Tension – Six Sentence Story

Jake’s fortune read, The best way to mess up a miracle is to take offense, which made him wonder where people came up with stuff like that. The messages his co-workers received in their thin, dry, almond cookies didn’t seem like they were pointing suspicious fingers at them, or maybe he was just being overly sensitive about the one he received.

He recalled years ago around his fortieth birthday getting a fortune that read, A fool at forty is a fool indeed. At that time Janice, a sales manager he had to tolerate, remarked, “The universe is trying to tell you something, Jake, 😂🤣.”

Since Janice was paying for the meal, Jake thought it best to keep his mouth shut. However, his silence couldn’t stop the tension from building up in that noodle between his ears pitting his general unbelief in most everything against his realization that that had been the third consecutive time that he, and he only at the table, received that very message.

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Denise offers the prompt word “tension” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

God’s Very Young Universe: A Testimony

Not many years ago I listened to and accepted words asserting the universe was over 13 billion years old. Words are powerful, but they are not always powerful in a good way. At the point where you think they are offering insight they lead you into delusions coating your eyes with a cultural cataract that blurs your vision.

I no longer see the universe as anywhere near as old as I used to. This essay is my testimony of having been healed from that cultural blindness by going through arguments I now find convincing for a young universe.

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By Themselves the Speed of Light and a Distant Galaxy Cannot Tell Us How Old the Universe Is

The constant of relativity known as the speed of light, or c, is not the one-way speed of light, but its average two-way speed. If you measure the speed it takes light to go from a clock to a mirror and back to the clock you will get the two-way speed, c. It is the same in any inertial frame of reference. That average two-way speed is what the constant c measures. That means the one-way speed of light could be anywhere from c/2 to some arbitrarily fast value as long as the speed going in the opposite direction compensates to make the average two-way speed equal c.

Misunderstanding what c measures leads to the distant starlight problem used as an argument against a young universe. It is set up as follows. Find the distance of a galaxy far, far away (say, by using red shifts). If we can see the galaxy (which we obviously can through some telescope since we can measure the red shift), then assert that the universe must be at least as old as it took light to come from that galaxy to us at the two-way speed c. The problem confuses the one-way speed of light coming from that galaxy to us with the two-way speed of light going from us to that galaxy, bouncing and coming back.

The universe does have a specific age as measured from our position on earth and the light coming from that galaxy reaches us with some average speed. We just don’t have enough information to determine what that one-way speed is. Because we cannot determine that one-way speed we cannot tell how old the universe is, at least, not using this method. We need more information not provided by the distant starlight problem.

At the heart of this problem is a view of humanity. An old universe view of us is that we are insignificant beings residing on a blue dot lost somewhere in the universe. This view eagerly stipulates that the one-way speed of light is the same as the two-way speed c. Why? Because using that speed as a convention implies there is nothing special about us. Those claiming that the one-way speed of light reaching the earth is anywhere close to being instantaneous are saying just the opposite.

This issue was my number one problem with accepting a young universe. Once I realized the distant starlight problem was a non-problem the other pieces fell into place.

References:
Brian Koberlein, There’s no way to measure the speed of light in a single direction
Jason Lisle, Anisotropic Synchrony Convention – A Solution to the Distant Starlight Problem
John A. Winnie, Special Relativity without One-Way Velocity Assumptions

Global Catastrophic Flooding

Some people looking at oceans, canyons, high mountains, fossil deposits in vast sedimentation layers extending over continents and glaciers see this as the result of slow processes taking hundreds of millions of years even though it is better explained as the result of a global flooding catastrophe.

One reason to try to avoid such a catastrophe is if it happened there would be no archeological site prior to it to dig through. Any trace of human activity from before the time of the catastrophe would be mixed, scattered and buried somewhere in the fossil record if it had not been completely destroyed. Archeological dating would have to start with the date assigned to the catastrophe.

Think about what this would mean for archeologists today. if the catastrophe actually happened and archeologists refused to accept it, then all of the events they described prior to the catastrophe would have to be labeled modern mythology. The controversies over ape and human bones that Christopher Rupe and John Sanford document suggest to me that much of it already is modern mythology.

Ian Shaw claimed that the Egyptian dynastic chronology begins about five thousand years ago. Let’s assume to establish a temporary anchor point that he was right and Egyptian civilization began five thousand years ago. Let’s also assume that a global catastrophe occurred. The survivors (however they managed to do that) would need a few centuries, perhaps a millennium, to get civilization started again. Then the catastrophe would have occurred somewhere between five and seven thousand years ago. The reason to claim this is if the catastrophe occurred more than, say, ten thousand years ago, I would expect evident markings of human civilization, such as a pyramid or two, from Egyptian civilization to go back at least eight thousand years, but no such markings exist.

