Just cool....

No, this image is not animated. Matter of fact, it's not moving at all.

This is a result of what's called "peripheral drift vision"...it's rapid eye movement that occurs constantly...even when you think your eyes are perfectly still...

Like I said, it's just cool...

A revolution in the sky...

Today is the 540th  birthday of Nicolaus Copernicus, author of De revolutionibus orbium coelestium which, for the first time in history, placed the Sun in the center of the universe with all other planets revolving around it. Until he mathematically proved this theory, all thought the Earth to be at the center.

 Sometime between 1510 and 1514 [Copernicus] wrote an essay that has come to be known as the 'Commentariolus,' which introduced his new cosmological idea, the heliocentric universe." At the time, the prevailing theory, codified by the 1st century philosopher Ptolemy, was geocentrism – the belief, in short, that all celestial bodies revolve around the earth. Undertaking an extensive analysis of the path of the planets overhead, Copernicus argued that in fact it was the sun that was at the center of the solar system.

His work drew the ire of the Catholic Church and of Martin Luther himself, but in the end Copernicus proved to be correct. His theory ushered in the Scientific Revolution which was the beginning of modern science.

During a Roman Catholic ritual in 2010, his remains were interred beneath the altar of Frombork Cathedral in northern Poland, where the astronomer had been the canon (head priest) and where he originally was buried in 1543.The exact location of his grave had been lost and his remains were not conclusively identified until 2005, through the use of modern DNA testing.

Ruling out God?

According to an article I read recently, science doesn't need God to explain our universe, or how it came to be...

Over the past few centuries, science can be said to have gradually chipped away at the traditional grounds for believing in God. Much of what once seemed mysterious — the existence of humanity, the life-bearing perfection of Earth, the workings of the universe — can now be explained by biology, astronomy, physics and other domains of science. 

Although cosmic mysteries remain, Sean Carroll, a theoretical cosmologist at the California Institute of Technology, says there's good reason to think science will ultimately arrive at a complete understanding of the universe that leaves no grounds for God whatsoever.

Carroll argues that God's sphere of influence has shrunk drastically in modern times, as physics and cosmology have expanded in their ability to explain the origin and evolution of the universe. "As we learn more about the universe, there's less and less need to look outside it for help," he told Life's Little Mysteries.

....Judged by the standards of any other scientific theory, the "God hypothesis" does not do very well, Carroll argues. But he grants that "the idea of God has functions other than those of a scientific hypothesis."

Psychology research suggests that belief in the supernatural acts as societal glue and motivates people to follow the rules; further, belief in the afterlife helps people grieve and staves off fears of death.

"We're not designed at the level of theoretical physics," Daniel Kruger, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Michigan, told LiveScience last year. What matters to most people "is what happens at the human scale, relationships to other people, things we experience in a lifetime."

So, I'm supposed to believe that our the earth, the perfect environment for human life just happened? One little shift, this way or that, and it just doesn't work? Sounds cold, calculating and clinical to me. Scientists can explain away God but they can't explain:

Why cat's purr...

How a bicycle works...

Why there are lefties and righties...

What causes static electricity...

Why yawning is contagious... 

I'm not trying to undermine science...our world should be studied. Just wish they'd stop trying to undermine my God.

April 3, 33

According to geologists, this may well be the date Jesus was crucified:

To analyze earthquake activity in the region, geologist Jefferson Williams of Supersonic Geophysical and colleagues Markus Schwab and Achim Brauer of the German Research Center for Geosciences studied three cores from the beach of the Ein Gedi Spa adjacent to the Dead Sea.

Varves, which are annual layers of deposition in the sediments, reveal that at least two major earthquakes affected the core: a widespread earthquake in 31 B.C. and an early first century seismic event that happened sometime between 26 A.D. and 36 A.D.

