Four Origins Alternatives
By: Jim Virkler; ©2013 Recently I wound down a long-running discussion with a theistic evolutionist. He claimed deciding whether God intervened along the geological timeline periodically (a creationist view) or whether God created a fully gifted creation at the beginning and endowed it with freedom to form the present multiplicity of species (an evolutionist view)…
Read MoreResolving YEC Problems
By: Jim Virkler; ©2013 Several problems beg for resolution as believers in a young earth and young universe examine the modern findings of astronomers and geologists. Some news, such as the Decorah impact crater discovered in Iowa has recently been publicized. Decorah has the telltale remains of an asteroid impact 450 million years ago. Do…
Read MoreDistressed by Old Age
By: Jim Virkler; ©2013 Aging people are often distressed to acknowledge their own symptoms of advanced age. Young people prefer that their parents would remain young and vibrant. In a different sphere of experience, many Christians are troubled by the revelation that our universe is very old. They believe the earth is young. Physical evidence…
Read MoreIowa Impact Crater
By: Jim Virkler; ©2013 Had Russia’s 55 foot wide meteor not smacked into Chelyabinsk recently, it is doubtful you would hear about the Iowa event on this blog. After all, an asteroid strike in the United States as wide as a city block puts the Russian event to shame. Before becoming too alarmed, we must…
Read MoreMiracles of Astronomy?
By: Jim Virkler; ©2013 Miracle is an overworked and sometimes misunderstood word. In everyday usage, the term is applied to many everyday events, including personal health events in which we observe extraordinary recovery from various maladies. Everyday events are described as miracles if the events are significantly out of the ordinary. In 2012 I submitted…
Read MoreOrder-keeper Jupiter
By: Jim Virkler; ©2013 The recent meteor explosion over Russia has triggered more inquiries than usual concerning the hazards of living in our Solar System. There are countless multitudes of objects whirling through our Solar System apart from the familiar planets. Uncounted millions of meteoroids and asteroids larger than the Russian object inhabit our region…
Read MoreSolar System Stability
By: Jim Virkler; ©2013 The recent 100-year meteor strike on February 15 may have triggered some apprehension about the stability of our Solar System, the abode of humans in the cosmos. By marked coincidence, Asteroid 2012 DA14 passed Earth from a different direction on the same day, coming within 17000 miles, closer than nearby earth…
Read MoreMeteors of the Century
By: Jim Virkler; ©2013 The term “….. of the century” conjures up reverent awe. In a culture immersed in literary superlatives, we may have difficulty distinguishing the literary from the literal. Consider 100-year weather, geological, astronomical, or historical events–are they real, or are they assigned truth status only by a journalist? Some events gain 100-year…
Read MoreStorms of the Century
By: Jim Virkler; ©2013 So-called hundred year storms occur with increasing frequency, sometimes every ten years, we joke. Hundred year storms are not a predictable phenomenon, because weather systems do not depend on long-range statistical predictions. The science of probability is far from exact. The early February New England snowstorm was touted in many reports…
Read MoreVagaries of Weather
By: Jim Virkler; ©2013 Most of our friends are enthused about pleasant weather–“Sunny and warm with low humidity, gentle breezes and a few picturesque clouds.” Perhaps other acquaintances are moved to grouse about unpleasant weather–“Excess cold, too much rain and wind, too hot, too dry, or too stormy.” Some weather forecasters and weather channels virtually…
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