Does the Big Bang breakthrough offer proof of God?

Dear T/T:

Have you read this article from CNN? I am so glad that recent CNN Belief Blog does include some Christians' point of views. This writer is both scientist and firm believer in God of the Bible. Please click the link for the whole article. I only paste a few paragraphs below for you.

Does the Big Bang breakthrough offer proof of God? – CNN Belief Blog 

...As a modern believer and a scientist, when I look up at the sky on a clear starry night, I am reminded that “the heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1). I am in awe of the complexity of the physical world, and how all of its pieces fit together so perfectly and synergistically.

In the Old Testament book of Jeremiah, the writer tells us that God “established (his) covenant with day and night, and with the fixed laws of heaven and earth.”

These physical laws established by God to govern interactions between matter and energy result in a finely tuned universe that provides the ideal conditions for life on our planet.

As we observe the complexity of the cosmos, from subatomic particles to dark matter and dark energy, we quickly conclude that there must be a more satisfying explanation than random chance. Properly practiced, science can be an act of worship in looking at God’s revelation of Himself in nature.

If God is truly the Creator, then He will reveal Himself through what He’s created, and science is a tool we can use to uncover those wonders.

Leslie Wickman is director of the Center for Research in Science at Azusa Pacific University. Wickman has also been an engineer for Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space, where she worked on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and International Space Station programs. The views expressed in this column belong to Wickman. 
Also you may click the link below for the related news.

Big Bang breakthrough announced; gravitational waves detected - CNN.com

Snake handlers' belief is unshaken by snakebite death of pastor Jamie Coots

Dear friends:

Have you read the news of the snake handler pastor Jamie Coots died by snake bites?

Reality show snake-handling preacher dies -- of snakebite - CNN.com

These update links are even more frustrated for me to read.

Snake handlers' belief is unshaken by snakebite death of pastor Jamie Coots

Snake handling puts religious freedom, public safety in spotlight after Kentucky death | Fox News

Indeed, it is harmful to have a blind faith like they do. Believing in fake religions is very harmful because it robs one the eternal bliss to be with our Creator God in eternity.  They based their faith on last add-on section of Mark 16:17-18 literally. ( it is obviously an add-on because the original copies of the Book of Mark lost its ending of chap. 16.( that is one of the rare cases in NT Bible.) ) Furthermore, I believe snake in that particular quote should be taken as representing Satan. ( see the following Bible verse)

When Jesus said to His disciples, "I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. 19"Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you...( Luke 10:19) He is obviously implying serpents and scorpions as metaphors for Satan and demons.

Some extra clip from the following link

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2014/02/17/was-snake-handlers-death-preventable/

...Coots belonged to a small circle of Pentecostal Holiness pastors who take this passage from the Bible's Gospel of Mark literally:  “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

Since those words are said to be spoken by Jesus, pastors like Coots take them as divine commandments. But there are other spiritual reasons to handle serpents, practitioners say, often describing the dangerous rituals as a mental and emotional rush, as if they were touching the hand of God.

"They almost always use drug metaphors, like 'higher than any high you can experience," said  Paul Williamson, a professor of psychology at Henderson State University in Arkansas who studies serpent handlers.

At the same time, they are extremely careful with the serpents, Williamson said, only allowing those who live sin-free lives and have been "anointed" by the Holy Spirit to handle the snakes. "There's death in that box," pastors often warn the congregation before services start...

It happened the other night I just read this following Bible verse while I was doing my Bible study homework. You wouldn't think there is a Bible verse like this, right? Or maybe you do. 

1 Corinthians 10:9

9 Let us not test Christ as some of them did[a] and were destroyed by snakes.

Furthermore, when Satan quoted the Bible to tempt Jesus to jump down from the pinnacle of the temple, Jesus refused and told him not to tempt or not to test the Lord. I think those believers are testing the Lord! It is also very dangerous to quote Bible out of context because Satan can quote Bible too. 

