The Cosmos

[Curtis]

Curtis -- well -- man was given dominion over the animal world in the very beginning.

There Are different kinds of angels with different jobs. And some Do minister to believers. Some refer to them as guardian angels.

Angels can not only minister to people, they also minister for people who speak God's word. The angel Gabriel came to Daniel because of his words, but was hindered so the angel Michael come to assist Gabriel to break through the spiritual wickedness of the prince, and king of Persia of that kingdom (fallen angels)

Dan 10:12 Then he said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words.
Dan 10:13 The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia,

 

[Sue D.]

A while back in this thread , someone brought up the age of the earth -- a very old age -- what had that been based on.

 

[Adziilii]

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Q: If the Earth was without a Sun to warm if for the first three days: wouldn't it have gone into deep freeze and killed all the vegetation?

A: The dark side of the Moon gets down to -279º F so it's possible that the Earth would've gone into deep freeze. However, the creation of the Earth wasn't left up to nature; viz: it wasn't a natural event; it was a supernatural event.

One of the creator's names in the Old Testament is Shadday (shad-dah'-ee) which basically means all powerful; viz: controller of everything, including, but not limited to; the cosmos' natural laws, i.e. physics. Left up to nature, the Earth likely would've frozen over and all the vegetation perished; but not with Shadday in charge.

Scientists will never, ever figure out the origin of the cosmos because they're searching for a natural cause; which is tantamount to a blind man, in a dark room, looking for a black cat that isn't there.
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[Sue D.]

So -- are you an old-age earth or a young age earth person. So -- creation being a supernatural event -- how long did That event take?

 

[Adziilii]

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are you an old-age earth or a young age earth person. So -- creation being a supernatural event -- how long did That event take?

The information you seek is located back down the line in posts No.1, No.3, and No.10.
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[Sue D.]

Adz -- you're buying into evolutionary theory -- all those various ages and the ice ages, etc. Nothing Biblical about it. If a person disregards the world-wide flood of the Old Testament / Noah's flood as it is referred to, Then evolutionary theory has to have all those billions of years for the fossils and such to form. However, the world-wide flood accounts for the existence Of all the fossils , geographical upheaval that took place. d

The 'and the evening and the morning were the various days' does Not pose Any problems. It Does show that an entire 24-hr day has passed. And what God had spoken into existence was seen by God as being 'good' and the creation of man was Very good.

There Is the passage that says 'a thousand years are as a day and a day as a thousand years' which gives some a reason to speculate that each creation day was an 'era' rather than a 24 hr day. But it simply says that 'time' as we know it does not exist for God. Because God / His Word is timeless. God created 'time' for mankind.

At the end of the 6 days, God rested from His 'work' of creation and instituted the Sabbath rest. Nothing indicates that any Sabbath lasted for 1,000 yrs. Going to Exodus 20 the Ten Commandments vs 8 - 11. "Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God, vs 11 "For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but He rested on the 7th day. Therefore the Lord blesssed the Sabbath day and made it holy."

Also -- Genesis 1 tells us first that 'In the beginning God created.... Then we are told generally speaking the hows and when's. Each chapter goes into more detail about various phases Of creation.

It's human nature to want answers to Everything. People want a space of time between 1:1 and 2 in order to accommodate, at the least -- theistic evolution or at the most, full-fledged evolutionary thought / theory.

Then there's been the question of ''when did the dinasaurs exist" -- who's to say that weren't part of the creation of the land animals.

The world we have Now is very different than what was originally created. It was much flatter. Genesis says that the flood waters rose 15 or 16 cubits -- covering the mountains.

Before the flood -- there was no rain -- waters came up from underground to water vegetation. The flood waters came from both the heavens / rain/ and the upheaval of the water underneath. That is the period of time when the earth underwent the great upheaval -- the fossils and such.

The thing is that all those experts who've spent those years of studying the various subjects -- well -- we believe them without question -- because, after all, 'they' Have done all that study and who are 'we' to question them.

Well -- for one thing -- 'life' takes place generation by generation. And, really, who was around millions of years go to 'say'. Really only God / the trinity was. And He told us what He did -- how He spoke everything into existence that does exist.
John 1:1 -- In the beginning was the Word and the Word was With God and the Word Was God.

It's a matter of authority / Power. Was God powerful enough to raise Jesus Christ from the dead? Was He powerful enough to part the Red Sea so the Israelites could pass over on dry ground? Was He powerful enough to speak this world into existence.

