Searching for Earth 2.0

Posted on August 18, 2015 by Will Myers
August 17, 2015
By Guest Writer,  Dr. Jeff Zweerink

“NASA Finds Earth-like Kepler-452b: Discovery May Help Prove We’re Not Alone”

“What’s Life like on Kepler-452b? A Little like This, Maybe?”

“NASA Finds ‘Earth’s Bigger, Older Cousin’”

“Kepler-452b: What It Would Be like to Live on Earth’s ‘Cousin’”

So read the headlines based on a NASA press release about the most recent “habitable planet” discovery. Here’s what really happened:

NASA’s press release actually contained more circumspect language in claiming to have “confirmed the first near-Earth-size planet in the ‘habitable zone’ around a Sun-like star.” NASA did label Kepler-452b (the exoplanet under scrutiny) as Earth’s bigger, older cousin, but clearly stated that the find represents an important milestone in the journey toward locating another Earth. The discovery of Kepler-452b demonstrates for the first time that scientists have the capacity to detect something akin to Earth orbiting around a star like the Sun. Previous claims of potentially habitable planets involved objects closer in size to Earth, but these were orbiting M dwarfs—stars much smaller than the Sun.

According to an article published in the Astronomical Journal, the exoplanet in question orbits a G2 star with an estimated age of 6 billion years and a surface temperature of 5,757 K (kelvin). For comparison, our Sun is a G2 star, is 4.6 billion years old, and has a surface temperature of 5,778 K.1 The exoplanet’s diameter measures 60 percent larger than Earth’s and orbits in a period of 385 days. Given the luminosity of its host star, the authors note that Kepler-452b always resided in the habitable zone (the more optimistic range) and will continue to do so for the next 3 billion years. The larger diameter of Kepler-452b puts it in the super-Earth category, but research indicates it has a better than even chance of being rocky.

While recognizing the importance of this find in the search for an Earth twin, a couple of caveats are in order regarding the potential habitability of Kepler-452b. Many super-Earths end up as giant gas balls depending on the environment in which they formed. According to the paper, this one has just under a 50 percent chance of accumulating so much gas that it has no rocky surface. Even if a rocky surface exists, other research shows objects like Kepler-452b usually acquire dense atmospheres with pressures that prevent life on the planet.2 Even if Kepler-452b contains a rocky surface and a thin atmosphere, the development of biospheres may require so many rare events that it never happens.

Scientists continue to make steady, and sometimes spectacular, progress toward finding Earth-like planets orbiting stars other than the Sun. As they do so, they draw closer to answering the ultimate question of whether life exists beyond the confines of Earth. The more they discover exoplanets that resemble Earth, the greater our tools become to evaluate the rarity of Earth’s capacity to host abundant and diverse life.

Subjects: Extrasolar Planets

Dr. Jeff Zweerink

While many Christians and non-Christians see faith and science as in perpetual conflict, I find they integrate well. They operate by the same principles and are committed to discovering foundational truths. Read more about Dr. Jeff Zweerink.

Endnotes:

  1. Jon M. Jenkins et al., “Discovery and Validation of Kepler-452b: A 1.6R⊕ Super Earth Exoplanet in the Habitable Zone of a G2 Star,” Astronomical Journal 150 (July 2015): 56.
  2. H. Lammer et al., “Origin and Loss of Nebula-Captured Hydrogen Envelopes from ‘Sub’- to ‘Super-Earths’ in the Habitable Zone of Sun-like Stars,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 439 (April 2014): 3225–38.
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THINK AND EAT YOURSELF SMART!

Posted on August 17, 2015 by Will Myers

Written by Guest Writer,  Dr Caroline Leaf

You have probably heard that our global food system is deeply flawed. You’re are right. In fact , it’s probably worse than you imagine. Fortunately there’s hope. It is possible for us to vote with our forks for better practices that respect our health and the health of our planet.

To begin voting for a better way, we need to increase our knowledge about food and food practices. We need to improve our shopping and cooking skills. And, most importantly, we need to change our attitudes towards food, health, healing and nutrition. Once we have opened our minds to a new, healthy way of approaching food, and have started removing unhealthy foods and habits from our everyday lives, we will have entered a culinary world bursting with magnificient smells, tastes, sights, sounds and feelings that will bring joy to our mouths and stomachs.

