism, obviously lacking eyes and all other body parts that animals have, and even lacking a nucleus. Fifty of them lined up would cross the diameter of a human hair.
But inside them are those complex molecular machines, and they do amazing things.
Picture the bacteria living in a small, weedy pond. There's too much oxygen at the surface, so they need to stay toward the bottom where there's less. Having no eyes, how do they know which direction is the bottom?
Within these one-celled bacteria is a factory - yes, a factory - which manufactures magnetic crystals that are drawn toward earth's core. Watch the video to see how it works:
Biochemist Dr. Michael Behe begins #5 in his series on "Secrets of the Cell" by saying, "What was a mystery to Darwin is now well known. We know that the cell has codes and transmits information that regulates the size and shape of living things."
Complicated machines made of molecules do the individual cell's work. Many of these molecular machines are irreducibly complex.
They could not have randomly evolved without direction or guidance. If a part of a molecular machine like the bacterial flagellum happened to evolve, it could not be selected by "natural selection" to survive and be passed on to the next generation . . because it would not give any survival advantage by itself--not until all the parts had evolved and were in place.
That's irreducible complexity.
"Natural selection" cannot work toward a future goal or target that doesn't exist yet. That's what a mind does.
Evolution, change over time in living organisms, is driven by random variation (random gene mutations) and "natural selection," meaning that good mutations spread when individuals with that mutation have a survival advantage.
But gene mutations don't typically install new, beneficial features. Genetic mutations may help the species adapt to its environment, but not by giving it new updates--like a new generation phone with updated features.
"In short, helpful mutations don't install new features-- they are not a DNA upgrade." They don't add a new functions that create higher forms of life.
Imagine an Olympic long-jumper clearing two whole football fields. That sort of thing can't really happen. But it does happen in the world of a planthopper, which can jump 100x its body length.
From studying this bug with special cameras, scientists at Cambridge found out that it coordinates the motion of its legs with incredibly precise gears so that its legs are in perfect sync for maximum power.
A branch of engineering called "biomimetics" makes engineering progress by mimicking biology. For example, the study of dragonfly wings enabled better efficiency in the building of wind turbines.
If you are open to the idea that God exists, the obvious appearance of design in the natural world -- in honey bee hives and the intricate dance directing other bees to flowers -- makes sense. If you start with a commitment to believing God does not exist, you have to think up something to explain away the design of the natural world.
Even the famous crusader for atheism, Richard Dawkins, concedes that living animals appear to have been designed and wisely assembled. He definitely would not agree that the Creator placed an algorithm in the bee's brain to direct its behavior.
Boston Research Journal was quoted in yesterday's post saying, "The use of hexagonal honeycombs by bees is not a coincidence." They think they know where this "ingenious" design came from. Not from intelligence or a plan, of course; not from an algorithm in their design; but from natural selection working on random genetic variations (evolution):
"Hexagonal honeycombs built by bees showcase nature’s ingenuity and efficiency. Through their meticulous construction, bees optimize space, create sturdy structures, conserve resources, and regulate temperature within the hive. The hexagonal shape has evolved as a result of millions of years of evolutionary fine-tuning, allowing bees to build remarkable architectural marvels that support their survival and collective success."
Isn't a bit of a stretch to assume that evolution made it all happen: optimizing space, regulating temperature, meticulous construction, etc., without any direction or intelligence?
These publishers along with most of the scientific world assume that bee behavior--like the "waggle dance" to communicate location of flowers and the building of the ingenious hive--came about solely by chance through evolution, no plan or design or intelligence necessary.
Like office buildings . . which pop up randomly all the time!
No, you have to abandon common sense to believe that.
You could describe an office building as a complex, functional system designed to enable people to carry out their jobs and accomplish their company's purpose. Well-educated people designed and constructed all the sub-systems (like electrical) that make it work.
A honey bee hive is a complex, functional system constructed by bees in the wild or in human-made devices. Individual bees carry out their jobs in this home which provides for their needs while they accomplish the mission to produce honey.
Intelligent, these bees. They start working at their jobs when they're three weeks old. The ones who build the hive don't go to hive-building college, since they're born knowing exactly what to do. How, exactly, do they know that?
Glands in their bodies create construction material: "Wax is an expensive commodity and so comb construction can be quite costly for a honey bee colony. Honeycomb is constructed in such a way to minimize wax consumption." Like a responsible human engineering firm.
Voices advocating for atheism are strong in our modern culture. Sometimes those voices go beyond reason to claim that "science has proven there is no god." That's just not the case, because it can't be done. It's an unscientific claim.
And . . neither can it be proved that God does exist. You have a personal choice to make, either for or against faith in God, even after all the breathtaking advances science has made to understand the material/natural world we live in.
From time to time I publish evidence that supports a rational choice for faith in the God of the Bible and I love to do that, to give you reasons to believe.
There's a new book on evidence that the human body and the natural world are engineered to work elegantly together. We'll be looking at it in weeks to come.
The point is, your free moral agency, your choice to believe or not, should not be bullied. If at Christmas or any other time you are moved to put your faith in God, you are rationally justified in doing that.
Life requires minerals that are bound in our planet's rock. In the course of earth's water cycle, those minerals are dissolved and distributed all over the world. Water dissolves without destroying lots of things we need, while not dissolving necessary things.
Water's heat capacity helps us stay temperature-stable within a narrow range.
Normally the frozen state of a liquid would contract and get denser. If frozen water got denser, it would sink. Lakes and rivers would be frozen from top to bottom, killing all aquatic life. But floating ice actually insulates and preserves the liquid state of the water beneath it.
