Earth’s Primordial Magma Ocean Affirms Genesis 1 Creation Events

Posted on August 31, 2021 by Will Myers

BY HUGH ROSS – FEBRUARY 1, 2021MORESHARE 23

Can science test the veracity of biblical creation events such as whether Earth’s early atmosphere was opaque? I have always maintained that the answer is yes. In fact, the Bible invites such testing. In this way, science can affirm or negate the Bible’s statements about creation.

One such test (or prediction) involves the conditions of the primordial Earth. Reasons to Believe’s interpretation of Genesis 1 and Job 38 holds that Earth’s atmosphere initially was opaque, then transformed to become translucent, and later transformed again to become, at least occasionally, transparent as it is today.

After Earth’s initial formation its surface was a hot molten magma ocean. Recently, six geochemists led by Paolo Sossi demonstrated that outgassing from this magma ocean produced an atmosphere identical to Venus’s and Mars’s in relative chemical composition of gases.¹

Throughout the entire histories of Venus and Mars the relative chemical gas composition of their atmospheres has not changed. It is and has been 97% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, and 0% oxygen. Through an analysis of the oxygen fugacity and the iron redox state in the silicate melts of Earth’s primordial magma ocean, Sossi’s team determined that degassing from these silicate melts produced an atmosphere that likewise was 97% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, and 0% oxygen. The only significant difference between Earth’s and Venus’s primordial atmosphere was that Earth’s atmosphere was thicker.²

Earth’s Post-Accretion Atmospheric Transformation
Earth’s present atmosphere is radically different from its primordial atmosphere. It is about 200 times thinner and is 79% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 0.4% carbon dioxide. How did it change? Earth’s present atmospheric difference arose predominantly from two fine-tuned post-accretion events.

Fine-Tuned Collision
The first event was the collision between Theia, a planet 11–15% Earth’s present mass, and the primordial Earth (see figure 1). I devoted most of chapter 5 in Improbable Planet to describing this event. In summation, the collision occurred about 95 million years after Earth’s initial accretion. It formed the Moon, increased Earth’s mass, and stripped away virtually all Earth’s atmosphere and hydrosphere.

Artists_concept_of_collision_at_HD_172555 — Figure 1: Artist’s Depiction of the Moon-Forming Impact Event between Theia and the Primordial Earth. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

The thin layer of liquid water on Earth’s surface that remained after the collision between Theia and the primordial Earth and an event called the late veneer^₃ that quickly followed proved to be permanent. That permanence is due to Earth’s distance from the Sun, its surface gravity and magnetic field, and the Moon.

If Earth were just a fraction of a percent closer to the Sun all, or nearly all, its liquid water would be permanently transformed into water vapor. If Earth were just 1–2% closer to the Sun, its atmospheric electric field would rise above 2 volts, leading to the rapid loss of all its water. If Earth were just 1% more distant from the Sun, all its liquid water would become permanently frozen. If Earth’s surface gravity were a few percent less, all its surface water would escape to interplanetary space. These reasons alone explain why Earth retained surface liquid water and Venus and Mars did not.

Without Earth’s strong and enduring magnetosphere the Sun’s wind and radiation would have sputtered away both Earth’s atmosphere and hydrosphere. During Earth’s first billion years, it took the coupling of both Earth’s and the Moon’s magnetospheres to prevent the much stronger solar wind at that time from eradicating Earth’s atmosphere and hydrosphere.

Fine-Tuned Geochemical Cycles
After the collision between Theia and the primordial Earth and the late veneer Earth still had an atmospheric composition similar to that on Venus and Mars. However, the presence of surface oceans and surface continents plus strong plate tectonic activity throughout Earth’s past 4 billion years set in motion four geochemical cycles that transformed the composition of the planet’s atmosphere.

The deep water cycle removed a small amount of water and large amounts of carbon dioxide and methane (produced by methanogens) from Earth’s atmosphere and hydrosphere. The shallow carbon cycle and the deep carbon cycle both removed large amounts of carbon dioxide and methane from Earth’s atmosphere. The deep oxygen cycle removed a large amount of carbon dioxide and added a huge amount of oxygen to Earth’s atmosphere.

These four geochemical cycles steadily removed carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapor—all powerful greenhouse gases—from the atmosphere. Their gradual removal over the past 4 billion years perfectly compensated for the Sun’s ongoing brightening so that the temperature on Earth’s surface remained optimal for life.

Affirmations of the Genesis 1 Creation Chronology
The analysis achieved by Sossi’s team affirmed in two significant ways the chronology of creation events described on the Bible’s first page. First, it affirmed that Earth’s primordial atmosphere was opaque to visible light.

Sossi’s team provided more evidence that before the collision between Theia and Earth, Earth’s atmosphere was about 200 times thicker than it is today and made up of 97% carbon dioxide and no oxygen. Such an atmosphere would block out all light in the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum. These conditions seem consistent with Genesis 1:2, which refers to Earth’s initial conditions: “Darkness was over the surface of the deep [Earth’s surface water].” A parallel text, Job 38:9, declares, “I [God] made the clouds its [Earth’s seas] garment and wrapped it in thick darkness.”

The second Genesis 1 affirmation concerns the oxygen level of Earth’s atmosphere. Thinning out Earth’s atmosphere by a factor of about 200 times did permit visible light to reach Earth’s surface. However, the lack of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere made it so hazy that creatures on the planet would have been unable to discern any of the objects in the heavens that were responsible for the light.

As I wrote in 2018, a team of physicists demonstrated in laboratory experiments that increasing the oxygen content in Earth’s atmosphere from less than 1% to 8% or more made the atmosphere sufficiently transparent that animals would be able to discern the positions of the Sun, Moon, and stars in the sky. Genesis 1:14 (NASB) proclaims, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens. . . . they shall serve as signs and for seasons, and for days and years.” As Genesis 1:20 implies, the signs are for the benefit of the animals that God created after Earth’s atmosphere became transparent.

This discovery demonstrates that the more we learn about the history of Earth and Earth’s life, the more evidence we accumulate for the accuracy and predictive power of the Bible’s creation texts. Today, this evidence powerfully establishes that the Bible must be inspired by the One who performed all the creation deeds humans observe.

