by Hugh RossJuly 5, 2021

Over the past decade, many people have asked for my perspective on the spiritual journey of renowned astronomer and cosmologist Allan Sandage. Although I certainly would not claim to know every detail of his story, I’m glad to share what I know from conversations with Allan and observations made over more than thirty years of acquaintance. For readers who may not be familiar with Dr. Sandage, let me first introduce the scientific accomplishments for which he is widely recognized.

Sandage, the Astronomer

From the 1950s to the time of his death in 2010, Sandage ranked among the world’s most influential and productive astronomers. Some would say that he was the most accomplished astronomer. He received his PhD in 1953 from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) under the supervision of astronomer Walter Baade. While a graduate student, he served as the assistant to leading observational cosmologist Edwin Hubble. Baade and Hubble taught Sandage the observing techniques that enabled the young astronomer to gather the highest quality data then-current technology allowed. 

When Hubble died suddenly in 1953, Sandage took over Hubble’s project to measure the cosmic expansion rate and age of the universe. In 1958, he published the first reliable measurement of the cosmic expansion rate, better known as “the Hubble constant.” His published rate (75 kilometers/second/megaparsec) came remarkably close to the rate that current technology affirms. From the 1950s to 1990s, Sandage was regarded by his peers as the preeminent observational cosmologist of his time. He also researched and wrote broadly on the origin and history of our galaxy, of globular clusters, of stars, and of the Sun, and he found time to publish two exquisite galaxy atlases.  

With over 500 papers in the peer-reviewed astrophysical literature, in addition to several books, Allan was described by his peers as ambitious. Having had many opportunities to see him at work at the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, I would attribute his prodigious output to a passion for research and a strong work ethic, qualities he exhibited until his death from pancreatic cancer at the age of 84. I must add that he sometimes expressed disdain for astronomers who lacked a strong work ethic or meticulousness in their research.   

Sandage’s research earned him multiple awards, medals, and prizes, including the Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy, the Eddington Medal, and the National Medal of Science. He is perhaps best known for winning the Crafoord Prize. Worth $2 million, this is astronomy’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize.

Sandage, My Friend
I first met Sandage through his research papers during my late teen years. Having decided from an early age to pursue a career in astronomy, I was inspired by Sandage’s papers to focus on observational cosmology, albeit through the use of radio, not optical, telescopes.

One reason for choosing Caltech for my postdoctoral research was the opportunity it provided for rubbing shoulders with many of the world’s leading astronomers. Not only was Caltech the preeminent astronomy research university at the time, but the campus was just two miles from the headquarters for the Carnegie Observatories, and this proximity would allow me to meet and possibly collaborate with Sandage. Alas, when I arrived at Caltech, I learned of the “great divorce.” After decades of a close working relationship between the Caltech and Carnegie astronomers, disputes had intensified to the breaking point. 

Almost to a person, the Caltech astronomers blamed Sandage for the divorce. I learned not just from the Caltech colleagues but also from researchers at other institutions that Sandage had a reputation for feuding with peers. It was said that you were a nobody in astronomy unless Sandage had stopped talking to you.  

I first saw Sandage in person shortly after beginning my postdoctoral research. Because my office was next to the astronomy department library, I would see him whenever he needed access to an item from the Caltech collection. I also observed his interactions with astronomers and physicists who gathered in the library for refreshments and conversation before our departmental lectures. He always seemed nervous, high-strung, and testy. Nevertheless, his sarcastic humor often elicited uproarious laughter, even from his so-called “enemies.”  

While my fellow astronomers accused Sandage of refusing to interact with any astronomer who disagreed with him, my observations told me otherwise. Sandage showed loyalty and genuine warmth toward fellow astronomers who, whether they agreed with his research conclusions or not, demonstrated a strong work ethic, attention to precision in their observations, and a high regard for integrity. The enduring friendship between Sandage and Halton (Chip) Arp serves as an example. Sandage strongly promoted big bang cosmology while Arp strongly opposed it. However, Sandage openly lauded Arp as a superb observer, saying that any observational result Chip had produced could be trusted. Based on Sandage’s endorsement, I went to Chip whenever I needed a redshift measurement on one of the radio sources I was tracking.

Sandage’s Journey to Faith
I was a full-time researcher at Caltech for three years and part-time for two more. While conducting research, I began attending and then accepted an invitation to join the pastoral team at a church located near Caltech, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the Skeptics Society headquarters, and Fuller Theological Seminary. My primary task at the church was to teach people about the harmony and consistency between God’s two books, the book of Scripture and the book of nature, and to show them how this connection could help break through people’s barriers to faith in the Bible’s redemptive message. 

My pastoral responsibilities included mobilizing and equipping church members to visit newcomers to our Sunday worship services who had given us their contact information. Our task was to welcome them, answer any questions they had, and offer any spiritual encouragement and/or practical assistance they needed. 

One Tuesday morning in 1980, I was surprised to see “Allan Sandage” on one of these cards. My initial response was to assume that another Allan Sandage must be living in the Pasadena area. No way could this card be from the Allan Sandage. However, when I checked local directories, I found only one such listing. So, I decided to make this visit myself, taking with me a young man named Scott, who was new to the Christian faith.

When Scott and I knocked on the door of his home, Allan greeted us warmly and invited us in. He seemed pleased to see us and said he had two important questions for us. His smiling, relaxed manner made me think I must be seeing a different Allan Sandage, or certainly a transformed one. He seemed quite different from the man I had observed a few years earlier.

Before getting to his two big questions, Allan first had some personal questions. He asked each of us to describe how we had come to faith in Jesus Christ, and he seemed pleased to hear our stories. He was especially intrigued that a church had recruited me, a Caltech astronomer, to serve on its ministry staff. He joked that although he remembered hearing my name, at least I wasn’t on the list of Caltech astronomers he was trying hard to forget.