The lack of clear markings of human civilization before Shaw’s date suggests a line of argument against those who reject that such a catastrophe happened. If there were no catastrophe and humanity were around for the last 100,000 years, then I would expect to see chronologies of various civilizations with architecture such as pyramids, art on display in museums and literature available on the internet that goes back at least 90,000 years, but nothing like that exists.

From a biblical perspective rather than an Egyptian one if there were a global flood as recorded in Genesis 6-9, then what we see around us makes sense and an assessment of when that occurred could be made using biblical chronology. Once one chooses which textual variants best represent the original autographs there would be enough information to come up with precise dates as anchor points. Henry B. Smith Jr and Steve Rudd both see the flood occurring about 3298 BC (and creation about 5554 BC). This is the oldest date I’ve seen for the global flood. It puts that catastrophe within the five and seven thousand year range that fits Shaw’s estimate of when Egyptian civilization began.

Given the biblical perspective of a global flooding catastrophe what we would expect to see is what we in fact do see: continent-wide sedimentary deposits filled with fossils, tectonic plate movement and uplifted mountains, floodwater flattened planation surfaces etched by deep canyons formed when flood waters flowed into ocean basins and an ice age with glaciers that persist to this day. Without those eight men and women and all kinds of birds and beasts safe on the Ark none of us would be here.

References:
Steve Rudd, Nimrod, 2019
Christopher Rupe and John Sanford, Contested Bones, 2017
Jonathan D. Sarfati, The Genesis Account, 2015
Ian Shaw, The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, 2000 (page 4)
Henry B. Smith Jr, The Case for the Septuagint Chronology in Genesis 5 and 11, 2018

Decay Rates Falsify Deep Time

If one is given a theory that something is very old, one way to test that theory would be to look for processes with measurable rates of decay that might falsify the theory. As it turns out such falsifying decay rates for deep time theories can be found.

Erosion
Within 50 million years the landforms we see around us should all be eroded down to sea level. That’s the decay rate. However, theories based on radiometric and fossil dating claim there are currently landforms over 500 million years old. If the modern erosion rate is correct those supposedly old landforms would no longer be here.

Genetic Entropy
Theory claims that mutations are the mechanism by which natural selection turns pond scum into human beings. However, mutations are generally deleterious. Our bodies do not always repair them. They are passed to the next generation. All that leads to mutational meltdown. When that occurs the species goes extinct because it is no longer able to reproduce. John Sanford called this genetic entropy. Going backwards Nathaniel Jeanson and Ashley Holland report on pedigree-based mutation rates showing that they are able to trace humanity back only thousands of years.

Dinosaur Soft Tissue
Collagen from a dinosaur would completely decay away within 3 million years even if optimally stored. According to theory dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago and yet some of their fossils contain original soft tissue. The conclusion should be obvious. The remains of these dinosaurs were laid down recently.

Carbon-14 Where There Shouldn’t Be Any
Carbon-14 has a half life of 5730 years. After a million years it should all be gone. However, fossils and even diamonds dating over 100 million years contain carbon-14. After a certain point does carbon-14 cease to be a reliable clock or is it that these fossils and diamonds are nowhere near as old as theory claims them to be?

Magnetic Fields
The earth’s magnetic field is decaying at the rate of 5% per century. Extrapolating the rate backwards the earth would have melted from the strength of the electric current as recently as 10,000 years ago. Regardless what any theory says about the age of the earth, given this rate of magnetic field decay the earth is younger than 10,000 years.

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For those accustomed to think in terms of billions of years God’s universe as I have portrayed it is shockingly young. However, there may be a hidden blessing awaiting those who finally see what is going on. The shock and bounce back could lead to a deeper appreciation of the glory of God.

It’s Spring

Dale offers the prompt “it’s spring” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.

The first photos are of rabbits born in a large outdoor flower pot. They soon all hopped away. I think I saw the mother rabbit earlier that year look in on them hoping they were all right.

The second photo is of an Indiana corn field that had been harvested in the autumn and was now waiting to be prepared to be planted again likely with soybeans to help replenish the ground with nitrogen.

