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March 23, 2020
I have been bombarded with questions about the COVID-19 outbreak on my social media pages and at my speaking events. Before you presume that I am being reckless about the latter, I am presently doing my speaking events via Zoom. Last week, I spoke to audiences in Adelaide, Australia, and St. Louis using this technology. This past Sunday, I taught my Paradoxes class with not only me but everyone in the class participating from the comfort of their homes via their computer or smart device. (Incidentally, all are welcome to participate and ask questions live on Sundays at 11:00 AM PT at paradoxes.org.)
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Viruses
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Natural Disasters
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March 16, 2020
Does science provide evidence for the biblically consistent idea of altruism? Are people more able to endure pain with the knowledge that their sacrifice will help another human being?
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Mental Health
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Pain and Suffering
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Physiology
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Morality
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Ethics
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Christian Life
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Blaise Pascal
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March 9, 2020
When Wayne Gretzky retired from playing professional hockey, National Hockey League fans referred to his departure as the end of greatness. Nicknamed “The Great One,” he was so great that no hockey fan then or now can imagine that any hockey player coming close to matching Gretzky’s talent.
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Requirements for Life
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Universe Design
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Design
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Dark Energy & Dark Matter
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Cosmology
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Cosmic Expansion
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March 2, 2020
How did life on Earth begin? Does an experimenter’s intervention reveal the “hand” that made life?
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Life Complexity
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God
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Origin of Life
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Life History
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Life Design
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Proteins
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Prebiotic Chemistry
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Early Earth
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Challenges to Evolution
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February 24, 2020
Advancing science continues to reveal that we live in a just-right universe. Our universe exhibits three truly astounding features: it is presently extremely large, every region of the universe is thermally connected to every other region, and its shape is geometrically flat. All of these amazing cosmic features are necessary for physical life to exist in the universe and without cosmic inflation, we wouldn’t have them.
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Universe Design
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Inflation
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Cosmic Expansion
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February 17, 2020
We know that alcohol consumption can impair brain function. It’s the reason why many governments penalize drunk driving. We might assume, however, that brain function impairment from alcohol consumption is temporary, at least for moderate drinkers of alcohol. A new study published in January 2020 now refutes that assumption.
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Physiology
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Christian Issues
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Bible
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February 10, 2020
Most of us have only scant memories of our early childhood. While I can recall many details from when I was four years old, I have only a few memories from my third year, such as the layout and furnishings of the small apartment that my parents, my two sisters, and I lived in not far from McGill University in Montreal. I also remember a couple of walks in Montreal with my parents. As for my second year, I have only one intact memory—that of seeing the outside and inside of a wooden station wagon belonging to the hydraulics engineering company my father founded. I wish I had more detailed and extensive memories, but I do not.
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Requirements for Life
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Earth's History
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Fine-Tuning
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Sun
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Meteors
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Earth Design
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Early Earth
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Atmosphere
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February 3, 2020
As human bodies age, thermodynamics, gravity, and electromagnetism take their toll. And what is true for human beings is also true for planets and moons.
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Fine-Tuning
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Earth Design
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Natural Disasters
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Earth Science
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Geophysics
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Comets
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January 27, 2020
As human bodies age, thermodynamics, gravity, and electromagnetism take their toll. And what is true for human beings is also true for planets and moons.
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Life on Other Planets
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Fine-Tuning
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Geology
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Sun
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Planets
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Planet Formation
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Geophysics
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Solar System Design
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Requirements for Life
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Oceans
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Moon & Its Formation
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Mars
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Life History
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Earth Design
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Earth's History
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January 20, 2020
Getting heat to cold places, especially during winter, ranks as a great human concern and source of comfort. And though we may not ever think about Earth’s giant interior furnace, humans exist due to the benefits of its fine-tuned flow.
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Earth Design
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Earth's History
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Late Heavy Bombardment
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Life History
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Mars
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Moon & Its Formation
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Oceans
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Plate Tectonics
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Requirements for Life
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Solar System Design
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January 13, 2020
Have you ever had one of those mornings where you wonder where your get-up-and-go went? It takes a lot of energy to face the challenges of modern civilization. The difficulties facing humanity have differed over the millennia, but have always demanded a lot of energy expenditure.