Endnotes

Paolo A. Sossi et al., “Redox State of Earth’s Magma Ocean and Its Venus-Like Early Atmosphere,” Science Advances 6, no. 48 (November 25, 2020): id. eabd1387, doi:10.1126/sciadv.abd1387.
Kevin Zahnle, Laura Schaefer, and Bruce Fegley, “Earth’s Earliest Atmospheres,” Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology 2, no. 10 (October 2010): id. a004895, doi:10.1101/cshperspect.004895; Kevin Zahnle et al., “Emergence of a Habitable Planet,” Space Science Reviews 129 (August 2007): 35–78, doi:10.1007/s11214-007-9225-z.
Hilke E. Schlitchting, Paul H. Warren, and Qing-Zhu Yin, “The Last Stages of Terrestrial Planet Formation: Dynamical Friction and the Late Veneer,” Astrophysical Journal 752, no. 8 (June 10, 2012): id. 8, doi:10.1088/0004-637X/752/1/8; R. Brasser et al., “Late Veneer and Late Accretion to the Terrestrial Planets,” Earth and Planetary Science Letters 455 (December 1, 2016): 85–93, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2016.09.013.

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How Christians Can Influence Culture Despite Court Decisions

Posted on August 28, 2021 by Will Myers

by Kenneth SamplesJuly 6, 2021

How important is marriage to culture and society? According to the Bible, marriage is a part of the created order for humankind. When Jesus was asked challenging questions about it, he stressed the critical importance of marriage and its basis in creation:

“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” (Matthew 19:4–6)

What is traditional Christian marriage? How is it to be defined? The catechism of the Anglican Church of North America, which I would uphold, succinctly defines it this way:

“Marriage is the exclusive, lifelong, covenantal union of love between one man and one woman, and a reflection of the faithful love that unites God and his people. Marriage is therefore holy and should be ‘held in honor among all’ (Hebrews 13:4; see also Genesis 2:18–24; Matthew 19:4–6; Ephesians 5:21–33).”¹

In June of 2015, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples. Though time has passed since that controversial decision, people continue to ask me various questions about it. Thus, I would like to share some of my thoughts about how I think Christians might best influence culture when it comes to controversial social issues.

Christians and Cultural Change
I wonder if evangelical Christians have possibly placed a little too much emphasis and hope on the high court’s deciding in their favor concerning critical moral and social issues. I say this even in light of the Supreme Court having had three conservative justices join its ranks in recent years. I certainly think Christians should allow their worldview to guide their civic responsibilities of voting prudently and supporting legal challenges to imprudent, improper decisions and, especially, those that violate biblical morality. But it seems to me that there may be a more effective way of influencing culture on social issues or at least a way of buttressing the efforts that are made through the courts.

Let’s look at abortion as an example. It seems to me that the pro-life perspective that historic Christendom strongly affirms has made considerable gains against abortion over the last couple of decades. Such progress has come not through the courts but by changing minds—one at a time—through rational, moral, and theological persuasion. Rationally, advancements in scientific understanding (modern human reproductive biology) and in medical technology (obstetric ultrasound) have helped to show that the unborn human is human from the moment of conception. Morally and theologically, seeing humans as being made in the image of God grants them unique dignity and genuine moral worth that competing philosophies cannot possibly match. So, while Roe v. Wade remains the law of the land and our country remains divided over abortion, “both the CDC [Centers for Disease Control] and Guttmacher [Institute] show significant recent drops and sustained declines over the last 25 years.”²

Of course, that is not to say that abortion doesn’t remain a moral violation that robs precious children made in the image of God of the gift of life. But by marshaling arguments from science, philosophy, and theology, the Christian pro-life ethic has changed minds and hearts on this critical moral issue.

Maybe Christians can achieve similar progress by upholding traditional marriage. Christians can promote the sanctity of marriage by upholding their marital vows. Churches can encourage Christians to promote traditional marriage by offering good premarital counseling and by addressing marital conflicts with faith, hope, and love. Spouses learning to live in the grace and forgiveness of the gospel can overcome problems that could potentially lead to marital separation and divorce. Christians can stress the biblical-theological truth that marriage is a metaphor for Christ’s relationship to his church (Ephesians 5:31–32) and thus marriage is sacred.

Since the Bible clearly teaches that God is sovereign (Ephesians 1:11), then we know that God has allowed—for reasons we don’t know—traditional marriage to be challenged in contemporary culture. So, let’s consider two things:

First, Christians can align with the Christian worldview by voting for sound pro-life and pro-traditional marriage policies and candidates. Second, Christians can focus on using the godly example of their lives and vibrant families to morally persuade people of the value of traditional Christian marriage. Studies show that the children of traditional marriage are generally healthier, happier, and more well adjusted.³ Both are necessary.

These are some of my thoughts for your reflective and prayerful consideration about Christianity and culture.

Reflections: Your Turn

What obligations do Christians have when it comes to seeking to influence culture? Visit Reflections to comment with your response.

Endnotes

1. To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism, Approved Edition, ed. J. I. Packer and Joel Scandrett (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2020), 104–105.

2. National Right to Life, “Reported Annual Abortions, 1973–2018,” accessed June 17, 2021.

3. United States Congress Joint Economic Committee, “The Demise of the Happy Two-Parent Home,” July 23, 2020.Theology

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Neutron Star Mergers, Part 2: Evidence for Design

Posted on August 27, 2021 by Will Myers

by Hugh RossJuly 19, 2021

In last week’s post, “Neutron Star Mergers, Part 1: Evidence for Creation,” I described how astronomers’ observations of binary neutron star merging events is helping us gain a more accurate and detailed cosmic creation model.¹ Their observational results affirm what the Bible has taught for millennia about the origin, history, and structure of the universe.

Analysis of the observational results has more than affirmed the biblically predicted cosmic creation model.² It has ruled out several alternate models of the universe and alternate laws of physics. It also yields more evidence for the design of the universe and the laws of physics to make life, and human civilization in particular, possible. Some examples follow.

Velocity of Gravity Waves
Comparing the measurements for the arrival times of gravity waves from the neutron star merging event, GW170817, with the arrival time measurements of gamma rays from the gamma ray burst associated with GW170817, provided a constraint on the velocity of gravity waves. These measurements established that the difference between the velocity of light and the velocity of gravity waves was less than 3 x 10^-15.³ That is, the velocity of light and the velocity of gravity waves are identical to at least 14 decimal places.