When I asked Allan what had prompted his visit to our church, he told us a little of his story. During his early years, he had been exposed to Judaism first, and then to Mormonism, but he rejected both and adopted an atheistic worldview. However, despite his atheistic stance, he felt drawn to read and study the Bible. Allan told us that for 35 years he had been studying the Bible, off and on, and had finally become convinced that it’s true. He had decided to become a follower of Jesus Christ, acknowledging that God would have to help him live as a Christian.

Based on his understanding of Hebrews 10:25, he saw the need to find a place where he could grow and develop as a Christ-follower. So, using a phone directory, he assembled a list of sixty-six churches within a relatively short driving distance of his home. With that list in hand, he drove to one or more of those churches each Sunday and parked his car where he could observe the people walking into and out of the building. He said he was looking for three things: people carrying Bibles, people bringing notepads, and people showing, by their expressions and interactions, that what they learned that day mattered. From these observations, Allan narrowed the list of churches from sixty-six to six.

For each of the remaining six prospects, he told us, his plan was to attend their services for six consecutive Sundays and fill out whatever registration card or guest book he found. His goal: to determine whether the church cared enough about his spiritual status and needs. Our church was the last of the six. He said he liked what he had seen and heard, but he still had two questions for us.

Sandage’s Two Questions
By this time, both Scott and I were on pins and needles, wondering what these questions could possibly be and whether we were up to the challenge of answering. Allan’s first question was about the Bible: did we and our pastors believe that the entire Bible was true and trustworthy on every subject it addresses—nature, human nature, God’s nature, historical names, dates, and places? For us, this was a clear “yes.”

His second question was about the universe: what did we believe about the age of the universe? Scott acknowledged that it was billions of years old but that he had no idea how many billions, and then he turned to me. Aware of Allan’s ongoing dispute with Sidney van den Bergh (one of my professors during my graduate training at the University of Toronto), I answered carefully but honestly, “I don’t think it’s as old as your latest publication indicates (16–20 billion years), but I don’t think it’s as young as van den Bergh claims (~10 billion years). Based on my reading and research, I’d say it’s definitely closer to your proposed age than to Sidney’s.“ 

Allan then asked for my thoughts on the Genesis creation account. I explained that even in my first reading of Genesis, it seemed clear that the creation days must be six consecutive long time periods. After all, the word “day” in Genesis 1:3–2:4 is used for three different time periods: the daylight hours, a single rotation of Earth, and the whole of creation history. I also noted that there was no closure on the seventh creation day. The first six creation days were bracketed by an evening and a morning, indicating to me that each of those days had a start and an end, but there was no evening-morning phrase attached to the seventh day. Those observations, I said, struck me as the answer to the fossil record enigma—for the sudden appearance and abundance of new phyla, classes, and orders of life before the first humans, and few or none afterward. In six major episodes, God prepared for and finally created human life, and on the seventh day, the physical work was done. Now the relational work (God relating to human beings) could begin, but clearly it has not yet ended. 

Then Allan turned to Scott for comment. Scott said everything that happened on the sixth day convinced him it must have been more than a 24-hour day. Sandage then wanted to know if other members of the church and church staff believed as we did about creation’s timing and the universe’s age. I could speak only for the pastoral staff, but I assured him there was no dispute.

Allan smiled and sighed with relief. He told us he had become worried that nowhere would he find Christians who upheld belief in biblical inerrancy and also accepted what astronomical observations tell us about the age of the universe. He was glad to have found one, at last, but also disappointed that he had not found others.

Our conversation with Allan that evening went on for at least two hours. We noticed that his wife, Mary, also an astronomer, showed no interest in joining us. In fact, she retreated to another part of the house for the evening. As we were about to leave, Allan told us that when he met Mary, she had a faith in God. Then he added, with deep sadness, “During our first years of marriage, I ruined her faith. I talked her out of believing in God, and now I can’t bring her back.” He asked us to pray that God would somehow bring his wife and two sons to faith in Christ.

Sandage’s Spiritual Development
After our visit, Allan began attending our church and occasionally visited the Sunday class I led (and still lead). However, he did not actively participate. He would listen, politely respond to people’s greetings, and then stay silent during any class discussion or debate.

When Allan heard that I was beginning to write a book on how the physics and astronomy of the universe revealed the existence and attributes of God (The Fingerprint of God), he graciously offered me access to the Carnegie Observatories library, even giving me a key. I spent time there weekly as I researched and wrote, and during those months Allan and I engaged in many brief conversations.

Allan also played a role in the launch of Reasons to Believe. The other pastors and elders at my church were strongly exhorting me to launch a science-faith organization. I was well aware, however, how difficult and likely to fail such a launch would be. Would it not be wiser to join forces with a science-faith organization that already was well established? The only such organization that existed at that time was the Institute for Creation Research (ICR). I felt that if I could persuade the scientists and engineers at the ICR to adopt an old-earth perspective in their apologetics, that there would be no need to launch another organization. I made two trips to the ICR headquarters, first with Norm Geisler and second with Allan Sandage. As I had presumed, the scientists and engineers at the ICR highly respected both Geisler and Sandage and on each visit gave us a whole afternoon to listen to our appeal. However, during the drive home from the second visit, Sandage said it was clear that the ICR would never adopt an old-earth perspective and that I had no choice but to launch Reasons to Believe.

During that second visit to the ICR Sandage and I did not just address science. I learned then and afterwards that Allan knew the Bible better than some pastors. Whenever I brought up a Bible passage in conversation, he immediately recognized the chapter and verse. He loved to discuss biblical doctrine and interpretation with me. Sometimes he joked about this amazing woman named Grace the people at church kept talking about. “She sounds so wonderful. I must meet her,” he would say.