My new book, ‘THINK AND EAT YOURSELF SMART – A Nueroscientific Approach to a Sharper Mind and healthier Life,’ which can be pre-ordered from your favourite bookseller or AMAZON is an attempt to reintroduce the culture of thinking and effort back into eating, one based on diligently stewarding the bodies, and world, that God has entrusted to us. In the spirit of renewing the mind, it is a lifestyle book that seeks to reimagine what we eat within an integrated spirit, mind and body framework (Romans 12:2; 1st Thessalonians 5:23).

Thinking, as you will see, plays a dominant role in eating. Toxic thoughts can negate the positive effects of good nutrition. Healthy thoughts can enhance the effects of good nutrition, and mitigate the effects of bad nutrition – to a degree. In fact, healthy thoughts lead to better food choices. Eating and thinking are so intertwined that what you are thinking  about before, during and after eating will impact every one of the 75-100 trillion cells in your body, including the cells of your digestive sytem. Your state of mind will have a negative or positive influence on your digestive health, and your digestive health will also have a negative or positive influence on your state of mind.

There is always someone new telling us that they have the solution to everyone’s dietary and or exercise habits, suggesting that if we don’t follow their advice we will surely drop dead. Even a lot of nutritional advice from so-called “experts” is often based on overblown correlations and inaccurate interpretations. And that is not even mentioning the $50 billion supplement industry. If I had to follow the advice of just one company, i worked out I would be taking up to 65 different tablets, three times a day!

The fact is that we are all unique, which means that a way of eating, exercising, and sleeping that works for you may not work for me, within a context of a healthy lifestyle and a diet of real, naturally produced foods. Rather than getting caught up whether you should go paleo, vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, plant-based, raw vegan or follow the blood type diet or even genetic typing (to mention just a few diets that are popular today), it would be much better to understand the fundamentals of eating, the completely entangled relationship between thinking and food, and how our uniqueness spreads throughout our spirit, soul and body.

Bon appetit!
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Time To Strengthen The Legs Of Our Labor Unions

Posted on August 11, 2015 by Will Myers

By Will Myers

Wages have been stagnant for the last 15 years while corporate profits have increased substantially. The legs of our labor unions were broken during the great recession of 2008. We lost the grounds on which our labor unions were standing, and the unions crashed, braking their legs. We must heal the labor unions because it is time to feed the horse that pulls the cart much better. The corporations have been filling their pockets with much feed.

I even read from a social medium that labor unions was a thing of the past. I immediately knew that he was a Republican. I engaged him knowing that I was going to hear the same stock answers to my reasoning for an increase in wages that I have been hearing for the past 60 years with each time it being untrue…didn’t happen…no abnormal lost of jobs…no abnormal closing of businesses…several time businesses even increased. Why are Republicans Anti-Labor Unions? Because they have to share more of their wealth with the workers who are sweating through the laborious process of productions.

Republicans will always dodge the proposal of the “Living Wage”. This makes Republicans shake in their booties. If over night American hourly workers join a strong union and demand a living wage, than we would have a rash of Republicans jumping out of the window of their high-raise office with a few Republican spies and moles jumping from a lower floor.

They are not your friends. Management’s job is to increase profits. If they have to fire you with a pat on the back and a shitty smile they will in order to increase profits. Don’t look up the stairs and into all of the cracks; look at a strong collective bargaining power of a labor union of your coworkers.

There is a good chance that we shall suffer a Republican Presidency for the 8 years to come; so, we must counter with a very strong and determined labor union. The new labor unions must be super strong; strong enough to demand free medical care.

In addition, our labor unions must be so strong that we can demand free medical care from employers and government. And, by all means, don’t fall for the socialism government trick. All government are responsible for their people. That’s why governments exist. Medical care is caring for the people. Around the 1900’s America lagged behind England in all things, even brains. England is not a socialistic country. Canada is not a socialistic country. Let’s caught up with England where it comes to medical care. Please don’t fall for vane things such as you can keep your own doctor but you must pay $300 per month out of the family budget. DON’T BE AN IDIOT.

