Saturday Science

Hot! Hot! Hot! How Much Heat Can You Take?

If you're reading this now, it means you've survived another summer. Here in Chico, that's always something to feel grateful for, even though at times we seem to take a perverse pride in our hot summers and our ability to weather them. Paul and I managed this last one without air conditioning in our car. How did we stand it? Well...here's how.

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The science of Fall.

Why do the leaves fall off the trees?

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The Heavens Declare the Glory of God...

Source: Hubblesite.org

To see more beautiful images from the Hubble spacecraft, you may view the entire gallery  here.
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And now, Mars!

View more martian landscapes here.  The variety is astonishing.

(HT to Noelle Piper)

Meditations "on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam" - Why the world doesn't gasp

"Do you not know? Do you not hear?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
who brings princes to nothing,
and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth
when he blows on them, and they wither,
and the tempest carries them off like stubble.

To whom then will you compare me,
that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name,
by the greatness of his might,
and because he is strong in power
not one is missing." Isaiah 40: 21-26

At some point in a future meditation I intend to explore the philosophical notion that God's infinitude may in some way render His immensity in relation to our smallness rather irrelevant - in the sense that size bears little relevance to a being who is infinite as to time and space (as if anyone can have any truly adequate understanding of the perspective of such a being). For now, however, I would like to linger for some time longer, with the immensity of God, partly because that is the most overwhelming impression left by the image above, but especially because God repeatedly dwells on it in Scripture. God has, ever since the days of creation, intended us to be awed and humbled by this very thing. Scripture never does instruct us to philosophize on the nature of infinity, per se; and we should not, as finite beings, limited in every direction, fool ourselves into thinking that we can have anything but the faintest comprehension of infinity. Big and small, on the other hand, are concepts we can understand full well. By describing Himself in terms of magnitude, God, using expressions with clear meaning for us, has given us a framework for understanding Him and our relationship to Him. By displaying a creation of seemingly infinite space, He gives us the barest glimpse of His own eternal nature. And, more eloquently than words ever could, the creation, pours forth the majesty of God.

"The heavens declare the glory of God,

and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

Day to day pours out speech,

and night to night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech, nor are there words,

whose voice is not heard.

Their voice goes out through all the earth, 

and their words to the end of the world.

In them he has set a tent for the sun,

which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,

and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.

Its rising is from the end of the heavens,

and its circuit to the end of them,

and there is nothing hidden from its heat." Psalm 19:1-6

Creation is the testimony of God, proclaimed to all mankind, loud enough for all to hear. It is a vision given to man of the invisible God's eternal power and divine nature, bright and clear enough for all to see. If only we would look and listen, we would have at least the beginning of wisdom - we would have the fear the LORD in our hearts. But before I go exploring further, with open eyes, into the glory of God in the heavens, I feel the need to go slowly, to take time to consider one of the other great wonders of the world: why it is that all humanity is not at this very moment sighing a collective gasp of awe at the majesty of God stretching out over us everywhere we look and as far as the eye can see, and reaching down, permeating every cell of our being. From the seeming limitless expanse of the heavens, to the invisible universes of atoms that make up everything that is visible, everywhere we look we see the fingerprints of the Creator and the evidence of unimaginable wisdom, majesty and power.

The second great wonder of the world is that it does not ring forth with deafening praises to this almighty God. Why has creation not proven a testimony sufficient to elicit praise for God from all mankind? There are several answers I could give to this question but I'd like to focus on two which over-arch the rest; the glory of God, and the sin of man. Primarily, and strangely enough, the current lack of honor given to God is a temporary state which will ultimately serve to bring Him even greater glory throughout eternity. God has a plan to glorify Himself in ways which this created order alone will not suffice. But rather than begin there, I'll first address the secondary cause, the immediate hindrance to the proper worship of God in the world of men, sin.

