Reasons to Believe Podcast

Join Fazale “Fuz” Rana and Jeff Zweerink as they discuss new discoveries taking place at the frontiers of science that have theological and philosophical implications, including the reality of God’s existence.

Biological Basis for Belief?

As human beings, our religious nature defines us. Treating it as a scientific question, many scientists wonder, how do we account for human spirituality and religiosity? Are there brain structures and processes that explain this behavior? Using lesion mapping, a research team from Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital recently determined the brain regions and neural circuits that account for religiosity and spirituality.

This study (amongst others) raises troubling questions for Christians.

Is our spirituality and response to religion based on our brain’s biology?

Is there a materialistic, mechanistic explanation for religious acceptance?

Do people really experience God?

In this episode, biochemist Fuz Rana addresses these questions and presents a model that accommodates these scientific findings, while retaining a biblical view of human nature.

Woke at the University

During the 2023–2024 academic year, Rice University offered a course called “Afrochemistry” that claimed to “apply chemical tools and analysis to understand Black life in the US.” From January 16 to May 16, 2024, AcademicJobsOnline.org advertised a job for the University of Victoria’s physics and astronomy department that was only open to an indigenous person. Both examples show how a worldview subversive to the scientific enterprise is spreading into the scientific community. This view of contemporary critical theory sees the world in terms of oppressors and oppressed. In contrast, the Judeo-Christian worldview sees all people as valuable and worthy of God’s and our love. Additionally, the Judeo-Christian worldview buttresses and supports the foundation needed for the scientific enterprise to flourish.

YOUTUBE LINKS:

Michael A. Ferguson et al., “A Neural Circuit for Spirituality and Religiosity Derived from Patients with Brain Lesions,” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34454698/

Additional Resources

Fazale Rana, “Is There a Biological Basis for Belief?,” https://reasons.org/explore/publications/articles/is-there-a-biological-basis-for-belief

Fazale Rana, “Is There a Biological Basis for Belief? A Follow Up,”

https://reasons.org/explore/publications/articles/is-there-a-biological-basis-for-belief-a-follow-up

Fazale Rana, “Does Oxytocin Cause Spiritual Experiences?,”

https://reasons.org/explore/blogs/the-cells-design/does-oxytocin-cause-spiritual-experiences

PODCAST LINKS:

University of Victoria, Department of Physics and Astronomy

New ‘Afrochemistry’ Course Widely Panned as Identity Politics Dumbing Down Hard Sciences

YOUTUBE LINKS:

AcademicJobsOnline, “University of Victoria, Department of Physics and Astronomy,” posted January 16, 2024, https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/27010

Jennifer Kabbany, “New ‘Afrochemistry’ Course Widely Panned as Identity Politics Dumbing Down Hard Sciences,” https://www.thecollegefix.com/new-afrochemistry-course-widely-panned-as-identity-politics-dumbing-down-hard-sciences/

Join Hugh Ross and Jeff Zweerink as they discuss new discoveries taking place at the frontiers of science that have theological and philosophical implications, including the reality of God’s existence.

Before the First Stars

A team of astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) “to boldly go where no man has gone before”: to observe and measure the composition of gas clouds before any stars formed. The JWST’s primary mission is to explore the cosmic dawn—the first billion years of cosmic history. Astronomers took a high-resolution spectrum of a giant gas cloud in the halo of GN-z11, a bright galaxy 13.38 billion light-years away, corresponding to only 410 million years after the big bang creation event. The only elements found in the gas cloud’s spectrum were hydrogen and helium. This is the first time astronomers detected an object in the universe where no elements heavier than helium exist. This discovery affirms a major prediction of the biblically predicted big bang creation model: that before stars formed, the elemental composition of the universe, by mass, will be 75.33% hydrogen, 24.67% helium, and a trace amount of lithium. The level of ionization in the gas cloud revealed that the stars in GN-z11’s core must all be in the range of 50–1,000 times the Sun’s mass. This mass range explains why astronomers observe many bright galaxies and several supermassive black holes in the cosmic dawn. All these discoveries provide yet more evidence that the more we learn about the universe, the more evidence we accumulate that a God beyond space and time created and exquisitely designed the universe so that at the just-right time and location, humans could live and thrive. 