The Republicans always plays on our vanity and selfishness such as if we have to pay a few more dollars in order to support free medical for everyone, than we won’t have enough money left to give you a raise. Next, they always play on etiquette’s and being nice because any protests might cost them profits. These are traditional lies and deceptions of the Republican corporate and business owners. What the extra cost to a rich Republican would really mean is that they would have one less new luxury vehicle in their garages in which they didn’t need in the first place.

THE BIBLE IS STILL THE BEST BOOK IN THE WORLD.

Continue reading →

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Unjust and Unfairness of America’s Justice System.

Posted on August 11, 2015 by Will Myers

By Will Myers

America’s justice system has become as ragged as a barrel of sour kraut. There is no uniformity, and this is required for fairness in our justice system. If it is just for one murderer to be sentence to life in prison than it must be the same sentence for all murderers. The punishments for any offense should be the same across America instead of being outrageously different. One might immediately think that mitigating circumstances caused the sentences to vary. Bull crap! In many cases mitigating circumstances were ignored or interpreted adversely only.

The long established law from the King’s Law from England that anyone who brings a gun to a fist fight should expect second degree murder charges. In the Treyvon Martin case who was without a weapon was shot and killed by his opponent who felt that he was losing the street fight. Five ignoramus jurors applying the new “stand your ground law” actually set a precedent that if getting whooped in a fist fight you can pull your gun and kill your opponent. This is outrageous into the sublime. The frightening thing is that the precedence still remain without any out cry of injustice. Another aspect in applying the “stand your ground law” was that Zimmerman, the shooter, was on public grounds, and was the antagonizer and instigator; Zimmerman was told by the authorities not to pursue Martin. Who had rights to the ground? Heaven help us all.

Applying the same “stand your ground law”, a women was sentenced to life for shooting her estranged husband who was very abusive to her, and had a long history of badly abusing her, the wife. The wife was in her house, her ground; was being attacked; feared for her life; was not the aggressive one, but was in retreat. Again shattering our justice and fairness concept into a thousand pieces again! She was found guilty of murder, and sentence to 30 years. God help us!

A neighbor was sentence to life without parole for having marijuana and cocaine residue even without any violence recorded in his past. Kevin Martin’s police record did show a few small felonies that are occurring in most neighborhoods in America, but no violence. This is the same sentence as given to most mass killers and serial killers. Is this just or does it have any sense of fairness? Jesus help us for you are called Justice.

Statistics from the issued punishments shows that norm deviance of the punishments approaches 95%. In other words, defendants with money are almost assured that they can buy their way out of punishment or be given a mild punishment as related to their crime, and defendants without money can expect a very harsh punishment, exceeding the punishments of over half the defendants who have offensives greater than the offender who is being sentenced.

The American justice system is approaching that of a Kangaroo Court if one considers the policing favoritism, the indictments with inherited prejudices, the jurors with inherited prejudices, and the 95% norm deviance among the sentences (determined by money). The norm deviance of 95% mean that there is virtually no uniformity which is a demand for one to have justice and fairness.

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Posted on August 10, 2015 by Will Myers

Q&A: Does the Bible Misrepresent the Domestication of Camels?

August 10, 2015
By Guest Writer,  Dr. Fazale Rana

A Facebook friend named Oliver recently asked for help addressing an unusual challenge to biblical inerrancy. A skeptical friend of Oliver’s claimed that the Bible misrepresents the timing of camel domestication. He wrote, “If the Bible can’t even get that right, how can I believe the rest of what it says?”

I admit I had not heard of this particular objection until Oliver brought it to my attention.
It turns out to be a relatively recent challenge. In late 2013, two researchers from Tel Aviv University reported that domesticated camels first appeared in Israel around 930 BC.1 Yet Genesis mentions domesticated camels several times. For example, inGenesis 12, Pharaoh gifts Abraham (then Abram) with camels and later, in Genesis 24, Rebekah offers to draw water for a camel caravan. The camel use described in Genesis would have taken place around 2000 to 1500 BC.

