The Ubiquity of Cycles
By: Jim Virkler; ©2012 As a science educator I was called upon, to the best of my ability, to make my subject matter accessible and interesting, even fascinating. Because of their curiosity, we are told children are natural-born scientists. That is true to a great extent. After children develop into teenagers and later morph into…
Read MoreTheology of Creation
By: Jim Virkler; ©2012 What is the meaning of the Theology of Creation? A large body of literature exists on this topic. Creation and creationism is often conflated with a record of the creation event, dealing with the who, the when, and the how of origins of our world and the cosmos. The topic generates…
Read MoreSpeaking of the Weather
By: Jim Virkler; ©2012 Light banter about the weather is a common sequel to our friendly greetings when we encounter a neighbor. In our region the light banter has become more detailed of late as my neighbors in Northern Illinois exult over a mild and virtually snow free December and January. Our frigid, snow covered…
Read MoreBedrock Tenets
By: Jim Virkler; ©2012 The paradigm of “No Death before the Fall” of Adam and Eve has become one of the bedrock tenets of the belief in a young earth currently held by many millions of evangelical Christians. Young earth believers must adhere to this belief in order to preserve their fundamental doctrinal belief that…
Read MoreFundamental Changes?
By: Jim Virkler; ©2011 Some creationists propose that from the time the creation was completed by God as described in Genesis 1, it has undergone some fundamental changes in its physical operation. They argue these changes occurred as a result of man’s sin and subsequent alienation from God in the Garden of Eden after a…
Read MorePsychological Arrow of Time
By: Jim Virkler; ©2011 Time may be considered either a coffee table discussion topic or an esoteric subject of interest mainly to scientists and philosophers. Coffee table conversationalists sometimes say, “Time flies!” or they complain about their day “dragging.” Similar comments are meant to poke fun at our subjective state of mind. But we all…
Read MoreCosmological Arrow of Time
By: Jim Virkler; ©2011 The cosmological arrow of time signals a constantly expanding universe. As we observe this phenomenon we have a sense of time moving forward. Our universe was smaller in time past; as it grows larger we move into the future. This observable fact logically points to the inescapable conclusion that our universe…
Read More2nd Law Outcomes
By: Jim Virkler; ©2011 Statements from skeptics that a loving, benevolent God should not permit decay, pain, suffering, evil, or death do not indicate their basic understanding of the advantages of living in a world governed by the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. Such declarations are motivated by their desire to incriminate God. Scientists, in particular,…
Read MoreTime and the 2nd Law
By: Jim Virkler; ©2011 Stephen Hawking discusses three arrows of time in his popular 1988 volume A Brief History of Time and subsequent updates. He defines an arrow of time as “something which distinguishes the past from the future, giving a direction to time.” One of the three is the thermodynamic arrow of time. The…
Read MoreFrom Start to Finish
By: Jim Virkler; ©2011 Jesus Christ’s startling utterance “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End” (Rev. 22:13) could not refer to the beginning and ending of Christ’s existence, for He is eternal. Rather, the passage refers to the beginning and ending of this present dimension…
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