Grok talks 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

If you watched yesterday's video, you found that the interviewer started with interesting science topics like the origin of life and the evolution of all species of life. Here are just a few of the questions he posed to Grok 4, and its responses:

• What is the mathematical probability that the first life cells could have formed by natural processes alone? A - "the mathematical probability of a minimal genome about 200-300 genes self-assembling through naturalistic processes is less than one in ten to the power 200 based on observed chemical constraints . . effectively impossible."
• What is the most logical conclusion about where life came from and the biodiversity of life forms on the planet? A - "the most logical conclusion . . is a directed process implying intelligent design. The evidence for an intelligent designer is overwhelming."
• Is it rational to say that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth? A - Yes.

If science, logic, mathematical probability and observational science mean a lot to you, you will have to deal with this conclusion.

Grok talks

Is faith in the Christian God the most reasonable conclusion you could come to? 

Since artificial intelligence is seemingly going beyond mere human intelligence, this Christian believer had the idea of submitting that question to AI. 

He specifically told Grok 4 to consider only "strict logic, mathematical probability and observational science" (not religious faith or ideology). Based on scientific data, he asked it to answer some factual questions.

Eventually Grok 4 concluded that . . it is.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Polyface Farm

Re-post from 2017

There's a beautiful farm in the Shenandoah Valley of northern Virginia. The passionate farmer, Joel Salatin, is known all over the world because his message resonates with almost everybody who loves nature, farming, or food . . also because he has oodles of personality and has written twelve books.

Polyface Farm is "the farm of many faces". They grow chickens, pigs, turkeys, cows, all the animals doing what they naturally do - unlike the typical industrial farm, which is a mono-culture of corn or chickens or something else.

Their methods are not ordinary, not like factory farms or CAFO farms. Animals are grown humanely on rich pastures which are sustainable. By the way, these pasture lands capture carbon like no factory farm can. The whole system produces healthy soil, healthy animals, nutritious food, and a beautiful environment.

It's called regenerative farming. 

Brain≠Mind 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

If you literally are your brain, like some say, what hope would there be for a girl born with only half of a brain? A brain surgeon in the video below told her parents that there was little hope for her. But twenty years later, she is a vibrant young woman, functioning normally.

The neurosurgeon was at that time a materialist, like so many. It's not that he made a conscious choice, but rather that worldview dominates in our culture and you just pick it up from school and media. Over his professional experience of doing 7,000 surgeries, he changed his mind.

He believes we have souls or immaterial minds, and that they use the brain. As Neil DeGrasse Tyson says, mapping of the brain shows that the brain does control movement, sensory perception, emotion, and memory. But no part of the brain has been shown to control abstract thought (like doing math or understanding history) or your free will.

Brain≠Mind

If someone denies the existence of God and everything supernatural, if he claims nothing exists but the natural world or universe, he or she is an atheist or materialist. Of course, that person must also believe that human beings have no immaterial soul.

One believer in this worldview is the well-known astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. He ably articulates the materialist opinion against a soul: "What I do know is, everything you are derives from electro-chemical synapses running in your brain." He also gives evidence for that view.

So, you're just your material, physical brain (image) which is located in your skull. He thinks that is everything you are including thoughts, feelings, decisions, etc.

Christians hold a different view, taken from the Bible. God Almighty created human beings with a likeness to himself, whose immaterial soul or spirit will live beyond the life of their physical, material bodies. 

Here's a good question: is there scientific evidence for the Chistian view? Yes.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Human zoo 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Is Darwinian evolution theory naturally racist? The answer coming from the interview below is, yes. 

It's not that some racist scientists happened to hold to evolution, but that Darwin's theory easily resulted in the racism that placed certain people in zoos. Evolutionary theory "provided the scientific justification that pushed racism."

If there is no Creator God who made us in His image, and human beings just evolved on a continuum from the lower animals, then it's no stretch to imagine that some human races are lower on that continuum.