Skeptics have been quick to note that the mention of camels in Genesis is a significant discrepancy. It indicates, they say, that this portion of Scripture was written at a much later date than previously thought and not by Moses, as tradition has it. According to Israeli biblical scholar Noam Mizrahi, the camel stories in Genesis “should be viewed as back-projections from a much later period.”2 Mizrahi continued, “These traditions were indeed reformulated in relatively late periods after camels had been integrated into the Near Eastern economic system.”3

The Israeli archeologists didn’t undertake their work on camel domestication in order to test the Bible’s reliability. They simply wanted to determine when dromedary camels (the one-humped variety) were first domesticated in the Levant. The domestication of camels permitted long distance trade across the desert for the first time, connecting Arabia with India. This connectivity had huge social and economic impacts.

To determine when camels were first domesticated in Israel, the researchers focused their excavations on copper production sites in the Arabah Valley of Israel. They reasoned that the timing of camel domestication should be marked by evidence for major changes in the production practices in the region because the people would have had beasts of burden available to carry supplies and mined copper. They discovered the sudden appearance of camels at that site in layers that date to around 930 BC. The anatomical features of the camels’ leg bones show evidence that they were used to carry heavy loads. The researchers noted similar evidence from other archeological sites and concluded that this was the time camels became domesticated in the Levant. Camel remains have been recovered in layers earlier than 930 BC, but the researchers argued that these camels were most likely wild animals hunted as a food source.

From my vantage point, the researchers make a compelling case that camels were first domesticated in Israel several hundred years after the camel use recorded in Genesis. But does this mean that the Bible is unreliable? Hardly.

Archeological evidence indicates that dromedary camels were first domesticated in the southeastern Arabian Peninsula around 3000 BC. Genetic evidence indicates thatBactrian camels (the two-humped species) were domesticated in China and Mongoliaaround 4000 to 3000 BC.4 These dates mean that it is possible that the patriarchs counted camels amongst their livestock, even if these animals were not widely used throughout the Levant between 2000 and 1500 BC. This explanation becomes even more plausible when one considers that Abram acquired his camels from the Egyptians (Genesis 12:16). According to scholar Andrew Steinmann, all additional mentions of camels in Genesis refer to people related to Abraham or people who were associated with the Arabian Desert (the location of dromedary camel domestication).

The Bible never “claims” that domesticated camel use was widespread in the Levant at the time of the patriarchs, just that Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph possessed domesticated camels—again, most likely through their association with the Egyptians—completely consistent with the archeological and genetic data.

Subjects: Bible Difficulties

Dr. Fazale Rana

In 1999, I left my position in R&D at a Fortune 500 company to join Reasons to Believe because I felt the most important thing I could do as a scientist is to communicate to skeptics and believers alike the powerful scientific evidence—evidence that is being uncovered day after day—for God’s existence and the reliability of Scripture. Read more about Dr. Fazale Rana

Notes:

  1. Lidar Sapir-Hen and Erez Ben-Yosef, “The Introduction of Domestic Camels to the Southern Levant: Evidence from the Aravah Valley,” TEL AVIV 40 (2013): 277–85.
  2. John Noble Wilford, “Camels Had No Business in Genesis,” New York Times, February 10, 2014,http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/11/science/camels-had-no-business-in-genesis.html.
  3. Ibid.
  4. R. Ji et al., “Monophyletic Origin of Domestic Bactrian Camel (Camelus bactrianus) and Its Evolutionary Relationship with the Extant Wild Camel (Camelus bactrianus ferus),” Animal Genetics 40 (August 2009): 377–82, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2052.2008.01848.x
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lISTENING AND TALKING TO GOD IN THE SPIRIT

Posted on August 10, 2015 by Will Myers

By Will Myers

We are a spirit who live in a body, and possess a soul. The Holy Spirit dwells within us. We contact the physical realm with our intellect, but we have a spirit that contact the spiritual realm.

Hebrews 4:12

12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

John 14:16-17; “16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be[a]in you.’

2 Corinthians 5:17; “17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!”

God will guide you by an inward witness; our own spirit does pick up bits from the Holy Spirit. Feelings is the voice of your body; reason is the voice of your soul; your conscience is the voice of you spirit. If you are not born again you can not trust your conscience, but once you become a born again spirit your conscience than becomes a reliable source. What you hear in the spirit becomes validated by God.

