ask hey, what you looking at? My involvement in sidewalk astronomy - - PDF document

Welcome everyone. So who here had a chance to look at the Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn last night? My name is Ed LaBelle and I am an engineer in the semiconductor industry and live in Austin, TX. Astronomy is a hobby that I picked up about 10 ten years ago. I learned very early on that a telescope is a people magnet: set up a telescope in a public place and people will wander over and ask “hey, what you looking at?” My involvement in sidewalk astronomy is what got me interested in sharing the beauty and majesty of God’s universe through astronomy.

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The outline of my talk is as follows (read the slide.)

• Review recent surveys about how the “conflict” between

Science and Faith is impacting young Christians.

• Briefly discuss the Christian concept of Dual Revelation.
• Show how we use sidewalk astronomy to have discussions

with passersby about God.

• Review the Psalm 19 Astronomy science-based educational

focus.

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Francis Schaeffer was quoted as saying “Christianity does not start with “Jesus saves you from your sins” Instead it starts with “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” There’s a reason why the Bible starts with Genesis 1:1 instead

• f with the oldest book – Job.

The early Christian fathers, inspired by God, wanted to start at the beginning which predates Job and all of the other books. The Bible begins with how God created the universe as the home for human beings, made in His image, to ponder his glory. In this talk, I hope to show how Christians with a background in science can use this gift or talent to share the beauty and

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majesty of God’s creation with people they meet.

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I would like to delve into the current state of Christian belief in America. The Religion News Service has been producing a “religiosity index” in America since 1934. They look at multiple data sources to create this index which includes surveys of Americans and worship attendance. This is their latest chart showing the index in religiosity from 1945 to 2013. Now do not interpret the left axis as percentage of the population as the axis is arbitrary, similar to the Fahrenheit temperature scale, or as we like to say in the engineering business, the axis has been normalized. The thing to note is that religiosity is fluid in America. Religious faith was low after WWII but experienced an awakening through the 50’s and 60’ until the Hippie generation in the late 60’s. There was a modest drop in the 70’s that leveled off in the 80’s and 90’s and then a steady decline since the year 2000. I’ll dive into one reason for this decline in the next several slides.

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Three surveys were taken between 2011 and 2015 by Pew Research, the Barna Group and American Pastors Network, about the change is religious demographics in America. A common finding among the three surveys is that Science is

• ne of the top reasons why young people are walking away

from their Christian faith.

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America, we have a Christian religion problem! This survey by Pew Research in 2015 shows an alarming trend in our religious

• landscape. During the timeframe from 2007 to 2014 the

Christian population declined from 78.4% to 70.6% - a whopping 8% in only 7 years. The red lines are sub groups of Christians that have left Christian denominations. As you can see these red lines are trending down from 2007 to 2014. Evangelical Protestants, Catholic and mainstream Protestant faiths are all losing membership. Looking at the gray lines we can see where the loss is going to

• the unaffiliated, often referred to as the “Nones.” Not shown

in this chart are those joining the ranks of unbelievers. Time doesn’t permit me to go over the Barna Group and

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American Pastors Network Surveys but they are both in agreement that Science is one of the wedges separating our youth who were raised in the Church from their faith.

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This chart from the Religion News Network sums up the state

• f Religious Affiliation as of 2017. Protestants make up 33% of

the US population, Roman Catholics 21% and 34% the Nones. This is the first time in our US history that the biggest slice of the pie of the population does not hold to a major branch of the Christian faith. Think about this question for a moment. Where have nearly everyone from Generation X and younger gotten the bulk of their scientific education from? From our public schools where they spend about 35 hours per week being immersed in a secular education. An education that teaches there can only be naturalistic explanations for how life began. Teachers can’t teach creationism in our public schools. Teachers can’t teach

• intelligent. Nor can they teach about the weaknesses in neo-

Darwinian theory.

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And these same students get less than 2 hours a week in religious education at their churches and virtually no classes on the harmony between science and the Bible. Are we not surprised that this is the case? I would put forth that we should be surprised that it took so long for this drop in religious faith to occur. So we now have a pretty good picture of the current state of religious faith in America. Our younger generations are leaving the faith they grew up in and joining the ranks of the Nones or the Unaffiliated.

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What can we do about it?

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So what can Christians and specifically we apologists do about it? I would like to suggest that the conflict between Science and Faith is man-made. This conflict is fueled by ideologies that seek to perpetuate this dichotomy.