The Universe: 28 GYr Old?

Recent images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) found galaxies that, given their age, appeared far larger and more complex than expected. In more lay-level arenas, this discovery was used to cast doubt on the standard big bang cosmological model. However, this discovery generated quite a bit of excitement in the scientific community because it revealed a fun problem to investigate. Consequently, astronomers have invested much effort trying to understand how to explain these large, complex galaxies. An author of a recent paper attempts to understand these galaxies by modifying how light propagates through the universe and by having some fundamental constants change over time. A careful analysis of this latter approach shows how standard big bang cosmology (with dark energy and dark matter) can give a robust explanation of the universe—and provide evidence for the God of the Bible.

References:

PODCAST LINKS:

JADES NIRSpec Spectroscopy of GN-z11: Lyman-a Emission and Possible Enhanced Nitrogen Abundance in a z = 10.60 Luminous Galaxy

JWST-JADES. Possible Population III Signatures at z = 10.6 in the Halo of GN-z11

YOUTUBE LINKS:

Andrew J. Bunker et al., “JADES NIRSpec Spectroscopy of GN-z11: Lyman-a Emission and Possible Enhanced Nitrogen Abundance in a z = 10.60 Luminous Galaxy,” https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202346159

Roberto Maiolino et al., “JWST-JADES. Possible Population III Signatures at z = 10.6 in the Halo of GN-z11,” https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2306.00953

References:

 PODCAST LINK:

Testing CCC + TL Cosmology with Observed Baryon Acoustic Oscillation Features

YOUTUBE LINK:

Rajendra P. Gupta, “Testing CCC + TL Cosmology with Observed Baryon Acoustic Oscillation Features,” https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad1bc6

*Unfortunately we encountered audio problems at the time this episode was recorded*

Join Hugh Ross and Jeff Zweerink as they discuss new discoveries taking place at the frontiers of science that have theological and philosophical implications, including the reality of God’s existence.

Xenotransplant Success

Worldwide, millions of people need organ transplants and many die while waiting. It is impossible to scale up human organ donation rates to meet the demand. However, recent success in xenotransplantation may solve the shortfall. Surgical transplants of pig hearts, livers, and kidneys all show promise of (at least temporary) function and no signs of organ rejection. Xenotransplantation provides yet more evidence that God designed the higher animals to enhance human health and well-being.    

References:

PODCAST LINKS:

First Pig Kidney Transplant in a Person: What It Means for the Future

First Pig Liver Transplanted into a Person Lasts for 10 Days

First Pig-to-Human Heart Transplant: What Can Scientists Learn?

Monkey Survives for Two Years after Gene-Edited Pig-Kidney Transplant

YOUTUBE LINKS:

Smriti Mallapaty and Max Kozlov, “First Pig Kidney Transplant in a Person: What It Means for the Future,” https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00879-y

Smriti Mallapaty, “First Pig Liver Transplanted into a Person Lasts for 10 Days,” https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00853-8

Sara Reardon, “First Pig-to-Human Heart Transplant: What Can Scientists Learn?,” https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00111-9

Max Kozlov, “Monkey Survives for Two Years after Gene-Edited Pig-Kidney Transplant,” https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03176-2

“Big Ring” of Galaxies Found

Astronomers recently announced the discovery of a “Big Ring” of galaxy clusters. According to calculations based on scientists’ best understanding of the universe, the size of this ring exceeds the largest size structure that could possibly form, and it joins a class of about 10 structures that are “too big.” While some people might take this find as evidence that our current understanding of the universe (size, age, composition, etc.) is wrong, the discovery highlights how well we comprehend the universe and provides insight that will direct us into a deeper understanding. It also affirms the biblical prediction that we live in an orderly, reliable, and understandable creation.