But the earthquake clues are not enough to prove the story:


In terms of textual clues to the date of the crucifixion, Williams quoted a Nature paper authored by Colin Humphreys and Graeme Waddington. Williams summarized their work as follows:

• All four gospels and Tacitus in Annals (XV,44) agree that the crucifixion occurred when Pontius Pilate was procurator of Judea from 26-36 AD.
• All four gospels say the crucifixion occurred on a Friday.
• All four gospels agree that Jesus died a few hours before the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath (nightfall on a Friday).
• The synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) indicate that Jesus died before nightfall on the 15th day of Nisan; right before the start of the Passover meal.
• John’s gospel differs from the synoptics; apparently indicating that Jesus died before nightfall on the 14th day of Nisan.

When data about the Jewish calendar and astronomical calculations are factored in, a handful of possible dates result, with Friday April 3, 33 A.D. being the best match, according to the researchers.

You can read the rest of the story here

Created

The "Strandbeests" are powered by wind...and move on their own...wouldn't it be exciting to watch one walk by? The power of human ingenuity!

Hubble...

Who knew? The Hubble telescope has a website...guess I should have figured out someone would post the information but the pictures are spectacular...do yourself a favor and go in for a visit!

Hubble's 20th anniversary image shows a mountain of dust and gas rising in the Carina Nebula. The top of a three-light-year tall pillar of cool hydrogen is being worn away by the radiation of nearby stars, while stars within the pillar unleash jets of gas that stream from the peaks.

Aliens

I can't believe I missed this article concerning Alien Life and Greenhouse gases...

Watching from afar, extraterrestrial beings might view changes in Earth's atmosphere as symptomatic of a civilization growing out of control – and take drastic action to keep us from becoming a more serious threat, the researchers explain.

"Green" aliens might object to the environmental damage humans have caused on Earth and wipe us out to save the planet. "These scenarios give us reason to limit our growth and reduce our impact on global ecosystems. It would be particularly important for us to limit our emissions of greenhouse gases, since atmospheric composition can be observed from other planets," the authors write.

They may attack us because of the destructive influence we are having on our planet...excuse me? Did I miss the part where it has been established that there are aliens in our galaxy?

But if I believe in God and believe Him to be the Maker and Creator of everything, wouldn't He have also created the aliens? Just wondering!

Can they prove it?

If you read Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons" or saw the movie by the same name, then you are familiar with the terms "God Particle" and Cern.

An article in the The Telegraph states that scientists may be close to proving it exists...or at least seeing it. According to theory, the "God Particle" will explain how the universe works or at least what holds it together at the sub-atomic level.

And we should know by next year...not to belittle science, I'm sure it's would be an extraordinarily important piece of information, but why the name? Come to find out, it's a media invention and many scientists dislike it, since it overstates the particle's importance. Not least since its discovery would still leave too many questions unanswered...first and foremost in many scientists minds, the ultimate origin of the universe. Perhaps we could shed a little light on how that happened...

The Woolly Mammoth

Check out the article here.

Japanese scientists are proposing to "clone" a woolly Mammoth and it looks as if they have a very good shot at pulling it off. My question is, should they? Mammoths died out at the end of the last Ice Age. Although some scientists argue that man killed them all, I find that hard to believe. We don't have a complete understanding of how many humans may have been roaming the world at that time, but imagine how many people it would have taken to kill off an entire population of these animals. I know it happens all the time in today's world but, we are fast approaching the 7 billion people mark. Add to that the primitive weapons of the time and what it took to actually kill one. I feel as if perhaps they were meant to become extinct. But then, that's just my opinion and I'm no scientist.

My main question is...should we clone these animals just because we can? To what purpose? To find out why they all died? Again, to what purpose? What do you think?

Symphony of Science

God uses the most unlikely people in the most unlikely ways, to reach us...

As in this Symphony

Tower of Babel

When I read this article, the Tower of Babel was the first thought that popped into my head. Climbing to the edge of space, wasn't that tried once before in Genesis 11. I noticed it said that "failure of a few modules would not cause the whole structure to collapse". Well, that makes me feel better, what about you?