"Water is the driving force of all nature," said Leonardo DaVinci. He didn't know what the last several hundred of years of science has discovered, but his intuition was correct.
The fine-tuning of water, and of nature in general, make possible the existence of complex beings such as ourselves, according to Michael Denton.
Re-posting a favorite post of mine from a year ago:
C elegans is a tiny worm, such a simple animal . . or it seems that way until you find out what's going on inside it. Every cell in its body has DNA, 100 million base pairs of it, containing coded information on its inherited traits.
In 2002 a team of three scientists received a Nobel prize for their work on this worm. One of them meticulously documented how the worm develops from its original fertilized egg all the way to the adult form.
Says Dr. Paul Nelson (video), "For the first time in biology, we were able to see and track the development of a animal from one cell to the adult. It had never been done before." This information, right down to the individual cells, was worthy of a Nobel prize.
Starting with the first cell division into two, the daughter cells are different. They shut down most of their DNA to concentrate on one system of the complete animal. It's called cell differentiation. How does the daughter cell know what to concentrate on? Natural selection can't operate at this level.
It's like it's engineered to work toward a future goal. No wonder Francis Crick felt it necessary to warn biologists toconstantly remind themselves that what they see was not designed. is a simple animal . . or it seems that way until you find out what's going on inside it. Every cell in its body has DNA, 100 million base pairs of it, containing coded information on its inherited traits.
In 2002 a team of three scientists received a Nobel prize for their work on this worm. One of them meticulously documented how the worm develops from its original fertilized egg all the way to the adult form.
Says Dr. Paul Nelson (video), "For the first time in biology, we were able to see and track the development of a animal from one cell to the adult. It had never been done before." This information, right down to the individual cells, was worthy of a Nobel prize.
Starting with the first cell division into two, the daughter cells are different. They shut down most of their DNA to concentrate on one system of the complete animal. It's called cell differentiation. How does the daughter cell know what to concentrate on? Natural selection can't operate at this level.
It's like it's engineered to work toward a future goal. No wonder Francis Crick felt it necessary to warn biologists to constantly remind themselves that what they see was not designed.
Gonzalez and Jay Richards published their book, Privileged Planet, in 2004. They agree with the authors of Rare Earth that life is possible on our planet only because of its highly unusual features.
As an astronomer and professor, Dr. Gonzalez specializes in research on the various properties of planets and has published 68 articles in peer-reviewed science journals. He discovered two new planets and served on a NASA astrobiology panel in 2003.
Privileged Planet goes beyond saying that Earth is unusual. Our particular place in our galaxy (the galactic habitable zone) supports life, as does our place in our solar system, in addition to our planet's features.
In fact, Earth seems to be designed in all these ways not only for life, but also for discovery - for accessible discovery of scientific knowledge by intelligent beings like ourselves.
Despite the lack of much evidence from the fossil record, some scientists wanted to find a way to make sense of Darwin's theory of macro-evolution (that all species of life developed by way of natural selection working on random variations, not by the work of a Designer).
Charles Darwin himself had a suggestion. When he published the book (1859), he knew that most of earth's fossil record had not been investigated yet. So he suggested that future fossil research would reveal those slowly evolving animal forms in between species. They had to be there.
But another 163 years of paleontological progress since Darwin's time has found that . . they are not there. Species do evolve in the sense of minor changes over time. (That's micro-evolution and it's been observed. It is not disputed.) But innumerable intermediates forming a gradual trail of animals turning into other species since life began? No.
For more attempts to get around the fossil problem that worried Charles Darwin, view yesterday's video or go here.
Charles Darwin was worried about the fossil record because it didn't show innumerable intermediate forms proving super gradual change into today's living animals. He still wanted his theory to be true, in spite of the evidence of twenty new types of animal bodies in the Cambrian era which show up in the fossil record suddenly with no forms leading up to them.
Some scientists went to work to help find a way that the theory could still be true in spite of evidence from the Cambrian Explosion fossils.
Charles Darwin published a game-changing book, The Origin of Species, in 1859 to explain his theory about how all species of life originated. It challenged the era's conventional wisdom which said that the Creator God specially designed each type of creature.
Darwin claimed that all life of every type descended from one unknown original life form, changing gradually through its generations. When a change (variation) helped a life form to survive and reproduce, there were eventually more of this variety of plant or animal life. This happened countless times, slowly and gradually changing generations of life forms over enormous time spans, resulting in all the species of earth's history.
Certainly species change (micro-evolution) over time by a process (natural selection working on variations) which is undisputed today. But could this process have produced all the different species of life on earth (macro-evolution)? That is far from proven, and it is disputed.
Darwin was not cocky about his theory. He had doubts, and was humble enough to admit them.
Looks like these animals have (in their tiny brain?) a set of sequenced instructions that lead to a prescribed outcome. That's an algorithm, similar to a recipe. Every computer program is based on algorithms.
When people navigate, they choose a destination and a method of finding their way - a paper map, or verbal directions, or gps, or a computerized guidance system built into the aircraft or seagoing vessel. All of these were developed with difficulty over many years of history, most recently by people with math and computer science degrees.
We're sure not born knowing how to get to New York or anywhere else. But animals are born pre-programmed with goals and algorithms. It looks like the product of an intelligent, intentional design. Does it prove the existence of the Creator? No, it's not proof. It is strong supporting evidence.
The more we learn, the harder it is to assume that all life resulted from mindless, random, unplanned, undirected chance. See Charles Darwin's statement in yesterday's post.