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Solar System Design
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Life Complexity
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Stars
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Fine-Tuning
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Sun
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Life History
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Earth's History
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Earth Design
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January 6, 2020
Today marks the traditional date for the Epiphany and Christmas carols are still ringing in my head.
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Incarnation
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Stars
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Christmas
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December 30, 2019
“Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.” So the song goes, but the processes that created these gems, namely earthquakes, have not generated such lyrics. Understandably, many people fear earthquakes and wish they would never happen.
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Earth's History
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Geophysics
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Plate Tectonics
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Sun
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Requirements for Life
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Life History
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Fine-Tuning
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Earth Design
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Early Earth
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December 23, 2019
Have you ever been embarrassed by burping in a public setting? I have. I remember a time I was speaking before an audience of a thousand-plus people and my message was also being live-streamed to the internet when I let out a loud burp into the microphone. My gaffe got the audience laughing and made them more comfortable listening to a science nerd talk about scientific evidences for the Christian faith.
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Fine-Tuning
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Geology
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Human Flourishing
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Sun
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Requirements for Life
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Plate Tectonics
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Oceans
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Life History
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Earth's History
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Earth Design
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Early Earth
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Atmosphere
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December 16, 2019
About 800,000 years ago Earth’s ice age cycle transitioned from being about 41,000 years long to about 100,000 years in duration. During a cycle, Earth’s ice coverage ranges from 10 percent of Earth’s surface to 20–23 percent. This transition, known as the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT), may not seem important, but its highly improbable nature and especially what it means for human civilization has profound significance.
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Earth Design
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Fine-Tuning
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Earth's History
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Miracles
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Human Flourishing
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Geology
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Atmosphere
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December 9, 2019
At this time of year, Christmas carols and songs are in full swing. One song, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” won an Academy Award in 1949 and we hear it often in December because it’s the month when we who live above the Tropic of Cancer all notice that it’s getting a lot colder.
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Requirements for Life
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Solar System Design
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Earth Design
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Life on Other Planets
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Fine-Tuning
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Sun
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Stars
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Earth's History
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Atmosphere
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December 2, 2019
Whenever a catastrophe strikes in the United States, political and public figures almost always offer “thoughts and prayers” and call the public to join them in their gestures for those negatively impacted by the catastrophe. However, until recently no one had conducted a scientific experiment to determine the value of these thoughts and prayers to the intended recipients.
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November 25, 2019
When humans experience or learn of an earthquake or volcano anywhere in the world, a natural response is to express concern and then mobilize to help the suffering. Because these disasters often result in tragedy, many people are surprised to learn that the processes involved in plate tectonics also play a crucial role in sustaining life on Earth. For example, who would have thought that the exchange of carbon between Earth’s layers must occur at just-right rates to ensure our survival? Thanks to ongoing research, scientists have discovered that 60 components of Earth’s deep carbon cycle must be fine-tuned for advanced life.
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Earth Science
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Earth Design
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Earth's History
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Ecosystems
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Sun
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Requirements for Life
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Plate Tectonics
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Oceans
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Ocean life
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Life History
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Life Design
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Life Complexity
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God's Existence
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Geophysics
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Geology
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Fossil Record
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Comets
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Cambrian Explosion
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Atmosphere
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November 18, 2019
The movement of carbon through Earth’s atmosphere, hydrosphere, crust, and mantle may not immediately fascinate everybody, but we will appreciate those cycles as we understand how they help make our existence possible. Scientists have learned how Earth’s fine-tuned carbon cycles have compensated for the Sun’s increasing brightness to keep our planet from overheating or overcooling and, thus, making long-term life possible and comfortable.
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Fine-Tuning
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Requirements for Life
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Atmosphere
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Plate Tectonics
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Earth Science
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Sun
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Earth Design
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November 11, 2019
What counts as evidence that a scientific model is consistent with reality and therefore true? According to scientists, there is strong evidence for a model when advancing knowledge yields a progressively better-defined and more detailed description of the phenomenon the model explains. To that end, detailed spectral measurements of two stars from very early in the universe’s history have now yielded a more detailed and more precisely defined big bang creation model.
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Big Bang Theory
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Milky Way Galaxy
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Young-Earth Creationism
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Universe Design
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