"...the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made."
Romans 1:19
Creation is a mirror held before us that reflects our Creator. In the laws of nature are found the ways of heaven; On the canvas of creation is painted a portrait of God.
The words and spiritual perspectives and media presentations found here are excerpted from a three day Bible conference created and led by Brenda Cox entitled "Reflections of God."
The precision with which all creation has been fashioned - from the microscopic, sub-atomic world to galaxies 100,000 light years in breadth - is beginning to turn the scientific community on its collective ear. Intricate understandings of the delicate balances that exist everywhere in the created realm are only now unfolding in ways that compel even leading athiests in the scientific community to conclude the necessity for a Creator. Even the slightest variations in miniscule elements would preclude the existence of life as we know it.
These pages carry some of the discoveries and understandings that cause our Creator to loom so large over His creation the scientific community is no longer able to ignore His fingerprints.
"For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries."
Dr. Robert Jastrow, astronomer and agnostic
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The Fingerprints of God
"Do you know the ordinances of heaven? Can you set the dominion of it in the earth?" Job 38:33
The moon's large size compared to its host planet is unique in the solar system. Mercury and Venus have no moons. Mars has two tiny moons. All three planets have chaotic variations in their tilt. The size of our moon is an immensely stabilizing factor for the earth. Recent findings show that the moon actually stabilizes the tilt of the earth's axis. Our 23.5 degree tilt provides us with mild seasons. The moon establishes this tilt and therefore the moon establishes the stability of our climate. If we had no moon, our tilt would swing wildly over a large range resulting in major temperature swings and climatic instability.
The moon contributes 60% to the tides. If it were larger than it is, the tides would be too strong. If the moon were smaller, the tides would not be large enough. If the moon were more massive, it would slow significantly the earth's rotation. Days would become too long, creating large temperature differences between day and night.
Photos were taken from the Galileo Space Craft
Solar eclipses occur when the moon comes between the earth and the sun, casting a shadow upon the face of the earth. Total solar eclipses are possible only becuase of the combination of the moon's size and its distance from the sun. The sun is 400 times larger than the moon, but it is also 400 times farther away from the earth than is the moon. It's a perfect match and only in this perfect match is a total solar eclipse possible.
Such solar eclipses make possible a much more complete study of our solar system and an understanding of some of the basic properties of the sun and light.
Contrary to traditional scientific thinking, the sun is in a category of only 10 per cent of the existing stars in the universe. Known as a yellow dwarf, it is exactly the right size to support life as we know it on earth. If the sun were slightly smaller, earth would have to be closer to the sun than it is in order to get the heat that it requires. If it were slightly larger, it would be too hot for life to exist here on earth. The sun has to be almost exactly the size it is in order for life on earth to exist.
Our sun is not only the right mass, it also emits the right colors, a balance of red and blue in the light spectrum. Larger stars or smaller stars emit a different color spectrum. A different balance of red and blue light creates such different conditions that life on a neighboring planet could not exist as we know it for long.
The sun is highly stable, more stable than most stars, and fluctuates in its light output only by one tenth of one per cent over a long period of time. This prevents wild climate changes on earth. The sun's orbit is more nearly circular in the galaxy than most other stars of its age. It's more circular route keeps us in a safe position in the galaxy and protects us from galactic dangers such as explosions of super nova.
It would take a star with the highly unusual properties of our sun -- the right mass, the right light, the right composition, the right distance, the right orbit, the right galaxy, and the right location in the galaxy -- to nurture life on an orbiting planet.
Earth's magnetic field is crucial to life on the planet because it shields us from low-energy cosmic rays. If we did not have a magnetic field there would be more dangerous radiation reaching the atmosphere, and solar wind particles would strip the upper atmosphere away, especially the molecules of hydrogen and oxygen from water, creating much more rapid water loss on our planet.
"Why, if species have descended from other species by fine gradations, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional forms? Why is not all nature in confusion, instead of the species being, as we see them, well defined?...But as by this theory innumerable transitional forms must have existed, why do we not find them embedded in countless numbers in the crust of the earth?
I have asked myself whether I may not have devoted my life to a fantasy...I...am ready to cry with vexation at my blindness and presumption."
God's Fingerprints are all over the Logrithmic Spiral
Nautilus Shell
low pressure system over Iceland
Whirlpoor Galaxy M51
Ammonite fossil
From the largest objects in the universe - a hundred thousand light years across - to sunflowers, cauliflower and seashells we find the logrithmic spiral, a mathmatically precise structural formula in which separation grows in geometric ways with increasing distance from the center. Discovered hundreds of years ago by Descartes, it has fascinated scientists and lay people alike.
huricane
pine cone
bivalve
Notice the same spiraling patterns in the shells and the pine cone.
Bode's Law
A similar mathmatical progression exists in our solar system. With the exception of the two outermost planets, the planets are arranged in a sequential pattern that became known as Bode's Law. Named after the astronomer that predicted the existance of Neptune as a result of the mathmatical pattern he suspected in the placement of the planets around the sun, it speaks of a Creator's hand meticulously arranging His masterpiece.
Confusion initially arose regarding this law when scientists realised there was a huge gap between Mars and Jupiter that did not fit with Bode's model. When the asteroid field was discovered between Mars and Jupiter, it landed in precise coordination with the grid suggested by Bode.
"The heavens are telling the glory of God, The firmament displaying the work of his hands; Day unto day wells forth speech, Night unto night breathes forth knowledge."