God testifies in Scripture that creation should be sufficient to bring men to the worship of God and thanksgiving, that creation is a reliable revelation from God to man, which if regarded properly will lead us to honor Him and give Him thanks. There are many things about God which creation does not teach (more on that in a moment); but Scripture does reveal enough to leave us in awe of God's evident power and authority as Creator, to honor Him - and to be thankful to Him - which indeed we would be were it not for the sinful rebelliousness of our hearts.

"For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things." (Rom. 1:19-23)

This is God's commentary upon what happened in Eden. It is also His commentary on what has continued on throughout the ages in the hearts of all Adam's offspring. We all know and clearly perceive God through the revelation of creation, and we all react in the same way, by natural instinct, if you will, rejecting what we clearly see and trading away the truth of God for falsehood, the glory of God for lesser things. The testimony of God is that, "the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." (Gen. 8:21) And,

"The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God,'
They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds,
there is none who does good.
The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man,
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek after God.
They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one." Ps. 14:1-3

And again,

"...For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written:

'None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good, not even one.'
'Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.'
'The venom of asps is under their lips.'
'Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.'
'Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.'
'There is no fear of God before their eyes.'  Rom. 3:9-18

Rather than fearing God, honoring Him, and seeking the wisdom He provides, we have chosen to look to ourselves and our own "wisdom". Instead of looking at His creation to learn of Him, we look at His works and by them seek to disprove His existence. In doing so, we've made ourselves fools. We've closed our eyes, squeezed them tight, to the truth and wisdom of the God of all creation, and now wander the earth stubbornly blind, yet haughty in our rejection of the light of God. We don't want this God. His power is too dreadful to think of, to contemplate. We don't want to think of Him, but even more so, we don't want to answer to Him. We want to be our own gods, and answer only to ourselves. We don't want His light, His wisdom to shine into our dark hearts. "And this is the judgment, that light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed." (Jn. 3:19-20)

So, because of our sin, the blessing and beauty of creation, instead of inspiring awe and lifting our hearts in adoration of God, has become a testimony which serves to condemn us. "Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, no knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed." (Rom. 2: 4-5) And this is the fate of all whose eyes remain tightly shut against the light of God, where ever He may be seen.

In my next post in this series, I intend to explore the ultimate reason that the testimony of creation, as overwhelming and magnificent as it is, has not proven sufficient to bring people to God.

Charity and Its Fruits - Light and Heat

Due to circumstances beyond my control, our study of Charity and Its Fruits was canceled this evening. Lord willing, we will continue where we left off next Monday evening. If you're behind, this is a great chance to catch up. If you're caught up, I hope you will use this time to process and practice what we've learned so far. As no doubt you've already noticed, our progress will be slow but (mostly) steady.

That said, I'd love to use this little interval as an opportunity to expand a bit on a concept Edwards touched on briefly in this chapter, but which is a rather dominant theme in his theology and thought - light and heat. In our reading this past week we came across this passage:

"If persons have the true light of heaven let into their souls, it is not a light without heat. Divine knowledge and divine love go together. A spiritual view of divine things always excites love in the soul, and draws forth the heart in love to every proper object. True discoveries of the divine character dispose us to love God as the supreme good; they unite the heart in love to Christ; the incline the soul to flow out in love to God's people, and to all mankind When persons have a true discovery of the excellency and sufficiency of Christ, this is the effect. When they experience a right belief of the truth of the gospel, such a belief is accompanied by love..."

As George Marsden said in his biography, Jonathan Edwards, a Life, Edwards became fascinated with the biblical imagery of light from very early in his ministry : "The sermon Jesus Christ the Light of the World is a gem of his early writing, sustaining his favorite metaphor of light throughout. Light is a primary biblical image to describe God's love. Light was also familiar theme in both the preaching and philosophizing of an era so concerned with enlightenment. No one looked more intensely at the biblical meaning of light for his day than did Edwards. For him, light was the most powerful image of how God communicated his love to his creation. Regeneration meant to be given eyes to see the light of Christ in hearts that had been hopelessly darkened by sin." (See 2 Cor. 4:6.)