This identity means that scientists can place even greater confidence in the standard cosmic creation model and the standard particle creation model. Both these models critically depend on the velocity of light and the velocity of gravity waves being the same. We can rule out speculations based on a difference between the velocity of light and the velocity of gravity waves.

Other speculated alternatives to standard cosmic and particle creation models likewise were ruled out. These comparative measurements placed much tighter limits on possible violations of Lorentz invariance (the laws of physics are the same for different observers). They provided a new test of the equivalence principle. Lorentz invariance and the equivalence principle are cornerstone features of the known laws of physics, of special relativity and general relativity, and of charge, parity, and time reversal (CPT) symmetry. The stronger affirmations of Lorentz invariance and the equivalence principle provide yet more evidence for the standard cosmic and particle creation models, both of which are consistent with what the Bible has taught (in these texts, for example: Genesis 1:1; Hebrews 11:3; Job 9:8; Psalm 104:2; Isaiah 40:22; Jeremiah 33:25–26; Romans 8:20–22; 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 1:2) about the creation and design of the natural realm. In previous articles I have written extensively about what the Bible teaches about the origin, history, and structure of the universe.⁴

Mass of the Graviton
The standard cosmic and particle creation models and string theory models all predict a zero mass for the graviton, the elementary particle that mediates the force of gravity. Through measurements of the two binary neutron star merger events, astronomers have placed the lowest bound to date on the mass of the graviton. It must be less than 1.76 x 10^-23 eV/c², where eV is an electron volt and c is the velocity of light.⁵ That is, the graviton is at least 5.33 x 10³¹ times less massive than a proton or less than 3.14 x 10^-59 kilograms.

This upper limit on a possible mass of the graviton is about two times lower than the previous best measured limit. This new limit ranks as another success for the standard cosmic and particle creation models and for what the Bible has taught about creation and design.

Black Hole Mimickers
I feel personally vindicated by the research findings from the two binary neutron star mergers observed so far. When I submitted my paper, “Black Holes as Evidence of God’s Care,”⁶ to the Religions journal special issue on Christianity and Science: Fresh Perspectives, one of my anonymous peer reviewers claimed that “there is no compelling evidence yet of the existence of black holes.”⁷ He suggested boson stars as an alternative. In one of my published responses to this peer reviewer, I wrote that after reading all the papers I could find on boson and soliton stars and neutrino balls, “I was struck by how difficult it is to conceptualize such bodies in a way that mimics all the observed features of all the massive, superdense bodies we observe in the universe.”⁸ I did not write this in my response, but I was also struck by just how difficult it is for such bodies to remain stable for any period of time.

The ringdowns (bunching up of gravity waves that occurs during the last stage of black hole mergers) of gravitational waves observed for all 24 binary mergers where the two bodies comprising each binary are more massive than the highest conceivable mass for a neutron star all perfectly match what physicists expect from black holes operating under general relativity. In the analysis of the observations, astronomers find “no evidence of nontensorial polarizations, or black hole mimickers—exotic compact objects such as boson stars.”⁹

The lack of evidence for black hole mimickers is yet more good news for the standard cosmic and particle creation models and for what the Bible has taught about creation and design.

Scientific and Theological Future of Gravity-Wave Astronomy
Presently, gravity-wave telescopes have been operating in the states of Washington and Louisiana (LIGO) and in Italy (Virgo). Both LIGO and Virgo are currently undergoing upgrades and will start their fourth observing run in late 2021 or early 2022. Meanwhile, two more gravity-wave telescopes are under construction: one in Japan and one in India. The one in Japan will be ready in time to join LIGO and Virgo for their next observing run.

Instead of just a few merging events detected per year, with the start of the fourth observing run the detection rate of binary black hole and binary neutron star merging events is expected to be over 100 per year.¹⁰ Greater instrumental sensitivity means that binary black hole and neutron star mergers will be detected with much higher signal-to-noise ratios and at distances as far away as 12 billion light-years.

The enhanced detection rate and greater sensitivity should yield improved understanding of the birth, history, and death of the most compact massive bodies in the universe, namely neutron stars and black holes. These advances will produce much deeper knowledge of the behavior of dense nuclear matter.

We can look forward to more detailed knowledge and understanding of the creation and history of the universe and how that knowledge and understanding reveals how exquisitely the universe and its various components are designed to make possible the existence of humans and civilization. We can anticipate that the upcoming generation of gravity-wave telescopes will deliver more evidence for the biblical principle (see for example, Job 12:7–10, Job 37–39, Psalm 8, Psalm 104) that the more we learn about the natural realm the more evidence we will uncover for the existence and supernatural handiwork of God.

Endnotes

Hugh Ross, “Neutron Star Mergers Yield More Evidence for Creation,” Today’s New Reason to Believe (blog), July 12, 2021, https://reasons.org/explore/blogs/todays-new-reason-to-believe/neutron-star-mergers-yield-more-evidence-for-creation.
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.
LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration, Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor, and INTEGRAL, B. P. Abbott et al., “Gravitational Waves and Gamma Rays from a Binary Neutron Star Merger: GW170187 and GRB 170817A,” Astrophysical Journal Letters 848, no. 1 (October 20, 2017): id. L13, doi:10.3847/2041-8213/aa920c.
Ross and Rea, “Big Bang—The Bible Taught It First!; Ross, “Does the Bible Teach Big Bang Cosmology?
LIGO Scientific Collaboration, Virgo Collaboration, et al., “Tests of General Relativity with the Binary Black Holes from the Second LIGO-Virgo Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog,”Physical Review D 103, no. 12 (June 15, 2021): id. 122002.
Hugh Ross, “Black Holes as Evidence of God’s Care,” Religions 12, no.3 (March 2021): id. 201, doi:10.3390/rel12030201.
Ross, “Black Holes as Evidence,” Review Reports, https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/3/201/review_report.
Ross, “Black Holes as Evidence.”
Salvatore Vitale, “Gravitational Waves: The First 5 Years of Gravitational-Wave Astrophysics,” Science 372, no. 6546 (June 4, 2021): id. eabc7397, p. 6, doi:10.1126/science.abc7397.
KAGRA Collaboration, LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration, B. P. Abbott et al., “Prospects for Observing and Localizing Gravitational-Wave Transients with Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo and KAGRA,” Living Reviews in Relativity 21 (September 28, 2020): id. 3, doi:10.1007/s41114-018-0012-9.

