Is Total Sun Eclipse Just a Coincidence?

  Total Solar Eclipse Is an Encounter With the Creator, Invitation to Discovery: Jay Richards

Total Solar Eclipse Is an Encounter With the Creator, Invitation to Discovery: Jay Richards


By Brandon Showalter , CP Reporter | Aug 20, 2017 2:55 PM
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(PHOTO: REUTERS, BEAWIHARTA)A total solar eclipse is seen from the beach of Ternate island, Indonesia, March 9, 2016.

The total solar eclipse on Monday Aug.21'2017 will be an invitation to encounter the Creator of the universe and its astounding divine design, says Christian professor Jay Richards at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

And this celestial phenomenon showcases how planet Earth is one "privileged planet," added Richards, an assistant research professor in the Business and Economics Department at the university and co-author of the 2004 book, The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery, which was subsequently made into a documentary film.

In light of all the buzz about the Aug. 21 Great American Eclipse, Richards believes it has not been sufficiently appreciated how Earth is the one place in the entire solar system where one can observe a total solar eclipse.

For centuries astronomers considered this celestial phenomenon as an interesting coincidence, he noted. The moon is 400 times smaller than the sun but 400 times closer to the Earth, thereby creating this perfect match when an eclipse happens. But such a perfect match isn't merely coincidental and is in fact directly connected to two key things that make the Earth habitable.

"You have to be the right distance from your host star, in the 'goldilocks zone' in order to have liquid water on the planet, so that's going to set the size of your host star in the sky," Richards said.

"You also have to have a large, well-placed moon like we have, for all sorts of reasons. If we didn't have a moon the Earth would wobble around erratically on its axis."

Those two independent factors are needed to build a habitable planet. And when put together it produces solar eclipses that can be seen from the planet's surface.

"By itself that would just be sort of neat, but when you realize the profound role that eclipses have played in the history of scientific discovery, I think you get a hint that there's something else going on there," he said.
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"We know in Scripture, it says in Genesis 1, that the heavenly bodies can be used for signs. God uses them for signs," Richards said, mentioning the star of Bethlehem. "And the heavens declare the glory of God," he continued, referencing Psalm 19.

if you look at the way people actually respond to eclipses, they respond to it with gratitude and awe," Richards offered.

The more one studies how precisely tuned and orderly the universe is, the more it also sets up the conditions for discovery, he went on to explain.

"The natural world is like a book that is written with the signature of the Creator. If we learn how to read it, we read through it like we read through a book, to the meanings of its author. I think we should look at the created order as we look at literal Scripture as types of revelation," Richards said.

"Why couldn't [Monday's eclipse] be a really good well-timed blessing for millions of people to stop thinking about themselves and to look up at the heavens and think for a minute that there's something more than us out there?" he asked.

Total Sun Eclipse & Our Creator God

Zweerink, who earned his Ph.D. in astrophysics from Iowa State University, and is a project scientist at UCLA and research scholar for the apologetics ministry Reasons to Believe, told The Christian Post in a phone interview that he's been anticipating the eclipse for nearly 10 years, as it will be the first total solar eclipse he has ever seen.

"God has made a pretty spectacular creation for us to live in," Zweerink said, calling the upcoming celestial event "beautiful" and "awesome."

Because of how spectacular this is, and the fact that many people are wanting to talk about the total eclipse...

"And Creation is remarkably reliable," Zweerink added.

Naturally occurring phenomena can be predicted and talked about thousands of years into the future as well as in the past because of its reliability.

"That's a very biblical principle," Zweerink said. "God's reliability in keeping His promises is likened to how Creation behaves."

Such remarkable order to the cosmos is anchored in God's character, he went on to explain, and it's His character that upholds creation so reliably.

"From a scientific perspective, the first big experimental test of Einstein's theory of general relativity explicitly codifies the idea that the laws of physics are constant throughout the universe."

"And if that were not the case," Zweerink continued, "we would not be able to do science and understand how far away are things, and how old are things, and how do they operate, how do galaxies form, and what are neutrons, stars, and black holes. We just couldn't do that because what we do here doesn't have any relation as to what goes on out in the universe."

This reliability and the ability to predict solar eclipses and how awesome they appear and what they communicate about how the world works is deeply connection to the God of the Bible. And Zweerink considers this a conversation starter with non-Christians who are interested in celestial phenomena.

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Total solar eclipses occur at least once every two years, Zweerink explained, and while spectacular to behold, there's nothing out of the ordinary about them.

"These have happened since the dawn of human civilization and they will happen until the end of humanity is here," he said, adding that the idea that the Aug. 21 eclipse is somehow a sign of the End Times "just doesn't resonate."

"This is a great opportunity for Christians to engage in conversations with people and to share the Gospel," he reiterated. "It's just a neat opportunity to go out and talk to people about the physics that goes on. The sun is so much larger than the moon, so much further away, but yet they take up the same size on the sky so that we can have solar eclipses like this to make the scientific measurements and actually, just see the beauty of it — I'm just excited about it."

