Diamonds Are Forever, But Not Earthquakes or Life

Posted on November 15, 2021 by Will Myers

BY HUGH ROSS – DECEMBER 30, 2019

“Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.” So the song goes, but the processes that created these gems, namely earthquakes, have not generated such lyrics. Understandably, many people fear earthquakes and wish they would never happen.

This contrast—the love of diamonds but hatred of earthquakes—is actually a great irony. We humans can easily live without diamonds. We cannot, however, live without earthquakes.

The Vital Importance of Earthquakes (Tectonics)
Earthquakes are part of Earth’s plate tectonic activity. Earth’s crust is currently divided into about 8 major plates with surface areas greater than 40,000,000 square kilometers and 16 minor plates with surface areas greater than 1,000,000 square kilometers.¹

These 24 plates float above Earth’s mantle. Thanks to Earth’s interior being super-endowed with uranium and thorium, the radioactive decay of this uranium and thorium heats up the mantle sufficiently to make it soft and viscous. Consequently, Earth’s tectonic plates bump into and slide against one another. Where deep water is present at a boundary between two plates, one plate can slip underneath another plate and be thrust into the mantle.

During Earth’s infancy, water covered the entirety of Earth’s surface and all Earth’s plates were made up of basalts (igneous rocks). Tectonic activity gave rise to plate subduction which resulted in some of the basalts being chemically transformed into silicates. Silicates are lighter than basalts and hence float above the basalts. Eventually, sufficient silicates formed for landmasses to begin appearing above the water’s surface.

The combination of Earth’s water cycle and the exposure of silicates above sea level initiated the silicate-carbonate cycle. Rain falling on the exposed silicates acted as a catalyst to generate chemical reactions, including a net reaction where carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere to transform silicates into carbonates and sand. The gradual removal of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, from the atmosphere means that as the Sun gets progressively brighter (see figure) Earth’s atmosphere progressively traps less of the Sun’s heat. This compensation for the Sun’s brightening has allowed Earth’s surface temperature to remain suitable for life for a long time period. To word it differently, without an operating silicate-carbonate cycle, life could not remain on our planet for long.

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Figure: Sun’s Luminosity throughout Its History
Image credit: Hugh Ross

The silicate-carbonate cycle delivers other crucial benefits. Nearly impenetrable silicate is converted into easily penetrable carbonates and sand. This conversion allows for advanced vegetation, plants in particular. The carbonates and sand also store water for the vegetation and plants. A benefit for humans is that industrially useless silicates are transformed into industrially valuable carbonates and sand. For example, carbonates and sand are the most important ingredients in concrete. Advanced civilization would be unimaginable without concrete, and concrete would not exist without an operating silicate-carbonate cycle.

Additional crucial benefits from plate tectonic activity include the distribution of life-critical nutrients to parts of the planet that otherwise would receive none, the recycling of those same nutrients throughout the planet’s surface environments, and the creation of extensive bedrock water storage systems² on the continental landmasses. Plate tectonic activity also regulates how much ocean water gets subducted into the crust and mantle and how much is returned to Earth’s surface through geysers and volcanic eruptions.³ Without this finely tuned regulation of the quantities of water in the oceans, crust, and mantle, advanced life could not exist. Hence, earthquakes, though frightful in many respects, confer indispensable benefits to life.

Earthquakes and Diamonds
As the remains of once-living organisms are driven into Earth’s mantle through tectonic plate subduction, some of the carbon in that organic material becomes exposed to heat and pressure extreme enough to transform the carbon into diamonds. The rise of mantle plumes brings some of those diamonds into Earth’s crust. So, without plate tectonic activity, “girls” (women) would need to find other best friends and men would need to look elsewhere for engagement rings.

Diamonds can last for what seems forever, but plate tectonic activity will not. Earth’s tectonic activity is governed by heat flow from Earth’s interior. There are two major sources of this heat flow: radioactive heat from the decay of uranium and thorium isotopes and relic heat left over from the accretion of interplanetary dust and planetesimals that resulted in Earth’s formation. Both the radioactive heat and the relic heat have gradually subsided since the birth of Earth.

When Earth was young (during its first 750 million years), the high heat flow from Earth’s interior produced thick oceanic crust.⁴ At that time, water covered all of Earth’s surface. Hence, all of Earth’s crust was oceanic crust. Thick oceanic crust made subduction tectonics virtually impossible.

Today, heat flow from Earth’s interior is barely adequate to melt the upper mantle at plate boundaries so that one plate can subside (slide) underneath another. Within several million years from now, subduction tectonics will begin to decrease at an accelerating rate. In less than a billion years from now, all tectonic activity on Earth will cease.

Earth’s tectonic history can be seen as five periods, the first of which began with a 750-million-year era called the stagnant lid (hot stagnant lid regime). This was followed by 750 million years of intermittent subduction tectonics and then by 3 billion years of sustained tectonic activity. This third period effectively compensated for the Sun’s increasing luminosity while recycling nutrients for life and building up the biodeposits needed for global human civilization. The next period, our current one, has been marked by declining tectonic activity that soon will fail to compensate for the Sun’s increasing luminosity. The fifth and final period will feature a permanent stagnant lid (referred to as a cold stagnant lid regime).⁵

Civilization and Purpose
A 3-billion-year period of strong, sustained tectonic activity is remarkable. In my book, Improbable Planet, I explain why Earth is very likely alone in possessing such a long period of strong tectonic activity.⁶ That we are near the end of such a long period of sustained, strong tectonic activity implies that humans were purposely placed on Earth at the best possible time to build up a huge population. We also were placed here at the only possible time where we could exploit Earth’s vast biodeposits to launch and sustain global, high-technology civilization—and enjoy some jewels along the way. It is thanks to that civilization that we can fulfill one of the major purposes for why God created us. It allows humans to spread the message of God’s existence and character, of what troubles humans, and of how God promises to redeem those who place their trust in him.