• Use science to show the beauty and majesty of God’s

creation

• Emphasize that the same God who created everything

from subatomic particles to galaxies also created them

• Show people that there is harmony between scripture

and science i.e. dual revelation

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I love this quote by Nobel Laureate Derek Barton, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1969 “God is Truth. There is no incompatibility between science and religion. Both are seeking the same truth...” We have to remember that ALL TRUTH is GOD’s TRUTH. 10

So what is dual revelation? It was first proposed by St. Augustin around 400 AD in his book Confessions and reinforced by St. Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century AD. It is

• ften referred to as God’s Two Books: the Book of Nature and

the Bible. General revelation is what God has revealed about Himself to everyone at all times. This includes the knowledge that God exists, is the Creator, is powerful, glorious, and righteous. Special revelation – God has revealed himself to specific people at specific times in specific places. God has made himself known to His prophets, to His Chosen people, and through His son Jesus Christ and through his word, the Bible.

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Another thing to keep in mind is that both General Revelation and Special Revelation require that we humans interpret the information God is providing us. There will be no conflict between God’s World and God’s Word when properly interpreted since God is the author of both books!

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• We can use dual revelation as a way to start conversations

with people about God

• We can show that the heavens can be used for evangelism

by using God’s World and God’s Word to produce a model that is consistent and non-contradictory

• We should understand that Young people and millennials

today are very technology and scientifically savvy. They have been immersed in Science all of their educational lives – from kindergarten through college. They are very familiar with the authority that science has been given in our modern hi-tech world. Science is what makes airplanes and jets fly and sends astronauts and satellites into space.

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Science is what harnessed the electromagnetic waves so that our personal devices from cell phones and other wireless communications, remote controls and Bluetooth devices all work. This generation never knew a world without technology. They were weaned on computer games, digital media, and wireless everything at the touch of a finger. To them, Science is what is curing diseases. Science is what is providing all of the comforts of modern life. And Religion is something that happens on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights! Dare I say that science and technology have become the millennial generation’s new golden calves?

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So now we are ready to read what Scripture has to say about the universe. Now I want to caution you that the Bible was not written as a scientific text. Since God is the author of both books we would expect to find golden nuggets and jewels of scientific knowledge sprinkled throughout scripture. And we do as the next series of slides will allude to. I normally review 11 verses from various books of the Bible in this section but due to time limitations, I am only going to cover 3 verses and reference the other 8.

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1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. (Genesis 1:1-2) The Bible says- “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The physical universe (all the cosmic stuff) has a beginning. The Bible’s first lines reveal the source of the Big Bang! Recall Francis Shaeffer’s quote, “Christianity starts with … In the beginning, God Created the heavens and the earth.”

My favorite bumper sticker is this one: “The Big Bang Theory: God spoke and bang!, it happened.”

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Read Genesis verses 4-5.

4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated

the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. (Genesis 1:4-5) God separated light from darkness. Imagine that! It only took

• ur brightest scientific minds 400 years to find out that

DARKNESS was a substance. Yet this little golden nugget was there all along in the Bible nearly 3000 years before science as a discipline had been formulated. It turns out that roughly 68% of the universe is dark energy. Dark energy is an unknown form of energy which is

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hypothesized to permeate all of space, tending to accelerate the expansion of the universe. Dark matter makes up about 27%. Dark matter is a hypothetical type of matter distinct from baryonic matter (ordinary matter such as protons and neutrons) and dark energy. The rest - everything on Earth, everything ever observed with all of

• ur instruments, all normal matter - adds up to less than 5% of the
• bservable universe.

Scientists cannot “see” or measure dark matter and energy directly. They can only observe the effects of their presence. As an analogy, we cannot see or measure our God but we can

• bserve the effects of His creation. And we can see the Holy Spirit

working in and through the lives of his creatures He created in His image.

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Here God is responding to Job and states the following in Job 9:7-8.

7 Who commands the sun, and it does not rise; who seals up

the stars; 8 who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea; Doesn’t that sound a lot like cosmic expansion or what astrophysicists call the Big Bang? The Bible said it first. Back to the OT, there are several verses in the Book of Job regarding God’s creative work to bring about the universe. Age of Job reference https://thescrolleaters.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/the-oldest- book-job-1-5/

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So we can see that although the Bible wasn’t written as a scientific treatise, it does reveal knowledge about the creation

• f the heavens and the earth because it has the same author –

the God of the Bible. Read each animated bullet.