The means to check your validation are listed below:

1. Does what you hear require faith?

2. Does it go against the world beliefs? This should be yes.

3 Does it line up with the word of God?

4 Peace will rule your heart; does your thoughts bring peace?

5. Does it require courage? It should require courage in the world.

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Parallel Concepts Are Truth From The Same Absolute Creator, God

Posted on August 7, 2015 by Will Myers

By Will Myers

I have a friend that commented on one of my articles. Gloria’s comment and input was very meaningful to me. The following is her comment:

“Very interesting concept. I am a member of the First Church of Religious Science of New York – we believe that there is a power for Good in the Universe and we can use it. We believe that “what man can conceive and believe, man can achieve. We believe in God, the Living Spirit Almighty. We/I believe that there is ONE MIND, THAT MIND IS GOD’S THAT MIND IS PERFECT, THAT MIND IN MY MIND NOW; THERE IS ONE WORLD, THAT WORLD IS GOD’S THAT WORLD IS PERFECT, THAT WORLD IS MY WORLD NOW; THERE IS ONE LIFE THAT LIFE IS GOD’S THAT LIFE IS PERFECT, THAT LIFE IS MY LIFE NOT; GOD AND I ARE ONE. When God is in it, there is no limit. There is a wonderful book written by Dr. Ernest Holmes entitled: THE SCIENCE OF THE MIND – it’s Biblically Based, but also acknowledges that there is only one God, and he is known by many names. Thank you for sharing your philosophy and believe system with me. Stay Blessed and ECLECTICALLY BLACK ” – Gloria –

My belief of the one mind is Uspace (God’s perfect Righteousness; the Spirit of Truth; the stone that God laid in Zion (meaning “in the essence of things”)). The Potentiality of UspaceVspace imposing on each One is in our mind, a potential. This is in time; although, God is outside of time (existential), but through the Spirit of Truth (Uspace) Who precedes from God in the world.

God has sent a Comforter (Uspace Potentiality) Who dwells within each of us believers; Who is God’s Holy Spirit that Jesus, Son of God, was filled. Man’s mind experiences the thoughts of God imposing on man, and man’s thoughts are imposing on God (UspaceVspace = Q, the thoughts and laws of God if the Lord leads). Man’s mind lives in the future; there is always a nexus (Vspace)  in the world that the mind seeks in search of God’s true reality.  God has created fundamental needs of man such as food and water; these are the first driving forces of man; love and sex, and vanity of greed; a more sophisticated need cause power hunger, the assurance that material and love (sex) needs are met influenced strongly by insecurities.

God has placed bounds on the world therefore creating Vspace, and His thoughts (Uspace) for limited and bound-man in the material, but not in spirit if not selfish. Beyond man’s bound is the Lord (UspaceVspace) allowing man to receive and commune with the all powerful God Who has no bounds and see no bounds.

Romans 1:20; “20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”

Matthew 16:19
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Isaiah 28:16;  “So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion (In the essence of things), a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic.”
Romans 9:33;  “As it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”
1 Peter 2:6
For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”
“Listen to every word from the mouth of God and obey;” Solomon, the wisest king ever.
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How to Evaluate the Certainty in Scientific Discoveries

Posted on August 6, 2015 by Will Myers
August 6, 2015
By Guest Writer,  Dr. Hugh Ross

When people approach me after a speaking engagement, they often express great excitement and joy over the new scientific evidences I present for the Christian faith and for the inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible. However, many of these same folks are reluctant to use these evidences in their personal witnessing to non-Christian family, friends, and associates. I’ve found that one reason for their hesitation is an inability to evaluate the certainty of the results that I present.

Whenever I express a value for a particular result, I consistently append the error bars. If possible, I also add corroborating results from independent means of investigation. It was my wife, however, who pointed out to me that knowing how to define error bars and understanding the importance of multiple independent means of investigation are unfamiliar to most lay audiences. Thus, my hope is that this article will help lay readers gain a better understanding of how to evaluate scientific results and help scientifically savvy readers better communicate that understanding to others.

Error Bars

An example of an error bar notation used by scientists would be a recent measurement of the cosmic expansion rate based on H II regions (star-forming gaseous nebulae) in galaxies: 74.3 ± 3.1 kilometers/second/megaparsec.1 (A megaparsec = 3.258 million light-years.) The “± 3.1” is the error bar or what statisticians call the standard deviation. This error bar means that there exists a 68 percent probability that the true cosmic expansion rate lies between 71.2 and 77.4 kilometers/second/megaparsec. It also means that there is a 32 percent probability that the true cosmic expansion rate lies outside that range of values.