 

[Adziilii]

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According to the 2016 World Almanac, there were a combined 5,060,258,000 adherents of the six major religions believing in some form of supreme being-- Baha'i, Christianity, Hindu, Judaism, Islam, and Zoroastrian. That accounted for roughly 68% of the world's population around that time.

Atheists came in at 136,483,000, which was roughly 1.84% of the world's population around that time.

Agnostics came in at 692,111,000; roughly 9.3% of the world's population around that time.

It's sometimes claimed that most of those five billion+ peoples who practiced some form of theistic religion were undereducated, and many lived in countries where the law of the land requires them to believe.

However; of the six deistic religions listed above, in North America there were 292.833 million adherents and a mere 2.269 million atheists. That's a whopping 129:1 ratio in an area of the world known for religious liberty and educational opportunity.

A movie based upon Carl Sagan's novel "Contact" came out in 1997 starring Jodi Foster. Her character was at first rejected to pilot an alien space-travel machine for the reason given below.

"Our job was to select someone to speak for everybody; and I just couldn't in good conscience vote for a person who doesn't believe in God-- someone who honestly thinks the other 95% of us suffer from some form of mass delusion."
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[Sue D.]

Adz -- I watched 'Contact' a couple of times. Very interesting.

You Do like statistics.

Christianity stands out amongst all those you've listed. Christianity has a Risen Savior.

Jesus Christ tells us in John 14:6 "I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father, but by Me." That is very specific.

Guess what -- I'm not a statistics person. They don't impress me.

"It's sometimes claimed....... peoples who practiced some form of theistic religion........under-educated...... living in countries requires them to believe." WOW. You Do realize that many people came To this country to Gain Religious Freedom From countries who required the populous to practice religions they didn't want to. Or be persecuted. They came Here to have freedom OF religion, not freedom From religion.

That comment is suggesting that people who believe in God / Christianity are not very smart in comparison to those who are going to colleges / universities for a Real education. Again WoW.

It's occurred to me that IF there's really No God -- then why are atheists so Determined to say that there isn't any God. Why should it matter to them. Why can't 'they' simply be happy, content to lead their non-God lives and simply ignore the rest of us. Why should it bother them that some of us are believing in some fairy tail book like the Bible / God's Word.

So -- in effect -- you're suggesting that a person who Does believe in Genesis creation/ backed up in Exodus as well as book of John -- isn't really paying enough attention to the scientific information available. So -- to get into the educational world and find out what Really happened Even though there was no one alive way back those eons ago to really verify any of it.

God's Word is reliable -- human beings all have their agenda's.

 

[Adziilii]

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The theological idea of creation ex nihilo (out of nothing) is looking better all the time as inflation theories increasingly suggest the universe emerged from no tangible source. And although theorists energetically fantasize an endless parade of explanations for the origin of the universe, they have been doing so within the context of the known laws of physics; the meanwhile having no clue about the origin of those physical laws. In other words: they cannot explain where those laws came from in the first place-- nor can they explain why the known laws control matter and energy the way they do rather than some other way.

When people reach what is commonly called the age of reasoning; some of their very first questions are: Why am I here? Where did I come from? What is the meaning of life, and is there a purpose for mine? Am I here by chance?

I think it's very normal (or at least very common) for people to seek a justification for their existence; and without it, they can only conclude that the human experience is futile; which can be roughly defined as serving no useful purpose; for example:

Nobel Prize winner, author of several best-selling books, and recipient of at least a dozen honorary degrees, physicist Steven Weinberg (who views religion as an enemy of science), in his book "The First Three Minutes" wrote: The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it seems pointless. But if there is no solace in the fruits of our research, there is at least some consolation in the research itself . . . the effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the level of a farce and gives it some of the grace of tragedy.

In Mr. Weinberg's opinion, the human experience scarce escapes the categories of farce and tragedy; its quest for knowledge seems the only thing that gives humanity any justification to exist at all. The universe? It's just a meaningless void decorated with fascinating objects --a carnival side show of cosmic curiosities, so to speak.

Wouldn't it be sad if we only lived and died like insects and fungi? I mean, what would be the point of it all? They say a mind is a terrible thing to waste. What real advantage is it to have something so useful as a human mind if it's only going to die and stop working after many years of learning and experience? And what real advantage is it for the mind of the present to make the world a better place for the next generation of minds if the mind of the present doesn't live to see it? That's really no more significant an existence than that of the individuals in a bee hive or a termite colony.