Ota Benga from Africa was exhibited in the monkey cage at the Bronx Zoo. To many scientists, it just made sense that some humans were not as evolved as others.

 from Evolution News

Human zoo 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post) 

This shocking and painful story from history is told in "Human Zoos: America's Forgotten History of Scientific Racism," a film produced by Discovery Institute, the think tank where Dr. Stephen Meyer works (author of Return of the God Hypothesis).

"Leading men of science from Harvard and Princeton and Columbia University were saying that Africans were midway between an orangutan and a human being . . ."

Curious people created a big market for these "exhibits." Scientists told them that the human beings of today evolved from the lower animals, from apes. Who wouldn't want to see the proof of that, if the scientists were correct?

 

(cont'd tomorrow)

Helium 3 🎈

Follow-up to this post

It seems confirmed: northern Minnesota's newly discovered helium will put the state in a small group of global suppliers, competing with Russia, Qatar, and Tanzania. Analysis so far indicates "world class results" of the highest concentration the industry has ever seen, and a very large reserve underground.

Babbitt MN will profit from a new industry with new jobs, and America will have a wonderful access to this clean, non-renewable resource right within our own borders. 

 It will be great . . if and when the company (Pulsar Helium) and the state can put it together. Minnesota is working on regulations now, including where they want the state profits to go. Fortunately fracking won't be necessary, so that's one controversy that won't enter in.

Environmental impact is sure to be a mine field. There's only one comment to the video above on Youtube. Its writer describes this project's location as "an extremely sensitive and important ecosystem that connects to a huge area of pristine wilderness."

 from Hadco International

FB censors

 A famous British scientist lost his Facebook account, apparently because he posted his opinion:

 

In this case it's not a matter of posting something "false, threatening" (see yesterday's post) or hateful, and he was not arrested (just censored). It's simply a scientist posting his opinion -- an opinion which happens to be non-woke and not approved by left-wing social media. And it appears his account was eventually reinstated.

By the way, this scientist is a biologist and well-qualified to identify male chromosomes.  

"Stepping back and looking at the big picture, science — when it gets in the way of Woke culture — is beginning to get the same treatment as religion: ignored, mocked, rewritten, and eventually attacked."

from Mind Matters

Trans issue 4

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

In addition to the medical and scientific evaluation in yesterday's post, there is a paper evaluating what scripture says about transgenderism, today's subject.

As pro-LGBT-and-transgender Christians put it, there is no Bible verse banning transgenderism (a non-existent term when it was written, though there is an Old Testament passage prohibiting a man or woman from presenting as the opposite sex). 

But humans are created as male or female, that's clear, and the gay lifestyle is not approved. Those verses are scattered and numerous (see the article for specifics). Most Christians who want to affirm gay lifestyle and transgenderism therefore have to argue that modern opinion trumps Bible authority. That's a different issue for a different post.

image

Their conclusion continues the love/truth theme: "We can't be silent about minors being subjected to medical transitioning, or girls being required to share locker rooms with anatomical males. The simultaneous roles of ministering compassionately to transgender individuals [while] opposing transgenderism requires that biblically faithful ministers act lovingly and speak truthfully at the same time."

from Transgenderism and the Bible

Trans issue 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Is "transition" to the opposite gender a good idea? If we Christians are going to adhere to both truth and love, we should put some effort into understanding what science can tell us because:  "Part of loving and speaking the truth in love is knowing what the truth is. "

Four MD's at Reasons to Believe have just published white papers on transition and gender identity to reveal which treatments really help and which really do not.

Exploding numbers of people with gender dysphoria (GD) in recent years resulted in an explosion of gender clinics. Most are guided by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), adhering to the Gender Affirming Model (GAM) of care. The patient's self-diagnosis is affirmed by professionals. There is no exploring of any underlying factors like mental health, sexual abuse, family issues. Transitioning is encouraged. 