In this humorous way, Allan revealed his painful struggle with grace. He felt deep remorse over past sin in his life and his difficulty in overcoming it. He would comment about feeling unworthy to be called a Christian. He struggled to trust the doctrine of eternal security. It seemed obvious to me that he felt guilt over his relationship with his wife and his inability to restore her faith. 

Allan was hesitant to talk about his spiritual struggles with me, and for that I feel deeply disappointed. When one of his sons began attending our church and his daughter-in-law took on a leadership role in our children’s ministry, I thought Allan might be ready to open up, but he was not, at least not with me.

These enduring spiritual struggles may explain what Allan’s long-time astronomy colleague Gustav Tammann wrote in an obituary published in the British journal Nature. According to Tammann, “In the end, he [Sandage] highly valued Christian philosophy but did not find faith.”¹ My interactions with Allan persuade me that he did find faith in Jesus Christ as his personal Creator and Savior. 

The fact that he expressed conviction over sin, publicly shared the gospel with his non-Christian colleagues, stated his desire to see relatives, friends, and associates embrace the Christian faith, and consistently encouraged and supported my ministry leaves no doubt in my mind. Nevertheless, I can see how his expressions of doubt and frustration over the slow pace of his spiritual growth led some to conclude that he lacked faith.

Sandage, in His Own Words
In closing, I’d like to share some of Allan’s own words on matters of science and faith:

“Those who deny God at the outset by some form of circular reasoning will never find God.”²

“There need be no conflict between science and religion if each appreciates its own boundaries and takes seriously the claims of the other. The proven success of science simply cannot be ignored by the church. But neither can the church’s claim to explain the world at the very deepest level be dismissed. If God did not exist, science would have to (and indeed has) invent the concept to explain what it is discovering at its core.”³

“If there is no God, nothing makes sense.”⁴

“If there is a God, he must be true both to science and religion. If it seems not so, then one’s hermeneutics (either the pastor’s or the scientist’s) must [be] wrong.”⁵

“Romans 1:19–21 seems profound. And the deeper any scientist pushes his work, the more profound it does indeed become.”⁶

“That astronomers have identified the creation event does put astronomical cosmology close to the type of medieval natural theology that attempted to find God by identifying the first cause.”⁷

“The world is too complicated in all its parts and interconnections to be due to chance alone. I am convinced that the existence of life with all its order in each of its organisms is simply too well put together.”⁸

“Many scientists are now driven to faith by their very work. In the final analysis it is a faith made stronger through the argument by design.”⁹

“If you believe anything of the hard science of cosmology, there was an event that happened that can be age dated back in the past. . . . Now that’s an act of creation. Within the realm of science one cannot say any more detail about that creation than the First Book of Genesis.”¹⁰

“It was my science that drove me to the conclusion that the world is much more complicated than can be explained by science. It is only through the supernatural that I can understand the mystery of existence.”¹¹

Endnotes

1. Gustav A. Tammann, “Allan Sandage (1926–2010): Astronomer Who Measured Expansion Rate of the Universe,” Nature 468, no. 7326 (December 16, 2010): 898, doi:10.1038/468898a.
2. Allan Sandage, “A Scientist Reflects on Religious Belief,” in Truth: An International, Inter-Disciplinary Journal of Christian Thought, vol. 1 (1985): 53.
3. Sandage, “A Scientist Reflects,” 53.
4. Sandage, “A Scientist Reflects,” 53.
5. Sandage, “A Scientist Reflects,” 53–54.
6. Sandage, “A Scientist Reflects,” 54.
7. Sandage, “A Scientist Reflects,” 54.
8. Sandage, “A Scientist Reflects, 54.
9. Sandage, “A Scientist Reflects, 54.
10. Allan Sandage, quoted by Dennis Overbye, Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos: The Story of the Scientific Quest for the Secret of the Universe (New York: Harper-Collins, 1991), 185–186.
11. Allan Sandage, quoted by Sharon Begley, “Science Finds God,” Newsweek (July 20, 1998), 44.

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By Will Myers

We have Naomi Osaka and Simone Biles leaving life-fulfilling events. Why? The media is saying the cause is mental issues. I suggest that the main cause is what I have been harping on for the past 4 years; special interest groups (SIG) who collect sensitive info about the person and use the info to invade the inner sanctuary of their mind for the influence of their thoughts and movements. The SIG snake organization is not supposed to exist. Bullshit!!!

The Biles and Osaka protest against SIG is the correct way. The Arura theater and Sandy Hook classroom shootings are examples of the evil wrong way to protest strangers invading and turning their lives rotten. The SIG goal is hypercommunism whereas the government owns the virtual mind of each person. Our U.S. Constitution protects the individual whereas SIG works to make the individual servant to the group and works to eliminate all individual values, identities, and rights. The individual exists for the group.

The SIG snakes took me to hell for more than 20 years and the Lord brought me back. I feel like JOB. “Vengeance is the Lord’s.”

The Framers of the U.S. Constitution gave us individual freedoms and prohibited anyone, group, or government to take it away. Now, we have a snake organization (SIG) who has infiltrated our businesses and government who is making our freedoms contentious by orchestrating adversity into our private lives by using your sensitive information. We are surpassing a communist government and heading into a hyper-communist government whereas the government virtually owns the minds of the citizens. A nickel and dime job can have one struggling to conform to the demands with their private life being scrutinized.

This is full-blown hypercommunism (Communism after ability to monitor, save info, and distribute info in the computer age). (Hyper-communism)This has caused many mass killings. A return to the Faith of Christ Jesus shall save our freedoms whereas the individual has God-given indivisible rights.

We are indelibly formed by the imposition of God’s physical and spiritual laws as they determine our disposition. With all of the bad encounters from our decisions, we still can realize that God is love.

Psalm 33:4-5 New International Version (NIV)
4 For the word of the Lord is right and true;
he is faithful in all he does.
5 The Lord loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of his unfailing love.