(Read more from clicking following link)

Astrophysicist Explains How Total Solar Eclipse Is an Opportunity to Share the Gospel

Grave's Disease and Some Insights I Got

...On his way from Genoa to Sicily, Dr. Robert James Graves saved a ship and its mutinous crew by assuming command during a storm in the Mediterranean. During a gale the vessel sprang a leak, the pumps failed, and the crew attempted to abandon ship: Graves holed the one lifeboat with an axe, declaring to the crew, "let us all be drowned together, it is a pity to part good company", he then proceeded to repair the pumps with leather from his own shoes, so saving the ship and all aboard.

Dear friends: I bet you may not know what is "Graves' disease", or you do?

It is a disease if left untreated will bring one to the grave. Just kidding! However, it used to be not treatable in ancient years.

It was named after an Irish surgeon Robert James Graves who was the first doctor reporting it. It is an autoimmune disease that your immune system turns against yourself.（自己跟自己過不去）

Well, after losing 10 lbs in 2 months last Spring. I knew something had to be very wrong with my body and went to have a regular check up. A week later,  I went to see the specialist who ordered another blood test to check antibody counts in my blood. I was found to have this Thyroid autoimmune disease, Graves' disease.(hyperthyroidism).

I then just started to realize in details how our Thyroid gland (甲狀腺) has played such an important function in our bodies, although it is only very small size. (approximately 15 to 25 g, with each lobe 4 to 6 cm in length and 1.3 to 1.8 cm in thickness.The Thyroid gland looks like a butterfly.) Along with Subcutaneous gland 腦下腺 ( size as a pea, very very small) they both control all over most important functions of our bodies--metabolism, heart rate, body temperature control...etc. They work together to achieve the delicate balance of Thyroid hormones.

Within one week, my pulse has increased to 109 at the time I saw the endocrinologist, and he prescribed a Beta blocker to block the Thyroid hormone from speeding up my heart beats. After reading the many possible side effects of the Beta blocker( a common drug for high blood pressure but I am usually having low blood pressure, so I never use it before.), I was scared and decided I was not going to take it yet, thinking my pulse was only a little bit faster than normal range and my hands were only slightly trembling. Besides, I was foolish to have Pneumonia vaccine last Wednesday when I went to see my eye doctor because that vaccine was long overdue and I wanted to get it done with. That caused some slight pain too. All a sudden, that night, my pulse was up, up , up to 116. and I couldn't sleep. So I swallowed the pill to stop this crazy upward march of my heart beats. There is no room for me to argue not taking the pill any more. I had to, I have to swallow the pill right then..

Well, I have learned my lesson and have some insight to share with you through this short ordeal. First of all, our Creator God has made such a small gland work so well for us. For more than 71 yrs, my Thyroid gland serves me well. it is so small, yet it is a control center of the body. Isn't it amazing? When it serves us well, we never appreciate its existence. Now that I have autoimmune problem, then I have just realized what a big contribution of Thyroid gland did to me in all these past years and I am full of thankfulness to God.

Secondly, though I don't know how and why my own immune system has turned against myself, ( gene or stress as most articles suggest??) Yet I do know I am sick when I lost weight rapidly and suddenly my pulse rate increases, . The reality is I am sick and need to take medicines prescribed to me by an authentic specialist whether I like it or not, regardless if  that particular medicine may give me terrible side effects or not. In a word, there is no time for me to keep arguing for the unknown causes of this disease, I better took action to take the remedy pills. Thank God, after taking the pills two times, my pulse went back to normal.

Dear friends, generally speaking, don't you realize humankind's souls( or minds) are sick? You may not like or understand the reasons Bible gave us about the cause or root of human sinful nature. Perhaps in this side of heavens, we may not have the perfect answer because we are very limited in our understanding. Yet the reality is humans are sinful in our fallen nature. So called the dark side of human mind/heart, by many people, right? Look around our world, so many evil things are going on, we simply can't deny human nature is fallen, right? We are also running out of time for those who hit 70 years plus like me. There is a sense of urgency, don't you realize that?  I don't know how long I have left to have the chance to tell you the good news of Jesus. Please don't let many biases keep you from knowing our Creator God! Just because we don't understand God's mind and His way of doing things, shouldn't make us to deny His existence and His offer of eternal life through Jesus Christ, the eternal God. 

May God give us wisdom to count our days and hurry up to be connected with Him!

Note:

What Causes Graves' Disease?

Hormones secreted by the thyroid gland control metabolism, or the speed at which the body converts food into energy. Metabolism is directly linked to the amount of hormones that circulate in the bloodstream. If, for some reason, the thyroid gland secretes an overabundance of these hormones, the body's metabolism goes into high gear, producing the pounding heart, sweating, trembling, andweight loss typically experienced by hyperthyroid people. Normally, the thyroid gets its production orders through another chemical called thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), released by the pituitary gland in the brain. But in Graves' disease, a malfunction in the body's immune system releases abnormal antibodies that mimic TSH. Spurred by these false signals to produce, the thyroid's hormone factories work overtime and exceed their normal quota.

Exactly why the immune system begins to produce these aberrant antibodies is unclear. Heredity and other characteristics seem to play a role in determining susceptibility. Studies show, for example, that if one identical twin contracts Graves' disease, there is a 20% likelihood that the other twin will get it, too. Also, women are more likely than men to develop the disease. And smokers who develop Graves' disease are more prone to eye problems than nonsmokers with the disease. No single gene causes Graves’ disease. It is thought to be triggered by both genetics and environmental factors, such as stress.