By Joel H. ~
After listening to a podcast by The Thinking Atheist on the book "Why Evolution Is True" by Jerry Coyne, I decided to read the book for myself. In addition I've been watching Cosmos presented by Neil deGrasse Tyson as I have been learning all of the wondrous discoveries us humans have made about Earth's past as well as the universe. But this post is not going to be solely what I learned from Jerry and Neil. As I have been very open to the fact I believe evolution and the universe is billions of years old to be true since there is PLENTY of evidence supporting them, my uncle once again has challenged me. Earlier this week he stopped by the farm to drop off two DVDs he borrowed from his church's library on what creationist scientists had to say about the subject. Before watching any of them, I checked the back of each case to see where they had come from. I was not surprised, they had come from Ken Ham's Creation Museum.
The first I watched was "Created Cosmos" presented by Jason Lisle and concluded with the following of what he was trying to say.
All light from its source have the ability to travel to Earth in 6,000 years regardless of the distance? The speed of light is said to be a constant 299,792,458 m/s. How in the world can light from a star for example at a distance of 60,000 light years from Earth speed up to 2,997,924,850 m/s or ten times the speed of light? Answer, it can't, because the speed of light is constant no matter where you are in the universe. And you must consider the fact that many of these stars because of the big bang are moving away from us. Someday, they will no longer be able to be seen from Earth, but for this to happen in just 6,000 years? Come on, what's the catch Jason?
Stars age quicker the further you get away from the center of the universe? Yes, time is affected by gravity as experiments have shown but only by a few seconds not millions and billions of years. Clearly, time is almost a constant throughout the universe no matter where you are. For example, 12 inches equals 1 foot no matter where you go in the universe. But to the creationists, they could say 12 inches equals 1 foot near the center of the universe and further away 12 inches equals 1,000 feet as though they are the same thing! I'm having a hard time trying not to laugh!
Blue stars are the most common in the universe? Color and temperature do correlate to the age of a star, but you must remember stars vary in size as well. Quite easily a small slow burning red dwarf (which in fact are the most common) can have the same lifespan of a massive fast burning blue star. Two, you must take into account stars which burn much colder than blue stars are likely to be much harder to spot since they are DIMMER to us. Just because you can't see a star without a telescope or a pair of binoculars doesn't mean it's not there.
There's no such thing as Earth-like planets? Where have you gotten this knowledge from? You've looked across this ever expanding universe already? This just shows you have no interest in finding out if there are actually any. Yes, astronomers have labeled hundreds of planets as possibly Earth-like and we must venture out to verify that they are. But Jason, you're a "scientist", scientists are supposed to explore the world around them and report on what they find. I think you're just afraid that if there is even just one planet similar to Earth in the entire universe, the bible would then be open to questions of its validity. The very thing the church has tirelessly tried to prevent over the ages.
Even though it's been some three and half years since I was a christian, I haven't turned into a mindless immoral person as they said I would.Finally, there is nothing wrong with us "secular scientists" having our hypothesis not supported for an experiment. We try again and find out what's causing this to happen in the first place and before you know it, we've made a discovery. We've found information we didn't know before. There is absolutely nothing wrong about making mistakes in science and correcting upon the discovery of the mistake unless you're assuming that's a type of sin as well.
The second one I watched was "Millions Of Years Where Did The Idea Come From?" by Terry Mortenson. The guy for the first half presented that the reason for this was because geologists discovered what rock formations were and fossils found within them correlated to a specific time in Earth's history. But after that, the lecture suddenly became a sermon that if evolution were true, then the bible must not be true. If the bible is not true, then we no longer have any moral standards to live up to. Constantly, Terry referred to that this was not only a battle between evolution and creationism, but conservatives and liberals as well. And someday the church with the help of the creationists of the creation museum are going to "win" the battle against the "godless atheists."
Then for a moment, I thought back to those sermons at my family's church that spoke of these very things. If you believe evolution to be true, then you have lost the "real truth" as science has an agenda. Science is the reason why people are leaving the church and are turning into immoral people. Racism, pornography, drinking, etc is skyrocketing because we don't go to church as we used to.
And I look at my own life and how I've changed since leaving the church. Even though it's been some three and half years since I was a christian, I haven't turned into a mindless immoral person as they said I would. My morals come from the world around me. I realize through my own experience and while watching others what is morally right and wrong. Believing evolution to be true doesn't automatically label me as an "immoral liberal godless atheist." But Terry, even though I am one person, how is it that I become a threat to the millions of christian conservatives with your worldview? Oh wait, I know why, because there are many millions of people out there as well that believe evolution to be true. Because it's a popularity contest? No, because the evidence from the hundreds if not thousands of experiments us "secular scientists" have conducted over the years have shown it to be true. And if someday there was even just one piece of evidence showing evolution is wrong, we would change our minds.
Thanks everyone for reading this long post and I wish you all a good day.