References:

PODCAST LINKS:

An Impossibly Huge Ring of Galaxies Might Lead Us to New Physics. Here’s How

Giant Ring? Giant Arc? These “Structures” May Not Even Be Real

YOUTUBE LINKS:

Keith Cooper, “An Impossibly Huge Ring of Galaxies Might Lead Us to New Physics. Here’s How,” https://www.space.com/big-ring-galactic-superstructure-celestial-anomaly

Ethan Siegel, “Giant Ring? Giant Arc? These “Structures” May Not Even Be Real,” https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/giant-ring-arc-structures-not-real/

Episode Description:

Join Fazale “Fuz” Rana and Jeff Zweerink as they discuss new discoveries taking place at the frontiers of science that have theological and philosophical implications, including the reality of God’s existence.

ERVs and Embryo Development

For many people, the shared ERV (endogenous retrovirus) sequences in the human and great ape genomes evince common ancestry and an evolutionary origin for humanity. Yet, new discoveries about the physiological role of ERVs suggest another interpretation for why they appear in the human genome. In this episode, biochemist Fuz Rana discusses the latest insight into ERV molecular biology and explores the question, “Can a creation model explain the occurrence of ERV sequences in the human genome?”

References:

PODCAST LINK:

Endogenous Retroviruses Shape Pluripotency Specification in Mouse Embryos

Additional Resource:

Insights about Suppressyn Support Creation Model View of ERVs

YOUTUBE LINK:

Sergio de la Rosa et al., “Endogenous Retroviruses Shape Pluripotency Specification in Mouse Embryos,” https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adk9394

Fazale Rana, “Insights about Suppressyn Support Creation Model View of ERVs,” https://reasons.org/explore/blogs/the-cells-design/insights-about-suppressyn-support-creation-model-view-of-ervs

Just the Right Amount of Water

Most people know that life depends on Earth’s oceans, but the continents play an equally critical role in Earth’s capacity to support life. However, a planet’s ability to have land relies on having just the right amount of water. Too little and there are no oceans at all but too much and the continents never rise above the ocean’s surface. One factor that influences the amount of surface water is the planet’s capacity to store water in its interior. Recent studies indicate that the ancient earth could store much less water than today. Therefore, doubling the amount of water on Earth would have prevented the formation of continents that rise above the oceans and stymied Earth’s capacity to support life.

References:

PODCAST LINK:

Constraining the Volume of Earth’s Early Oceans with a Temperature-Dependent Mantle Water Storage Capacity Model

YOUTUBE LINK:

Junjie Dong et al., “Constraining the Volume of Earth’s Early Oceans with a Temperature-Dependent Mantle Water Storage Capacity Model,” https://doi.org/10.1029/2020AV000323

Join Jeff Zweerink and Josh Swamidass as they discuss new discoveries taking place at the frontiers of science that have theological and philosophical implications, including the reality of God’s existence.

AI Abilities Emerging or Not?

One concern regarding the development of artificial intelligence (AI) relates to the emergence of unpredictable features that arise as the systems grow in scale. Researchers consider an “emergent ability” as something that the AI has routinely failed to accomplish but suddenly performs well as the system grows in size (either from hardware or software growth). A number of papers claiming emergent abilities populate scientific literature. However, a recent study shows that these “emergent” abilities often reflect poorly designed measurement metrics or insufficient statistics. Better metrics and statistics remove the indicators of emergence. In this episode, computational biologist and physician Josh Swamidass and astrophysicist Jeff Zweerink discuss the details surrounding this issue and offer some insights from a Christian perspective.

PODCAST LINK:

Are Emergent Abilities of Large Language Models a Mirage?

YOUTUBE LINK:

Rylan Schaeffer, Brando Miranda, and Sanmi Koyejo, “Are Emergent Abilities of Large Language Models a Mirage?,” https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.15004