According to Marsden:

"The key to Edwards' thought is that everything is related because everything is related to God. Truth, a dimension of God's love and beauty, is a part of that quintessentially bright light that pours forth from the throne of God. Every other pretended light, or source of truth, is as darkness if it keeps God's creatures from seeing the great sun of God's light. The created universe itself is a dynamic expression of that light, yet sin blinds humans from acknowledging the source of the light that surrounds them. Having turned away from the true light of God's love, they now grope in darkness, inordinately loving themselves and their immediate surroundings, or chasing after false lights of their own imaginings. Only the undeserved gift of redemption, bought with Christ's blood, can open their eyes and change their hearts so that they see and love the triune God and the created universe as wholly an expression of God's creative and redemptive will. Only through the prism of the revelation recorded in Scripture can they discover the nature of God's creative and redemptive purposes. Once sinners experience God's love, they begin to love what he loves."

In a later sermon, A Divine and Supernatural Light, Edwards, in Marsden's words,

"related his most profound theological reflections on his understanding of true Christian experience. God communicates to humans, he explained, in an immediate way that goes beyond anything that natural reason by itself can attain. What distinguishes saints from the unconverted is that the Holy Spirit dwells with converted persons and so gives them the power to apprehend the things of God. They have in effect, a new spiritual sense. This new sense is not an ability to have visions, or to gain new information that goes beyond Scripture, or to experience intense religious emotions. Rather, it is the power necessary to appreciate the spiritual light that radiates from God, the power to hear the communication of God's love that pervades the universe. It is a power to appreciate beauty or excellency, specifically the beauty and excellency of Christ."

And this leads us to a passage from Edwards famous work Religious Affections, which I feel sheds much light on the subject of our current study - the light and heat of God as evidence of a true work of God in the life of a professing Christian:

"He who has no religious affection, is in a state of spiritual death, and is wholly destitute of the powerful, quickening, saving influences of the Spirit of God upon his heart. As there is no true religion, where there is nothing else but affection; so there is no true religion where there is no religious affection. As on the one hand, there must be light in the understanding, as well as an affected fervent heart, where there is heat without light, there can be nothing divine or heavenly in that heart; so on the other hand, where there is a kind of light without heat, a head stored with notions and speculation, with a cold and unaffected heart, there can be nothing divine in that light, that knowledge is no true spiritual knowledge of divine things. If the great things of religion are rightly understood, they will affect the heart...."

And so Edwards would have us understand that in the Christian sense, as light without heat, is no true light, so supposed knowledge and understanding of God, without love, is no true knowledge at all. Faith without works is death...and faith works through love. (James 2:20; Gal. 5:6)

Meditations "on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam"

Ever since I first laid eyes on this image several weeks ago, I don't think a day has gone by without me thinking of it at least once.  The ways in which it has reached it's grip into my thoughts of God have been manifold.

I think there is something in every person, when seeing ourselves in this perspective, which will cry out, "Then there can't be a God!"  I hear that voice.  It is the knee jerk utterance of one who can't imagine anything that big, let alone anything that big caring about anything that small.  It is a truly human reaction - a response from human limitations.  It shakes us and shows the inadequacy of the views of God which we hold. It presents to us at least two possibilities, both dreadful: 1) that there is no God, and no meaning in all our joys and anguish, or 2) that there is a God, one to Whom we are at least that small.

Does your view of God take in all of this?  Is your God that big?  Are you that small?

Think about it.

I've decided to commit myself to meditating on this and exploring all the implications which the reality of a God of that magnitude should have on my life and faith.  My goal is to post this series of contemplations here.  Perhaps you would like to meditate with me.

Science Saturday - All Hallows' Eve Edition

First, the obligatory pumpkin video.  May the biggest pumpkin win!