Endnotes

Peter Bird, “An Updated Digital Model of Plate Boundaries,” Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 4, no. 3 (March 14, 2003): id. 1027, doi:10.1029/2001GC000252.
Hugh Ross, “Weathered Bedrock: Key to Advanced Life on Earth,” Today’s New Reason to Believe (blog), May 7, 2018, https://www.reasons.org/explore/blogs/todays-new-reason-to-believe/read/todays-new-reason-to-believe/2018/05/07/weathered-bedrock-key-to-advanced-life-on-earth.
Norman H. Sleep, “Plate Tectonics and the Evolution of Climate,” Reviews of Geophysics 33, no. S1 (July 1995): 199–203, doi:10.1029/95RG00126.
Norman H. Sleep, “Non-Standard Subduction of Gabbroic Lithosphere into Gabbroic Mush Ocean,” American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006 (December 2006): abstract id. U14B-08.
Craig O’Neill et al., “A Window for Plate Tectonics in Terrestrial Planet Evolution,” Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors 255 (June 2016): 80–92, doi:10.1016/j.pepi.2016.04.002; Craig O’Neill, Simon Turner, and Tracy Rushmer, “The Inception of Plate Tectonics: A Record of Failure,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A 376, no. 2132 (November 2018): id. 20170414, doi:10.1098/rsta.2017.0414; W. G. Ernst, Norman H. Sleep, and Tatsuki Tsujimori, “Plate-Tectonic Evolution of the Earth: Bottom-Up and Top-Down Mantle Circulation,” Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 53, no. 11 (November 2016): 1103–20, doi:10.1139/cjes-2015-0126; Jun Korenaga, “Initiation and Evolution of Plate Tectonics on Earth: Theories and Observations,” Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 41 (May 2013): 117–51, doi:10.1146/annurev-earth-050212-124208.
Hugh Ross, Improbable Planet (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2016), 111–18.

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Baryon Acoustic Oscillations Boost Case for Cosmic Creation

Posted on November 15, 2021 by Will Myers

Baryon Acoustic Oscillations Boost Case for Cosmic Creation

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Baryon Acoustic Oscillations Boost Case for Cosmic Creation

by Hugh RossJuly 26, 2021

My colleague Fazale (Fuz) Rana has been full-time with me at Reasons to Believe (RTB) for the past 22 years. As a biochemist, he loves to speak and write about the complex designs in biological systems. The complex designs compel him to use words and terms with six or more syllables that nonscientists have little clue what they mean. Many of us at RTB tease Fuz that he must be a charismatic Christian because he speaks in an unknown language.

Biochemists are not alone in using vocabulary that few outside their discipline comprehend. It is happening more and more in my discipline of astrophysics. In titling this article about a major cosmological discovery, I found that there was no way to avoid using the term baryon acoustic oscillations. I know from experience that the term can be intimidating for non-astronomers. However, the term describes a relatively simple cosmological phenomenon, one that has profound significance for affirming the biblically predicted big bang creation model.¹

Baryon Acoustic Oscillations
Baryons is a catchall term for protons and neutrons. Baryons comprise 99.97% of all the ordinary matter (matter that strongly interacts with photons) in the universe. Hence, astronomers consider baryonic matter and ordinary matter as interchangeable terms.

Everyone familiar with modern entertainment devices knows that acoustic refers to sound. In big bang cosmology, propagation of sound waves in the early universe imprints density fluctuations on the universe’s ordinary matter. Astronomers refer to these fluctuations as baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs).

In big bang cosmology, galaxies preferentially form in regions of high baryonic density. Therefore, astronomers can measure the universe’s BAOs by using galaxy surveys where they measure the positions and velocities of millions of galaxies. Through accurate determinations of the universe’s BAOs, astronomers can test the validity of the big bang creation model and determine the values of multiple cosmological features. Those features include the cosmic expansion rate, the age of the universe, the geometry of the universe, the nature of dark energy and dark matter (matter that does not interact or very weakly interacts with photons), and the sum of neutrino masses.

Previous Cosmological Implications
For more than two decades, astronomers have been actively measuring the universe’s BAOs with the goal of unambiguously determining the origin and history of the universe. The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), a subset of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) has two stated objectives: (1) to measure cosmological parameters to one-percent precision through measurements of 1.5 million or more luminous galaxies within the redshift range z = 0.2–0.7 and (2) to obtain measurements of 160,000+ quasars within the redshift range z = 0.8–3.5. These redshift ranges correspond to 2.47–6.43 billion light-years away (2.47–6.43 billion years ago) and 6.97–12.00 billion light-years away (6.97–12.00 billion years ago), respectively.

In 2015, the BOSS Collaboration published their analysis of the SDSS-III BOSS data release.² Their analysis yielded a cosmic expansion rate (the Hubble constant) of 67.3 +/- 1.1 kilometers/second/megaparsec (1 megaparsec = 3.26156 million light-years). This cosmic expansion rate translates into an age for the universe = 14.53 +/- 0.24 billion years. They determined that matter comprised 30.1 +/- 0.8% of the universe and dark energy 72 +/- 3%. They measured the curvature of the universe to be -0.003 +/- 0.003 where 0.0 is a perfectly flat universe.

Using a later BOSS data release and a more sophisticated analysis, and assuming a ⋀CDM cosmic creation model (big bang creation model where the dominant component of the universe is dark energy, ⋀, and the next most dominant component is cold dark matter, CDM) astronomers Levon Pogosian, Gong-Bo Zhao, and Karsten Jedamzik found that the Hubble constant = 69.6 +/- 1.8 kilometers/second/megaparsec.³ Using the same data set and assuming that dark energy is governed by a single nonvarying constant, astronomers Rafael Nunes, Santosh Yadav, J. F. Jesus, and Armando Bernui determined that the Hubble constant = 69.23 +/- 0.50 kilometers/second/megaparsec.⁴

Cosmological Implications of the Latest BAO Data
The recently released SDSS-IV extended BOSS includes measurements on 1,372,737 galaxies over the redshift range z = 0.2–0.75; 174,816 luminous red galaxies in the redshift range 0.6–1.0; 343,708; quasars in the redshift range 0.8–2.2; and 157,845 quasars that are free of broad absorption spectral lines in the redshift range 2.0–3.5. Analysis of data from the completed SDSS-IV extended BOSS yields the following cosmological results.⁵ Based on the BAO data alone, dark-energy-free cosmic models are ruled out. In combination with maps of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR—the radiation left over from the cosmic creation event), the dark energy density is determined to 0.7% precision. The Hubble constant = 68.18 +/- 0.79 kilometers/second/megaparsec. The universe’s curvature = -0.0022 +/- 0.0022. The combination of the latest BAO data with the latest CMBR data yields a measure of the universe’s curvature = -0.0001 +/- 0.0018. The latter measure ranks as the best measurement to date of the universe’s geometry and provides strong evidence for a flat cosmic geometry.

The Hubble constant is one of the most, if not the most, basic cosmological parameters because it yields absolute determinations of the age of the universe and the universe’s energy content. The Hubble constant measurement of 68.18 +/- 0.79 kilometers/second/megaparsec is by far the most accurate measurement based on mid-range objects, that is, objects at look-back times midway between the earliest times in cosmic history and the latest times. Measurements based on maps of the CMBR reveal the cosmic expansion rate shortly after the universe’s beginning. Measurements based on local galaxies reveal the current cosmic expansion rate.