These snake handlers thought they were showing their strong faith, I think they are doing a stunt show and to show off their great faith; that is not praiseworthy but stupid. According to the news report, they also got a high, handling the poisonous snakes. I am so sad about this kind of practices in the name of showing faith. Indeed God has rescued His faithful servants from many kind of dangers; Paul was not harmed by poisonous snake and Daniel was unhurt by lions but none of them seek the danger actively and purposely, especially, Daniel was innocent and was persecuted to be thrown into lions' den. Therefore these Bible verses never mean to encourage us to seek dangers like handling snakes for a faith show off.

Below is the reference to Satan's quoting Bible to tempt Jesus.

(Matt. 4:5 Then the Devil took Him to the holy city,[b] had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:

He will give His angels orders concerning you,
and they will support you with their hands
so that you will not strike
your foot against a stone.”[c]

7 Jesus told him, “It is also written: Do not test the Lord your God.”)

Were you there when God created this universe?

( An email from a scientist friend T to me and J; my reply in purple colored fonts in ())

Dear two:

Thank you two for sharing an article each with us. Both discuss the meaning of life, which is the topic I have been searching for lifetime and have yet to get any satisfactory answer. (If you get to know our Creator God, your search will come to a perfect end, very satisfactory answer indeed. How I wish and pray you get to know our Creator God soon! )

For a person firmly believing everything came from nothing (You can always give "God hypothesis" a consideration since you were not there when God created this universe. (How do you know everything came from nothing, if you were not there?) I tend to think there is no real meaning for a life. (What a pity! Sorry to say so.)But for those who believe life has a or even many meanings, I'd like to congratulate them if they formed the belief from their own thought process.(You have raised a very good point indeed. I have tried very hard to point out to you that prophecies in OT Bible are truly amazing, think about the Book of Daniel. ( the prediction covers more than 450 years ahead of Daniel's time. from 600 B C to 241 BC) and the prophecies were all in details and became historical events one by one. Why do I keep telling you the fulfillment of OT Prophecies? Because that shows us supernatural source is involved. Namely, it was God who revealed future events many hundred years or even thousand years ahead of the time to those prophets, Moses, Isaiah, Daniel...etc. Those prophecies are evidences and represent reasonable " thought process" you are talking about. It proves the God of Bible is God of miracles; miracles recorded in Bible are not mythologies at all. Your younger brother thinks if Jesus really performed those miracles recorded in 4 gospels, then He is God. I would focus on Jesus' resurrection; if Jesus has really risen from death and lives forever then He is God. if Jesus is God, then He surely can do all the miracles recorded in the Gospels. ( If Jesus is God, doing these miracles are just pieces of cake for Him, don't you think?) And there are just too many evidences around Jesus' resurrection that you can check into them like a cold case detective or like a judge.

The book of Daniel presents an extraordinary display of prophetic foreknowledge of the succession of empires from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian king about 600 B.C. to the Roman Empire which began to come into power around 241 B.C. Additionally Daniel 11 spans the centuries from Cyrus The Great to the reign of the antichrist and the end of the age.( note: this end time prophecies will be fulfilled in the future though.)

If there is a supernatural God who knows the future, then there is no reason He cannot predict it in advance. Hence dating Daniel after the events of world history which he forecast is based at root on a rejection of the supernatural.

However there is plenty of evidence to show that Daniel lived and prophesied in the sixth century B.C. making his detailed description of future world events supernatural predictions... (For details, click the link below.)

Daniel's Amazing Prophecies

Also click

HOW CRITICS FARE IN THE FIERY FURNACE

Another word, I think the meaning, if any, is very personal instead of being universal.(the good news is the meaning is personal and subjective yet it is also universal and objective. Since our Creator God does exist and He is like the Sun, objectively exists whether one acknowledges Him or not, He exists from eternity past to eternity future. please also refer to the link below, my dear friend.)