Sometimes scientists will quote a range of possible values based on two or three standard deviations. For the above measurement a two standard deviation range of possible values would be between 68.1 and 80.5 kilometers/second/megaparsec. In this case, there is only a 4.6 percent possibility that the true cosmic expansion rate lies outside of that range of values. A three standard deviation range of possible values would be between 65.0 and 83.6. Here, there is only a 0.3 percent chance of the true cosmic expansion rate falling outside the range of values.

The above error bars account only for possible random or statistical errors. Random errors describe the statistical scatter in values the scientist observes in his measurements. The above result of 74.3 ± 3.1 kilometers/second/megaparsec was based on measurements of 69 nearby galaxies containing H II regions that could be measured accurately. The mean, or averaged value, of all the measurements was 74.3. The 3.1 error bar describes the scatter about the mean manifested in the measurements.

Random errors directly impact the certainty of a published result. An indirect but equally important factor is what scientists term systematic errors. Systematic errors result from instrumental effects, data selection effects, and assumptions about the phenomenon being measured that skew all the measurements to either higher or lower values.

The team that produced the 74.3 ± 3.1 kilometers/second/megaparsec result for the cosmic expansion rate exhaustively examined all possible instrumental problems and biases as well as all the assumptions about the properties of H II regions that conceivably could be mistaken or, for example, change if one were to sample more distant galaxies. This examination led them to conclude that in addition to the ± 3.1 random error in their cosmic expansion rate determination, there also existed a ± 2.9 systematic error.

The ± 2.9 systematic error means that there exists a 32 percent probability that the ± 3.1 random error centers on a value for the cosmic expansion rate outside of the range between 71.4 and 77.2 kilometers/second/megaparsec. As with random or statistical errors, increasing the range of values based on multipliers of the systematic error yields greater certainty in the result. For example, there is only a 0.3 percent possibility that the ± 3.1 random error centers on a value outside the range between 65.6 and 83.0 kilometers/second/megaparsec.

The most accurate published value for the cosmic expansion rate is 69.6 ± 0.7 kilometers/second/megaparsec.2 Are this value and the one based on HII regions discordant? Not at all. If the two sets of measurements faithfully reveal the true value for the cosmic expansion rate based on the error bars, then there is high probability (a little greater than 32 percent) that the two values will differ from one another by 6.0 kilometers/second/megaparsec.

Real Effect or Environmental Noise?

Sometimes scientists have to detect the signal of a real effect amid a lot of environmental or instrumental noise. How do they, or we, know if their detection is real or just an artifact of the noise? They do so by measuring how much the signal rises above the noise, specifically by determining the signal-to-noise ratio. Barring systematic effects, if the signal-to-noise ratio is two, then the probability that the signal is a real effect is 68.3 percent. A signal-to-ratio of three raises the probability to 95.4 percent, of four to 99.7 percent, of five to 99.994 percent, and of six to 99.99994 percent.

In the physical sciences a measured effect is not considered to be a real detection unless the signal-to-noise ratio exceeds five. Thus, physical scientists are not permitted to declare a discovery unless they can demonstrate a signal-to-noise ratio that exceeds five. In some life science disciplines it is often not possible to achieve signal-to-noise ratios greater than five. Therefore, the standard for publication frequently is much lower for journals that focus on those areas.

Advice for all readers, whether they be scientists or lay people, is that before one determines how much confidence to place on a scientific finding always look at the signal-to-noise ratios and both the random and systematic error bars.

Finally, before putting any long-term confidence in a scientific discovery look for corroboration. Has the result been confirmed by other independent research teams using different detection equipment or different detection methods or both? Is the result confirmed by both observations over time and experiments? Is there a theory that successfully integrates and explains all the observations and experiments?

Personally, I do not put a lot of confidence in a scientific result unless it is established by experiments, observations, and theory and unless I see the consistency among all the observations and experiments becoming progressively better as the error bars, both random and systematic, shrink. What pleases me about the biblical creation model we are developing at Reasons to Believe is how the march of scientific advance over the past century has yielded an improving consistency among the theories, observations, and experiments that undergird our model. The improving consistency emboldens me, and hopefully all believers, to declare to an unbelieving world the reasons for our hope of eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Subjects: General Apologetics

Dr. Hugh Ross

Reasons to Believe emerged from my passion to research, develop, and proclaim the most powerful new reasons to believe in Christ as Creator, Lord, and Savior and to use those new reasons to reach people for Christ. Read more about Dr. Hugh Ross.