Based on the final Planck data release, the highest quality map of the CMBR, astronomers determined the Hubble constant = 67.36 +/- 0.54 kilometers/second/megaparsecs.⁶ Based on using the tip of the red giant branch stars to calibrate distances to type Ia supernovae in local galaxies, astronomers ascertained the Hubble constant = 69.8 +/- 0.8 kilometers/sec/megaparsec.⁷ Ignoring probable statistical and systematic errors, the three measurements imply that the cosmic expansion rate sped up by 0.82 kilometers/second/megaparsec (1.2%) during the first 5–7 billion years of cosmic history and by another 1.62 kilometers/second/megaparsec (2.3%) during the following 7–9 billion years (a total of 3.5%).

Astronomers expect some speed-up in the cosmic expansion rate because, as the space surface of the universe gets larger, dark energy becomes more effective in its capacity to accelerate the cosmic expansion rate. Meanwhile, as massive bodies in the universe spread apart as a result of cosmic expansion, gravity becomes progressively weaker in its capacity to slow down cosmic expansion. However, assuming that dark energy is governed by a nonvarying constant, the cosmological constant, the cosmic expansion rate should increase by no more than 1% over the entire history of the universe. (In next week’s post, I will explain how different astronomy research groups propose to close the remaining 2.5% gap.)

Theological Implications
As the BOSS Collaboration repeatedly demonstrated in their published paper, their analysis of the SDSS-IV extended BOSS data made for an even stronger case for the ⋀CDM big bang model. Astronomers’ analysis of the recent SDSS-IV extended BOSS data release provides yet another example that the more we learn about the origin, history, and structure of the universe and the more accurately we measure the characteristic features of the universe, the more evidence we accumulate for the biblically predicted cosmic creation model.

Endnotes

Hugh Ross and John Rea, “Big Bang—The Bible Taught It First,” Facts for Faith (Quarter 3, 2000): 26–32; Hugh Ross, “Does the Bible Teach Big Bang Cosmology?” Today’s New Reason to Believe (blog), August 26, 2019.
Éric Aubourg et al., BOSS Collaboration, “Cosmological Implications of Baryon Acoustic Oscillation Measurements,” Physical Review D 92 (December 14, 2015): id. 123516, doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.92.123516.
Levon Pogosian, Gong-Bo Zhao, and Karsten Jedamzik, “Recombination-Independent Determination of the Sound Horizon and the Hubble Constant from BAO,” Astrophysical Journal Letters 904, no. 2 (December 2020): id. L17, doi:10.3847/2041-8213/abc6a8.
Rafael C. Nunes et al., “Cosmological Parameter Analysis Using Transversal BAO Data,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 497, no. 2 (September 2020): 2133–2141, doi:10.1093/mnras/staa2036.
Shadab Alam et al., eBOSS Collaboration, “Completed SDSS-IV Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Cosmological Implications from Two Decades of Spectroscopic Surveys at the Apache Point Observatory,” Physical Review D 103 (April 28, 2021): id. 083533, doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.103.083533.
N. Aghanim et al., Planck Collaboration, “Planck 2018 Results. VI. Cosmological Parameters,” Astronomy & Astrophysics 641 (September 2020): id. A6, doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201833910.
Wendy L. Freedman et al., “The Carnegie-Chicago Hubble Program. VIII. An Independent Determination of the Hubble Constant Based on the Tip of the Red Giant Branch,” Astrophysical Journal 882, no. 1 (September 1, 2019): id. 34, doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab2f73.

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Dating the Cosmic Dawn and Testing Creation

Posted on November 15, 2021 by Will Myers

by Hugh RossSeptember 13, 2021

Beginnings tell us a lot about children. A child’s “firsts” inform us about his or her personality, development, and adult future. For these reasons parents are attentive to when their children first take an unassisted step, speak a recognizable word, count to ten, recognize letters in the alphabet, read a book, or swim in a pool.

Similarly, the universe’s beginnings tell us a lot about how it got to its present state. One of the most important beginnings in the universe is what astronomers call the cosmic dawn, that early epoch in the universe when it first became bathed in starlight (see figure). Asking exactly when the cosmic dawn occurred makes for a crucial and sensitive test of cosmic creation models and the reliability of the Bible.

Figure: Artist’s Concept of the First Stars Being Born in the Universe
Credit: NASA/WMAP Science Team

Previous Attempts to Date the Cosmic Dawn
Astronomers’ analysis of maps of the universe’s residual radiation from its beginning, called the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR), yielded the first measures of the cosmic dawn. Analysis of the large-scale polarization in the Planck satellite map of the CMBR indicated that the universe’s first stars were massive stars in newly formed low-mass galaxies. These stars were birthed at redshift z = 7.7 (a galactic distance measurement), which is 670 million years after the cosmic creation event (CCE).¹

Measurements of the 21-centimeter spectral absorption line of neutral hydrogen reveal that ultraviolet photons produced by early star formation occurred before redshift z = 9.6 (before 500 million years after the CCE).² The 21-centimeter neutral hydrogen line measurements made by the Experiment to Detect the Global EoR Signature (EDGES) showed that the intergalactic medium may have been heated by starlight as early as z = 15 (260 million years after the CCE).³

A spectroscopic measurement of the Lyman-alpha and O III emission lines in the galaxy MACS1149-JD1 established its redshift at z = 9.1096 ± 0.0006.⁴ Infrared photometry of MACS1149-JD1 yielded an estimated age of 290 million years for its dominant stellar component, which is consistent with a cosmic dawn at z = 15.4 ± 2.3 (about 250 million years after the CCE).

New Measurement of the Cosmic Dawn Date
A team of six astronomers led by Nicolas Laporte has endeavored to more accurately determine the cosmic dawn date by increasing the sample size of accurately measured galaxies beyond z = 9 from one to six.⁵ Laporte’s team used the European Very Large Telescope, the twin Keck Observatory telescopes, the Gemini South telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array to more accurately measure distances to the six most distant galaxies currently known.

Laporte and his colleagues measured a redshift of z = 8.78 for the galaxy GN-z10-3 and z = 9.28 for the galaxy MACS0416-JD. For the galaxy GN-z9-1 they determined a likely lower redshift limit of z = 9. Together with the earlier measurement on MACS1149-JS1, Laporte’s team concluded that cosmic star formation must have been occurring before z = 10 (earlier than 480 million years after the CCE). Using the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes, they made photometric measurements of the light emitted from GN-z10-3, GN-z9-1, and MACS0416-JD. These measurements showed that the stars in these galaxies were 150–250 million years old. Thus, Laporte’s team determined the most accurate measurement, so far, of the cosmic dawn date: 250–350 million years after the CCE.