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A Christian Perspective on the Sixth Mass Extinction

Posted on August 16, 2021 by Will Myers

by Fazale RanaJuly 14, 2021

It is hard to imagine that anything good could have come from the COVID-19 pandemic.

But something has. Thanks to the 2020 “lockdowns,” there was a 17% decrease in global carbon emissions and a 20% drop in nitrous oxide levels. Many of the world’s waterways also became cleaner.

Sadly, these environmental gains will only be temporary, as life returns to normal and harmful emissions increase once again.

In addition to these temporary environmental benefits, the COVID-19 pandemic has also had a damaging impact on Earth’s ecosystems, one that will be long-lasting. As a result of travel restrictions, the ecotourism industry collapsed. The income generated from ecotourism funds much of the world’s conservation efforts. In a short period of time, this lack of funding has made it harder to prevent poaching and habitat loss, threatening some of the world’s most fragile ecosystems, home to species already on the brink of extinction.

This alarming trend isn’t a recent phenomenon. Since our species’ inception, we have caused harm to ecosystems around the world. Humans instigated the extinction of a large number of animals when they began their migration out of Africa and around the world around 60,000 to 70,000 years ago.¹As early modern humans made their way from Africa and into Asia, Australia, Europe, and eventually the Americas, they precipitated the wide-scale extinction of large animals. (This loss is called the Quaternary Global Megafauna Extinctions.)

Many environmentalists have expressed concern that the damage humans are causing to the world’s ecosystems has accelerated in recent years. In fact, many of these scientists think that we are on the verge of the sixth great mass extinction. Unlike Earth’s previous extinctions caused by some type of cataclysmic event—such as an asteroid impact or massive volcanic eruption—this mass extinction appears to be triggered by human environmental abuse.

Yet others question the human contribution to the sixth mass extinction. In fact, there are even some who question if a mass extinction is underway at all.² So:

• Are we on the verge of the sixth mass extinction?
• Are humans responsible for ecosystem collapse around the world?
• What should we do about it, if anything at all?
• What should our response be as Christians to environmental crises?

Are We Really Entering the Sixth Mass Extinction?
Species have been lost to extinction throughout Earth’s history. Ecologists refer to the average rate of species loss between mass extinctions as the background rate. It goes without saying: mass extinctions are defined as the periods in Earth’s history when the extinction rate dramatically exceeds the background rate of species loss.

If we truly are on the brink of the sixth mass extinction, then the recent rate of species loss should significantly outpace the background rate.

Determining the rate of species loss is no easy feat. The fossil record is key for determining the background rate of species loss. Those who express skepticism about whether we are entering into the sixth mass extinction question the background rate estimates used by many ecologists of between 0.1 and 1 species extinction per 1 million species per year. The basis for their skepticism, in part, rests on the fact that this estimate is heavily weighted by the marine invertebrate fossil record. These animals are thought to have a much greater species longevity than vertebrates, making the background rate artificially low and the severity of species loss today greater than it may be.

In 2015, an international research team, which included the famed ecologist Paul Ehrlich, sought to put this question to rest.³They used mammal extinctions to establish the background extinction rate. Based on the fossil record, mammal species disappear at a rate of 2 species extinctions per 1 million species per year. This background rate is between 2 to 20 times greater than the background extinction rate usually used by environmental scientists as a reference point relative to current extinction rates.

Using data produced by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, these researchers discovered that, since 1500, 338 vertebrate extinctions have been recorded. Another 279 species are considered as extinct or possibly extinct. Using these numbers, the extinction rate over the last 500 years is 8 to 100 times higher than the background extinction rate (of 2 species extinctions per 1 million species per year). Included in this list are 69 mammal species, 80 bird species, 24 reptile species, 146 amphibian species, and 158 fish species.

A more recent study published in 2021 by an international team of environmental scientists adds further support for the onset of the sixth mass extinction.⁴ These researchers generated a mathematical map that showed the spectrum of biological traits and behavioral features displayed by 75,000 species of vascular plants (39,260 species), mammals (4,653 species), birds (9,802 species), reptiles (6,567 species), amphibians (6,776 species) and freshwater fish (10,705 species). These traits and features reflect the contribution these species make to the world’s ecosystems. The researchers then mapped the extinction risk for each of these organisms onto the spectra of traits and behaviors.

They discovered that extinction risks weren’t randomly distributed among the sample. Instead, the species that are most vulnerable are larger in size, have a slower pace of life, and lower fecundity. They also discovered that some of the smallest animal species are also extremely vulnerable to extinction because they lack the ability to disperse. This inability keeps them confined to their immediate surroundings, making them vulnerable when their local habitat disappears or becomes damaged from pollution.

On the surface, this result is disconcerting because ecologists have discovered that large animals wield a disproportionate influence on ecosystems. Consequently, the vulnerability of large organisms risks the stability of entire ecosystems.

Along these lines, the researchers discovered that—despite functional and behavioral redundancy in ecosystems (in which two or more organisms perform the same services for the ecosystem)—the loss of vulnerable organisms reduces the functional and behavioral diversity and richness of the world’s ecosystems. Through modeling studies, they learned that these losses will also force ecosystems to reorganize. Both effects exacerbate future extinction risks for remaining organisms, particularly for mammals and amphibians.

In other words, as dire as it may be to think that one-quarter of the world’s plant and animal species (which numbers around one million species) are on the brink of extinction, as these species disappear their loss will become amplified because of the loss of diversity within ecosystems and their ensuing reorganization. In other words, a vicious circle exists in which extinctions lead to more extinctions.

Are Humans Really Causing the Sixth Mass Extinction?
Five mass extinctions have occurred over the last 450 million years of life’s history, each one destroying between 70 to 95% of plant, animal, and microbial species. On this basis, it could be argued that mass extinctions are an inevitable part of life’s history. They are part of the natural order of things.

All five mass extinctions appear to have been triggered by cataclysmic events. For example:

• The Late Devonian Extinction—resulting in the loss of 75% of Earth’s species—appears to have been triggered by a dramatic reduction in the oxygen levels in Earth’s oceans due to either an algae bloom or volcanic eruptions.

• The Permian-Triassic Extinction—resulting in the loss of 96% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial species—appears to have been caused by rampant volcanic activity.