A Cold-case Detective is Speaking

In the end, I came to the conclusion that the gospels were reliable eyewitness accounts that delivered accurate information about Jesus, including His crucifixion and Resurrection. But that created a problem for me. If Jesus really was who He said He was, then Jesus was God Himself. If Jesus truly did what the gospel eyewitnesses recorded, then Jesus is still God Himself. As someone who used to reject anything supernatural, I had to make a decision about my naturalistic presuppositions.

The evidence for the reliability of the gospel eyewitness accounts caused me to reexamine the evidence for God’s existence in general. If Jesus rose from the dead, miracles are possible. If Jesus, claiming to be God, could raise himself from the grave, there was little rational reason to disbelieve any miracle attributed to God, including the miracle of creation. The gospel accounts became the foundation from which I examined the cosmological, axiological, teleological, ontological, transcendental and anthropic arguments for God’s existence. I didn’t begin generally and then move to Jesus specifically, I began with Jesus and then moved “backward” to the broader evidence for God’s existence. As someone who worked regularly with cumulative circumstantial cases (as a cold-case detective), the connectivity of all the available evidence seemed obvious as I assembled the case. Any one of these pieces of evidence was sufficient to make the case for God’s existence, but when considered cumulatively, the weight of the evidence was overwhelming.

The Golden number, the Divine number Phi=1.618

The Ark of the Covenant is a Golden Rectangle

“Have them make a chest of acacia wood-
two and a half cubits long,
a cubit and a half wide,
and a cubit and a half high.”

The ratio of 2.5 to 1.5 is 1.666…, which is as close to phi (1.618 …) as you can come with such simple numbers and is certainly not visibly different to the eye. The Ark of the Covenant is thus constructed using the Golden Section, or Divine Proportion. This ratio is also the same as 5 to 3, numbers from the Fibonacci series.

In Exodus 27:1-2, we find that the altar God commands Moses to build is based on a variation of the same 5 by 3 theme:

“Build an altar of acacia wood, three cubits high; it is to be square, five cubits long and five cubits wide.”

Note: A cubit is the measure of the forearm below the elbow.

Noah’s Ark uses a Golden Rectangle

In Genesis 6:15, God commands Noah to build an ark saying,

“And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.”

Thus the end of the ark, at 50 by 30 cubits, is also in the ratio of 5 to 3, or 1.666…, again a close approximation of phi not visibly different to the naked eye.

The Number 666 is related to Phi

Revelation 13:18 says the following:

“This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is a man’s number. His number is 666.”

This beast, regarded by some as the Anti-Christ described by John, is thus related to the number 666, one of the greatest mysteries of the Bible.Curiously enough, if you take the sine of 666º, you get -0.80901699, which is one-half of negative phi, or perhaps what one might call the “anti-phi.”  You can also get -0.80901699 by taking the cosine of 216º, and 216 is 6 x 6 x 6.

The trigonometric relationship of sine 666º to phi is based on an isosceles triangle with a base of phi and sides of 1.  When this triangle is enclosed in a circle with a radius of 1, we see that the lower line, which has an angle of 306º on the first rotation and 666º on the second rotation, has a sine equal to one-half negative phi.

In this we see the unity of phi divided into positive and negative, analogous perhaps to light and darkness or good and evil.  Could this “sine” be a “sign” as well?...

For the whole article, please click the link below.

http://www.goldennumber.net/bible/

More about this golden number, click the link below too.

Fibonacci Number Patterns

Can Bible stand the Scrutiny of modern science ?

Dear PopTart:

As your comment to ”BIG BANG: THE BIBLE TAUGHT IT FIRST”( click the link below since the above link has been lost) Reasons To Believe : Big Bang—The Bible Taught It First!

suggested, some people may just read modern science into Bible. Indeed, but on the other hand,  we may check if  Bible can still stand the scrutiny of modern science ;  in just 100 years what we know about the universe itself has gone through a lot of great changes. For example, recently the newly discovered giant Saturn Aura , any new impact is still unknown( note, sorry, my essay was written a few years ago, while I debated with Popt in a website and I don't update this string of news.) ; many myths ( or mythologies) about the creation were discarded long time ago simply because they no longer could stand the scrutiny of modern science. Indeed, we have to think about why physicists today can still apply their modern scientific knowledge and discoveries to Bible which was written  2000-3400 years ago . Isn't that amazing?