Baby Rabbits
Baby Rabbits
Indiana Harvested Corn Field in the Spring

Silk – Six Sentence Story

Not having made a meme before Richard searched the internet for tools that would make one for him. Finding a few he sniffed his nose at he decided to do it the hard way and write his own code.

That exercise kept him merrily preoccupied for weeks. Once he figured out which package to use and which options to apply he realized how smooth as silk easy it was to put words and images together.

With all that procrastination out of the way Richard ran up against a problem even an internet search couldn’t answer. He couldn’t think of anything snarky enough to give him a wicked giggle that wouldn’t eventually make him regret he posted the meme in the first place.

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Denise offers the prompt word “silk” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

Out in the Country

Dale offers the prompt “out in the country” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.

The first photo was taken along a rural road in northwestern Indiana near the farm where I grew up. This is an agriculturally productive land out in the country where corn, soybeans and hay are raised on nearly fat fields.

The second photo is from a park in Colorado Springs providing a view of the mountains. In the distance is Pikes Peak. In the middle of the photo, if you know what you’re looking for, you can see the upright sedimentary rock formations known as “Garden of the Gods”. This is country also, but more mountainous than that in Indiana.

Spring Storm
Spring Storm, Northwestern Indiana
Pikes Peak from Colorado Springs

Joshua and the Sun Standing Still: The Holy Spirit Explanation

Joshua therefore came unto them suddenly, and went up from Gilgal all night.
10 And the Lord discomfited them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goeth up to Bethhoron, and smote them to Azekah, and unto Makkedah.
11 And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Bethhoron, that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died: they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword.
12 Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.
13 And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.

14 And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the Lord fought for Israel. Joshua 10:9-14 (KJV)

Image from the Bible Mapper Blog

There are two kinds of explanation of what happened at the conclusion of this battle that I don’t find satisfying: (1) claims that the miracle involved the sun ceasing to move across the sky, and (2) claims that the avenging process could have occurred naturally. I am looking for a miraculous explanation that is relevant to what Joshua likely wanted to accomplish.

When people today say the sun moves across the sky they mean the earth rotates. The sun only appears to move from the perspective of our activity on earth. Because the sun appears to move at a regular rate, we can use it as a clock to estimate how long something took.

Bernard Ramm described various explanations for the sun appearing to stand still in The Christian View of Science and Scripture, 1954, pp 156-161. He found three that he was willing to accept preferring the third.

  • Poetic:The cry of Joshua was then a cry for help and strength. His cry was answered with renewed vigor in his soldiers who then fought so valiantly and were so refreshed that they did a day’s work in half a day, and it seemed to them that the day had actually been lengthened.” (page 157)
  • Mirage: An unusual atmospheric refraction made it seem as if there were an extended amount of light.
  • Overcast Sky: Believing that what Joshua really asked for was darkness not a longer day, the hailstorm, mentioned in Joshua 10:11, that had already killed many Amorites while they fled from Beth-horon to Azekah continued to cool off the Israelites from the day’s heat helping them fight more effectively.

John Walton approached the problem as a misunderstanding of an ancient text. His view is that Joshua’s intent was merely that the Amorites be psychologically disadvantaged in seeing the positions of the sun and moon as a bad omen. Although I am suspicious of this theory, it does make a good point: Whatever Joshua asked for he likely wanted it to benefit the Israelites and harm the Amorites.

One doesn’t get such selective treatment that favors only the Israelites by asking for a change in the environment. Environmental changes such as a mirage of light to lengthen the day or clouds to shelter one from the heat would also aid the Amorites. They, too, would cool off. They would have more time to escape to walled cities. So these environmental explanations should be put aside including views that the earth or even the sun actually stopped moving.

If that’s correct about Joshua’s intent, and we choose to take a traditional reading of the text rather than Walton’s, then only Ramm’s poetic option remains. However, this explanation, as Ramm expressed it, suggests that Joshua somehow motivated his men to overtake the Amorites before they reached safety. While that might help, it would not give us a day such that “there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the Lord fought for Israel” (Joshua 10:14).

The good thing about the poetic explanation is that it shows a way for the sun to appear to stand still. If we felt the Lord overwhelm us to the extent that we moved faster than we knew we could have moved on our own, we might be inclined to think that the sun stood still while all that happened. The sun would be a confirmation that something miraculous had happened within us.

For this to be satisfying as an explanation, I need to clarify what such a miraculous overwhelming by the Lord might look like.