Implications of the Cosmic Dawn Date
Laporte’s team was most excited about what their measurements mean for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) that is scheduled to be launched next month. Their observations demonstrated that the JWST will be capable of directly witnessing the cosmic dawn and determining a date about ten times more precise than the one achieved by their team. That is, we can soon look forward to an even more accurately defined cosmic creation model. Here’s why.

The cosmic dawn date determined by Laporte and his colleagues is consistent with the standard big bang creation model. This model posits dark energy as the primary component of the universe, dark matter as the second most abundant component, and baryonic matter (composed of protons, neutrons, and electrons) as making up virtually all the remaining cosmic stuff. The standard big bang creation model is consistent with the four fundamental features of the universe that the Bible uniquely taught for thousands of years before astronomers had any clue that the universe indeed possessed these features.⁶ Thanks to the telescope power presently available to astronomers—and soon to be greatly enhanced—the unique power of the Bible to correctly predict future scientific discoveries has been spectacularly affirmed. This demonstration gives yet more weight to the conclusion that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant revelation from the One who created the universe.

Featured image: Universe’s History Showing the Cosmic Dawn When Stars First Formed
Credit: National Science Foundation

Endnotes

N. Aghanim et al., Planck Collaboration, “Planck 2018 Results. VI. Cosmological Parameters,” Astronomy & Astrophysics 641 (September 2020): id. A6, doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201833910.
A. H. Patil et al., “Upper Limits on the 21 cm Epoch of Reionization Power Spectrum from One Night with LOFAR,” Astrophysical Journal 838, no. 1 (March 20, 2017): id. 65, doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aa63e7.
Judd D. Bowman et al., “An Absorption Profile Centred at 78 Megahertz in the Sky-Averaged Spectrum,” Nature 555, no. 7694 (March 1, 2018): 67–70, doi:10.1038/nature25792.
Takuya Hashimoto et al., “The Onset of Star Formation 250 Million Years after the Big Bang,” Nature 557, no. 7705 (May 17, 2018): 392–395, doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0117-z.
N. Laporte et al., “Probing Cosmic Dawn: Ages and Star Formation Histories of Candidate z ≥ 9 Galaxies,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 505, no. 3 (August 2021): 3336–3346, doi:10.1093/mnras/stab1239.
Hugh Ross and John Rea, “Big Bang—The Bible Taught It First!” Facts for Faith (Quarter 3, 2000): 26–32; Hugh Ross, “Does the Bible Teach Big Bang Cosmology?” Today’s New Reason to Believe (blog), August 26, 2019.

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What Does the Discovery of a Supermassive Black Hole Binary Mean for Creationism?

Posted on November 8, 2021 by Will Myers

June 6, 2016

By Dr. Hugh Ross

A team of 10 Chinese astronomers recently announced the first-ever discovery of a supermassive black hole binary.¹ They found the binary in the galaxy NGC 5548 (see figure 1), a galaxy where more than 70 percent of its light comes from the nuclear core. Previous research teams had determined that a supermassive black hole with a mass 280 million times the sun’s mass resided in the nuclear core.²

Details on the First-Detected Supermassive Black Hole Binary

The team found a 14-year periodicity in the double-peaked profile of the hydrogen-beta spectral line and in the brightness of both the hydrogen-beta emission line and the optical continuum arising from the nuclear core. These periodicities imply that the “supermassive black hole” is really two black holes of roughly equal mass that orbit one another with a separation of 21.7 light-days or 350 billion miles. This separation is approximately 100 times the distance between Neptune and the sun.

Figure 1: Seyfert galaxy NGC 5548
Image credit: NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope

Further confirmation for a supermassive black hole binary residing in the galactic center of NGC 5548 comes from a very deep exposure image of NGC 5548. This image shows two long tidal tails, indicating that NGC 5548 is the product of two roughly equal mass galaxies that merged about 1 billion years ago. Each of the two galaxies that merged to become NGC 5548 would have contained a supermassive black hole at their respective galactic centers. A billion years is a reasonable time for the orbit of the two supermassive black holes around one another to decay to a distance of about 22 light-days.

NGC 5548 is 244 million light-years away from Earth. It is a little more than five times closer to us than the merger of two 30-solar-mass black holes discovered by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). NGC 5548’s proximity to Earth and the very high mass of its black hole binary make it an excellent target for detecting gravitational waves.

Eventually, the two supermassive black holes in NGC 5548’s center will merge. That merger will impact the LIGO instrument with gravitational waves billions of times stronger than those detected from the merger of the two 30-solar-mass black holes. However, it will probably be at least another million years before the merger of NGC 5548’s supermassive black holes occurs. Nevertheless, NGC 5548’s supermassive black holes are already close enough together to radiate detectable gravitational waves.

How Is the Creation Model Affected?

In their paper, the team calls for the search of additional supermassive black hole binaries. Additional supermassive black hole binaries will not only aid research on the properties of gravity and general relativity but also assist in testing cosmic creation models. The predominant big bang creation model predicts that galaxy merger events were common in the early history of the universe. While many images of galaxy merging events have been collected, a comprehensive catalog of the characteristics of supermassive black hole binaries in galaxies would yield truly definitive tests of the leading big bang creation models.

The recent discovery of gravitational waves emanating from the merger of two 30-solar-mass black holes (and the potential discovery of more medium-sized black hole merger events) has been significant in the defense of the biblically predicted big bang creation model. This discovery illuminates a core feature of the creation model by providing a much more detailed understanding of the universe’s firstborn stars and of the subsequent star formation history of the universe. However, presently operating gravity wave telescopes are reliant upon rare merger events (either two medium-sized black holes within a few billion light-years from Earth, or two small black holes or neutron stars in a nearby galaxy) to generate a signal strong enough to detect gravitational waves. Even then, the detectable gravitational signal lasts only a few seconds. But the discovery of a different kind of black hole binary—a supermassive black hole binary—promises to augment scientists’ ability to study gravitational waves.