And, in case you were wondering what Martin Luther would think of all this talk about science on his big day - here's a little paper about Luther's views of science.

Charity, the Sum of all Virtues - Part One

Charity and Its Fruits

(This week we continue our reading together of the Jonathan Edwards' classic, Charity and Its Fruits. We have just concluded the reading of the "Doctrine" portion of Lecture 1. We will continue with the "Application" portion of the Lecture in next week's reading. This is the pattern we will be using for the entirety of the reading. My notes here will follow Edwards' own outline directly, with my commentary inserted. I will attempt to make each post edifying even to those who are not reading along with us. Feel free to leave your questions or comments in the form below.)

Lecture I. (Part One)

Charity, or Love, the Sum of All Virtues

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.”

First, that something is spoken of as of special importance, and as peculiarly essential in Christians, which the apostle calls CHARITY. And this charity, we find, is abundantly insisted on in the New Testament by Christ and his apostles, - more insisted on, indeed, than any other virtue.

"What persons very often mean by 'charity,' in their ordinary conversation, is a disposition to hope and think the best of others, and to put a good construction on their words and behavior; and sometimes the word is used for a disposition to give to the poor. But these things are only certain particular branches, or fruits of that great virtue of charity which is so much insisted on throughout the New Testament. The word properly signifies love, or that disposition or affection whereby one is dear to another....So that by charity here, we are doubtless to understand Christian love in its full extent, and whether it be exercised towards God or our fellow creatures."

Edwards spends some time in this section dealing with the fact that in the King James Version the word for love in the original language "agape" is rendered differently in different places. "Charity in some places, "love" in others. The word "charity" in his day had already come to mean something less than the sum total of love. (It has come to mean even less in our day.)I must say I like the way he handled this problem for his hearers. For whatever reason, he did not appeal to the original Greek. He used Scripture to interpret Scripture, and came up with the same answer one would get by referring to the Greek, that the love here in mind is not the narrow view one might have gotten from the word "charity" but rather the same kind of love we are instructed to have toward God Himself: "agape".

That said, I must admit, my first reaction to the passage above was a bit of horror - because the very thing he was saying was an inadequate definition of love was already more than I had imagined or ever really succeeded in. I also must admit, however, that as I read I knew in my heart, without a shadow of a doubt that what he was saying was true. "a disposition to hope and think the best of others"...this is certainly what I have toward my husband and children...but to others, well, not so much...only those I really love, and even then not all the time. But it is more than that. It is "that disposition or affection whereby one is dear to another." And it is that kind of love I'm supposed to have even for my enemies! God expects that I think of even my enemies as dear to me! Brothers and sisters, I've got a lot of growing to do. Perhaps you do as well. I take some comfort in the fact that I can see the truth and beauty of this Christian love.Christian love is the highest thing I can aspire to in this life, and clearly it will also be the most difficult. 

Secondly, [we observe] what things are mentioned as being in vain without it, viz. the most excellent things that ever belong to natural men; the most excellent privileges, and the most excellent performances.

(“viz.” means “namely”)

• the most excellent privileges -  Spiritual gifts are vain (empty, worthless, futile) if performed without Christian love.

• the most excellent performances -  Good works are vain if performed from any other motive than Christian love.
  

The doctrine taught, then, is this:

THAT ALL THE VIRTUE THAT IS SAVING, AND THAT DISTINGUISHES TRUE CHRISTIANS FROM OTHERS, IS SUMMED UP IN CHRISTIAN LOVE.

"...there is nothing at all that avails* anything without it. Let a man have what he will, and do what he will, it signifies nothing without charity; which surely implies that charity is the great thing, and that everything which has not charity in some way contained or implied in it, is nothing, and that this charity is the life and soul of all religion, without which all things that wear the name of virtues are empty and vain."

* “to avail” here means “to be of use, help, worth, or advantage...as in accomplishing an end” - in the ultimate and eternal sense. It will not hold any sway before God.