• The universe had a beginning –Genesis 1, John 1:1-3
• Darkness is a substance – Genesis 1:4-5
• The universe is expanding – Job 9:8, Isaiah 44:24

Other Verses:

• Things that are seen are made of things that are unseen -

Hebrews 11:3

• God sees everything including darkness – Psalm 139:11-12

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• The fundamental constants are unchanged from the

beginning of the universe –Jeremiah 33:25

• God sustains the universe by the power of His word –

Hebrews 1:3

• Earth exists in a “Goldilocks zone” – Hebrews 1:10
• The Sun and planets make unique sounds – Job 38:7

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I believe that the “conflict” between faith and science is artificial and is perpetuated by two groups of people:

• Christians with a nominal understanding of Science and

how Science can be used to explain how God performed his creative works. Think of YEC’s who hold to a 10,000 year old universe. They have a disdain for anyone who holds to and old universe perspective which includes other

• Christians. They often view the question of age of the

universe as hinging on a person’s salvation.

• Secularists/Naturalists who have a disdain for religion.

Think of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and others who are called the “new atheists.” They believe that Science has superior explanatory power to religious belief. These scientists study how the universe works and they believe that Science will eventually explain everything

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The Nobel Prize in Physics 1993 was awarded jointly to Russell A. Hulse and Joseph H. Taylor Jr. "for the discovery of a new type of pulsar, a discovery that has opened up new possibilities for the study of gravitation“

• Dr. Taylor had this to say about the conflict:

“A scientific discovery is also a religious discovery. There is no conflict between science and religion. Our knowledge of God is made larger with every discovery we make about the world.”

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This ministry was started in June 2016. Our mission is “Sharing the beauty and majesty of God’s universe through astronomy.” We have held monthly events in downtown Austin and other locations in Central Texas during warmer weather months which is from March through November. What started out as just me taking a telescope down to the Pfluger Bridge to 4

• ther people joining me each month with their telescopes along

with other friends and supporters. There is Rob Pettingill on the left with his Questar 3.5” scope and Tom and Mollie Biddison on the right with Tom’s homemade 13” Dobson. John Darms bought a scope from me and comes out monthly.

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The ministry is moving toward being intentionally educational:

• Use scientific knowledge to reinforce the Biblical message
• Looking to the heavens to give thanks to God for his

creation Over time we have been inspired by the Holy Spirit to become more intentional in our discussions with the passersby at each

• event. Dual revelation has become a key part of our ministry.

We try to explicitly convey to people that the same God who made the celestial object that made them exclaim “Oh, my God, that is beautiful!” is the same God who made them and wants to have a relationship with them. So this ministry has been transformed to use scientific knowledge to reinforce the Biblical message.

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I felt the need to give guests something to remember the night. So I created a Psalm 19 Astronomy card with an image of the 9 planets on the front (yes, I still consider Pluto to be a planet!) It too has Psalm 19 verse on the front.

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On the back there is Info about each planet on the back, distance, diameter, # moons. Most people are surprised to learn that Jupiter has 67 moons and Saturn has 62 moons. We also have contact info on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and, gmail. Currently over 250 people follow us on Facebook.

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We always try to host our events when there is a waxing Moon at sunset. This is because in the worst case there will always be something , the Moon, to look

• at. And people get a kick out of letting us take an image of the Moon with their

smart phone. This photo of the Moon is a single image taken with my iPhone 6. We have Genesis 1:14-16 verses on the front talking about God separating the two great lights: the greater one for the day and the lesser one for the night. 27

On the back we list 4 facts about how our unique Moon has made life on Earth habitable for advanced intelligent life.

• The Moon helped to stabilize Earth’s axial tilt to 23.5

degrees which provided predictable seasons.

• The Moon also slowed down Earth’s rotation from about a

6 hour day to our pleasant 24 hours

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This is our Thank God for Jupiter! Card. I love this image because it shows an eclipse of one of its moons. This is something you can see in a larger telescope such as the Orion 12” that John is now the proud owner of.