• The K-Pg Extinction—resulting in the loss of 75% of Earth’s species—appears to have been instigated by a massive asteroid impact.

Clearly, a sixth possible mass extinction won’t be attributed to a sudden cataclysm. Instead, it appears to be due to changes in the world’s ecosystems caused by human activity. While humans did indeed trigger mass extinctions when they began migrating around the world millennia ago, the damage they have caused to the environment has exponentially increased since the Neolithic revolution (about 12,000 years ago), which ushered in wide-scale agricultural practices and led to the onset of human civilization. Part of this damage relates to the dramatic increase in the human population size. At the time of the Neolithic revolution, estimates place the human population at about 1 million people. Today the human population is around 7.7 billion and growing. As the human population has ballooned it has led to habitat loss and a polluted environment, which in turn has produced an accelerating rate of extinctions.

The work by Paul Ehrlich and his collaborators (published in 2015) provides empirical support for the relatively recent accelerating rate of extinctions.⁵ Excluding birds and mammals, the extinction rates for most vertebrates were just above the background extinction rate as recently as the 1500s. While a marked increase in the extinction rate took place in the 1700s (most likely because of the industrial revolution), the last 200 years have been catastrophic for vertebrate populations. Over this period, extinction rates have skyrocketed. The researchers illustrate this point using amphibian extinctions. There are about 7,300 known amphibian species. Between 1500 and 1980, life scientists have documented the loss of 34 species. Since 1980, over 100 species have disappeared.

Using a background rate of 2 species extinctions per 1 million species per year, the team also demonstrated that the extinctions that occurred between 1500 and 1900 should have taken about 10,000 years to transpire, not a few hundred years.

In 2020, another international team of collaborators (which also involved Ehrlich) bolstered the case for accelerating mass extinctions driven by human activity.⁶Instead of attempting to assess the number of vertebrate species that have become extinct, they assessed the extinction risk for nearly 30,000 terrestrial vertebrate species. To do this, they estimated the population sizes of these species. Complicating their analysis is the recognition that many of these species have incomplete or inadequate population data. Of those that do, one-quarter of them have fewer than 1,000 species—in some instances, the numbers are well below 1,000 individuals. They classified these species as on the brink of extinction. Of the 515 species on the brink of extinction, most are birds, followed by amphibians, mammals, and reptiles. Geographically, most of the at-risk mammalian species live in Asia and Oceania and most of the vulnerable bird species locate to Oceania and South America.

The research team also developed another category: species on the road to the brink of extinction. They define this category (which consists of 388 species) as those species that number under 5,000 individuals. Around 85% of species in this category are found in the same locales as species on the brink of extinction.

The researchers then compared the historic geographic ranges for 48 mammal species and 29 bird species that are on the brink of extinction. They discovered that, on average, these species have lost around 95% of their geographical range since 1900. This habitat loss explains the dramatic reduction in local populations of these species. The researchers estimate that around 3,600 populations of the 48 mammal species have disappeared and 2,930 populations of the 29 bird species.

The researchers project that the species on the brink will soon join the hundreds of vertebrate species that have disappeared since 1900, as human activity continues to apply pressure to ecosystems around the world.

What Should the Christian Response Be to Mass Extinctions?
Regardless of one’s worldview, the prospects of a sixth mass extinction should be of foremost concern. Each time a species is lost, its unique contribution to the earth’s ecosystems is lost. In some instances, this loss may be relatively inconsequential. But often, species loss causes irreversible change.

Human civilization depends on functioning ecosystems to provide a stable climate, fresh water, agricultural pest control, control of disease-causing animal vectors, crop pollination, and many other services. To put it another way, humanity depends on functioning ecosystems for our life support. A sixth mass extinction could rightly be viewed as the most serious environmental threat facing humanity.

But for Christians, such an ominous event also raises concerns of a theological nature. If indeed, human activity continues to propel us out of control toward the brink of wide-scale extinctions and reorganizations of ecosystems around the world, then it represents a failure on our part to fulfill the command God gave to the first humans (and by extension to us) to be stewards and caretakers of creation.

According to the Genesis 1 creation account, human beings were uniquely made to bear God’s image. While Scripture doesn’t clearly delineate precisely what the image of God is, it does make it clear that, as image-bearers, we were given certain responsibilities that included:

• Multiplying and filling the earth
• Subduing the earth, bringing it under our control
• Exercising dominion over the creation
• Serving as caretakers for the planet and ensuring the health of all life on Earth

It is clear from these commands that we were to transform the wild and unruly state of creation into the type of order and organization that God instituted when he planted and caused the Garden of Eden to grow. To fulfill this responsibility, we were granted dominion over creation. God made it available for our benefit. But we were not to exploit or ravish creation. Instead, we were to care for it so that all life on Earth would flourish.

Because of these mandates, Christians have an obligation to embrace a responsible form of environmentalism—one that balances care for the environment with care and concern for human life. If anything, the insights into the causes and consequences of the sixth mass extinction drive home the point that these two objectives aren’t mutually exclusive. When we care for the environment, we care for one another.

Our responsibility as the planet’s stewards should also propel us to aggressively pursue green technologies and advocate the use of science and technology to reverse the damage we have caused to the environment. These efforts should include remediating environmental pollution and supporting conservation efforts to prevent additional species loss that may even include the use of emerging biotechnologies such as cloning and gene editing.

The Explanatory Power of the Christian Worldview
Clearly, the destruction of ecosystems that appears to have instigated the sixth mass extinction has part of its etiology in the ballooning worldwide human population, coupled with the activities associated with advancing and sustaining economies throughout the world. Along these lines, it is tempting to think we could mitigate our destructive impact if we reduced our numbers, gave more consideration to managing limited resources, and perhaps even returned to simpler ways of life.

Yet, when we consider the impact that the first humans had as they migrated around the world, it becomes clear that the exponential growth in the human population cannot be the sole explanation for the damage we are causing to the environment. Genetic variability data indicate the first wave of human migrations consisted of relatively small groups. Yet based on the Quaternary Global Megafauna Extinctions caused by human activity, it seems that even in limited numbers, humans possess an innate capacity to wreak environmental havoc on a grand scale.

As a Christian, this observation leads me to suggest that a significant contributor to the destructive impact we have had—and will continue to have—on the world’s ecosystems arises out of something intrinsic to our nature; namely, our propensity to sin and the fractured relationship between humans and nature that resulted from our sinful behavior.