I. I would speak of the nature of a truly Christian love.

1. That all true Christian love is one and the same in its principle.

(Edwards uses the word “principle” here in a very different sense than we tend to, so take careful note of this definition. “the ultimate source, origin, or cause of something”)

Unlike the love of unbelievers, which arises from any number of sources or motives in the heart (ie. greed, self-promotion, self-aggrandizement, natural instinctual affection, etc.), Christian love is "one as to its principle...it is from the same spring or fountain in the heart, though it may flow out in different channels and diverse directions..."

Monday Meanderings

Okay, take it from me, you don't have to speak Japanese to love this!

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Did you know even lung cancer has a beauty all its own?

"This scanning electron micrograph was also produced by Anne Weston. It shows a single cell grown from a culture of lung cancer cells. The irregular purple bulges are called blebs, a localised decoupling of the cytoskeleton from the plasma membrane caused by the cancer."

For more of the years best science images click here.
(HT to Tim Challies)

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Well, they've finally admitted what most of us already intuited: TV won't make your baby smarter. Act now, Disney's offering refunds.

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5 untestable yet rational types of knowledge:

(I feel a need here to apologize for the disrespectful title of this clip, even though I am not responsible for it.)

(HT to Abraham Piper)

With steadfast faith let us take our places...

"Let those who will keep the narrow way keep it, and suffer for their choice; but to hope to follow the broad road at the same time is an absurdity. What communion hath Christ with Belial?
Thus far we come, and pause. Let us, as many as are of one mind, wait upon the Lord to know what Israel ought to do. With steadfast faith let us take our places; not in anger, not in the spirit of suspicion or division, but in watchfulness and resolve. Let us not pretend to a fellowship which we do not feel, nor hide convictions which are burning in our hearts. The times are perilous, and the responsibility of every individual believer is a burden which he must bear, or prove a traitor. What each man's place and course should be the Lord will make clear unto him." - Charles Spurgeon

(This was a quote from amid the Downgrade Controversy.  You can learn more about that event here.)

Saturday Science - Flu Season Edition

You can view the informative article which accompanied the video and listen to an interview on the topic of the current flu outbreak here. 

I've been around my town and visited various businesses over these last couple of weeks. I recall a recent visit to a computer shop where the manager told me half his work force was home with the flu and he was only just recovering. He was a young fellow had never imagined he could be as sick as he had just been, healthy one moment and bedridden just a couple of hours later. My husband stood next to me while this flu-recoverer related his ordeal. Paul has asthma and we are uninsured. I insisted he get his flu shot as soon as they became available, and he did. (Unfortunately the H1N1 shot is not available here yet, so he had to settle for the seasonal flu shot. I did not get a shot, because Paul is also unemployed, and money is tight. We chose him, because he's at higher risk of death from flu.) Yesterday I stood in line at a convenience store. The woman in line ahead of me (a very nice lady, by the way) was turned in my direction when her chest began to rumble. She coughed chunkily, quickly bringing up her elbow to cover her mouth. Despite her good intentions, however, her diaphragm was faster than her left arm. Some of her cough sped over the top of her elbow. Oh well. These things have a way of getting away from us. Germs are not as easy to contain as we'd like to think.

No doubt you've heard we're facing an uncommon sort of flu season this year. On top of our usual variations we've got a newly discovered strain of H1N1 floating around, one which our immune systems are unfamiliar with and is giving us quite a beating. Already the death toll in our country alone has topped 1,000, nearly 100 of them children. At that same time all this is transpiring there are also anecdotal reports surfacing via YouTube of victims of rare disorders which they feel are linked to recent vaccines. I've seen them. One is related to the HPV vaccine, another to seasonal flu, and there are a few more. I've also seen various controversial articles claiming a causal relationship between certain immunizations and autism. And there are concerns remaining from the seventies - Guillain-Barre syndrome, linked, albeit with some uncertainty, to the 1976 swine flu vaccine. All of these reports are troubling, to say the least. I'm familiar with them and understand them but am not deterred by them. I will explain why. (I hope that those of you who do not agree will accept my point of view as just that and refrain from argument.)