I am glad that you have pointed out the famous Nostradamus prophecies were so general and not specific or in details at all . On the contrary, in the Old Testament , there are many very specific prophecies , in very exact details. For example , Cyrus, king of Persia (580-529 BC) was named his exact name , 150 years before his birth by the prophet Isaiah (740-680 BC) who also made predictions of the Jewish exiles to return home to build God’s temple( by Cyrus’ order).  Isaiah also prophesied in the Old Testament the birth of Jesus 700 years before Jesus’ birth, isn’t that amazing? The probabilities of anyone who could fulfill all the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah , are very slim and  impossible, almost zero , right?  However, the fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah has been fulfilled in Jesus. Don’t you think it is amazing and wonderful? Of course, some prophecies foretold an event would happen in the future , without naming the name or specifying any particular person who would do it ; Judas was such an example , for 30 pieces of silver, he betrayed his Master who lived with him for three years. Nevertheless, Judah should be responsible for his own actions of betraying his Master , because he fulfilled a looser prophecy - “those who ate with Jesus would betray Him”. ( With Jesus ate with His disciples and a lot of people , they all can fit into this betrayer , Judas didn’t have to condemn himself by being the betrayer. Since he stole public money while he was the trusted treasurer of Jesus’ disciples thus the greed of money made him leave Satan a foothold to seduce him to betray Jesus. In one of recently unearthed Apocrypha, the Book of Jude , Judas has been hailed as a hero as if without him, the prophecy couldn't be fulfilled, that is very far-fetched and a total mistake. )

You mention a talking snake in the Garden of Eden ; the consensus of most biblical scholars is that snake is Satan's spokesman . The Bible does not say the snake was a talking snake that could speak human language ; possibly, if humans had not fallen, since they were created in the image of God, initially, humans might be able to understand the languages of other animals, i.e. snakes'. It is not surprising that today, Satan's most treacherous trick is most people do not know or believe its existence. Namely, it hides its existence from modern humans, so it could seduce and trick more innocent humans freely. Only if we put Satan into the equation of our world , then we will see more clearly the 

world 's chaos, sufferings and havoc. The good news is that after Jesus' resurrection, Satan is in chain, though it is still wandering around , like a roaring lion , to devour those who fall into its traps . Don’t we need to watch out against it?

( Postscript : Among the Dead Sea scrolls discovered in the Qumran caves in 1947 , a fairly complete copy of Book of Isaiah has been found. it is also one of the oldest of the Dead Sea Scrolls, some one thousand years older than the oldest manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible known to us before the scrolls' discovery.

http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/isaiah

The Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa) is one of the original seven Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in Qumran in 1947. It is the largest (734 cm) and best preserved of all the biblical scrolls, and the only one that is almost complete. The 54 columns contain all 66 chapters of the Hebrew version of the biblical Book of Isaiah. Dating from ca. 125 BCE, it is also one of the oldest of the Dead Sea Scrolls, some one thousand years older than the oldest manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible known to us before the scrolls' discovery.

The version of the text is generally in agreement with the Masoretic or traditional version codified in medieval codices, such as the Aleppo Codex, but it contains many variant readings, alternative spellings, scribal errors, and corrections. Unlike most of the biblical scrolls from Qumran, it exhibits a very full orthography (spelling), revealing how Hebrew was pronounced in the Second Temple Period. Around twenty additional copies of the Book of Isaiah were also found at Qumran (one more copy was discovered further south at Wadi Muraba'at), as well as six pesharim (commentaries) based on the book; Isaiah is also frequently quoted in other scrolls (a literary and religious phenomenon also present in New Testament writings). The authoritative and scriptural status of the Book of Isaiah is consistent with the messianic beliefs of the community living at Qumran, since Isaiah is known for his prophecies of judgment and consolation, and his visions of the End of Days and the coming of the Kingdom of God.