According to Scripture, when humanity rebelled against God, not only was our relationship with our Maker and other human beings marred, so was our relationship with creation itself. As a result, we can no longer effectively serve as caretakers of the planet.

Scripture goes as far as to state that the ground is “cursed” because of human sin. And it appears this has been the case from the days of prehistoric hunter-gatherers to the present.

The Christian worldview also proposes a solution to what may be the most significant environmental threat facing humanity. The answer is found in the transforming power of the gospel. Through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, we can be reconciled to our Maker. But the impact of the gospel extends beyond our relationship to God. It extends to our relationship with one another as human beings and, even creation itself. The fall of humanity resulted in alienation between humanity and God, humanity with itself, and between humanity and nature. And it is through the redeeming work of Christ that alienation becomes reconciliation. We can be reconciled to God, reconciled to each other, and even reconciled to nature. It is out of this redeemed relationship with creation that we will have the wherewithal to salvage the damage we have caused to the world’s ecosystems and stave off the most serious environmental threat facing humanity.

Mass Extinctions and the Case for Human Exceptionalism
I find it remarkable to think that a single species could wreak so much havoc on the earth’s ecosystems. No other species that lives today—or that has ever lived—has the capability to cause such wide-scale destruction to our planet. This difference in capacities points to something distinct and unique about human beings—something exceptional.

Some anthropologists recognize the exceptional nature of human beings and now work to advance the case for human exceptionalism. For these anthropologists, human exceptionalism largely stems from our capacity for symbolism. As human beings, we effortlessly represent the world with discrete symbols. We denote abstract concepts with symbols. And our ability to represent the world symbolically has interesting consequences when coupled with our abilities to combine and recombine those symbols in nearly infinite ways to create alternate possibilities.

Evolutionary psychologist Thomas Suddendorf describes the difference between humans and other primates this way:

“We reflect on and argue about our present situation, our history, and our destiny. We envision wonderful harmonious worlds as easily as we do dreadful tyrannies. Our powers are used for good as they are for bad, and we incessantly debate which is which. Our minds have spawned civilizations and technologies that have changed the face of the Earth, while our closest living animal relatives sit unobtrusively in their remaining forests. There appears to be a tremendous gap between human and animal minds.”⁷

Our capacity for symbolism manifests in the form of language, art, music, and even body ornamentation. And we desire to communicate the scenarios we construct in our minds with other human beings. For some Christians, symbolism and our open-ended capacity to generate alternative hypotheses are scientific descriptors of the image of God.

It is our capacity for symbolism that led to the development of technologies that made possible the expansion of human population, human civilization and, consequently, our activities that have caused harm to the world’s ecosystems. It is also our capacity for symbolism that makes possible the scientific enterprise, which provides the means for us to understand the structure and function of ecosystems and to recognize the damage we have caused to the environment. It is our symbolic capacity that allows us to catalog and project species loss around the world. And it is our capacity for symbolism that suggests ways we can mitigate species loss, including using emerging biotechnologies to clone endangered and even extinct species.

From a Christian worldview perspective, our exceptional nature makes human life inherently valuable. But it also imbues us with a responsibility to care for the planet’s ecosystems and to protect and care for vulnerable organisms on the verge of extinction.

Resources

“Did Humans Cause the Global Extinction of Mammals?” by Fazale Rana (article)

Human Exceptionalism

“Does Animal Planning Undermine the Image of God?” by Fazale Rana (article)

“Primate Thanatology and the Case for Human Exceptionalism” by Fazale Rana (article)

“Molecular Scale Robotics Build a Case for Design” by Fazale Rana (article)

Endnotes

1. Christopher Sandom et al., “Global Late Quaternary Megafauna Extinctions Linked to Humans, Not Climate Change” Proceedings of the Royal Society B 281 (July 22, 2014): doi:10.1098/rspb.2013.3254.

2. John C. Briggs, “Emergence of a Sixth Mass Extinction?” Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 122 (October 2017): 243–248, doi:10.1093/biolinnean/blx063.

3. Gerardo Ceballos et al., “Accelerated Modern Human-Induced Species Losses: Entering the Sixth Mass Extinction,” Science Advances 1 (June 19, 2015): e1400253, doi:10.1126/sciadv.1400253.

4. Carlos P. Carmona et al., “Erosion of Global Functional Diversity across the Tree of Life,” Science Advances 7 (March 26, 2021): eabf2675, doi:10.1126/sciadv.abf2675.

5. Ceballos et al., “Accelerated Modern Human-Induced Species Losses.”

6. Gerardo Ceballos, Paul R. Ehrlich and Peter H. Raven, Vertebrates on the Brink as Indicators of Biological Annihilation and the Sixth Mass Extinction, The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117 (June 16, 2020): 13596–602, doi:10.1073/pnas.1922686117.

7. Thomas Suddendorf, The Gap: The Science of What Separates Us from Other Animals (New York: Basic Books, 2013), 2.

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Why Are Supernovae and Kilonovae Essential for Advanced Life?

Posted on August 10, 2021 by Will Myers

BY HUGH ROSS – MAY 25, 2020

Question(s) of the week: How does the uranium and thorium from supernovae produce Earth’s magnetic field and plate tectonics? Can you give us more reasons why we need supernovae?

My answer: A supernova eruption event occurs either when (1) a giant star having completed its normative nuclear burning suffers catastrophic gravitational collapse, or (2) when a white dwarf star (a burnt out star) accretes sufficient matter from a companion star to generate a catastrophic gravitational collapse. This collapse produces a pressure and temperature so extremely high in the star’s core that iron and elements lighter than iron are forced to capture neutrons, thereby manufacturing elements heavier than iron.

Nearly all the elements heavier than iron are manufactured by supernovae. The remainder are manufactured by kilonovae, which result from the merger of two neutron stars.¹ Without supernovae and kilonovae there would be no elements heavier than iron anywhere or any time in the universe. The following life-essential elements are found in the bodies of every human being: cobalt, copper, zinc, arsenic, selenium, molybdenum, and iodine. Without these heavier-than-iron elements neither human beings, the functional equivalent of humans, nor nearly all large animals could possibly exist. Therefore, advanced life is impossible without supernovae and kilonovae.