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The important thing is Jupiter’s strong gravitational field protects planet Earth from comet and asteroid impacts. Jupiter is nicknamed “the vacuum cleaner of the solar system” because its enormous gravitational pull and close proximity to the inner Solar System. Its powerful pull snaps up passing comets, asteroids, and other debris from the Oort cloud. I’ve included the image of Comet Shumacher-Levy impacting Jupiter in July 1994 as a powerful example that reinforces the importance of Jupiter protective power for life on Earth. 30

I came up with this card in time for last year’s total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017. Total solar eclipses are important because scientists can only study the Sun’s chromosphere during a total eclipse. So the Sun has to be 100% blocked to study it. It cannot be studied if the Sun is 99% blocked.

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I came up with this card in time for International Sun Day on June 24. I plan

• n being down at the bridge in the morning and again in the evening to let

people look at the Sun. I love this image because it shows the transit of Venus which happened in June 2012. The back side of the card has scientific information on how our Sun is special. I emailed this to RTB’s Astrophysicist Jeff Zweerink and he responded that each point was a defensible statement. 32

Last summer a young UT college student was skateboarding by when I asked him if he wanted to look at Jupiter. He came on

• ver and looked as I pointed out the four Galilean moons that

were visible to the left and right of the planet. He was awed by the detail he could see in the 8” telescope. I explained how Galileo four hundred years ago was one of the first people to see Jupiter wasn’t a wandering star but a planet with Moons. I asked him his name and he said it was John. He asked why we were out there with my telescope and I explained that we were there to share the beauty and majesty of God’s universe through astronomy. Well that set off a 20 minute discussion with John asking a series of questions about faith and science. He peppered me with questions about the Big Bang, the age of the universe, old Earth versus young Earth. It turns out John was the son of a southern Baptist preacher near Waco and that he has been asking his dad the same questions about science and the age of

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the Earth. Apparently his dad held to a young Earth 6000 year old and the answers John got were in direct conflict with the science that he learned at UT. Well John was very glad to see people with a science background using science as a way to share their faith in God. It opened up to him the possibility of being able to reconcile what he learned about science to his faith. He saw that he didn’t have to choose between science and faith. There is a pathway where he can embrace both science and faith.

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My friend John Darms summed up what we’re doing this way. He said “So

• ften we find ourselves surrounded by strangers that we never interact with.

The Psalm 19 Astronomy at the Bridge is a great catalyst for getting people talking about God.” You see God has given us gifts to use to reach out to those who are lost, who are lapsed, and who are looking for answers. 34

And I would like to close by stating it is up to Christians with a strong background in the various scientific fields need to step

• ut into the world and use their knowledge of Science to show

the glory of God. Who here has a background in one of the hard science disciplines such as biology, chemistry, physics, genetics, geology, astronomy, mathematics, medicine, or engineering? I usually go into the Parable of the Talents in the longer version

• f my presentation. This is recorded in Matthew 25:14-30. A

rich landowner is going away for an extended period of time. So he gives talents which are huge sums of money to 3 of his

• servants. Suffice it to say that we have all been given special

talents by God. And God wants us to use those talents to increase His kingdom here on Earth. So those of us blessed with the talent to understand science are uniquely qualified to use our knowledge of science to further

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God’s kingdom within our own churches and help to stem the tide of millennials and Gen Xers from losing their faith. What do I mean? Are you a chemist? How about “Thank God for Polar Molecules!” You could give a class on how finely tuned the atomic and subatomic structures are? If you are a biologist, how about “Thank God for the Cell!” Give a class on how extremely complex a simple cell is? It’s not simple at all! These are micro factories that have specialized parts that help drive the cellular machinery from creating new proteins to removing waste products! You get the picture. For too long we’ve allowed our youth to get one side of the story – the naturalistic side. It’s time we provide them with the supernatural side too. What Thank God class could you teach to share your knowledge about the beauty and majesty of God’s creation?

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Chris August lyrics. I'm giving my life to the only One Who makes the moon reflect the sun Every starry night That was His design I'm giving my life to the only Son Who was and is and yet to come Let the praises ring 'Cause He is everything 'Cause He is everything

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• C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) was a scholar of medieval literature who converted to

Christianity in midlife. He was and is still the most popular Christian apologist

• f the twentieth century. And in this quote Lewis states,

“No philosophical theory which I have yet come across is a radical improvement on the words of Genesis, that ‘In the beginning God made Heaven and Earth’.”