Years ago, I saw a copy on sheepskin truly a complete copy of Isaiah 53 Dead Sea Scroll in  display at SF DE YOUNG Museum. Obviously, Isaiah 53 predicted Jesus’ birth at Isaiah’s time ; some sarcastic skeptical people or liberal scholars claim that it was therefore written after the birth of Jesus , but the exhibition of the Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah 53 proved to me that at least 100-200 years before Jesus’ birth, Isaiah 53 has predicted Jesus’ coming ,,. )

Dear PopT:

誠如你在 ”BIG BANG: THE BIBLE TAUGHT IT FIRST”( click the link below since the above link has been lost) Reasons To Believe : Big Bang—The Bible Taught It First!

一文回應裡所說, 有人可以把現代科學讀進聖經裡去。然而我們可以從另一個角度，來看看今天是否聖經仍然經得起現代科學的考驗; 既便在短短的100年中我們所了解的宇宙本身已經過了許多極大的變化。比如說,最近土星的巨大光環剛被發現,會不會帶來什麼新的衝擊還不得而知; 許多有關創造的神話故事根本早已經不起現代科學的考驗了。我們要想一想，為什麼今天物理學家卻仍然可以將他們的現代科學應用到2000-3400多年前寫的聖經。

此外，我很高興你指出，出名預言家Nostradamus的預言一點也不是特定或特殊。相反地，在舊約聖經裡, 有許多的預言是非常具體，有非常詳細的細節。例如，波斯王古列(580-529 BC)早在他做波斯王150年以前被先知以賽亞(740-680 BC)預言要讓被擄的猶太人回國建殿。耶穌的誕生在祂出生700多年前, 以賽亞就在舊約聖經裡預言了. 若要任何人完成所有舊約歷代有關彌賽亞的預言， 機遇率几近渺茫，甚至不可能。耶穌卻成就了所有舊約裡有關彌賽亞的預言. 你說奇不奇妙? 當然有些預言, 預言了某一件將來會發生的事件，但沒有指定任何特定的人,會去做這件事; 出賣耶穌的猶大乃是最好的例子, 他選擇以30兩銀子出賣與他朝夕共處3年的老師。猶大應為自己的行為負責，因為他成全了一個較鬆散的預言-- 與耶穌一同吃飯的人會出賣祂。(與耶穌一同吃飯的人很多, 有許多人會符合這個條件, 猶大不一定要自己對號入座. 近來出土的偽經, 猶大書, 把他捧成英雄乃大錯特錯.好像若非他出賣耶穌，耶穌就無法救贖人類似的。)

你提及伊甸園裡會說話的蛇, 牠是撒旦的代言人, 乃聖經學家的共識。聖經沒有明說, 該蛇說人話 ; 如果當初未墮落的人類, 是照神的形像所造, 能了解其他動物的語言, 也不足為奇吧. 今天撒旦的詭計乃是大多數人不知道牠的存在。要把撒旦放進方程式裡, 然後我們才會更清楚地看到整個世界的亂象。在耶穌復活後的好消息是, 撒旦已是上了腳鐐, 雖然牠仍能到處流盪, 遊蕩。撒旦如同吼叫的獅子要吞吃那些掉入它陷阱的人。我們當小心提防牠啊！

(後記:由1947年挖出的聖經死海抄卷, 找到相當完整的以賽亞抄卷，比任何已知以賽亞書抄本早

1000年。事實上，此抄卷是迄今發現最古老的舊約手稿之一。

多年前, 我在SF DE YOUNG博物館看到了抄在羊皮上真正完整的死海抄卷,以賽亞書53章。在耶穌誕生700多年前, 以賽亞書53章就特別地預言祂的出生; 一些好譏諷, 懷疑的人, 因此聲稱這是耶穌誕生後寫的，但那次死海抄卷的展覽證明，至少在耶穌誕生100至200年前就已有以賽亞書53章完整的抄本了。)