It's been a long time since we've lived in a country where mass epidemics routinely endangered the lives of children and adults alike. I have an elderly friend who is crippled from a childhood bout with polio. She is one of the fortunate ones. She survived. Not many of us have ever encountered a man like Alexander Woollcott, who was rendered, in essence, a eunuch due to a case of the mumps.  Smallpox, that dreaded plague, has been all but eradicated. Likely none of us have met a survivor of the great flu pandemic of 1918, from which the worldwide death toll has been estimated between 50 and 100 million. The absence of many dreaded diseases in our populace today can be attributed to the mercy of God, of course, and secondarily in many cases to successful vaccination campaigns.

I think the current epidemic of suspicion surrounding vaccination programs is in part attributable, ironically, to the great success of vaccination. We who have not been touched by a deadly pandemic, or the loss of siblings or children to common childhood diseases tend to see the risk as a distant threat, one far removed, one that could never touch us. We've been a very healthy people for a very long time. I think the fear also stems from a distrust of government, and science. (Our attitude as Christians toward government is a topic for a different day, and one I will not get into directly at the moment.) I understand the concern about science, in as much as so much of it seems to be aimed at dis-proving or, at the very least, ignoring or disregarding any evidence of a Creator. But, I'd like to set that aside for the moment as well, or at least to look at it from a different angle. These scientists, in particular the ones for whom disease control and prevention is a life work, if they do not believe in God, have no hope other than what they can accomplish in this world. This world is all they have and where all their hope lies. It is where their legacy will remain. It is in their best interests and those of their species, to which they've devoted themselves, to find cures for these illnesses. It is also entirely unfair to assume that atheists do not love mankind and desire to ease the suffering they see around them. In some ways I think they are even more invested than we Christians are. This IS their world. They do not have another. It is in their nature to love it and want to preserve it for themselves and their posterity. (All that said, it is not fair either to assume all of these scientists are atheists, with no concern for God.)

From the many accounts I've read over the years about the desperate struggle of epidemiologists and others in health care professions I've gained a great deal of respect for them. They race against time and any number of scientific limitations, their progress often impeded by governmental foot-dragging and budgetary constraints, to identify causes of illness and to find a cure knowing that all the while they are searching, people are dying. These are people who, generally speaking, are not going to become rich or famous as a result of any of their hard work. They are in it to save lives.

As for the drug manufacturers, I have no great respect for these companies as they tend to be primarily profit driven behemoths. As I understand it, the number of them willing to produce vaccines is dwindling because it is an expensive process and those who do develop them are expected, required actually, to make them safe and affordable for the masses. So it's bad news/good news on that end. The good news is they are required to make them safe and affordable. The bad news is they are not required to make them, and so many do not. This leads to the potential for insufficient supplies. My point here is, however, vaccines are not big profit makers.

So what is my point in all this? My hope is that you will remove unjustified suspicion from the scales when weighing your decisions regarding vaccinations. Weigh the risk of of death or disability and the likelihood of contracting the illness opposite the risk posed by the vaccination itself. If it is likely not to be a serious illness, and you have the ability to quarantine yourself, you may want to skip the vaccine and stick with hand-washing and elbow-coughing. If it poses a real danger to you or some you may come in contact with, or if you can't afford to miss a day at work, then get vaccinated.

Here are a few more articles and resources which may help you as you weigh these matters:

Here is a link to the Vaccine Safety page of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And here is one for the World Health Organization's page which deals specifically with the current strain of H1N1 (swine flu virus).

Slate Magazine has an article written from the perspective of the parent of an immune compromised child on the importance of "herd immunity" to the most vulnerable among us.