Archives for December 2016

Do miracles really occur?

[SPOILER ALERT: if you haven't seen the movie Miracles from Heaven and don't know the story but want to see it, this article will spoil the ending, so you might not want to read it yet.] Some people don't believe in miracles, because they don't believe in a supernatural God. However, only the first dictionary definition of "miracle" refers to divine intervention; it offers a more secular alternate definition that describes miracles merely as any extremely unusual event or accomplishment. Samuel Clemens (a.k.a. "Mark Twain") wrote: Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't. And what is the truth? Quid est veritas? As the author of three novels and three nonfiction books and articles, let me assure you that writing non-ficton is considerably easier than creating the plot of a novel from scratch. The fictional story must appear to be plausible enough to the reader that he or she becomes willing to suspend his or her disbelief. The same isn't the case for stories purported to be true -- they simply require verifiable evidence to support any claims being made in the account. Take the plot of the movie Miracles from Heaven, for example. The main story simply sounds ludicrous --  a young girl suffering terribly from a rare, incurable stomach disease falls thirty feet inside a rotted tree, landing on her head. But the fall that should have killed young Anna Beam allegedly cured her. Though her neck should have been broken, and her skull smashed in pieces, not only does she survive with only … [Read more...]

The enigma of Abraham and Isaac

In my opinion, there is only so much one can learn from simply reading the Bible alone. To get real value out of the Bible, you have to participate in a Bible study. Otherwise, it's too easy to cheat. For example, for years I simply ignored verses or whole chapters in the Bible that didn't make sense to me. I didn't want to think about a God who wanted blood rituals or human sacrifices. In fact, I tended to avoid the Old Testament, preferring the personification of God as being the loving, kind, and forgiving Jesus, not the apparently cruel and  vacillating Yahweh of the Old Testament. Once upon a time, I was kicked out of one Bible study group after saying that Yahweh and Jesus almost seemed to be two different Gods. But later, in a different, much smaller group that studied the book of Genesis painstakingly line by line, I was forced to confront a chapter than had always bothered me. Bible study inspired me to turn the story into a chapter in my first published book. In Divine Evolution there is a chapter called "Misunderstanding God", which begins by quoting the first verse of Bob Dylan's masterpiece Highway 61 Revisited, which reinterprets the story from Genesis 22: Ah, God said to Abraham, Kill me a son Abe say "Man, you must be puttin' me on." God say, "No." Abe say, "What?" God say, "You can do what you want, Abe, but The next time you see me comin' you'd better run. Well Abe say, "Where you want this killin' done?" God says, "Out on Highway 61." The song gives Dylan's colorful interpretation of the story of Abraham and Isaac -- but the … [Read more...]

The B/Z reaction, and the problem with peer review

In 1951, the brilliant British scientist Alan Turing published a paper proposing a theory in chemistry called morphogenesis, which explains how cells are grouped together within an organism. According to Turing, oscillating chemical reactions predictable by mathematical formula are partially responsible for organizing cells to form organs, bone, and tissue. Of course, Turing's greatest claim to fame was his role as the leader of the team that remarkably broke the Enigma code during World War II, the secret German code once considered unbreakable, as depicted in the excellent film The Imitation Game. Unfortunately, Turing committed suicide only three years after his paper on morphogenesis was published, after his prosecution for the "crime" of being homosexual. Alan Turing didn't live to see the publication of evidence that would have validated his theory almost immediately. Only a few years after Turing's paper on morphogenesis was published, chemist Boris Belousov mixed potassium bromate with citric acid, discovering that the blended mixture changed colors as the fluids oscillated and chemicals reacted, which seems to prove Turing's theory. And as these videos illustrate, the phenomenon is actually very easy to replicate by experiment. However, when Belousov attempted to have his research published in 1951, the leading scientific journals flatly rejected his work, based on the assumption that the experiment results were "impossible." Only a single paragraph from Belousov's analysis was finally published four years later, in 1955. Alan Turing was already … [Read more...]

Echolocating night-hunting aerial interceptors

The book Evolutionary Wars contains a section bearing the title above. In layman's terms, it describes the method by which bats hunt insects at night. Author Levy writes, The most difficult task for nocturnal airborne predators is to detect, locate, intercept and successfully engage a moving target.  To achieve success, the predator must acquire an almost continuous stream of information giving instantaneous data about the target's size, velocity, direction and altitude. (pg. 188) The complexity of the work involved for mere survival of the bat is astounding.  Flying is only one complex function. By its description echolocating is several -- essentially using its "naturally" occurring sonar capability to navigate and hunt without being able to physically "see" it's prey. As part of a lengthy technical description of how bats eat insects, Levy says, If the echo returns at a lower pitch, the target is moving away; if the echo is at a higher pitch, the target is approaching. Each ear picks up the echo at a slightly different intensity and time.  In this way, the bat's minuscule on board computer, it's 10 milligram brain automatically triangulates and gives in-flight directions for the intercept. Charles Levy implies a slight in his opinion of this remarkable creature when he  describes the bat's brain by weight.  Admittedly, only ten milligrams for a brain is only a tiny fraction of the weight of the brain an average human carries around in their head, is around three pounds. On the other hand, I've learned there are some birds that seem to be a bit smarter … [Read more...]