Before I describe what I think happened, especially since I could be wrong, we should keep in mind the advice from the Got Questions site: “While we may not fully understand how this “long day” occurred, a miracle does not have to be scientifically proven—just accepted.

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The Holy Spirit Explanation

After the Amorites fled and suffered losses from hailstones all the way to Azekah the sun appeared to stand still only for the Israelites. They alone were overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit. This gave them the power to avenge Israel against the Amorites. For a brief period of time as measured by the sun, but a whole day as measured by the normal bodily movement of the Israelites, the Lord as Holy Spirit filled them allowing them to rapidly overtake and avenge themselves on the fleeing Amorites.

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Do we see the Holy Spirit overwhelming people today in ways that suggest He could have acted as I suspect He did at the conclusion of that particular battle? I think we do.

The following video of a meeting in Accra, Ghana, with Rodney Howard-Browne shows how the Holy Spirit can overwhelm and act through someone. I started the video at 53:30 with Howard-Browne’s wife giving her testimony. She spoke of joy and the fire of God until about 1:08:00. After that for about four minutes she could barely speak without breaking into laughter. Based on the audience response and in spite of being incoherent that was when she communicated most effectively of all. We all could feel her joy.

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Admittedly, Joshua’s men needed a different manifestation of the Holy Spirit than Howard-Browne’s wife exhibited. What they received that day was unique. She likely experiences His power often. That the Holy Spirit could have overwhelmed them causing them to successfully pursue the Amorites in a short period of time is all I want to suggest in calling attention to how He overwhelmed her.

Although this explanation satisfies me, those who do not accept what happened to Howard-Browne’s wife as being an authentic overwhelming by the Holy Spirit would not find my explanation of what happened to Joshua’s men satisfying. If that’s the case, then they would need to look for something else. However, if they come up with an environmental explanation, then the argument that such would also benefit the Amorites needs to be addressed. If they come up with a naturalistic explanation, then the argument that what happened that day was unique and would not be repeated needs to be addressed.

We have come a long way thanks to the blood of Jesus. Today we yearn to be filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit. In Old Testament times they would recall accounts of the battle when the sun appeared to stand still and the Lord fought for Israel.

Lounge – Six Sentence Story

Demons love to lounge and blame and curse beneath a pretty sky.

With ugly words they seek to maim. Demons love to lounge and blame. Avoid them when they’re taking aim. Reject the shameless words that fly.

Demons love to lounge and blame and curse beneath a pretty sky.

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Denise offers the prompt word “lounge” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories. As a poem I posted this on Poet’s Corner.

Black Paint on White
Black Paint on White

Straight Lines

Dale offers the prompt “straight lines” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.

In the first photo there is the straight line of the horizon over Lake Michigan. The Chicago walkway by the lake provides even more straight lines.

In the second the horizon over the Atlantic Ocean provides a straight line along with the edge of the beach.

Lake Michigan
Atlantic Ocean

Zest – Six Sentence Story

Eileen, troubled as many of us are, was seeking never to be the same again as she watched dozens of people, some very old and some very, very young, fall and laugh overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit during the revival meeting. She knew this would not happen to all attendees since some understandably felt no zest to embarrass themselves in public in front of video cameras, but she wondered if it might happen to her in spite of her sitting in the middle of a row far in the back of the auditorium and in spite of her troubles.

The revival leader said he was looking only for those the Spirit showed him were ready as he walked the aisles. When he called her she nervously edged her way past the lukewarm spectators sitting next to her to get to the aisle knowing that—yes!—she, too, was going to fall and—yes!—she, too, was finally going to laugh.

Eileen raised her hands in praise, unnaturally fell backwards fearlessly into the arms of a catcher and laughed without restraint on the floor. Although decades later she would have proof, while lying there full of joy she already knew she would never be the same again.

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Denise offers the prompt word “zest” for this week’s Six Sentence Story.

The story occurred to me as I watched a video of a revival meeting led by Rodney Howard-Browne at ORU in 1993.

Seaweed floating to shore
Seaweed floating to shore

Intentional Camera Movement

Dale offers the theme “intentional camera movement” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.

At first I wondered if my cheap phone could take such photos. So I focused in on the traffic in the street and moved the phone while clicking the photo button. After a few tries I got something like the first photo.

That gave me encouragement. So I took a bunch more.

The second photo contains Venus and Jupiter, top right, in the early evening sky. They show up better when they’re blurry. The building and traffic in the first photo is down on the bottom left of the photo.

My phone can take blurry images!
View of the Evening Sky with Two Blurry Planets
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