God has given us free will so that we can make choices and determine outcomes in our lives as we are in His hands. The devil can not stop the Will Of God. Jesus, in spirit, is with us. He is alive now in SPIRIT.

In concluding, I would like to state that many people are affected adversely by the SIG snake organization and does not know what is happening to them. During the meantime, there are servers of the snake who feel connected by allowing SIG to manage their lives. Big mistake; the old saying of “sleep with the devil and wake up in hell” apply.

Our free society supported by our free democracy is the crown jewel standard for a fulfilling life. The group is always fighting to exercise power over the individual. The government of hypercommunism overrides the individual’s right to be let alone; instead, they can easily mentally enslave the individual who has no civil rights. Our democracy and U.S. Constitution has provided an improbable state whereas the individual is protected from the over powering group. We are losing this state of freedom for the individual because hypercommunism has grown to a large existence with powerful influence; once again, SIG is taking America toward the enslavement of the individual through the dynamics of giving an individual an advantage over others using sensitive information about targeted individuals. This shall eventually destroy our free society and high quality democracy. Our democracy is very fragile and is an improbable state of existence. The spirit of democracy as related to God Who strenghtens our spirit:

Romans 8:15-29 (New International Version)

¹⁵ The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.^[a] And by him we cry, “Abba,^[b] Father.” ¹⁶ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. ¹⁷ Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

By Will Myers

The person(s) that have the consensus of the group or government in the masses sense can exercise power over an individual. This is the natural state of civilization or politics. For the individual to have standing against the group or the masses is a very improbable situation. The creators of our U.S. Constitution attempted to do just such a thing even when the existing conditions in our country was far from such a state. We had slavery. We had power exercised by the religious element over individuals in a coercive manner to a much effective way then at present. The have-nots exceeded the haves in enormous numbers. America after the signing of our constitution started on the glorious road of personal freedoms; explicitly supported by the Supreme Court of America who supported the rights of an individual and gave standing to the individual which protected the individual’s rights and freedoms under the U.S. Constitution. Although, men in our society continued to work to enslave the minds of the citizens; we now have the battlefield for the mind of each individual citizen. America is being guided off the glorious path to personal freedoms and liberties without any adversity being between the individual and their God.

From the beginning of civilization the leaders needed the power to control the constituents. Some leaders were just and others were tyrannical. Their religion usually preserved the individuals to some extent, but the heavy hand of their laws was usually draconian.

Our present government in America maintains law and order with reserved powers. None the less, we have a shadow government that effects our lives on a daily bases. The special interest groups (SIG) who monitor private citizens collects sensitive information, expertly analyzes the info, is distributed, causing adversity in the life of a targeted private citizen. Society has always had this element who works to control the people. The SIG snake organization desires to be the people’s god. These snakes works to mode the private citizen’s mind for their self interest rather than the individual. As a matter of fact, SIG desires to eliminate the word “individual.” Their belief is that the individual belong to the people, the group, and exist to serve the needs of the people.

The relatively new concept of government is that the individual has God given rights that can not be breached; the rights are indivisible. The SIG snake organization opposes this concept. At present, SIG is working to occupy our free society and fill it with numerous adversities directed at each targeted private citizen and the celebrities. This is the force; this is not the connection that one wants. This is a criminal enterprise in progress as defined by the U.S. Constitution.

The individual under attack suffers from isolation and stigmatization. The individual suffers from the stolen originality and self worth because the self is not recognized by SIG the snake. The individual’s personal effects are vandalized in order to force the targeted individual to comply to the desires of the SIG snakes. This local scrutiny lead to the individual’s life being endangered. SIG causes people to disrespect the individual who suffers castration of original thought thereby suffering destruction of their self worth and self esteem.

Always the group controls the individual as in socialism and communism and all other governments. Only in a high quality democracy with a constitution that preserves individual rights, civil rights. America was on that path but Trump has turned our society toward hypercommunism in which the government owns the virtual-minds of the citizens with power to determine the thoughts and movement of individual citizens. Individuals are losing the right to be let alone, our privacy rights in order to function safely in a true democracy. Followers of Trump is being greatly deceived. They are being led away from guaranteed freedom to conditional freedoms which shall be shrined slowly. The un-Constitution affects:

1) In hypercommunism the individual is suppressed allowing no love.

2) The individual’s joy is stolen and turned into a charge for the snakes of hypercommunism.

3) The individual wrestles with the devil snakes who takes the peace of mind of the individual.

4) The individual is stigmatized. Local scrutiny is as bad as national scrutiny and causes violence liken unto mass killings.

5) The individual is isolated and ostracized.

Our U.S. Constitution gives the civil right of no person, group, or government shall place adversity into the life of any individual and the individual is guaranteed the freedom to seek a fulfilling life without adversity being placed into their life. The SIG snake organization is a criminal enterprise as defined by our U.S. Constitution. This is an improbable state because the individual is never stronger than the group. The SIG group can always over power the individual. For America society under the umbrella of our constitution has slowly bent toward individual freedoms. SIG works for mental enslavement

Kindness and goodness is not recognized. Gentleness has no place and is attacked by special interest groups (SIG) who poses as being the voice of the people but is a snake undermining our constitutional individual freedoms and protections.

Under our Constitution the individual has standing against the masses and these are indivisible rights. In the spirit of the Constitution we have the right to have no person nor group blocking our relationship with our God with the same applying to our right to have no adversities place obstructively into our seeking a fulfilling life. No person, group, nor government shall place adversities into the life of any law abiding citizen – no deep state, secret government, or covert organization have any authority above the laws and Constitutional rights for the individual. The mature, responsible individual obeys the laws while the law polices the immature impulses of the irresponsible individual. Hail to our U.S. Constitution that preserves the individual as opposed to the people enslaving of the individual.

by GUEST WRITERHugh HenryJune 24, 2021

With so much discussion and concern about climate change, the more we learn about our planet the better off we’ll be. Science has provided some of that learning by revealing how Earth’s “natural control systems” have helped maintain climate stability.