With access to gravitational waves emanating from both medium-sized and supermassive black hole binaries, astronomers will be able explore new properties of gravity and general relativity. They will be able to gain a greater understanding of the universe’s star and galaxy formation history and, consequently, of the cosmic creation event and development of the universe. This deeper understanding may help remove some of the remaining doubts about the validity of the biblically predicted big bang creation model.³

Subjects: Origin of the Universe, Universe Design

Dr. Hugh Ross

Endnotes

Yan-Rong Li et al., “Spectroscopic Indication of a Centi-parsec Supermassive Black Hole Binary in the Galactic Center of NGC 5548,” Astrophysical Journal 822 (April 2016): id. 4, doi:10.3847/0004-637X/822/1/4.
Jong-Hak Woo et al., “The Lick AGN Monitoring Project: The MBH-σ Relation for Reverberation-Mapped Active Galaxies,” Astrophysical Journal 716 (June 2010): 269–80, doi:10.1088/0004-637X/716/1/269; John Kormendy and Luis Ho, “Coevolution (or Not) of Supermassive Black Holes and Host Galaxies,” Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics 51 (August 2013): 528–33, 545, doi:10.1146/annurev-astro-082708-101811.
Hugh Ross, A Matter of Days, 2nd ed. (Covina, CA: RTB Press, 2015), 135–44; See Hugh Ross, “Big Bang—The Bible Taught It First!” Today’s New Reason to Believe (blog), Reasons to Believe, July 1, 2000, http://www.reasons.org/articles/big-bang—the-bible-taught-it-first.

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Was Jesus’s Arrival Accurately Predicted in the Bible?

Posted on November 6, 2021 by Will Myers

June 2, 2016

By Guest Writer

In 538 BC, the angel Gabriel gave Daniel a prophecy pinpointing when the Messiah would arrive. “Know and understand this,” Gabriel told him (Daniel 9:25). While Daniel may have understood it, somewhere along the way that insight has been lost. Old Testament scholars have long been debating the prophecy’s meaning, but one scholar, Harold Hoehner, had a particularly astounding interpretation.¹

While in Babylon, Daniel read the Scriptures, learning that Jeremiah had foretold both the Babylonian captivity and the Israelites’ return to their homeland after 70 years. In response, Daniel confessed the sins of the nation in prayer, inciting the angel Gabriel to visit and deliver this message:

Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.²

Breaking Down the Daniel Prophecy

In taking a closer look at the Daniel passage, one thing is clear: it is about the Messiah. We see that the term “Messiah,” or “Anointed One,” is capitalized. It is also clear that a formula of sorts is provided to calculate when the Messiah will appear. The difficulties come in interpreting the formula. One such difficulty is determining the meaning of “weeks,” which is used in a number of translations. (NIV uses the term “sevens” instead of “weeks.”) In ancient Hebrew, “weeks” had a number of meanings, which scholars can determine by the context. The context in the Daniel passage shows that “weeks” means “seven units.” Using this definition, we can calculate when the Messiah will arrive: (7 x 7) + (62 x 7) = 49 + 434 = 483 years.

The prophecy further says that after the Messiah arrives, he will be “put to death and will have nothing.” The word “after” is very important. After the Messiah arrives, he will be put to death. Jesus’s crucifixion fulfills that prophecy.

We now know that the Messiah would arrive 483 years in the future. But does the prophecy specify a beginning date? The prophecy tells us: “From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.” So, who ordered this decree to restore Jerusalem, and when was it ordered? There are several possibilities, but the decree that best fits the evidence was made by the Persian king Artaxerxes to Nehemiah on March 5 of 444 BC (Nehemiah 2:1–8). (In this article, a number of biblical dates are used, all of which have been under debate by scholars for hundreds of years. Harold Hoehner makes a strong case for each of the dates. For those details, please refer to Hoehner’s book Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ.)

Before we can make some calculations, we need to know how Daniel’s civilization counted time—by a solar year or a lunar year. A solar year has 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds, or 365.2422 days. A lunar year has exactly 360 days: 12 months of 30 days. [A lunar year has 12 rotation periods, or lunar months, which equal 354.367 Earth days (12 x 29.53059). However, ancient peoples rounded off the lunar month to 30 days. Thus, their lunar year would equal 360 days (30 days x 12).] Since the lunar year was commonly used in ancient biblical times, it makes the most sense to use the lunar year in calculations.

We must also decide how to define the arrival of the Messiah. Do we use Jesus’s birthdate, the date he began his ministry, the date of his crucifixion, or some other date? The date that many scholars have accepted as the time of the Messiah’s arrival is Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The reason for choosing this date is that this is when Jesus publicly declared that he was the Messiah. Before then, he told only select people, like his disciples, and he often reminded them to keep his identity secret. History chronologists have estimated that Jesus’s triumphal entry fell on Monday, March 30, AD 33.

Calculating Gabriel’s Formula

Now we’re ready to do some math to determine if Gabriel did in fact predict Jesus’s arrival. We’ll start by determining how many days are in 483 lunar years: 360 x 483 = 173,880 days. Next, we’ll convert those days back into solar years: 173,880 ÷ 365.2422 = 476.068 years. After converting the decimal part (0.068) to days (0.068 x 365.2422 = 24.8 days), the time prophesized for the Messiah to arrive comes out to be 476 years and 25 days.

Adding this number to March 5, 444 BC—the date on which the decree to rebuild Jerusalem was issued—brings us to March 30, AD 33, the very day of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. Is this match not remarkable? The remarkable accuracy of the predictions in the prophecy in Daniel [assuming the estimates are correctly interpreted and accurate] supports the truth of the prophecy, which in turn builds confidence in the authority and reliability of the Bible.

Don Olson

Don C. Olson earned a PhD in analytical chemistry from Purdue University in 1961 and currently works as CEO of Global FIA, Inc. in Fox Island, WA.

Subjects: Bible Codes, Historical Theology

Guest Writer

For a listing of all of our guest writers, click here.

Endnotes

For an excellent book on understanding this prophecy, see: Harold W. Hoehner, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1977).
Daniel 9:25–26.

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A Christian Perspective on Brain-Computer Interfaces

Posted on November 6, 2021 by Will Myers

April 11, 2016

By Dr. Fazale Rana

Tragic stories abound about people who have suffered disabling injuries that have stripped them of their quality of life. But perhaps none is more heartbreaking than the story of Rosemary Johnson. In her 20s, she was a member of the Welsh National Opera Orchestra. Her promising career as a violinist came to an end on a fateful day in 1988. Johnson was involved in a horrific car accident and suffered a devastating head injury that left her in a coma for seven months, robbing her of her speech and movement. No longer able to make music, Johnson was denied the very thing that brought her the most joy in life.

For 27 years, Rosemary Johnson has been trapped in her own head, but that has now changed thanks to technology developed by a team of researchers from Plymouth University (United Kingdom) in collaboration with a team from the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability in London. Over the course of the last decade, these researchers have been working on the Brain-Computer Music Interface Project.¹Their goal is to record information from a human subject’s brain that can be used to generate music. They hope this technology can be used for therapy and to improve the quality of life for people who have suffered devastating brain injuries or from neuromuscular diseases.

