The editorial column of the February 2008 issue of Scientific American includes a call for the presidential candidates to have a debate over issues of science and technology. Consider this partial list of issues that the next president of the U.S. will need to address: reducing greenhouse gas emissions; ensuring freshwater supplies; encouraging reliance on …
Pollution and the Death of Man
I recently finished re-reading Pollution and the Death of Man by Francis Schaeffer. If you read only one book on why Christians should care about nature, this is the book. It is short, and fairly easy reading (by Schaeffer standards). It is not a book about "50 ways to be green;" rather it lays the …
Asexual Reproduction
Gene Edward Veith (Cranach) has a post on generating human embryos from human skin cells. The ability to generate stem cells from skin cells was a promising medical breakthrough that bypasses the serious ethical concerns that are associated with embryonic stem cell research; the ability to create an entire human being brings all kinds of …
The Christian global warming guy
The former head of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) scientific assessment team is John Houghton, a physicist who has been studying carbon dioxide in the atmosphere for forty years. He has a better understanding of the science of atmospheric CO2 than just about anyone, so we should pay attention to what he says. …
First new images of Mercury
MESSENGER has completed its first fly-by of the planet Mercury, and is transmitting data back to Earth. NASA has released its first image from this encounter, and more are coming. This image includes areas that have never been seen in detail before. Image from messenger.jhuapl.edu. Astronomy Picture of the Day for 1/16/08. Wikipedia article: MESSENGER. …
Missing images
On September 1, 2007, I moved this blog from The Earth is Not Flat! to The GeoChristian. I have now deleted the old blog, but most of my entries created before 9/1/07 still have links to images at the old site. Which means that if you go to any of my older blog posts, there …
Messenger to Mercury
The planet Mercury is the least-well known body in the inner solar system. The only fly-by mission until now was Mariner 10, which flew by Mercury three times in 1974-1975 (and each time it passed it took pictures of the same part of the planet). We will be learning much more about Mercury in the …
Four great blogs
Don, at The Evangelical Ecologist named The GeoChristian as one of five blogs that minister to him the most. Thanks. Here are four blogs that I am regularly blessed, challenged, encouraged, and taught by: Be Bold, Be Gentle -- "Christian encouragement for men." Glenn has a heart for teaching within the body of Christ, for …
Medieval Norwegian tech support
Ever have problems opening a file? Ever worried about losing data? Watch this video. Grace and Peace
Christmas tree recycling, Romanian style
This picture shows recycling on two levels. First, some enterprising person stole the manhole cover---a common problem here in Romania---and likely took it to a recycling center to sell as scrap iron. That leaves those of us who drive with a problem: a deep hole in the middle of a narrow street. The second type …
Getting the gospel right
I say it over and over in many different contexts: The gospel is all about what God has done for us in Christ, not about what we do for him. Michael Spencer (the Internet Monk) has a great post: Losing the Treasure of a Christ-Centered Assurance of Salvation. He writes in response to a Christianity …
“I looked at the Christian community and saw ugliness”
A story from Pollution and the Death of Man, by Francis Schaeffer: Some years ago I was lecturing in a certain Christian school. Just across a ravine from the school there was what they called a "hippie community." On the far side of the ravine one saw trees and some farms. Here, I was told, …
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The price of oil
Geology.com has a link to a prediction (The coming oil crash) that the price of crude oil will plunge down to $30 a barrel. The current high prices have sparked a good amount of exploration, which should lead to a greater supply, which should lead to lower prices. Others point to instability in the oil-producing …
Time Magazine — Top 10 scientific discoveries for 2007
Time magazine's top ten science stories for 2007 include: #1 -- Stem cell breakthrough. It looks like we can now do everything from a person's own skin cells; there is no medical need for research with embryonic stem cells. As pro-life advocates have been saying all along, therapies developed from a person's own cells are …
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Bible Reading in 2008
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. (Psalm 119:105 ESV) They received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. (Acts 17:11 ESV) In 2007 I used a reading schedule designed to get me through the Bible in a year. …
Today is the winter solstice, but it has been winter for a while already
Today is the winter solstice---the shortest day of the year---but by some definitions, it has been winter for a few weeks already. The meteorological definition of winter is that it is the coldest three months in temperate zones, that is, December, January, and February in the Northern Hemisphere. Alternately, it could be defined as starting …
Continue reading Today is the winter solstice, but it has been winter for a while already
For the Beauty of the Earth — Chapter 7
In Chapter 7 of For the Beauty of the Earth, author Steven Bouma-Prediger gives ten arguments for why we should "worry about spotted owls and the Pacific yew." All of his arguments have validity to some degree---the author points out weaknesses of some arguments---but I'll focus on the ones that I think are strongest for …
Pop vs Soda
I like to have meaningful conversations at the dinner table---we are usually all together for the meal---but often I have little control over where the conversation ends up. Tonight we got back to the "pop" versus "soda" discussion that we have fruitlessly gotten into many times before. Shirley and I both grew up drinking "pop," …
Pinching Pennies
You hear in the news that the dollar continues to decline against the euro. So what? From Christianity Today: The dollar's falling value translates into a pay cut for many American missionaries, who receive funding for their work from church and denominational budgets and from the gifts of supporting Christians. According to the U.S. Center …
Denominations in the U.S.
This item was originally posted in December 2006. It is now part of my blog recycling program. Because I have new readers of The GeoChristian, I will occasionally go back and re-use some of my favorite blog entries. The Map Gallery of Religion in the United States has maps showing the distribution of various religious …
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