A previous article, “God’s Control Systems: The Water Cycle,” discussed process control systems and how they maintain constant temperature for manufacture of a variety of everyday items. It described the water cycle as one of God’s control systems because it acts like a process control system to moderate Earth’s seasonal temperature variations.

The carbon cycle also has features that resemble control systems to make and maintain Earth as habitable for human life.

Earth is warmed by heat energy from the Sun and, in turn, Earth radiates heat. The principles of global warming entail that some of Earth’s radiated heat is reflected back by atmospheric “greenhouse gases” such as carbon dioxide (CO₂). This reflected heat energy is called radiative forcing, and it adds to the heat received from the Sun. Earth’s temperature depends on the Sun’s output and radiative forcing.

The early Earth had an atmosphere similar to our nearest neighbors Venus and Mars: high in CO₂ and lacking oxygen (O₂). Multiple control processes, including the following, were required to make Earth habitable for humans.

Early Earth’s Control Systems

First, oceans appeared. CO₂ combined with H₂O to form carbonic acid (H₂CO₃). The carbon cycle graphic shows that CO₂ derivatives became buried in limestone and other rock formations, reducing atmospheric CO₂. This was the first of God’s natural control systems.

The second (reverse weathering) and third (weathering) natural control systems are summarized by Hugh Ross in his article, “Highly Fine-Tuned Reverse Weathering Stabilized Earth’s Early Climate.” As simple aquatic life-forms began to emerge, the Sun’s intensity was decreasing. If Earth had become cold enough to freeze the oceans, life might have come to an end. But chemical processes referred to as “reverse weathering”¹ increased atmospheric CO₂ to compensate for the dimming sun, and the resulting heat from radiative forcing allowed life-forms to flourish. This process continued for about 3 billion years. Then, just before the Cambrian period, the Sun began to brighten as more complex aquatic life-forms emerged. More sunlight might have made Earth too hot, but the process of “weathering”² removed just the right amounts of atmospheric CO₂ to compensate for the Sun’s increasing brightness,³ and life thrived.

Some of these earliest life-forms included photosynthetic microorganisms, which introduced photosynthesis (taking in CO₂ and producing O₂). Photosynthesis was the fourth of God’s carbon cycle control systems, but it did not yet provide enough O₂ to support the more complex life-forms which appeared through the Cambrian period. The deficit was filled by what is referred to as the deep oxygen cycle: a critical intersection of the carbon cycle and the oxygen cycle. As atmospheric CO₂ was subducted into Earth, chemical reactions with carbon compounds produced underground O₂ which was injected into the atmosphere at the just-right time and quantity to sustain these emerging life-forms.

Green land plants emerged after the Cambrian period, greatly multiplying the effect of photosynthesis. Eventually enough O₂ was produced to sustain high-metabolism land animals; and more atmospheric CO₂ was removed. Today, photosynthesis is the dominant mechanism to absorb CO₂ from human and animal exhales and natural processes—as well as human industry —and maintain 21% O₂ and CO₂ under 0.1% in Earth’s atmosphere. The deep oxygen cycle makes a secondary contribution.

These thumbnail sketches of early control systems show how over billions of years, God’s control systems produced and maintained Earth as a habitable planet for his human image-bearers. Will this favorable pattern continue?

A New Control System?

Today, atmospheric CO₂ is increasing and there are predictions of climate disaster if human CO₂ emissions aren’t reduced 45% by 2030. Yet, similar predictions for over 30 years haven’t occurred . . . why not? Were earlier predictions premature and today’s predictions correct? Or is another natural control system operating within the carbon cycle? In a recent academic paper, physicists W. A. van Wijngaarden and W. Happer (W&H) suggest the latter.

Heat radiated from Earth includes a wide spectrum of energies and, therefore, frequencies.⁴ However, only certain frequencies can interact with greenhouse gas molecules⁵ and contribute to radiative forcing. Researchers have studied greenhouse gas frequency response extensively; the data is maintained at Harvard University in the HITRAN database.

W&H performed a frequency-dependent estimate of radiative forcing that had never been done before. They “downloaded over 1/3 million rovibrational lines from the most recent HITRAN database to calculate the per-molecule forcings.”⁶ They also “divided the atmosphere into 500 altitude segments”⁷ because greenhouse gas concentrations and temperatures vary at different levels of the atmosphere. The physicists then modeled radiative forcing based on both current greenhouse gas concentration and on doubling those concentrations, which led to the following conclusion:

At current concentrations, the forcings from all greenhouse gases are saturated.⁸

What does this mean? Although more atmospheric CO₂ adds heat to Earth by radiative forcing, there may be a point of diminishing returns in which additional atmospheric CO₂ has less effect than previously. Earlier calculations based on frequency bands may have missed this effect, but it was picked up by W&H’s line-by-line analysis. Frequency is key in radiative forcing.

The physicists checked their calculations by comparison with satellite data⁹ and with similar calculations by others.¹⁰ Such comparisons do not prove the W&H model but they make it plausible.  

Control Systems Point to a Controller

Climatology is not an exact science. It is based entirely on computer models, of which the W&H analysis is one. Have the two physicists identified another of God’s control systems? Maybe . . . maybe not. But their conclusion is thought-provoking.

What we do know for sure is that God is in control of nature. Human control over CO₂ emissions is limited; much comes from natural sources. There are surprises: like research that found a subglacial volcano in Iceland is “a globally important source of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) in spite of being previously assumed to be a minor gas emitter.”¹¹

CO₂ effects are an ongoing discussion in the quest to know more about Earth’s climate. Nevertheless, we praise God for the control systems that have made Earth habitable for humans, and we pray his providence continues. We are God’s stewards and must do what we can to maintain a livable planet. We may even need to adapt to changing conditions. But we trust the omnipotent God who alone controls nature, because “in all things God works for the good of those who love him” (Romans 8:28).