Disabled Musicians Create Music through New Technology

Rosemary Johnson is now part of a musical troupe (called the Paramusical Ensemble) consisting of three other disabled patients and the Bergersen String Quartet. Their first performance was at the Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival in Plymouth on February 27, 2016. Even though their movement is severely restricted, Johnson and her disabled cohorts can direct the members of the Bergersen String Quartet to play music by selecting notes and musical phrases in real time through brain-computer interface software. The disabled musicians wear an electroencephalography cap that noninvasively records electrical activity from their brain. The subjects are trained to use their brain activity to operate software that allows them to arrange musical compositions that, in turn, are displayed on the computer screens of the performing musicians.

Other researchers are also exploring the use of brain-computer interfaces to help brain-damaged people communicate. One group is at the University of California, Berkeley. These researchers have figured out a way to decode neural activity to recognize words that human subjects hear and read, both out loud and silently.² Up to this point, they have conducted their work with patients suffering from epilepsy. All of their test subjects were undergoing brain surgery to help control epileptic seizures. To pinpoint the problem area of the brain, brain surgeons cut a hole in the patients’ skulls and place electrodes on their brain surfaces to record neural activity over the course of a week. The UC Berkeley team piggybacked on this procedure to record the output of 256 electrodes placed in the auditory area of the frontal lobe as the patients listened to 10 minutes of conversation. They also recorded the output as the patients read words out loud and silently. These researchers developed mathematical models that could correlate neural activity to the words that the patients heard, read, and thought. This exciting breakthrough paves the way for a prosthetic device that one day could help people—who have suffered from brain injuries, strokes, or neurological disorders—communicate their thoughts even if they can no longer speak.

Obviously, these emerging technologies hold exciting promise for people who have suffered devastating injuries that prevent them from communicating. But I also find this work provocative for another reason: it raises fundamental questions about human identity. Is human nature merely a manifestation of physicochemical processes taking place in brain tissue? Or is there a duality to human nature, in which there is a nonphysical aspect to our being? In other words, is the mind distinct from the brain?

A Christian Perspective on Brain-Computer Interface Technology:

Even though Rosemary Johnson and other members of the Paramusical Ensemble haven’t been able to communicate for nearly 30 years because of brain damage, they still retained the ability to conceive music. Thanks to the brain-computer interface, that capability is unleashed anew.

If human cognitive ability is merely the manifestation of brain activity, then how is it that Johnson’s damaged brain still has the capacity to compose music? And why would she have such a deep-seated desire to do so? Without the benefit of brain-computer interface studies, it would be tempting to view the communication disability of brain-damaged patients as a loss of cognitive capacity. But this is clearly not the case. Instead, it appears to me that Rosemary Johnson’s identity and musical capabilities have been retained, in spite of the damage to her brain. To put it another way, it appears that her mind is distinct from her brain, consistent with the tenets of Christian theology.

Brain Relates to Mind Like Hardware Relates to Software

The results of the brain-computer musical interface studies can be interpreted through a hardware-software analogy. Accordingly, the brain corresponds to the computer hardware and the mind to the software. For a computer system to operate, both the hardware and software have to be functional and must work together. In like manner, I argue that both the brain and the mind have to be intact and working in combination for a human being to be fully functional and expressive. If computer hardware is damaged, the software can’t execute. Accordingly, if the brain is damaged, the mind becomes trapped, though it may still function perfectly. When the researchers from Plymouth University and the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability produced the brain-computer music interface, they used it to bypass the disabled musicians’ brain damage, creating a conduit for the mind to manifest.

On the other hand, if human capability stems from brain activity alone, then when the hardware is damaged, the lost capabilities should be irretrievable. And yet, they are.

Humans Need to Communicate and Express Themselves

One of the features that defines human beings is our ability to communicate through the use of symbols. In fact, human beings appear to be unique in our symbolic capacity. We alone use discrete symbols that we can combine in a near infinite number of ways to describe the world and alternate possibilities. Spoken and written language, music, art, and even body ornamentation are manifestations of our symbolic capabilities. As a Christian, I view our symbolic capabilities and our desire to communicate with others as a result of God’s image, a quality that all human beings bear.

Human beings have a deep-seated need to communicate symbolically. This need can be seen in the archaeological record. When the first modern humans appeared on Earth, they immediately began to display symbolism. In fact, many archaeological sites are dominated with artistic and musical artifacts. The first modern humans had a compulsive need to produce art and music, activities that consumed precious resources yet had no survival value. Ultimately, it is this need that provides the underlying motivation behind the brain-computer interface projects at Plymouth University and UC Berkeley. The joy that Rosemary Johnson finally experienced when she could make music again exemplifies this desire and resonates with all of us.

Subjects: Historical Theology, Image of God

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

Endnotes

Eduardo Miranda, “Plymouth Brain-Computer Music Interfacing Project: From EEG Audio Mixers to Composition Informed by Cognitive Neuroscience,” International Journal of Arts and Technology 3, nos. 2/3 (2010): 154–76, doi:10.1504/IJART.2010.032562.
Brian Pasley et al., “Reconstructing Speech from Human Auditory Cortex,” PLoS Biology 10 (January 2012): e1001251, doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001251; Stéphanie Martin et al., “Decoding Spectrotemporal Features of Overt and Covert Speech from the Human Cortex,” Frontiers in Neuroengineering 7 (May 2014), doi:10.3389/fneng.2014.00014.

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How Do I Respond When Others Are Curious about My Faith as a Scientist?

Posted on November 3, 2021 by Will Myers

BY ANJEANETTE ROBERTS – JANUARY 18, 2018

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of interacting with apologists from the RZIM (Ravi Zacharias International Ministries) Connect online community in a forum called “Ask RZIM.” I thought I’d share some of the questions and my responses here on Theorems & Theology.

Sean posted the following thoughts and questions:

My question concerns sharing the faith with other scientists. I am a researcher and I find that many of my colleagues are curious when they discover I’m devout, but I am still learning how to try to deepen that curiosity.

How do you go about witnessing to your fellow researchers? Do you have some examples of how you have kindled that curiosity?

My Response

Hi, Sean. Thanks for the question! It’s great that you’re an insider! And that your colleagues are curious when they learn you are devout or serious about your beliefs and life as a Christ-follower. I would say that any sign of curiosity on their part suggests a much deeper curiosity and openness to know more than you might imagine. But it’s really important to remember everyone you encounter will be coming from different experiences and levels of understanding, curiosity, self-examination, awareness, and longing.

So, some things may work well with some people and different things with others. Aside from that important nugget, another one is to realize that every encounter you have with a person is a chance to scatter seeds of the gospel into their lives, and you do that both by the life you live and the words you share. Be praying that God puts other Christians in their lives that will be scattering seeds, too!