The first I watched was "Created Cosmos" presented by Jason Lisle and concluded with the following of what he was trying to say.
- All light from stars (as well as planets and other celestial bodies) have the ability to travel to Earth in 6,000 years REGARDLESS of how far away the source of the light is
- Stars age quicker the further you get away from the center of the universe because time is quickened the less gravity there is from thousands of years to billions
- Blue stars, as they tend to burn the fuel they have more quickly compared to red stars, are more common because stars which are not blue might contradict what the bible says as that would suggest the universe is more than 6,000 years old
- There are no such thing as "Earth-like planets", see this planet here? It resembles the solar system's Jupiter and it is found where our Earth would be, foolish "secular scientists", that's god's way of showing "diversity"
- Whenever a hypothesis made by "secular scientists" is not supported, this means they will always be wrong no matter what about the universe and "creation scientists" are then championed right and perfect even if they did not do anything at all to advance scientific research
All light from its source have the ability to travel to Earth in 6,000 years regardless of the distance? The speed of light is said to be a constant 299,792,458 m/s. How in the world can light from a star for example at a distance of 60,000 light years from Earth speed up to 2,997,924,850 m/s or ten times the speed of light? Answer, it can't, because the speed of light is constant no matter where you are in the universe. And you must consider the fact that many of these stars because of the big bang are moving away from us. Someday, they will no longer be able to be seen from Earth, but for this to happen in just 6,000 years? Come on, what's the catch Jason?
Stars age quicker the further you get away from the center of the universe? Yes, time is affected by gravity as experiments have shown but only by a few seconds not millions and billions of years. Clearly, time is almost a constant throughout the universe no matter where you are. For example, 12 inches equals 1 foot no matter where you go in the universe. But to the creationists, they could say 12 inches equals 1 foot near the center of the universe and further away 12 inches equals 1,000 feet as though they are the same thing! I'm having a hard time trying not to laugh!
Blue stars are the most common in the universe? Color and temperature do correlate to the age of a star, but you must remember stars vary in size as well. Quite easily a small slow burning red dwarf (which in fact are the most common) can have the same lifespan of a massive fast burning blue star. Two, you must take into account stars which burn much colder than blue stars are likely to be much harder to spot since they are DIMMER to us. Just because you can't see a star without a telescope or a pair of binoculars doesn't mean it's not there.
There's no such thing as Earth-like planets? Where have you gotten this knowledge from? You've looked across this ever expanding universe already? This just shows you have no interest in finding out if there are actually any. Yes, astronomers have labeled hundreds of planets as possibly Earth-like and we must venture out to verify that they are. But Jason, you're a "scientist", scientists are supposed to explore the world around them and report on what they find. I think you're just afraid that if there is even just one planet similar to Earth in the entire universe, the bible would then be open to questions of its validity. The very thing the church has tirelessly tried to prevent over the ages.
Even though it's been some three and half years since I was a christian, I haven't turned into a mindless immoral person as they said I would.Finally, there is nothing wrong with us "secular scientists" having our hypothesis not supported for an experiment. We try again and find out what's causing this to happen in the first place and before you know it, we've made a discovery. We've found information we didn't know before. There is absolutely nothing wrong about making mistakes in science and correcting upon the discovery of the mistake unless you're assuming that's a type of sin as well.
The second one I watched was "Millions Of Years Where Did The Idea Come From?" by Terry Mortenson. The guy for the first half presented that the reason for this was because geologists discovered what rock formations were and fossils found within them correlated to a specific time in Earth's history. But after that, the lecture suddenly became a sermon that if evolution were true, then the bible must not be true. If the bible is not true, then we no longer have any moral standards to live up to. Constantly, Terry referred to that this was not only a battle between evolution and creationism, but conservatives and liberals as well. And someday the church with the help of the creationists of the creation museum are going to "win" the battle against the "godless atheists."
Then for a moment, I thought back to those sermons at my family's church that spoke of these very things. If you believe evolution to be true, then you have lost the "real truth" as science has an agenda. Science is the reason why people are leaving the church and are turning into immoral people. Racism, pornography, drinking, etc is skyrocketing because we don't go to church as we used to.
And I look at my own life and how I've changed since leaving the church. Even though it's been some three and half years since I was a christian, I haven't turned into a mindless immoral person as they said I would. My morals come from the world around me. I realize through my own experience and while watching others what is morally right and wrong. Believing evolution to be true doesn't automatically label me as an "immoral liberal godless atheist." But Terry, even though I am one person, how is it that I become a threat to the millions of christian conservatives with your worldview? Oh wait, I know why, because there are many millions of people out there as well that believe evolution to be true. Because it's a popularity contest? No, because the evidence from the hundreds if not thousands of experiments us "secular scientists" have conducted over the years have shown it to be true. And if someday there was even just one piece of evidence showing evolution is wrong, we would change our minds.
Thanks everyone for reading this long post and I wish you all a good day.
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