Endnotes

1. Terry T. Isson and Noah J. Planavsky, “Reverse Weathering as a Long-Term Stabilizer of Marine pH and Planetary Climate,” Nature 560, no.7719 (August 23, 2018): 471–475, doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0408-4.
2. C. K. Keller and B. D. Wood, “Possibility of Chemical Weathering before the Advent of Vascular Land Plants,” Nature 364, no. 6434(July 15, 1993): 223–225, doi:10.1038/364223a0; Lee R. Kump, Susan L. Brantley, and Michael A. Arthur, “Chemical Weathering, Atmospheric CO₂, and Climate,” Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 28 (May 2000): 611–667, doi:10.1146/annurev.earth.28.1.611.
3. A good summary of weathering as a control system is found in Hugh Ross,Improbable Planet (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2016), 154–157.
4. Heat energy can be viewed as a traveling wave of electromagnetic radiation. The frequency describes how many wave patterns or cycles pass by in a period of time, and this is directly related to energy.
5. This is due to the vibration modes of a particular gas, such as CO₂ and the electron binding energies (illustrated here for higher energy radiation). All of these depend on the frequency – and hence the energy – of the radiation.
6. W. A. van Wijngaarden and W. Happer, “Dependence of Earth’s Thermal Radiation on Five Most Abundant Greenhouse Gases,” (June 8, 2020): arXiv:2006.03098v1, available at https://arxiv.org/pdf/2006.03098.pdf .
7. van Wijngaarden and Happer,“Dependence of Earth’s Thermal Radiation.”
8. van Wijngaarden and Happer, “Dependence of Earth’s Thermal Radiation.” See especially figure 9 and tables 2 and 4.
9. van Wijngaarden and Happer, “Dependence of Earth’s Thermal Radiation,” figure 15. See also R. A. Hanel and B. J. Conrath, “Thermal Emission Spectra of the Earth and Atmosphere from the Nimbus 4 Michelson Interferometer Experiment,” Nature 228, no. 5267 (October 10, 1970): 143–145, doi:10.1038/228143a0.
10. van Wijngaarden and Happer, “Dependence of Earth’s Thermal Radiation,” table 3. See W. D. Collins et al., “Radiative Forcing by Well-Mixed Greenhouse Gases: Estimates from Climate Models in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4),” Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 111, no. D14 (July 27, 2006): doi:10.1029/2005JD006713; van Wijngaarden and Happer, “Dependence of Earth’s Thermal Radiation,” table 5. See also Syukuro Manabe and Richard T. Wetherald, “The Effects of Doubling the CO₂ Concentration on the Climate of a General Circulation Model,” Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences 32, no. 1 (January, 1975): 3–15, doi:10.1175/1520-0469(1975)032<0003:TEODTC>2.0.CO;2; B. G. Hunt and N. C. Wells, “An Assessment of the Possible Future Climatic Impact of Carbon Dioxide Increases Based on a Coupled One-Dimensional Atmospheric-Oceanic Model,” Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 84, no. C2 (February 20, 1979): 787–791, doi:10.1029/JC084iC02p00787; Lukas Kluft et al., “Re-Examining the First Climate Models: Climate Sensitivity of a Modern Radiative-Convective Equilibrium Model,” Journal of Climate 32, no. 23 (December 2019): 8111–8125, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0774.1.
11. Evgenia Ilyinskaya et al., “Globally Significant CO₂ Emissions From Katla, a Subglacial Volcano in Iceland,” Geophysical Research Letters 45, no. 19 (October 16, 2018): 10332–10341, doi:10.1029/2018GL079096.

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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.

NOTE: Even my comments have been censored including Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn and Others. I speak of real coming events from experience, the father of knowledge.

1Larry Myers

3Larry Myers, Samuel Craig and 1 other1 CommentLikeCommentShare

3Larry Myers, Samuel Craig and 1 other1 CommentLikeCommentShare

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God Created a Home for Us in a Sacred Place

When I reflect on the first verse in the Bible, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1), what often comes to mind is a quote from one of my favorite theologians, R.C. Sproul, describing God’s creation as “a grand theater of divine revelation.”1 In Genesis 1, the almighty, loving God and his creative acts take center stage. We learn that he has the incredible power to create something out of nothing by simply speaking it into existence. And we see how he designed the heavens and the earth as a sacred space for his people where he would be in relationship with them. Within this sacred space where God is present and active, the earth is the center of interest—the place he created to dwell among his people.

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Mosaic Eve: Mother of All (Part 2)

In Part 1 of “Mosaic Eve,” I set the stage for considering how God might introduce enough diversity into the human population from a founding pair to account for the genetic diversity we observe today. Could one individual, or a couple, created by God to populate the entire human race, harbor diversity that is consistent with what we know of biology and physiology, yet, in a sense, that is historically unique, like the virgin birth? In part 1, I articulated RTB’s approach of considering data primarily drawn from nature (science) but consistent with observations drawn from Scripture. One constraining factor in our integration of data that’s consistent with general scientific premises, is that God’s creation operates with reliable regularity, and the physical laws and constants that describe natural processes today are, and have been, consistent throughout time and space.1

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by GUEST WRITERHugh HenryMay 27, 2021

My first job out of graduate school involved process control systems. From complex semiconductor chips for computers and cell phones to simple injection-molded plastic parts, many items we use every day must be manufactured at precise temperatures. If too hot or too cold, these items couldn’t be made—or at best wouldn’t work.