Often it requires time—time to build a relationship, time to understand where they are, and what touchstones God might be using to reach them. In other words, don’t anticipate mass revival and response after a single conversation! Although God could do this, most of my witness with colleagues is long-lived and ongoing.

Ask Good Questions

Learn to have confidence in God and the truth of a well-lived and well-thought-through Christian life and faith. Pray. Invite the activity of the Holy Spirit into the other person’s life and your relationship with them. Listen to the promptings of the Spirit and to the other person. Ask good open-ended questions. Researchers love questions and problem solving, so phrase your questions to engage their problem-solving mode or their curiosity to deeper levels. Drop small, meaningful spiritual content. If they respond positively, keep going deeper until they change the topic. I offer suggestions on these kinds of questions and some related insights in a talk I give. (See below.)

Live Out Your Faith Honestly

I can’t overemphasize the significance of living authentically in your ups and downs, in your own questions, failings, frailties, and consistent pursuit of forgiveness and deeper understanding and deeper Christlikeness. My greatest witness to my friends in science has often been in times of my deepest struggle and calling out to God or clinging to him while I wait for clarity.

But in our times of flourishing, our message of hope and purpose and meaningful life in Christ is also very powerful. I have had opportunities when colleagues are struggling to simply say to them, “I’ll be praying for you. Is there anything in particular you’d like me to pray for as I do?” And they often do, to my surprise!

I think another really important thing you can keep in mind and act on is to be authentically curious about their lives. Ask questions. Don’t make assumptions about what they think or believe. Ask them and then listen.

Create Space and Deconstruct False Views of God

A couple more suggestions. Help make space for them to step back from the busyness of their work and other commitments. Invite them to dinner or go on a hike together, or something like that. Creating space can help them take time to ponder deeper questions and reflect on life away from the urgency of deadlines and work. And help deconstruct false views of God, Jesus, and what it means to be a Christian/Christ-follower. I’ve given a talk where I unpack some of these ideas and offer several insights and suggested questions that I think are helpful. You can check out part of that talk here. (The suggested questions begin at time signature 28:11.)

And remember not everyone will be hungry or curious; that’s okay, treat them with respect and kindness. That respect will matter to those who are curious already and may just cause others to become more curious as to why you are that way in the midst of a pretty competitive field.

Additional Thoughts and Resources

Here are some additional ways to respond to inquiries about our Christian faith. “How Would You Introduce Your Faith?” is a blog post by Kenneth Samples where he suggests books you could share with others.

Also, helping others to see that there is no conflict between science and Christianity and that the conflict instead arises between opposing philosophical commitments can be helpful. I do that in this blog post: “Failures to Philosophize, and in these YouTube videos: “Models for the Relationship between Science and Religion (Christianity): Introduction,” “Models for the Relationship between Science and Religion (Christianity): Conflict,” “Models for the Relationship between Science and Religion (Christianity): Independence,” “Models for the Relationship between Science and Religion (Christianity): Dialogue,” “Models for the Relationship between Science and Religion (Christianity): Integration, Pt 1,”and “Models for the Relationship between Science and Religion (Christianity): Integration, Pt 2.”

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THE AUTHORAnjeanette Roberts

Following an extensive career in research science and teaching, molecular biologist Anjeanette “AJ” Roberts joined Reasons to Believe (RTB) as a visiting scholar in 2015 and, in 2016, became a permane… Read more about Anjeanette Roberts.

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Apologia Sophia: “Apologetics Wisdom” 1—Attitude

Posted on November 3, 2021 by Will Myers

BY KENNETH R. SAMPLES – FEBRUARY 26, 2019

Apologia sophia (Gk: ἀπολογία σοφία) transliterates the Greek word endings and roughly translates to “apologetics wisdom.” Since I am an adjunct professor for Biola University’s MA program in apologetics, I teach and interact with many students who are preparing for a career in apologetics or are studying to deepen their knowledge and sharpen their skills in the field. Thus, as a teacher and a full-time scholar at RTB, I hope the following series gives practical advice—and even some genuine wisdom—when it comes to the apologetics enterprise (the art and science of giving a reasoned defense of Christianity; see 1 Peter 3:15).

Let me begin part 1 (of 6) by enumerating three points designed to help both those who are interested in and those who already engage in Christian apologetics. These points apply equally to professional and lay Christian apologists, and the points relate more to the attitudeand focus of the apologist than to specific content of arguments. Future parts in this series will address other topics.

1. Contend without being contentious.

Be careful that you don’t confuse contending for the faith (Jude 3) with being a contentious person. Apologists need to be vigilantly critical of faulty ideas—especially as they relate to Christianity—but they also need to be gracious toward people. If you believe in God’s grace toward you then you should also endeavor to treat others graciously. Nobody’s perfect, and sometimes apologetics encounters can be intense, but beware of becoming apologetically jaded and giving in to a contentious attitude.

2. Value truth above winning.

Apologists are often called to present, explain, and defend Christian truth claims to various non-Christians. In doing so, strive to esteem truth above victory in an argument. Rhetoric and polemics have their appropriate place in apologetics but only when they serve truth as a sacred reality. Prize and handle truth as if it is sacred, because it is. The triune God is Truth with a capital T. In fact, Jesus Christ specifically called himself the Truth (John 14:6). An honest person who handles all truth, big and small, with care and precision, carries unique credibility. Thus as an apologist, be a truth seeker above all.

3. Don’t compete with or envy other apologists.

The enterprise of apologetics can sometimes bring out one’s competitive nature. And some apologists have made significant contributions in defending the faith. But guard against competing with or envying other Christian apologists. Instead, come to view them as valued allies. Learn from them as brothers and sisters in the Lord. Recognize that all Christians are on the same team and God has given each apologist their own distinct personality and gifts. Encourage, support, and pray for other apologists. Apologetics can be a critical tool in the process of persuading people of ultimate truth and reality and, as such, it involves a type of spiritual warfare. So ask God’s Spirit for protection over you and your fellow apologists.

Here’s the apostle Peter’s scriptural mandate for the critical apologetics enterprise:

But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

–1 Peter 3:15–17

The attitude, goals, and focus of the Christian apologist bear significantly on his or her power of persuasion.

Reflections: Your Turn

Which of the three apologetics suggestions above is the hardest for you to incorporate? Why? Visit Reflections on WordPress to comment with your response.

Resources

I engage in apologetics in two of my books, Without a Doubt: Answering the 20 Toughest Faith Questions and 7 Truths That Changed the World: Discovering Christianity’s Most Dangerous Ideas.
For more about apologetics within the context of the Christian worldview, see my book A World of Difference: Putting Christian Truth-Claims to the Worldview Test.