I think people find comfort in perceiving themselves part of a grand scheme instead of walking across the stage of their all-too-brief life as an insignificant speck in a pointless cosmos. Belief that there's someone somewhere above and beyond themselves gives people's existence value, meaning, and purpose which, in my opinion, is at least one of the reasons why supreme beings are so popular.

Galileo felt that science and religion are allies rather than enemies-- two different languages telling the same story; a story of symmetry and balance: heaven and hell, positive and negative, weak and strong, right and left, up and down, night and day, hot and cold, God and Satan. Science and religion are not at odds; no, in reality, science is just simply too young to understand.

Dr. Robert Jastow, founder of the Goddard Institute for space studies at NASA, in his book "God And The Astronomers" says: "Strange developments are going on in astronomy. One of these is the discovery that the universe had a beginning. And that means there has to be a beginner. The scientist has scaled the mountain of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak, and as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries."

Agnostics and atheists claim there is no empirical evidence supporting the existence of a supreme being. But they are foolishly invalidating perfectly good evidence all around them and within easy reach. There exists more evidence in the world of nature and in the sky to prove the reality of a supreme being than there does to prove otherwise.
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[Sue D.]

Adz -- all very good thoughts. Now -- what position do You take? That's what I'm curious about. Extremely old earth or young earth. I'm young earth because of a literal interpretation of Genesis as well as the rest of God's Word.

The existence of the cosmos is an excellent example of God's omnipotence.

 

[Adziilii]

Atheists are chronic pessimists. These perpetual Debby Downers cannot justify their existence-- they have no good reason to be alive, and see no logic in their deaths either. They want their lives to count for something, but underneath it all, they're aware that in the grand scheme of things: their life counts for nothing eternal-- just another nondescript organic blip on the cosmological radar screen.

As I decline and wax older and older, I feel a sadness for the loss of my youth. There was a time when I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed: long-winded, active, loaded with stamina and vitality; and could get by with very little rest. The skin on my face, and under my chin, was tight, and my middle was lean and defined. Today I'm sag-bottomed and flaccid; the skin on my neck is drooping and developing the appearance of tortoise hide.

The great cowboy artist Charles Russell once commented that time traded him wrinkles for teeth. Me too. I've lost a few, some are capped, and my gums have receded.

While that was going on inside my mouth, the rest of me was undergoing deterioration too until today, at 74, the chiseled Greek god with shiny chestnut hair, ripped muscles, and soft hazel eyes I was at 25 has disappeared; replaced by an arthritic senior citizen with diverticulosis and prostate cancer, metal knees, lens implants from cataract surgery, declining short term memory, bags under his eyes, brittle gray filaments on his head instead of the suppleness and sheen of LΌRÉAL tresses, the corners of his mouth turned down giving him the appearance of an old crank, and about as much libido as a dried fig; not to mention taking pills for his thyroid, his cholesterol, his blood pressure, and his reduced kidney function. Whoever said "You're not getting older, you're getting better" must've been smoking mushrooms 'cause it just ain't so.

Believing there's a supreme being, a future world, and a new body, lifts my spirits and strengthens me to cope with aging and the onset of death. If my expectations are valid; then I have a great, eternal future out ahead in a world where youth is the norm, and no one dies, gets old, or gets sick.

Even if my expectations are totally misguided, I'm still far better off than Atheists who have resigned themselves to futility, to a pointless existence; to die and be recycled back into the matrix like fertilizer; the meanwhile suppressing a gnawing anxiety in the back of their minds that there just might be a supreme being after all. And if it turns out there is no supreme being; I won't live to regret it. But if it turns out there really is a supreme being, the Atheist will be every disappointed.
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[B-A-C]

And if it turns out there is no supreme being; I won't live to regret it. But if it turns out there really is a supreme being, the Atheist will be every disappointed.

This makes it sound like you aren't really sure if God exists or not. I guess you have a 50/50 chance huh?

 

[Sue D.]

Adz--- considering we have His Word / Bible / God's Word it's obvious that there Is a God -- The God. The only One who Does exist.