I must warn readers, however, about overdosing on supplements rich in these heavier-than-iron elements. They are all “vital poisons.” Too little in your bodies will kill you. Too much in your bodies also will kill you.

Without supernovae and kilonovae there would be no thorium or uranium. Both of these elements are radioactive where the main isotopes of each have decay half-lives equal to 14.05 and 4.46 billion years, respectively. The radioactive decay of these elements generates heat and, because of the long half-lives, the heat release can be sustained for billions of years. Since Earth is super-endowed with uranium and thorium, the heat release from these elements is considerable.

The heat release from the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium is sufficient to produce and sustain a liquid core in Earth’s interior. This liquid core of predominantly ferrous elements (iron, cobalt, nickel) sustains a strong magnetic field. This strong magnetic field generates a magnetic field around Earth that protects Earth’s surface life from deadly cosmic and solar radiation. It also prevents solar radiation particles from sputtering away Earth’s atmosphere into interplanetary space.

The heat released from the decay of uranium and thorium causes the crustal plates of Earth to move relative to one another. This plate tectonics transformed Earth from a water world where water covered the entire surface of Earth to a planet possessing both surface oceans and surface continents. The combination of surface oceans and continents effectively recycles life-critical nutrients. Without long-lasting plate tectonics, life could exist on Earth for only a brief time period. Thus, for many reasons our lives and our civilization critically depend on a large number of supernova and kilonova events occurring in our galaxy. However, the number must be fine-tuned. The radiation emitted by supernovae and kilonovae is deadly. Too high of a frequency of supernova and kilonova events in our galaxy would expose Earth to an intensity of radiation from these events that would rule out the existence of advanced life. Too low of a frequency would mean that Earth would lack the uranium and thorium and other heavier-than-iron elements that advanced life needs.

Endnotes

Hugh Ross, “Neutron Star Merger Produces a Kilonova and Valuable Metals,” Today’s New Reason to Believe (blog), October 23, 2017, https://reasons.org/explore/blogs/todays-new-reason-to-believe/read/todays-new-reason-to-believe/2017/10/23/neutron-star-merger-produces-a-kilonova-and-valuable-metals.

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How Christians Can Influence Culture Despite Court Decisions

Posted on August 9, 2021 by Will Myers

by Kenneth SamplesJuly 6, 2021

2. National Right to Life, “Reported Annual Abortions, 1973–2018,” accessed June 17, 2021.

3. United States Congress Joint Economic Committee, “The Demise of the Happy Two-Parent Home,” July 23, 2020.Theology

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… “striving toward meaning and a noble purpose beyond simple self-gratification.” … seem to support the Scripture’s prescriptions for wise living.Theology

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Neutron Star Mergers, Part 1: Evidence for Creation

Posted on August 5, 2021 by Will Myers

by Hugh RossJuly 12, 2021

The early twentieth-century discovery of the cosmic expansion rate convinced astronomers that the universe had a beginning. Mounting evidence since then has yielded greater precision of that rate and revealed more details of the cosmic creation event. Recently, the observation of two neutron star merging events has provided more fine-tuning evidence for creation and it promises more to come.

Several years ago, I published an article on GW170817, the first-ever merger of two neutron stars observed by astronomers.¹ It was called a “life-changing event” by astronomer Alessandra Corsi. Follow-up observations established that the merger of neutron stars explains the source of nearly all r-process elements (rapid neutron capture elements). R-process elements account for about half the elements heavier than iron—including silver, gold, platinum, palladium, osmium, thorium, and uranium—without which animal life and human civilization would be impossible. A high abundance of uranium and thorium, for example, is needed for a planet to sustain strong plate tectonics and a strong magnetic field for several billion years. Like nearly every other component of the universe, the rate, kinds, timing, and proximity of neutron star merging events must be exquisitely fine-tuned for human civilization to be possible.

The discovery of the neutron star merger would have been impossible without gravity-wave telescopes. On April 25, 2019, the LIGO Collaboration used these telescopes to discover a second neutron star merging event, GW190425 (see figure). The reasoning behind the names is as follows: GW stands for gravitational wave, and the numbers indicate the date of discovery: year, month, day. This group of astronomers published their analysis of GW190425 on March 20, 2020.² The Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics produced a computer-generated video simulation of the event. GW190425 led to a flurry of follow-up research studies over the past weeks and months that has already delivered new evidence for cosmic creation and promises more.

Figure: Simulation of the Binary Neutron Star Coalescence GW190425
Image credit: LIGO Scientific Collaboratioin and the Virgo Collaboration

Cosmic Expansion Rate and Cosmic Creation Date
The merging of two black holes yields observable gravitational waves but not observable electromagnetic radiation. The merging of two neutron stars yields both, which makes possible a measurement of the cosmic expansion rate that is based solely on the assumption that general relativity is the correct model for gravity to high precision. The specific application of this assumption is that general relativity reliably describes the dynamics of two neutron stars in a tight orbit about one another.

One way astronomers have tested this assumption has been through observations of 24 binary black hole merging events.³ These observations yielded eight distinct tests of general relativity (GR). Teams from the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration who made the observations noted that GR passed all eight tests with flying colors. They wrote, “We find that all of the LIGO–Virgo detections analyzed are consistent with GR, and do not find any evidence for deviations from theoretical expectations, or unknown systematics.”⁴

This finding is consistent with 35 years of observations of the orbital decay of the two neutron stars that comprise the binary pulsar PSR B1913+16.⁵ Analysis of 9,257 measurements of times-of-arrival pulses from PSR B1913+16 established that any departure from GR must be less than 5 parts in a quadrillion. Observations of the orbital decay of all other known binary pulsars affirm this conclusion.

Unlike electromagnetic waves, gravitational waves from the merger of two neutron stars encode information about the absolute distance of the source of the gravitational waves, independent of any assumptions about the masses of the stars.⁶ The observed characteristics of the gravitational waves as two neutron stars spiral in toward one another and merge yields the distance to the two neutron stars.

Unlike gravitational waves, electromagnetic waves emitted from a source encode information about the velocity of the source relative to Earth. Spectral lines in the electromagnetic spectrum of the source will be shifted to longer wavelengths (redshifted) to a degree proportional to the source’s velocity divided by the velocity of light.