Precise temperature control utilizes what is referred to as a “feedback loop.” First, a sensor precisely measures the critical temperature and feeds it back to an electronic controller. The controller compares that measurement to the proper temperature and notes any deviation (+ or -). If the temperature isn’t correct, the controller signals the heating system to add or reduce the heat by just the right amount to bring the temperature to where it should be.

A home thermostat is a simple example of a control system. It measures the room temperature and turns the furnace or air conditioner on or off to make our home warmer or colder.

All such control systems are designed by an intelligent human agent. Hence when similar systems are found in nature, design by an intelligent agent is inferred. We believe this suggests an intelligent Creator-God—as does evidence of design in the universe and in the laws of physics.¹

We can refer to such natural controls as “God’s control systems,” and we find evidence of them in the water and carbon cycles. This post will discuss the water cycle; a subsequent post will address the carbon cycle.

The Water Cycle

Water (H₂O) exists in three phases: solid (ice), liquid (water), and gas (water vapor). Ice becomes water (and vice versa) at a melting point temperature of 32^oF (or 0^oC), and water becomes water vapor at a boiling point temperature of 212^oF (or 100^oC).

We experience ice naturally when the temperature falls below 32^oF. We also experience water vapor in the atmosphere, known as humidity. But Earth hasn’t been as hot as 212^oF for millions of years, so how does water vapor get into the atmosphere?

This process is explained by physics:

Gasses and liquids consist of molecules moving at high speed. Some liquid molecules evaporate into gas because of their high velocity, and some gas molecules with a lower velocity condense into liquid.

This introduces the water cycle as a natural control system which moderates Earth’s seasonal temperature variations. Summer heat and winter cold occur because the axis of Earth is tilted as it rotates around the Sun. The northern hemisphere experiences the intense warming of direct sunlight in summer, but less warming in winter due to indirect sunlight. The reverse occurs in the southern hemisphere.

Step 1: Evaporation

As this graphic illustrates, the first step in the water cycle is the evaporation of surface water. This process has the effect of cooling Earth’s surface—as explained by the physics:

Water doesn’t become water vapor just by reaching 212^oF; additional heat—called “latent heat”—must be added. If water is boiled on the stove, the latent heat comes from the burner; if the water is evaporated naturally, latent heat is removed from the surroundings, cooling the surroundings. Moreover, more molecules evaporate from a hot liquid than from a cold liquid; this removes more latent heat and provides more cooling of the surroundings.

This concept may be easier to understand in the ice-to-water transition, which works the same way. The ice in a beverage gets smaller as it liquefies; in so doing, it removes latent heat from the beverage, keeping the beverage cool.

Step 2: Condensation

The second step in the water cycle is also based on physics:

Hot gas rises in the atmosphere.

The evaporated water vapor rises in the “troposphere,” the lowest level of our atmosphere, which is up to 130℉ (70℃) colder than Earth’s surface. The cold temperature causes the water vapor to condense, and clouds to form.

Step 3: Precipitation

The clouds produce rain. This is the third and final step in the water cycle, and it involves more physics:

When a cold object is in contact with a hot object, heat is transferred from the hot object to the cold one; the hot object becomes cooler, and the cold object becomes warmer.

The rain is cold, coming down from the troposphere. As cold rain touches a warm Earth, heat is transferred from Earth to the rainwater, cooling Earth as the rainwater is warmed.

Thus the water cycle moderates Earth’s temperature with two cooling events:

1. Evaporation of surface water cools Earth by removing latent heat.
2. Cold rain cools a warm Earth.

Saturation: Keeping Humidity in Check

In addition to the water cycle itself, there is an associated natural control system: saturation. Saturation occurs when evaporating liquid molecules equal condensing gas molecules; this limits the amount of water vapor in the air. Humidity refers to water vapor in the atmosphere, and “100% relative humidity” refers to water vapor saturation. The saturation effect assures us that even though it can be really uncomfortable on a hot day with 100% relative humidity, it can’t get any worse! Can you imagine how oppressive humidity could be without this natural control system?

How Much Cooling Is Involved?

How significant are the cooling effects of the water cycle? A final bit of physics helps us understand:

In the heat transfer from a hot object to a cold one, different substances require greater or lesser amounts of heat to warm (or cool) them by a particular number of degrees. The term “specific heat capacity” indicates the relative amount of heat that must be added (or given up) to raise (or lower) temperature. The higher the specific heat capacity of a substance, the more heat is needed (or given up) for each degree of temperature change.

This allows us to assess the cooling effect of the water cycle:

• The latent heat required to evaporate water is up to 20 times greater than for many other common substances, thus evaporating water has a relatively large cooling effect on Earth. Furthermore, about three times more water is evaporated at 100^oF than at 70^oF, so the already large cooling effect is tripled as we reach uncomfortably hot temperatures.
• The specific heat capacity for liquid H₂0 is six times greater than for Earth (based on carbon and silicon). This provides a sixfold multiplier when rain hits Earth; ground temperature is lowered six degrees for every one degree increase in rainwater temperature.

The One Who Is in Control

We still experience hot, humid days in summer and cold days in winter. God’s control system of the water cycle does not prevent that—it just moderates the effect. Without the water cycle and the saturation effect, hot, humid days could be hotter and more humid and cold winter days could be colder. These natural control systems reinforce the biblical idea that God is in control and prepared Earth as a habitable planet for humans, his ultimate creation.

Endnotes

1. Hugh Ross, Improbable Planet: How Earth Became Humanity’s Home (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2016). See also reasons.org articles on the topic of design.

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by Hugh RossJune 4, 2021

Question of the week: As a Christian, how can I know that when I die there is something beyond this life? Do you have any advice on how to deal with this question that plagues my faith?