It’s also interesting to note that Lewis who taught at Oxford and Cambridge Universities was friends with J. R. R. Tolkien, author of the Hobbit series and with atheist Anthony Flew. Flew was considered the World’s Most Notorious Atheist of his

• time. That was until 2004 when he shocked the world and

announced he had become a theist.

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About half of current religious “nones” who were raised in a religion (49%) indicate that a lack of belief led them to move away from religion. This includes many respondents who mention “science” as the reason they do not believe in religious teachings, including one who said “I’m a scientist now, and I don’t believe in miracles.” Others reference “common sense,” “logic” or a “lack of evidence” – or simply say they do not believe in God. 40

Digging into the data we find that the biggest contribution is the loss of younger people raised in the Christian faith. This slide shows Generational Replacement Helping Drive Growth of Unaffiliated, Decline of Mainline Protestantism and Catholicism. What is significant is the 50% increase in the Unaffiliated – the Nones. Our young people raised in the church are leaving the church sometime between 15 years old and their sophomore year in college. Now in the past there was nothing unusual about that. I confess that I left the church multiple times between high school and the birth of my first son at age 38. Unlike the youth of our older generations, they are not in any hurry to come back as they get older. Generational replacement is plunging! 41

According to a 2015 report out of the American Pastor’s Network, the #3 reason is Science right behind hypocrisy and intolerance. When our younger generations speak of the intolerance of the Christian religion, what they are really saying is the Church as a whole is not being supportive of multiculturalism, moral relativism, and todays ever changing sexual behavior and gender fluidity. They are continually bombarded from all forms of media and popular cultural sources with the message that Christians are intolerant haters. 42

“One of the raging debates as of today is about the relative merits of science and faith. Was man created by God in his own image, as the Book of Genesis tells us, or did man evolve from a cosmic blast — often referred to as “The Big Bang”? How old is the earth? Is there life beyond our world?” The age of the earth is a big driver in young people leaving the church. Nearly all the scientific data from multiple disciplines points to an old age for the

• earth. Yet many are raised in churches that teach a 6000 – 10000 year old

Earth.

• 1. Hypocrisy, 2. Intolerance, 3. Science, 4. Suffering, 5. Sacrifice

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In a 2011 Barna survey on why young people are leaving the church, the #3 reason was because “Churches come across as antagonistic to Science.” And 72% of the unaffiliated believe in evolution. And by evolution I mean the neo-Darwinian version where every living thing has evolved from the earliest single cellular life. This is what is taught in schools without criticism or shortcomings of the theory or any contrasting viewpoint.

1. Churches seem overprotective 2. Teens’ and twentysomethings’ experience of Christianity is shallow

3. Churches come across as antagonistic to science

4. Young Christians’ church experiences related to sexuality are often simplistic, judgmental 5. They wrestle with the exclusive nature of Christianity 6. The church feels unfriendly to those who doubt 44

Furthermore, the research shows that many science-minded young Christians are struggling to find ways of staying faithful to their beliefs and to their professional calling in science-related industries. Depending on the church they are raised in they may get the sense that there is conflict between science and faith and that they have to choose one OR the

• ther.

Their pastors or elders may hold to a creation worldview that puts science and scientific disciplines in a negative light. Not only pastors but committed Christians also follow suit. Here is a comment by a gentleman named Ronald to a post I made on our PS19 FB page. I posted

• n an upcoming slide with Genesis 1:1-3. I had the statement at the bottom

“The Bible’s first lines reveal the cause of the Big Bang!” Ronald took exception to my mentioning the Big Bang. “…old age earth which is totally unscriptural and heretical. God spoke the universe into being. The Big Bang is a lie.” So from these surveys, we get solid, statistical evidence that Science is one of the wedges separating the upcoming generations from their faith in Christ. Often young Christians may feel they face a choice – their faith or their 45

profession. And the survey tells us that about 75% are walking away from their faith. 45

“Confessio Belgica” or Belgic Confession is the oldest of the doctrinal standards of the Christian Reformed Church, written in 1561 during the time

• f the Spanish inquisition in the Lowlands. Belgica referred to the whole of the

Netherlands at that time. We know God by two means: First, by the creation, preservation, and government

• f the universe, since that universe is before our eyes

like a beautiful book… Second, God makes himself known to us more clearly by his holy and divine Word 46

I’d like to close this section on Dual Revelation by briefly touching upon the Big Bang Theory. It will become an important part of bridging the gap between science and faith. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model for how the universe began. The term “Big Bang” is a bit misleading since the theory doesn’t posit an explosion but is better described as a rapid, exponential expansion of space, time and matter in all directions. 47

One hundred years ago most of the Scientific community believed that our universe was infinite in age and static. It was neither expanding or contracting and it didn’t have a beginning. Even Albert Einstein believed this. When he was formulating his general theory of relativity, the mathematics indicated the universe was not static – it was expanding. So Einstein included a fudge factor – his cosmological constant – to make the universe appear mathematically to be static. It is interesting to note that Einstein called his two theory’s General Relativity and Special Relativity. Was he trying to communicate something of theological importance by this naming convention?