Combining the distance derived from the observed characteristics of the gravitational waves from a neutron star merging event with the velocity derived from the observed redshift in a neutron star merging event’s electromagnetic radiation yields the cosmic expansion rate. Analysis of the two neutron star merging events observed so far, GW170817 and GW190425, yields a value for the cosmic expansion rate = 66.2±4.3 kilometers per second per megaparsec.⁷ (1 megaparsec = 3.26156 million light-years.) This value is not as accurate as the one derived from maps of the cosmic microwave background radiation, which = 67.4±0.5 kilometers per second per megaparsec,⁸ but is in excellent agreement with it.

Instrument Upgrades Will Provide More Evidence of Creation
With the scheduled upgrades in three existing gravity-wave telescopes and the completion of another two gravity-wave telescopes currently under construction, the predicted detection rate of additional neutron star merging events implies that within five years astronomers will possess a measurement of the cosmic expansion rate accurate to better than 1% precision (possibility of error). This measurement will be free of possible systematic effects (free of untested assumptions) and, thus, more reliable.

A team of four astronomers led by Juan Calerón Bustillo demonstrated that the scheduled and planned upgrades in gravity-wave telescopes will produce enough added sensitivity that astronomers will be able to detect and measure higher-order modes in the gravitational waves from neutron star-merging events.⁹ Such capability will yield the inclinations of the binary neutron star orbits before the merging event. It will be possible for astronomers to measure the cosmic expansion rate at better than the 1% level based on a single binary neutron star merger detection.

The capability of measuring the cosmic expansion rate at high precision based on a single source means that astronomers will be able to fulfill a long-held dream. That dream: to determine whether or not there are tiny variations in the cosmic expansion rate in proportion to the past history of the universe and/or in proportion to different spatial regions of the universe.

Astronomers already anticipate that, because of dark energy, the cosmic expansion rate will measure slightly less when the universe was young than it is now. Indeed, calculations based on measurements of dark energy predict that the cosmic expansion rate shortly after the cosmic creation event will be about 0.5% less than the present rate.¹⁰ The new capability will also enable astronomers to determine whether or not there any inhomogeneities or variations in the dark energy field.¹¹

This advance of measuring the cosmic expansion rate at high precision based on single sources means that astronomers will be able to produce more detailed cosmic creation models. They will also be able to uncover more cosmic design evidences. We can anticipate stronger and additional scientific evidences for a God beyond space and time who has created and crafted the universe for the specific benefit of human beings. We will also gain a more precise and assumption-free measure of the age of the universe.

Next week, I will describe how observations of neutron star merging events have revealed additional design features of the universe, fundamental particles, and the laws of physics that enable humans to live and thrive.

Endnotes

Hugh Ross, “Neutron Star Merger Explains Why We’re Here (Expanded Version),” Today’s New Reason to Believe (blog), November 3, 2017.
B. P. Abbott et al., “GW190425: Observations of a Compact Binary Coalescence with Total Mass ~3.4M_☉,” Astrophysical Journal Letters 892 (March 20, 2020): id. L3, doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ab75f5.
B. P. Abbott et al., “Tests of General Relativity with the Binary Black Hole Signals from the LIGO-Virgo Catalog GETC-1,” Physical Review D 100, no. 10 (November 15, 2019): id. 104036, doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.100.104036; LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration, “Tests of General Relativity with the Binary Black Holes from the Second LIGO-Virgo Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog,” Physical Review D 103, no. 12 (June 15, 2021): id. 122002, doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.103.122002.
LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration, “Tests of General Relativity,” page 23 of the preprint, https://arxiv.org/pdf/1903.04467.pdf.
J. M. Weisberg and Y. Huang, “Relativistic Measurements from Timing the Binary Pulsar PSR B1913+16,” Astrophysical Journal 829, no. 1 (September 20, 2016): id. 55, doi:10.3847.0004-637X/829/1/55.
Bernard F. Schutz, “Determining the Hubble Constant from Gravitational Wave Observations,” Nature 323, no. 6086 (September 25, 1986): 310–311, doi:10.1038/323310a0; Juan Calderón Bustillo et al., “Mapping the Universe Expansion: Enabling Percent-Level Measurements of the Hubble Constant with a Single Binary Neutron-Star Merger Detection,” Astrophysical Journal Letters 912, no. 1 (April 30, 2021): id. L10, doi:10.3847/2041-8213/abf502.
Tim Dietrich et al., “Multimessenger Constraints on the Neutron-Star Equation of State and the Hubble Constant,” Science 370, no. 6523 (December 18, 2020): 1450–1453, doi:10.1126/science.abb4317.
Planck Collaboration, “Planck 2018 Results. VI. Cosmological Parameters,” Astronomy and Astrophysics 641 (September 2020): id. A6, doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201833910.
Calderón Bustillo et al., “Mapping the Universe Expansion,” id. L10.
Hugh Ross, “Resolving the Cosmic Expansion Rate Anomaly,” Today’s New Reason to Believe (blog), April 6, 2020.
Alice Garoffolo et al., “Detecting Dark Energy Fluctuations with Gravitational Waves,” Physical Review D 103, no. 8 (April 15, 2021): id. 083506, doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.103.083506.

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Personal Observations on Allan Sandage’s Spiritual Journey

Posted on August 3, 2021 by Will Myers

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

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.
Allan Sandage, “A Scientist Reflects on Religious Belief,” in Truth: An International, Inter-Disciplinary Journal of Christian Thought, vol. 1 (1985): 53.
Sandage, “A Scientist Reflects,” 53.
Sandage, “A Scientist Reflects,” 53.
Sandage, “A Scientist Reflects,” 53–54.
Sandage, “A Scientist Reflects,” 54.
Sandage, “A Scientist Reflects,” 54.
Sandage, “A Scientist Reflects, 54.
Sandage, “A Scientist Reflects, 54.
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.
Allan Sandage, quoted by Sharon Begley, “Science Finds God,” Newsweek (July 20, 1998), 44.

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THE INVASION BY SPECIAL INTERESTS (SIG) WHO WANTS TO CONTROL YOUR MIND

Posted on July 28, 2021 by Will Myers

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)

¹⁵The 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.” ¹⁶The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. ¹⁷Now 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.

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THE CONSTITUTION THAT PRESERVES THE INDIVIDUAL IS AN IMPROBABLE STATE

Posted on July 20, 2021 by Will Myers

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.

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BY HUGH ROSS – MAY 25, 2020

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