Science & You

Since the rise of Darwinism in the mid 1800's, and almost universal acceptance of evolutionary theory today, not all intelligent people are persuaded to place their faith in the theory.  The sad truth is that the theory has failed to provide a sufficient basis for human morality and justice, for the purpose and value of individual people, and an enduring basis for just government, economics, politics and human freedom.  Professor Short was unable to change the beliefs of any of his 150 medical students taking his course on human evolution and feels he has failed Darwin.  His only solace is "having sown a few seeds of the truth"....    Uplook Magazine November-December 2005, p.4.  References:  Short, R.V. "Darwin, have I failed you?"  The Lancet 343:528-529, 1994;  Johnson, P.E. Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds.  InterVarsity Press, 1997.

Predictions of future dire catastrophes abound in our world today.  For example, human population growth will ruin the natural world, a meteor may hit earth and wipe out all life, giant volcanic eruptions could put so much ash into the air that we would experience another ice age, and so on.  But the problem with predictions is they cannot be validated until they come to pass.  Unless....    Uplook Magazine October 2006, p.4.  References:  R. Carson, Silent Spring, (New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1962); G.O. Abell, Exploration of the Universe, (New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974); P. Longman, The Empty Cradle: How falling birthrates threaten world prosperity, (New York, NY: Basic Books, 2004).

One spring I inadvertently entered a war zone, my backyard.  It was a war of my will and landscaping plans against the God-given drive of living things to survive and spread wherever they can. God has designed life to multiply and aggressively fill the Earth even if I have other plans for the same space.  But perhaps this is not just a physical battle.  Uplook Magazine January-February 2012, p.9.

Gravity can be annoying.  Gravity does not take vacations.  It is relentless.  Most adults courageously fight the good fight against gravity every day.  Teenagers, on the other hand, have not yet taken up the struggle. Perhaps teenagers intuitively sense something that some theoretical physicists are now considering: could gravity be just a grand illusion???  Uplook Magazine December 2006, p.4.  References:  J. Maldacena,  "The Illusion of Gravity," Scientific American, November 2005, 56-63.

Many people believe that life on earth is fragile and that wild animals and plants need our help if we and they are to survive.  As a biologist who is also a Christian, I have a somewhat different view of life and it is clear that without a Biblical perspective, nature is reduced to landscape decorations and a tool for political indoctrination instead of a vibrant reflection of the power and creativity of a loving God.    Uplook Magazine November-December 2010, p.4.  

NASA recently sent two probes to Mars to look for water.  They must either find existing life, evidence of past life, or conditions that allow life to evolve outside of earth if they hope to convince people that life on earth also evolved from non-living chemicals by chance.  Thinking people may ask, if this story is true then where is all the life?  Everywhere we look and as far as we can sense with our best instruments, there is no life.  There are elements, energy, even water - but no life.  So who exactly would E.T. call? Uplook Magazine, January-February 2005, p.29. References: Ward, P.D. and Brownlee, D. Rare Earth: Why complex life is uncommon in the universe. Copernicus. Springer-Verlag, 2000

Which came first, DNA or protein???  Some think it was proteins forming in warm ocean tidepools.  Others think it was actually RNA first, then DNA, then protein.  But in order to have DNA some proteins are required and to have functioning proteins the information in DNA is required.  So what does it mean if one must have both DNA and protein simultaneously in order to have either one......?  Uplook Magazine, March 2005, p. 18.  References:  A.E. Wilder-Smith.  The Natural Sciences Know Nothing of Evolution,  Master Books, San Diego, CA 1981.

The two-word scientific classification for humans is Homo sapiens, which literally means wise or knowing man.  But have we named ourselves wisely?  Surely we know a lot of information and we are intelligent, but is intelligence the same as wisdom?  Uplook Magazine, May-June 2007, p.4.  References:  B. Sterling, "Homo sapiens declared extinct," Nature, vol. 402, 1999, 125.

Another word for noticing is observing.  Observing is the step where doing science actually begins.  But observing is more than just seeing, it is seeing on steroids.  To observe is to look with keen interest and an inquiring mind.  Seeing only regards what is.  But observing (a.k.a. noticing) wonders "Why?" or "How?" and quickly expands into hypothetical reasons and answers.  Since what God created does not come with instruction books, the only way to find the answer is by controlled experiments.  So science is a logical result of being a noticer.  Uplook Magazine, June 2012, p.7.  

Things are sometimes more than they appear, and can tell us more than the obvious.  Seeds are not yet what they will be.  An acorn is genetically an oak tree but only a fraction of the size and mass of the mature tree.  Like all seeds, the job of the acorn is simply to survive until conditions are right for it to reactivate and begin to grow.  There is truly a sense in which the seed form may die by germination but, in doing so, brings forth an abundance of fruit  Seeds provide many unique ways for life to spread since the plant itself is tied to one spot.  But what do seeds tell us beyond the obvious?  Uplook Magazine September-October 2013, p.30.