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Then along came Fr. George Lamaitre, a Belgian priest who formulated the theory of an expanding universe in the early 1920’s. He even met with Einstein at a conference 1927 and discussed his theory with Einstein. Lemaitre published in a small Belgian Journal: Les Annales de la Société Scientifique de Bruxelles. At the same time, Edwin Hubble was collecting light spectrum from distant galaxies and he discovered that galaxies were moving away from us. AND he also discovered that the further away a galaxy was, the faster it was moving

• away. This became known as the Hubble constant.

The mathematics and physics behind the theory shows that if you rewind the clock that our universe would compress into a tiny, dense, extremely hot point called a singularity. That space, time, and matter all came into existence the instance that the singularity started its expansion Within 40 years the Big Bang theory became the accepted theory in cosmology that the universe did not always exist. It had a beginning and it is expanding at an increasing rate. 49

A favorite bumper sticker of mine states “The Big Bang Theory: God spoke and “Bang!” and it happened!” The Bible tells us that God spoke the world into existence. We read this in Genesis 1 where God speaks many things into existence from the heavens and Earth to all of the living creatures to the pinnacle of creation – man and woman. And John 1:3 makes it undoubtable and clear: 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 50

We now have a basic understanding of how God has given us dual revelation and that when properly interpreted, God’s world and God’s word must always be in agreement because He is the author of both books. We are now prepared to have discussions with people who are skeptical of the existence of God. This isn’t that hard as it seems. You can start with questions that are not

• vertly religious.

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Start with the question “Why is there something rather than nothing?” This is a very basic but profound question. Before we can even get to the deep questions about life such as “Why are we here?” or “What is the purpose of life?” we have this most elementary of questions “Why is there something rather than nothing?” This question has been raised or commented on by philosophers including Gottfried Leibniz (Libe-niz) developed differential and integral calculus independently of Isaac Newton and he gave us the binary system at the heart

• f modern computers.

The question is a challenging one because it seems perfectly possible that there might have been nothing whatsoever – no Earth, no stars, no galaxies, no universe. Leibniz thought that the fact that there is something and not nothing requires an explanation. The explanation he gave was that God wanted to create a universe – the best one possible – which makes God the simple reason that there is something rather than nothing. We can follow this question up with a second one: “Would you agree that if something exists now, then something must have always existed?” 52

If you can get agreement that “something must have always existed” then you can follow up with, “Have you ever heard of the Big Bang Theory? According to the Big Bang Theory, the universe has not always existed therefore something else must have always existed. Look for agreement, “Would you agree that something else existed before the big bang?” That something else must exist outside the space/time/matter limitations of the universe to cause it to come into existence – The First Cause 53

Read through the animated bullets and ad lib as needed

That something else must have always existed

This line of reasoning should lead to the logical conclusion that there is an eternal God who created and sustains the universe for a purpose – to fulfill his eternal plan and for His own glory. And because He desired to share His love us.

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I have seen this style of conversation in action at the bridge: I have observed John Darms and others at one of our Psalm 19 Astronomy have extended conversations with one of our passersby and it started with a question“Can I ask you a simple question? Why there is something rather than nothing?” Then it moved into Big Bang Cosmology, and eventually into a discussion of Genesis 1. I have had these conversations too. I’ll tell you the Story of John at the close of this presentation. 55

From the Old Testament we move to the New Testament. Read John 1 verses 1-3 I only wish the early church fathers would have put the Gospel

• f John at the beginning of the New Testament to match what

was done with the book ordering in the Old Testament. Regardless, John explicitly states that not only was there a beginning but that the Word was there. And subsequent verses reveal that the Word was Jesus.