Notes:

  1. Ricardo Chávez et al., “Determining the Hubble Constant Using Giant Extragalactic H II Regions and H II Galaxies,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters 425 (September 2012): L56–L60, doi: 10.1111/j.1745-3933.2012.01299.x.
  2. C. L. Bennett et al., “The 1% Concordance Hubble Constant,” Astrophysical Journal 784 (October 20 2014): id. 135, doi:10.1088/0004-637X/794/2/135.
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Call On The Lord (Uspace) And He Shall Answer (Uspace imposing on Vspace)

Posted on August 4, 2015 by Will Myers

By Will Myers

We are wired by God to commune with Him. All throughout the bible we read why and how to commune with God. The Lord in spirit has always been available to the faithful, but now we have Jesus who is the Lord and the Son of God. The Spirit of Truth (Uspace) which proceeds from God in the world is the Lord Jesus, and we can call on Him, and receive His knowledge which can fathom deep truths (UspVsp=Q, God’s thoughts and laws) unknown to the nonbelievers from the foundation of the world (Vspace is all of the nexus in the world).

Our minds controls our brains, not the brains controlling our minds. Within our minds God has sent a Comforter Who testifies of the Son of God, and tells of things to come. The mind is mostly spirit, potentiality of all things. We can feed our minds positive things, and reap good fruits. The Word of God is the most positive source to feed one’s mind. Jesus (Uspace; 100% Divine, and UspVsp, 100% man in the world) with God’s Holy Spirit gives the perfect thoughts (laws) of God, and has overcome the world, for He is the Spirit of Truth that proceeds from God in the world; the perfect Righteousness of God.

Psalm 119;160; “All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal.”

Matthew 6:33
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Matthew 21:22

If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

Mark 11:24

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Luke 11:10
For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Isaiah 33:22
New International Version
For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; it is he who will save us.

Jeremiah 33:2-3
New International Version
“This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it—the Lord is his name: ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’

Psalm 119:130
New International Version
The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.

Jeremiah 33:2-3
New International Version
“This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it—the Lord is his name: ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’
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Cosmic Inflation: It Really Happened

Posted on August 3, 2015 by Will Myers

August 3, 2015
By Guest Writer,  Dr. Hugh Ross

In March 2014, a South Pole research team reported that BICEP2 had detected gravitational waves and definitively proved that the universe experienced hyper-expansion (an inflation event) when it was extremely young.1 Such a momentous discovery, everyone agreed, was worthy of a Nobel Prize; however, it was not to be. In their zeal to be the first to find gravitational waves, the research team mistook a signal from cosmic dust for “primordial gravitational waves.” (See RTB’s coverage of the inflation drama here and here.)

The BICEP2 team’s confession that they had jumped the gun in announcing their “discovery” of gravitational waves led to several expressions of distrust of the scientific enterprise. It also caused many Christian writers to conclude that cosmic inflation is a myth and that the big bang theory is not all it is cracked up to be.2 These reactions motivated the BICEP2 team to release a paper in which they cautioned lay authors not to throw out the baby (inflation and the big bang creation model) with the bathwater (their premature announcement of discovering gravitational waves).3

The BICEP2 telescope is designed to detect the B-mode polarization signal of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR), the heat radiation that remains from the cosmic creation event. Once the background noise from cosmic dust is removed and, assuming the remaining signal is strong enough to be accurately measured, this B-mode signal will reveal to astronomers whether the universe experienced an inflation event very early in its history, and, if it did, exactly what kind of inflation event it experienced.

It turns out, however, that astronomers do not need the B-mode signal to prove whether or not the universe had an inflation event; that is possible with just the E-mode polarization signal. The E-mode signal is sufficient to determine the scalar spectral index (ns) of the CMBR spectrum. For a universe with no inflation event, nsequals 1.0 or greater. For a universe that had a simple inflation event, ns equals exactly 0.95. For a universe that has had a complex inflation event, ns equals 0.96–0.97.

