Sunday, November 29, 2015

How Did Moses Get So Darned Smart?

   The first five books of the Judeo-Christian scriptures are attributed to Moses who lived long after some of the events recorded there.  For example, the account of creation found in the early chapters of the book of Genesis, pretty much describes the earth in its early state ('...without form and void.").  He then goes on to give a pretty accurate description of the earth as it cooled including the miles thick layer of water vapor that surrounded the planet and prevented any light from reaching the surface ("...and darkness was upon the face of the deep.").   As the earth cooled, the water vapor gradually condensed, creating the seas.  The light from the sun reached the earth for the first time.  ("...and God said let there be light and there was light,..and the evening and the morning were the first day.")
   As the water vapor slowly condensed, there was no clear division between the clouds and the surface.  The surface temperature of the earth would have been close to the boiling point of water.  Volcanoes spewed tons of sulfur dioxide, ash and rock into the newly formed seas, making the water a toxic soup.  The next development, according to Moses, was the appearance of a layer of clear air between the surface and the clouds ("...and God divided the waters which were above the earth from those that were on the surface.")  The evening and the morning were the second day.
   As the earth cooled, titanic convulsions took place on the new planet that produced rock jutting out above the water as the earth's crust was formed.  Moses describes it:  "Let the waters be gathered together, and let the dry land appear."
   An interesting aside:  The next event listed was the creation of plants.  The fossil record shows one-celled plants to be the first living creatures to appear .  Plants, according to Moses, did not appear in the sea as many scientists assume, but on the newly formed land.  This would have been consistent with the fresh water that was abundant on the land from the constant torrential rains. The fresh water made the harboring of life possible.  This was the third day.
   As the clouds gradually dissipated, the sun, moon and the stars became visible.  Moses describes it ..." and God made two great lights, the greater to rule the day and the lesser to rule the night,  He made the stars also."  This was the fourth day.
   On the fifth day, God created the birds, fish, mammals, that populated the seas and the land.
   On day six, God created man "in his own image."  He created male and female and gave them charge over all of the rest of creation.
   God rested from his creating on the seventh day.
   What does all of this mean?
   Moses clearly could not have been there during the millions of years covered in this account.  What is so utterly baffling is how he got the general scheme of things right.  The fossil record clearly shows a progression of events that closely matches this account, if one assumes that this is how it would have appeared if viewed from the earth.
   Now to add to his incredible resume, Moses also came up with a set of guiding principles designed to provide a blueprint for living a healthy, successful and rich life.  These principles known as "the ten commandments" stand alone in the history of human thought as the legal bulwark for the most powerful nation in history,  These principles have produced the Holy Grail of organized society: fully codified human liberty and justice!
   I challenge you, seekers, to set aside your preconceived notion about the world and set down with the most influential book ever to have been written and find out for yourselves.. It's just too easy to dismiss something which you have never wrestled with.
 

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

The Missing Link

   I saw a statement that made me realize just how committed some scientists are to the theory of evolution as an explanation of how things got here.  The Wikipedia entry under evolution characterized it:  "...the origin of species by natural selection is one of the most well understood and indisputable scientific principles there is."
   There is no question that something has happened over the earth's history which has resulted in the rich diversity of life that we see.  Given the complexity of living things, however, there is much room for questions about the process (if there is one) by which this life came to be.
   Consider the DNA molecule, for example.  The data storage capacity of DNA is absolutely staggering.  A child is conceived when two snippets of DNA, half from each parent, come together. The highly sensitive environment in the mother's womb which makes this union possible was already programmed in the DNA of both the father and mother years before this union took place.  That very same instruction set is also contained in the new baby's newly formed DNA.
   A supervisory instruction set is included in the first cell which directs the developing cell to differentiate into the various organs, bones, features, etc. at certain specific times.
  Go now thirty years later and multiple trillions (or more) cell divisions and you will find that even the finest nuances of the parental DNA are expressed in the now adult human, even to personality traits, propensities for body weight, vulnerability to some diseases, artistic abilities, interest, and a huge number of other characteristics including hair color, facial features, foot size, etc.  All the while, the original cell no longer exists.
   Now the theory of evolution by natural selection explanation of how things got here asks one to believe that this level of sophistication is the result of some "natural" process that somehow appeared out of nowhere.
   The language of this "scientific" discourse has been so severely defined  that no common sense person could hope to understand what is meant.  For example, one cannot say that "the robin flies south in the winter in order to escape the cold and snow."  That statement implies that the robin had some sort of "knowledge" about the coming winter and the shortage of food.  Rather, the statement is changed to say "the robin flies south in the winter and thereby avoids the cold winter.  Collectively, therefore, only those robins who flew south survived and that behavior is now programmed into their DNA.
   Consider the folly of this torture of language:  In order for this behavior to have become expressed due to natural selection and survival of the fittest, that instruction set would have had to have been there first!
  I plead with you seekers.  The term "natural" is code name for no-outside-agency in the explanation of how things got here.
   Keep in mind that there is absolutely no evidence of one species morphing into another.  Species differ by billions of instruction sets, not just a few as they would have you believe.