On Tuesday two satellites, one Russian and one American, collided by accident at about 10 km/s over Siberia (CNN story). The US Space Surveillance Network uses radar and optical sensors to track all of the satellites and thousands of pieces of "space junk" that orbit the Earth. From the SSN space surveillance description page: The …
Month: February 2009
Finally, an e-card for geo people
I don't think I've ever sent an e-card to anyone. That might now change, thanks to geogreeting.com. With this e-card service, you can send a message where the letters are created from GoogleEarth images: The motto on the GeoGreeting page is "how geeks show they care." Click here to see my message assembled building by …
Vatican to sort of include discussion of ID in evolution conference
From AP/FoxNews: Vatican to Discuss, but Not Endorse, Intelligent Design VATICAN CITY — The Vatican will include discussion of intelligent design in a conference marking the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species," officials said Tuesday. "The committee agreed to consider ID as a phenomenon of an ideological and cultural nature, thus …
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Happy Valentine’s Day
Happy Valentine's Day from the heart-shaped giant star forming region W5 in Cassiopeia: Credit: Lori Allen, Xavier Koenig (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA) et al., JPL-Caltech, NASA (Astronomy Picture of the Day August 29, 2008) Grace and Peace P.S. My Valentine's Day entry last year was Mars and Valentine's Day.
Darwin on the wall
A spoof from The Onion: Evolutionists Flock to Darwin-Shaped Wall Stain. I think it looks more like Chewbacca myself. Grace and Peace
Darwin’s birthday #2
What drives more scientists away from Christianity, evolution, or young-Earth creationism? I don't know the answer, but I suspect that both have significant roles. Some forms of evolutionary philosophy drive scientists (and others) away from Christianity. The New Atheists, such as Richard Dawkins, claim that evolution makes it intellectually feasible to be an atheist. To …
A sad story
I came across this sad, but very believable, comment on The Internet Monk today: When I was a kid I spent part of my time in a Christian private school. I remember they used to send my home with “archaeological evidence” of the ark being discovered in various places and I would spend hours at …
Darwin’s Birthday
Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809; two hundred years ago today. Darwin's theory of evolution, obviously, has been an extremely divisive topic. Has Darwinism made the world safe for atheism, as the "New Atheists" would claim? Is Darwinian evolution really EVILution; a doctrine of the devil? Or are evolution and Christianity perfectly compatible? …
Screwtape addresses the New Atheists
In the tradition of C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters: My dear fellow Brights, Beamers, Blazers, Brilliants, Gleamers, Incandescents, Resplendents, Radiants, Shimmerers, and Sparklers: Thank you all for being here tonight, and a special thanks to the Dixie Chicks for that heartwarming cover of “Imagine.” I choke up every time I hear those immortal words—“Imagine there’s …
Charles Lyell: geologist, Christian believer
Here's the frontispiece from Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology. The book was first published in three volumes in 1830 to 1833, but this is from an 1857 edition. This cross-section shows an amazing understanding of the basic geologic processes that form the Earth's crust: plutonism, volcanism, metamorphism, sedimentation, and folding. Like most geologists (at least …
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Spaceships
I started reading a book on astrobiology last night (Life Everywhere: The Maverick Science of Astrobiology by David Darling). It looks like it is going to be mostly about extra-terrestrial bacteria rather than ET, but perhaps I should brush up on the spacecraft of alien civilizations. Here is a spaceship size comparison chart: Here's a …
Geology field trip
On Saturday, my family and I had the pleasure of taking a geological tour of the area at the base of the Front Range, just west of Denver. Our tourguide (it was just me and my family) was a USGS geologist who is a member of the Affiliation of Christian Geologists. We started with the …
Australia heatwave
From NASA's Earth Observatory: Exceptional Australian Heat Wave. This image was created using data from NASA's Terra satellite. It shows surface temperatures---as opposed to the air temperatures given in weather reports---for the end of January, which of course is in the midst of southern hemisphere summer. The highest air temperature recorded in this heat wave …
Why don’t we get it?
Dean Ohlman has 21 Reasons That Evangelicals Don't Get Creation Care over at Restoring Eden. Here are a few: 1. Evangelicals understand that people are special because we’re made in the image of God, but we typically fail to see that the non-human creation is also special because it was created “very good” by the …
Conversations
I've had a couple of posts that have generated a number of good comments and questions in recent weeks: All truth is God's truth Mixed marriages and the age of the Earth I've found the dialog to be helpful. Grace and Peace
GeoChristian 