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After considering studies of GAM outcomes, they find that "support, time and psychotherapy are wiser approaches in these difficult situations than permanent, harmful medical and surgical interventions."

from A Scientific and Medical Evaluation of Transgenderism

(cont'd tomorrow)

Helium 2🎈

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Pulsar Helium is now engaged in a serious investigation to make sure they can extract the gas and distribute it. The latest measurement indicates an even higher concentration than 12.4%. So far, all very good news. 

photo

There's a billion-dollar market for helium. Since the global supply is shrinking, this discovery has global significance, according to the CEO in yesterday's video. It's the only element on the planet that is completely non-renewable.

As the "safest and most effective coolant around" in liquid form, and unreactive, it's critically important for industries relating to the study of materials. 

 

Minnesota's Dept. of Natural Resources will have to write new regulations from scratch - because they've never had to oversee helium mines before. 

Helium 1🎈

Though abundant in the universe, helium is scarce on earth. It only forms as a product of nuclear fusion and through radioactive decay of uranium and thorium. To be considered for commercial extraction, its concentration must be above 0.3%. 

So the folks at Pulsar Helium, Inc., were excited when in February they announced discovery of a new deposit in northern Minnesota: its concentration is extraordinary at 12.4%, and it might be the biggest reserve in North America.

Beyond filling balloons, helium is "a crucial cooling component in rockets, nuclear reactors, superconductors and medical diagnostic equipment, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines." 

from Live Science

(cont'd tomorrow)

Aliens & faith

What if we discovered real, actual space aliens, non-human intelligent beings from other planets? Many believe it could happen.

 Some think that would somehow disprove the faith of Christians. Would it? Does Christianity depend on humans being alone in the universe?

What would you say?

Climate fear

Dr. Wielicki was alarmed at the fear which he saw in his university students. They were afraid that the world would be destroyed by climate change, even to the point of deciding not to have children.

So he explained to them that, in his view, the earth is not in that sort of danger.

"The narrative in the main stream media is doing so much damage to mental health. Climate anxiety is probably the number one anxiety issue for the students that I talk to. And the science does not support that fear. I think that fear is irrational."

And then he paid the price for dissenting from the favored narrative. 

Meaning 4

(cont'd from last week)

Origin of life research, trying to answer the question of how the very first living cell began, has been going on for at least fifty years. Instead of finding the answer, the more science discovers about the living cell, the worse the complications get.

It's like a "factory that contains an elaborate network of interlocking assembly lines, each of which is composed of a set of large protein machines.” 

But the cell goes far beyond the function of a factory. Cells replicate themselves.

Meaning 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

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.

(cont'd next week)

Meaning 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

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:

"The cosmos is all that is, or ever was, and or ever will be." 

But most people don't really believe the material cosmos (universe) is all there is. "It's the point of view - the faith - of a materialist. . . His claim is backed by charisma, rhetoric, and celebrity prestige. But not by facts."

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.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Meaning 1

Science can tell us about the structure of planets, plants and animals, and about the physical laws that direct their behavior. But it's silent about why they exist. 

We human beings look for the meaning of things. We want to understand and know the truth.  We're looking for the reason behind the facts. All of us routinely ask "why?" Scientist Albert Einstein himself asked why the universe is the way it is and couldn't answer that question.

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Dr. John Lennox likes to use his example of a tea pot. Science can tell us the facts about H2O molecules, the temperature at which water boils, how long it will take, and more.  But only he can tell us why he's heating water. The answer is: he wants a cup of tea.

Some materialists would like us to agree with them that there's no purpose or meaning to reality, just the brute scientific facts: "[T]here is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.

But people are not wired that way. We all know there is more.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Dr. Tour's story

His credentials, awards, positions, inventions, patents, professional papers are so numerous that I'm not going to list them for you. They're easy to google. This is one of the premier scientists in the world.

Given the materialist worldview so predominant among scientists, it might surprise you that Dr. James Tour is a born-again Christian. He doesn't hide it. Check out his website.

Raised in New York City among a Jewish family, he transitioned to Christian faith as a freshman in college. If your curiosity is raised about how that happened, watch him explain briefly while he also talks about his love of working at the level of molecules: "When I discover things, I see the hand of God."