You've given a description of yourself? At the age of 74? With prostrate cancer? Then your time left on this earth is limited. A good reason to take God seriously. His Word tells us about heaven Or hell being in every person's future. We Do have a choice as to which place we'll end up in. The death, burial and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ / the cross of calvary/ makes each person's salvation possible. But each person needs to realize their need For salvation and accept it on a personal basis.

And, yes , the born-again believer Will receive a brand new, glorified body upon their death. Transitioning from This life ,which is temporary ,to the Next life which is eternal is what each person Will experience. Being with Jesus Christ forever is something to look forward to. I use the term born-Again believer because lots of people believe in God and that Jesus Christ died and rose again -- lots of knowledge Of -- but they've only been born Physically. There's Also a need for that person to be born Spiritually. Thus the term born-again. With a heart belief -- not simply intellectual information.

Once a person Has believed in his heart and confessed with their mouth, the Lord Jesus, there is a real inner peace that takes place. And That is how a person knows that the Holy Spirit has come to indwell them. That inner peace -- burdens being lifted at/ by calvary.

I sincerely hope that if you haven't already accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior -- that you Will --even right now as you're reading 'this'.

 

[Adziilii]

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The cosmos is expanding in all directions, and not only expanding, but the rate of its expansion isn't uniform.

The latest data suggests that the expansion is roughly 73.24± kilometers per second per megaparsec. (Parsecs are a measure of distance; with a megaparsec being roughly 3.26 light years.)

For example: elements of the Virgo galaxy cluster are roughly 16.5 megaparsecs from Earth. So the rate of expansion relative to that area of the universe is about 1,208 kilometers per second. (751 miles)

To put that in perspective: the muzzle velocity of a 55 grain, .223 caliber rifle bullet is roughly 3,200 feet per second; which translates to a mere 6/10ths of a mile per second. Were someone to try to shoot the Virgo galaxy cluster in the back with a .223 the exact moment it passed the spot where they were standing, the bullet would never catch up fast enough to hit it.

Anyway; scientific reasoning figures that if the universe is getting bigger, then there must have been a time when it was smaller: much, much smaller; in fact so small it was a mere speck. But scientific reasoning has a fatal flaw; it doesn't reckon with intelligent design.

According to Genesis 1:16, God set the stars in place. In other words; instead of beginning the expansion of the universe from a starting point; the cosmos' creator began its expansion from a starting line.
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[Sue D.]

Adzillii -- is the cosmos actually expanding or are 'we' simply gradually realizing how bit it is.

That which I Do know is that the Milky Way is a galaxy in which the earth is a tiny speck. And there are galaxies out there that are both bigger and smaller.

So -- out of all the galaxies that God spoke into existence -- He chose this Earth for creating man and the great variety in the animal world.

Yes, the 'starting point' has been God from "in the beginning God created....."

 

[Adziilii]

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is the cosmos actually expanding

The universe's perpetual expansion isn't a theory. Several studies have confirmed it.

From a practical standpoint, the expansion is a necessary function to prevent gravity from shrinking the cosmos to the point when everything out there would collapse into one great big heap of stuff. Nobody yet has figured out how it works; but scientists, as a rule, are a patient lot. I'm fairly confident they'll eventually get it.
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[KingJ]

Whoever said "You're not getting older, you're getting better" must've been smoking mushrooms 'cause it just ain't so.

:smile::smile:

 

[Bendito]

:smile::smile:

Hmmm I thought he was smoking banana peels.

 

[Sue D.]

Adz -- are you suggesting that God might Not be in control of what happens in the universe? Also -- the book of Revelation Does say that this world Will end -- and the New Jerusalem will be brought down to this world by God. To replace that which Was in this present world.

The scientific world Will see God working.

"Eternity" Will be here in God's timing. Then every human being -- you and I included -- Will answer to God -- Will acknowledge Him as God Almighty. There will be a heaven or hell in each person's future.

 

[Adziilii]

are you suggesting that God might Not be in control of what happens in the universe?

The velocity of the universe's expansion isn't a control issue; it's just physics; and scientists didn't invent it; they discovered it. The cosmic microwave background (CMB) isn't an invention either. It too is a discovery.

The Bible warns against false science (1Tim 6:20). But not all science is false. For example: science discovered that the Earth's orbit around the Sun isn't a perfect circle, rather, it's an ellipse. In contrast: the so-called Big Bang isn't a discovery, it's a theory; viz: the Big Bang is false science.
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