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3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. “…what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” This is the author

• f Hebrews telling us about 1600 year before modern scientific discoveries

that the material world - what we can see, came into existence from what we cannot see. Does this not sound like ex nihilo creation? Or getting back to my bumper sticker “God spoke and bang!, it happened.” 57

This verse was part of my Our Daily Bread devotional for Sunday November 19. Scientists believe that Earth might have

“hairy” dark matter. Our bests scientists might have difficulty

seeing dark energy and matter but it is not invisible to God who created it.

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Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, “I, the Lord, am the maker of all things, Stretching out the heavens by

• Myself. And spreading out the earth all alone…

Doesn’t that sound a lot like cosmic expansion? 59

The “physical laws” are fixed – what scientist call uniformitarianism Uniformitarianism is the assumption that the same natural laws and processes that operate in the universe now have always operated in the universe in the past and apply everywhere in the universe. The four fundamental forces are gravity, electromagnetism, the weak nuclear force and the strong nuclear force. One of the issues with YEC’s is that they must deny uniformitarianism because in order to get a universe that is ~ 10,000 years old, they claim that some constants were significantly different at the beginning of creation i.e. speed of

• light. So when astrophysicists make the claim that our closest galactic

neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy, is 2.5 million light years away the YEC response is that the speed of light was significantly faster in the past. In this case, 250 times faster. There isn’t any scientific evidence to support this assumption. 60

Francis Collins, Director of the human genome project, and author of the book The Language of God said the following:

“In my view, there is no conflict in being a rigorous scientist and a person who believes in a God who takes a personal interest in each one of us. Science’s domain is to explore

• nature. God’s domain is in the spiritual world, a realm not

possible to explore with the tools and language of science. It must be examined with the heart, the mind, and the soul – and the mind must find a way to embrace both realms.”

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Read this verse

God sustains the universe by the power of His word. 62

You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite God placed the Earth in a “just right” solar system Earth’s orbit around the Sun resides in what is called “the Goldilocks zone.” It’s in the just right location for water to exist in all 3 phases and for life to take hold. (Ice, liquid, and vapor.) 63

In the Bible’s Book of Job, chapter 38, God is responding to Job’s questions by asking Job a series of questions. In verses 6 & 7 God asks Job “On what were its (Earth’s foundation) footings set, or who laid its cornerstone- while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?” Biblical scholars believe that the Book of Job was written somewhere between 2600 and 3400 years ago. A video was posted on YouTube in 2010 of recordings by NASA of the unique sound coming from our Sun and each planet in our solar system. I show that video which is similar to this one when I give my presentation on our Psalm 19 Astronomy Society ministry. Back in Job’s day they didn’t have telescopes. But they knew the night sky very well because they didn’t have the kind of light pollution that permeates

• ur modern society. They were very familiar with several morning stars that

moved around differently than all of the others stars. We know them today to be the planets orbiting our sun. In these verses God reveals to Job that the morning stars sing together. Space is a virtual vacuum, meaning there are very few molecules banging into 64

each other. Still that doesn’t mean that there is no sound in space. Sound exists as electromagnetic vibrations. These vibrations were recorded by specially designed instruments called plasma wave antenna that were on multiple space probes sent by NASA and other space agencies* throughout our solar system. The vibrations were converted to sound waves within the range of human hearing which is 20 – 20,000 Hz. So although we humans cannot hear the specific frequency of the planets singing, the Bible tells us that God can and the angels shouted for joy! NASA scientists just happened to figure out a wonderful way for us to hear them too. * NASA’s Voyager, INJUN1 (Iowa Space Program 1961,) ISEE 1 (Internationals Sun- Earth Explorer, Oct. 1977), and the NASA Hawkeye Space Probe (4 probes that

• rbited Earth.)

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Lewis understood how evolution could be the central and radical lie in the whole web of falsehood that now governs our lives. Olaskky further notes “…church leaders should embrace macroevolution because otherwise kids will walk away from church is so wrong: Accepting evolution propels many toward

• unbelief. When we don’t try to turn them around, we are accomplices to

surrender.” Christians increasingly can oppose atheism with not only faith but science, as Hugh Ross points out in The Creator and the Cosmos: How the Latest 65

Scientific Discoveries Reveal God (RTB, 2018). 65

More of these educational “Thank God” cards are in the works. There will be a solar eclipse on August 21 this year visible through the heartland of the US.

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So God is expanding this ministry. We have several associate astronomers who found out about this ministry through social media.

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