Another telescope at the South Pole, the South Pole Telescope (see figure 1), is designed to measure the E-mode signal. The South Pole Telescope (SPT) research team just published their latest measurements.4 Their measurements, in combination with the best results from the WMAP and Planck satellite, have yielded the most accurate determination of ns to date. The value they published: ns = 0.9593 ± 0.0067.5


Figure 1: The South Pole Telescope (left) and the BICEP2 telescope (right)
Credit: Ample (Creative Commons)

The error estimate (± 0.0067) is what statisticians call the standard deviation. The SPT team proved the reality of cosmic inflation to 6.075 standard deviations—(1.0 – 0.9593)/0.0067. That number of standard deviations translates into a certainty measure for the reality of cosmic inflation. In light of the team’s measurements, we now can be 99.9999999 percent certain that the universe indeed went through an inflation event when the universe was only about 10-34 seconds old. To put it another way, there is less than 1 chance in 900,000,000 that the universe did not experience an inflation event very early in its history.

Thanks to the SPT team’s efforts, the big bang model has passed yet another test. Its prediction of a cosmic inflation event has proven correct. This is good news for Christians because for more than 2,500 years the Bible and biblical commentaries were the only books proclaiming the fundamental features of big bang cosmology:

  1. A singular beginning of matter, energy, space, and time (Genesis 1:1; 2:3; 2:4; Psalm 148:5; Isaiah 40:26; 42:5; 45:18)
  2. Ongoing expansion since that beginning (Job 9:8; Psalm 104:2; Isaiah 40:22; 42:5; 44:24; 45:12; 48:13; 51:13; Jeremiah 10:12; 51:15; Zechariah 12:1)
  3. Constant laws of physics (Genesis 1–3; Ecclesiastes 1, 3; Jeremiah 33:19–26; Romans 8:18–23; Revelation 21)
  4. A pervasive law of decay that implies a continuously cooling cosmos (Romans 8:18–22)

Owing to a multitude of observational verifications of the big bang creation model, Christians possess a powerful tool for demonstrating the inspiration, inerrancy, and predictive power of the Bible.

In the near future, I think that the South Pole telescopes and the Planck satellite will produce even more accurate B- and E-mode polarization measurements of the CMBR. These results will tell us what kind of inflation the universe has experienced. That knowledge may reveal some new cosmic design features that could further strengthen the scientific case for a personal God who created and designed the universe for the specific benefit of human beings.

Subjects: Big Bang, Origin of the Universe

Dr. Hugh Ross

Reasons to Believe emerged from my passion to research, develop, and proclaim the most powerful new reasons to believe in Christ as Creator, Lord, and Savior and to use those new reasons to reach people for Christ. Read more about Dr. Hugh Ross.

Notes:

  1. Ron Cowen, “Telescope Captures View of Gravitational Waves,” Nature 507 (March 2014): 281–83, doi: 10.1038/507281a; Ron Cowen, “Gravitational-Wave Finding Causes ‘Spring Cleaning’ in Physics,” Nature News, posted on March 21, 2014, doi: 10.1038/nature.2014.14910.
  2. Jake Hebert, “Another Big Bang Blunder,” Acts and Facts 43, no. 9 (September 2014), http://www.icr.org/article/another-big-bang-blunder; Brian Thomas, “2014 Most Notable News: Big Bang Fizzle,” Institute for Creation Research, posted January 5, 2015, http://www.icr.org/article/a-2014-most-notable-news-big-bang-fizzle; and Danny Faulkner, “Cosmic Inflation Again,” Danny Faulkner (blog), posted on February 2, 2015, https://answersingenesis.org/blogs/danny-faulkner/2015/02/02/cosmic-inflation-again.
  3. P. A. R. Ade et al., “Joint Analysis of BICEP2/Keck Array and Planck Data,” Physical Review Letters 114 (March 2015), doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.101301.
  4. A. T. Crites et al., “Measurements of E-Mode Polarization and Temperature-E-Mode Correlation in the Cosmic Microwave Background from 100 Square Degrees of SPTpol Data,” Astrophysical Journal 805 (May 2015), doi: 10.1088/0004-637X/805/1/36.
  5. Ibid.
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