Genesis 22 - 27

Today in class we covered the following stories:

• How an Angel's Voice Saved a Boy's Life
• Story of a Journey After a Wife
• How Jacob Stole His Brother's Blessing

See if you do as well on this test as Ezra T., who will be taking his gift card to Borders!

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

The Case for a Creator - Part 3

PHYSICS

This week's video clip (from The Case for a Creator) covered how the science of physics points to a creator.

The basic premise of the whole clip was that a whole lot of things had to go exactly right for life to exist on earth!

For example, if gravity was just a tiny bit stronger, no organism larger than a pea could survive.  It would be squashed!

If the universe expanded any faster than it is, things would not stay together!

If the earth spun faster, we would be thrown off!

Our distance from the sun and composition of our atmosphere are exactly right for us to neither freeze nor burn to a crisp!

If we did not have a moon, and one that was exactly where it is, and the size it is, the earth would not be tilted the way it is, which would screw up the seasons and tides!

Elements like liquid water, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, etc. - in the precise amounts that we have them - are kind of a big deal for life on earth!

So what is the point?  The point is pretty simple.  If the earth, and the whole universe for that matter, is so finely tuned for our existence...   doesn't it make sense that there must be a "fine tuner"?

Strobel closed with an interesting observation.  Not only is our habitat uniquely designed for us - but it appears to have been created in such a way for us to discover it.  Our atmosphere is not too thick for us to peer out at the universe.  We can grind lenses that allow us to see things that are very small or very distant.  We can even see inside an atom!  Besides sustaining us, it appears as if the universe was actually designed for us to discover it!  This reminded me of messages throughout the bible that all of creation declares the glory of God!

Genesis 16 - 21

Today in class we covered the following lessons:

• The Angel by the Well
• The Rain of Fire That Fell on a City
• The Boy Who Became an Archer

Test yourself and see if you know these stories as well as Alex L., who I'm sure will be visiting Dunham's very soon!

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

The Case for a Creator - Part 2

COSMOLOGY

This week's video clip (from The Case for a Creator) covered "cosmology", which is a fancy word for the study of the universe.

We learned that from the times of the ancients all the way to 1953, people all over the world have believed that the universe is static, or constant.  This means that it is as it has always been - no change.  I suppose this makes sense if you don't know otherwise.  It's easy to understand why they would make gods to represent these planets and stars which they believed had never changed.

In 1953, Einstein proposed the theory of relativity.  One of the ideas of his theory was that the universe was moving.  It was either contracting or expanding, but not staying the same.  Around the same time, a Belgian astronomer named Lemaître developed a theory that the universe was constantly expanding.  Building on this, American astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered that objects appear to be moving at a speed proportional to their distance from the earth.

This leads to a couple of interesting observations.  First of all, if things are expanding out from earth, then everything must have started from here!  Think of the universe expanding like rings of ripples expand from where a stone was thrown in a lake.  The center of those rings is where it all started.  Similarly, think of the universe of stars and planets as dots on a balloon.  As you blow the balloon up, the stars stay in the same arrangement - they just get farther out from the center.  What is at the center?  We are!

The second observation is that at some point, the universe must have been smaller and denser.  Our earth is at the center of the balloon in the last example.  The stars keep going farther away, but since we are in the center, they continue to look the same to us.  Imagine if we could watch time in reverse.  Instead of the balloon getting larger, it would get smaller.  Instead of everything going farther away, it would get closer to the center.  At some time, there was a beginning of things.  Everything must have been in one single point.  The cosmologists call this "singularity".  Sounds to me a lot like the creation story in Genesis!

In the video, Strobel also explained something called "Kalam's Cosmological Argument".  It is a concept that goes like this:

1. Whatever begins to exist must have had something that caused it
2. At some point the universe began to exist (singularity)
3. Therefore, the universe had a cause

When you say something "had a cause", isn't that a fancy way to say "it had a creator"?

As Strobel pointed out, the science of Cosmology points directly to a creator!

Genesis 10 - 17

Today in class we covered the following lessons:

• The Tower That Was Never Finished
• The Story of a Long Journey
• How Abram's Choice Brought Blessing
• The Angel by the Well

Think you know these stories? See if you did as well as Daejuan H., who took home a gift card to WalMart!

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

The Case for a Creator - Part 1

Today we watched the first part of Lee Strobel's video "The Case for a Creator"
It started a lot of good conversation.  What do YOU think about these questions?

• Is science good or bad?
• What is the role of science?
• Should we trust in science?
• Is belief in God a weakness?
• What are the problems with Stanley Miller's 1953 experiment?
• What are the problems with Darwin's "Tree of Life"?

You guys had some great answers!  There were two topics that came up that I think were a surprise to many of you.

#1 - The Big Bang isn't in itself incompatible with God's creation

Scientists have observed that planets and stars appear to be moving away from us in all directions.  I think this is cool!  This implies that at some point, everything that exists was in one place.  And when it was in that place is when it came to be.  So, when we say "God spoke it into being", is it possible that it was a big deal?  Could it have made some noise and caused some disruption?  I think so!  I think the thing that scientists call "The Big Bang" is simply proof that God made a whole lot of stuff happen in an instant, and it completely changed history.

#2 - God uses evolution

I'm not talking about the evolution you read about in your science textbooks.  I'm not talking about chickens turning into monkeys and fish turning into people.  That is something called macro-evolution.  This is a silly idea for a lot of reasons!  Here are just a few we learned about today:

• In all of the experiments that have been done trying to create life, people used ingredients.  Where did those ingredients come from?!
• In all of the experiments, a scientist is conducting the experiment.  If life started up all by itself, why is the scientist needed?!
• In the fossil record, we see all kinds of creatures that all enter the scene in what they call "The Cambrian Explosion".  They are all the animals we are familiar with now!  Where did they come from? Why don't we see a few animals that gradually turn into lots of other kinds of animals?

So how does God use evolution?  Have you ever watched a dog show?  Have you seen how many breeds there are?!  And they are breeding new ones still today.  They are all related, and all came from the same source, and this happened over time.  Sometimes people breed things, and sometimes it happens naturally.  People combine plants to come up with new fruit trees.  Fish get trapped in a ship's ballast and get transplanted to a new habitat where they learn to survive differently.  All these are called micro-evolution.  Don't confuse this with macro evolution.  God made one pair of humans, and from them we have the many races of people we see today.  Similarly, he probably made one pair of wolves that turned into all the types of dogs we see today.  One pair of birds, one pair of butterflies, etc...  So - God created like he said.  Creatures can change over time to respond to their environment (micro-evolution).  But creatures don't turn into different types of creatures (macro-evolution)!

Evil Eye

This hilarious little kid has learned a funny trick.  This video is dedicated to Sydney who reminded me that I hadn't posted it yet!