My answer: There are several ways. The two that personally bring me the most confidence are the historical evidence for the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead and the obvious reality of Ecclesiastes 3:11. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God has written eternity on the heart of every human being. Of life on Earth, we humans are the only creatures that think about life after death, the meaning of life, the existence of an eternal Creator, morality, judgment, the purpose of the universe, and our purpose for living, both in this life and the afterlife. If there is no afterlife, why are we humans so compelled to think, meditate, and debate about these matters? Why is it that even committed atheists acknowledge that there is a universal law that distinguishes good from evil? Why do they also believe that their lives have value, meaning, and purpose? Why are people all around the world so fixated on finding redemption from their propensity to commit evil or fixated on trying to justify themselves and their behavior?

As many scholars have pointed out (for example, Gary Habermas, Josh McDowell, and William Lane Craig), the historical evidence for the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead is stronger than the historical evidence for the defeat of Napoléon at Waterloo or for the surrender of Germany in 1918. There is so much historical evidence that Habermas currently is writing a 3,500-page multivolume set that will document about 80 percent of the existing evidence. For a brief summary, go here.    

If Jesus can raise himself bodily from the dead, then he certainly possesses the power to raise us bodily from the dead. He promised to do so. The historical evidence for the moral, sin-free perfection of Jesus (note that even Jesus’s enemies, his mother, and his brothers acknowledged that he was sinless—John 8:46) and the truthfulness of his words leave no doubt that he will keep his word. Bible

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I received an inquiry recently from someone wanting to know what it meant to follow the truth scientifically and theologically. In other words, when…Bible

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BY KENNETH R. SAMPLES – SEPTEMBER 15, 2020

Have you ever had a sudden realization that ended up changing your life? You may have had an epiphany, which can be defined as an intuitive flash of insight or discovery as to the deep meaning of something significant that comes through experience and leads to a sense of wonder.

Over the years I have experienced some significant spiritual and intellectual turning points. At the time of these events I knew I was encountering something special or unique. But only through looking back do I recognize just how important these experiences have been.

One such experience, an intellectual epiphany, came to me as a young student and it changed the way I thought about ideas and the importance of study. This experience has stayed with me my entire life.

My Intellectual Epiphany

Growing up I wasn’t a diligent student at all. In fact, if you spoke with my teachers (elementary through high school) I know what they would say about my effort. I know because I heard them convey it to me and to my parents often: “Kenny Samples only does enough school work to get by.” This deliberate approach was even more true by junior high school when I determined that what I really wanted in life was to be a professional athlete (I loved basketball and baseball). So sports trumped study.

But at age 13 when I was in the eighth grade I experienced an intellectual epiphany of sorts. In my social science/history class we studied the topic of World War II. My father, Jesse A. Samples, had been a combat soldier serving in the European theater of the war fighting against the German army. In preparing to write a school report about the conflict, my father and I went to a bookstore and bought a couple of reference books about World War II. That evening as my dad and I perused through the books my father discovered two photographs of himself in Hans Dollinger’s book The Decline and Fall of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.¹ The photos were black and white, grainy, and from a distance but my dad, mom, and I could all recognize it was my father.

This discovery surprised me and made me think differently about my dad and ideas. World War II and my father’s participation in it sparked my intellectual life. I began to realize that ideas and ideologies have consequences and that my father and his band of brothers had been involved in a great crusade to stop Nazi tyranny and oppression. I began reading about various aspects of the Second World War including the Holocaust. And the profound topic of the twentieth century’s world wars has never left me to this very day.

I distinctly remember my eighth grade teacher Mr. Morris praising my report in class and saying that the topic of World War II had “turned Kenny on academically.” That event from my childhood stirred me and influenced my interest in the big questions of life. My decision to study history and philosophy in college and later, theology, were influenced by my intellectual discovery in junior high school.

Providential Church Encounter

Many years later, I attended a Dutch Reformed church where an elderly man in the congregation learned of my interest in World War II. Through our many discussions about the war I learned that this man knew Reformed theologian George Stob² (1907–2002) who had served as my father’s chaplain during the war (U.S. Army’s 44th Infantry Division) and had signed my dad’s Bible. I didn’t even know George Stob was a theologian let alone a theologian in my denomination. Few people would have known of Stob (who at the time was 93 years old) outside of the closely connected Dutch Reformed community. I was first amazed, but then further interaction with my fellow church member led to a connection with Stob’s wife and she told me that her husband often spoke about the courageous young men he had ministered to during the war. Again, with another surprise encounter concerning my dad and World War II I sensed that God’s providence was at work behind the scenes of my life and the life of my family.

Looking back, I came to see that this early intellectual epiphany—affirmed many years later by learning about my father’s chaplain—was truly a turning point in my life. It set me on a trajectory of exploring life’s big questions and ideas. Has something like this ever happened to you?

Reflections: Your Turn

Have there been significant times in your life where you can reflect back and see that God was transforming your mind and soul? Visit Reflections on WordPress to comment with your response.

Endnotes

1. See Hans Dollinger, The Decline and Fall of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan: A Pictorial History of the Final Days of World War II (New York: Gramercy, 1965), https://www.amazon.com/Decline-Germany-Imperial-Pictorial-History/dp/B000B2C1UE/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=hans+dollinger+the+decline+and+fall+of+nazi+germany+and+japan&qid=1569634440&s=books&sr=1-1.
2. Concerning chaplain and theologian George Stob, see this historical note at https://archives.calvin.edu/?p=creators/creator&id=544.

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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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Christian Environmentalism in an Age of Bobos

In his 2000 book Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There, New York Times columnist David Brooks coined the term bobos to describe the current cultural norm that embraces a duality of bohemian and bourgeois values.1 Not only is it an apt term for describing much of modern secular America, it’s also a helpful one for Christians facing the challenges of living in today’s America. Many of those challenges are obvious (e.g., the new spiritual pluralism and moral relativism), but others can be sneaky and subtle, sounding innocent while raising important spiritual issues.

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