Reasons to Believe Podcast

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.

Crust Thickness and Life

A team of five geophysicists demonstrated that the level of oxides in basalt primary melts are a good proxy for the thickness of Earth’s crust. They then supervised a machine-learning algorithm to analyze global geodatabases (e.g., EarthChem and GEOROC) of basalts to determine the variation of the thickness of Earth’s crust spanning the past 3.8 billion years. Their analysis revealed five features of Earth’s crust that led to supercontinent cycles and plate tectonics that are highly fine-tuned for complex life on Earth.

Antimatter Feels Gravity

When Einstein first published his general theory of relativity, scientists did not even know about antimatter—which was discovered almost 15 years later. Since then, scientists have speculated about how antimatter behaves in gravitational fields. Most think that it behaves just like normal matter. However, gravity’s weakness compared to electromagnetic forces has prevented any direct test to see if antimatter falls like normal matter. Recently, the ALPHA collaboration was able to isolate enough atoms of antihydrogen (antimatter counterpart of hydrogen) to demonstrate that the atoms behave like normal hydrogen atoms in a gravitational field. This result demonstrates two things. First, it provides even more evidence for the constancy of the laws of physics. Second, it shows that scientists are willing, able, and driven to test fundamental parts of theories rather than simply accept them without data.

LINKS & RESOURCES -

PLAYLIST – https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUwTeBAi_JFG-J6mqU3em0LV7pFUiq9wp&si=uiWkZdNWit1syzgn

Crust Thickness and Life

Zhen-Jie Zhang et al.,

“Lithospheric Thickness Records Tectonic Evolution by Controlling Metamorphic Conditions,” https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adi2134 Meng Guo and Jun Korenaga, “Argon Constraints on the Early Growth of Felsic Continental Crust,” https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aaz6234

Antimatter Feels Gravity

E. K. Anderson et al.,

“Observation of the Effect of Gravity on the Motion of Antimatter,” https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06527-1

Join Fazale Rana and Hugh Ross 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.

Chimp Tactical Behavior

Researchers from the Tai Chimpanzee Project operating out of the Ivory Coast recently reported that chimpanzees make use of high ground to gain tactical information about rival groups. This is the first time that this human-like behavior has been observed in other animals. According to these researchers this behavior requires advanced cognitive skills and provides insight into humanity’s evolutionary origins. What do these observations say about human uniqueness and human exceptionalism? Do human beings only differ in degree, not kind, from the Great Apes? In this episode, biochemist Fuz Rana discusses this impressive study and engages these challenging questions.

New Big Bang

Test Astronomers used the SIBELIUS DARK computer simulation to test the predictions of the standard LCDM big bang creation model and standard galaxy formation theory. Based on these predictions, SIBELIUS DARK successfully reproduced the spatial distributions of galaxies in the Laniakea supergalaxy cluster. It agreed with the observed excess of giant elliptical galaxies along the supergalactic plane. The simulation also revealed—contrary to previous studies—new confirmation that large disk and elliptical galaxy formation fits key predictions of the LCDM big bang model. 

Links & Resources

PLAYLIST –  Stars, Cells, and God  

Sylvain R. T. Lemoine et al.,

“Chimpanzees Make Tactical Use of High Elevation in Territorial Contexts,” https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002350 Till Sawala et al., “Distinct Distributions of Elliptical and Disk Galaxies across the Local Supercluster as a LCDM Prediction,” https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-023-02130-6

Additional Resource

Fazale Rana,

“Should Chimpanzee Behavior Challenge Human Exceptionalism?,” https://reasons.org/explore/blogs/the-cells-design/should-chimpanzee-behavior-challenge-human-exceptionalism

Ken discusses the background and influence of his early apologetics books | Help us to reveal God in science by supporting Reasons to Believe at: support.reasons.org?source=OLPDCSTAP

Join Fazale 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.

Origin of Composite Genes

A team of investigators from the University of Nottingham in the UK has demonstrated that composite genes make up about 5 percent of the gene groups in animal genomes. When viewed from an evolutionary framework, these composite genes don’t appear to have accrued gradually in animal genomes but instead arose in bursts at times that correlate with evolutionary innovation. As it turns out, about 40 percent of composite genes appear to have had multiple independent evolutionary origins.

In this episode, biochemist Fazale Rana discusses this remarkable study and explores what this new insight means for evolutionary and creation models.

RESOURCES: 

Bursts of Novel Composite Gene Families at Major Nodes in Animal Evolution

Additional Resource:

Fazale Rana, What If . . . ? Convergence Strengthens the Case for Creation?

Infinities and Absurdities

The topic of infinity fascinates people and provides for interesting discussions regarding the nature of creation. Often, when discussing infinity, one will hear the claim that actual infinities don’t exist because they lead to absurdities. In this episode, astrophysicist Jeff Zweerink provides some background to this assertion and then makes a counter claim that we could apply the same logic to the notion of zero. However, since few rational people would argue that actual zeroes don’t exist, Jeff contends that we cannot use some popular arguments about infinities to claim that actual infinities don’t exist.

RESOURCES: 

Infinity

In this episode, biochemist Fazale Rana is joined by Brazilian lawyer and philosopher Tassos Lycurgo to discuss how the laws of logic point to the necessary existence of God. In this freewheeling conversation, they also discuss the relationship between mathematics and God and explore other philosophical arguments for God’s existence.