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THE AUTHORKenneth R. Samples

BIO

I believe deeply that “all truth is God’s truth.” That historic affirmation means that when we discover and grasp truth in the world and in life we move closer to its divine Author. This approach r… Read more about Kenneth R. Samples.

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OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD AND GOVERNMENT TO COME

Posted on November 2, 2021 by Will Myers

Posted on December 12, 2020 by Will Myers Rate This

By Will Myers

Our faith is in tandem with our U.S. Constitutions. Our faith encourages respect for the individual and our Constitution reinforces this belief by explicitly stating that no person(s) or government shall interfere with a citizen’s right to seeking a fulfilling life. Of course, many citizens don’t believe this and they actively impede another person from acquiring a fulfilling life. We have special interest groups (SIG) who collection sensitive info about a targeted citizen and distribute info that causes grave adversities in the life of the targeted private citizen. This makes it a criminal act. It is very difficult for the targeted citizen to have standing in the courts even if the targeted citizen can show devastation, as liken unto lost of livelihood. As SIG grows in power we are actually losing our free democracy and free society alone with the right to be let alone. Many political pundits are screaming socialism. I say no; it’s hyper-communism whereas the government owns our virtual-minds stored on computers, and governs with absolute power.

The oligarch class has always existed. They are the mega-rich on the planet who control the distribution of goods and items. They are the industrialist who trade with foreign countries. There is a natural coalition among the businesses with the goal of making profits. The oligarchies do not believe in a free democracy; they tolerate it. A free democracy with civil liberties is a threat to their assets. They understandably fear that a movement would successfully take their assets. Consequently, the oligarch class supports the SIG snake organization that uses sensitive information about each private citizen (dossiers) to pit each party against others. What happens is that SIG channels as many persons as they can to devastate a targeted private citizen.

The SIG snake organization is the operative who is developing hyper-communism. The oligarch class finances SIG who is moving us away from a free democracy and a free society by taking advantage of people who is not knowledgeable about how to keep our free society; they, without awareness, works to destroy our free society because they can not resist having an advantage over another and can feel impowered by belonging to a groups who is essential picking on a targeted person in the name of doing what is best for the poor targeted person; SIG feeds the life of a targeted person to others in order for them to serve the snake; thereby, empowering the SIG snake organization.

It is easy for the oligarchs around the planet to jell and form a One World Government as soon as SIG conditions the populace to receive the One World Government. After all, SIG is the operative who controls the minds of the populace on the planet. We are approaching this state.

Many socio-political pundits proclaim that we are suffering through authoritarianism verse freedoms. But, I say that we are wrestling with SIG the snake to maintain originality and self-determination. The SIG snakes have the ability at present to mentally enslave any targeted person. It has been growing rapidly during the past 20 years after Bush authorized surveillance of domestic America.

Our Christian religion preserves respect for the individual as does most religions. This is why SIG wants to push religion out of America. The SIG snakes have successfully pushed Christianity out of public schools and workplaces owned mostly by the oligarch class who desires such actions. Once the barrier which demands that an individual must be respected has been thwarted then SIG has rapidly grew. This growth caused many school shootings and workplace killings plus massive killing in the public.

This communistic government has been tried and failed many times in the history of mankind because it does disrespects the individual. May the existential aspect of the major monotheistic religions save humans from the dropping-hammer of secular humanism (hyper-communists).

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THE NEW WORLD ORDER IS UPON US

Posted on November 2, 2021 by Will Myers

Posted on July 12, 2021 by Will Myers Rate This

The new world order is mainly dependent on the operative SIG who are special interests that collect info about private individuals and distribute analyzed-info targeting specific individuals to the detriment of the targeted individual. The SIG snake organization is anti-America and anti-religious; especially Christianity. The goal of the SIG snake organization is hypercommunism whereas the government owns the virtual minds of the populace. The SIG snake organization shall have the power to enslave minds. Now, they can destroy anyone’s livelihood. The SIG snakes thrive on creating controversy in the lives of individuals that are targeted. The inner sanctuary of the mind is invaded and completely disrespected. This activity is now causing mass killings at an alarming rate.

Evil is growing and claiming to be doing good. Ignorance and Stupidity love evil because they can claim to be doing great things. Evil has successfully accused the Word of God to be bad for humanity. This has opened the door to workers of inequality (SIG) who distribute info targeting an individual to the individual’s detriment. How long must I continue a clarion call to return to the Faith and our path of a free society. The snakes of hypercommunism shall continue to cause mass killings because they shall always disrespect the individual during their molding process, and it’s only a matter of time until many individuals shall revolt as has always happened in the past. Our experiment of a free democracy and free society, whereas nothing is between the citizen and God, must continue.

No establishing of a daily repro with an individual citizen by SIG because this would mean anti-freedom. Connect with Christ Jesus, not SIG who has the imagination of Satan.

The innocent expressions of “when it rain; it pours” and “when things go South” are accepted as happenstance occurrences; coincidences. I am posing that special interest groups (SIG) have increased the probability of these occurrences by their manipulation of circumstances relative to these events. In many instances, SIG effectuates circumstances directly using servers of the snake. I am speaking from over 3 decades of experience as being exposed to SIG in a very profound manner. The SIG snake organization has the imagination of Satan and is the bad element in our society. The good in our society is Christ Jesus’ teaching of “Do unto Others as you would have them do unto you.” Jesus is our Lord and Savior.

The common phrases of “things are going South” and “when it rains; it pours” are thought to be only the results of happenstances and coincidences. But, in actuality, special interest groups manipulate circumstances, changing the probabilities, for the unfortunate targeted individual causing many detrimental events to occur in the targeted individual’s life. The special interest groups (SIG) snake organization are master orchestrators that are criminals as defined by the U.S. Constitution. The SIG snake organization is undermining our constitutional rights and freedoms. Our right to be let alone is being eroded. Jesus has been pushed out of our public schools and workplaces with a continual concerted effort to push Jesus out of America. Jesus’ teaching of “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” is a saving grace from future mental enslavement by hypercommunism.

I must remark that there is a battle for our minds in this high tech world. Now, we have the battlefield for our minds. The government can now virtually map our minds onto a computer and now have highly sophisticated surveillance devices. The Operative are special interest groups (SIG) that monitor, collect info for passive and active dossiers, and distribute info that targets private citizens. There is no more ” right to be let alone.” This is the coming of a new government, Hypercommunism. ..no civil rights for the targeted individual. The SIG snake social machinery has also become much more sophisticated and has been accelerating rapidly recently. The antidote to Hypercommunism is Christ Jesus who not only saves the individual, but also will save our free society and democracy with civil liberties for All.

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