While working and living in Johnson City recently (see Vacation Villa), our daughter and two grandchildren came to visit and spend several nights. The children enjoyed the swimming pool, of course. We spent one long morning at two different playgrounds. One had adult exercise machines. I was sore the next day.
The day before, Mamaw, Mother, grandchildren, and I went to the Hands On Museum and Gray Fossil Site. It was fun and informative. The Hands On part had many of the exhibits from years ago when we had visited it. They are good exhibits, but some need repairs, and all need educational explanations to make them, well, educational, as opposed to merely fun.
There were two new exhibits that were well done. One was the presentation of fossils found at the Gray site. It had been a sinkhole that had collapsed. I don’t accept the long time scales, and it very likely collapse in the Worldwide Flood of Noah’s day, but the variety of fossils and depictions of flora and fauna of that time were good. There were Mastodon and Tapir bones, the latter being in more profusion that any other fossil site. There was a new species of hickory tree found in the fossilized muds. Types of fossils were well explained along with small samples well exhibited with good convex lens for viewing.
The second good exhibit was one of the best combinations of hands on and technology I had ever seen. So many techy exhibits are glitzy and purely spectatorial. This one taught by doing and interacting with the both the very tactile sand and constantly adjusting video. The exhibit consisted of an approximately 4 1/2′ x 5′ sandbox with a detector/projector above that measured the distance to the sand and projected contour lines and elevation colors onto the sand. As you move the sand into a pile or scoop it out, the system adjusts the contour lines and colors almost immediately. Children and adults alike had trouble pulling their hands out of the sand. With hand above any spot, moving one’s fingers, the projector produced what looked like a lava flow that persisted for 10 seconds or so. I think they could up the game even a bit more by providing a map legend of contour lines and intervals and elevation colors for educational purposes.
We of course enjoyed time with our daughter and the grandchildren. While they were there, my granddaughter and I finished our reading of the Chronicles of Narnia which I had been reading to her over Duo (a video chat format for Android) for about six months. It was quite the enjoyable time. Check out a few pictures at Hands On and Gray Fossils.
Out of this World Question
Posted in Creation Articles, Cultural commentary, General, Questioning, Random thoughts, Science, Truth, Work of Jesus, tagged Astronomy, Extraterrestrial Life, Ice Sheets, Learning, Lost Squadron, Science, Thought Experiment, Truth, work of christ on August 6, 2019| 2 Comments »
Early this summer I had a student ask me a question by e-mail: “Do you think it is truly possible for someone to find the correct answer to the Drake Equation? If so, how would they prove it?”
After some research I gave the following reply:
“”The equation was written in 1961 by Frank Drake, not for purposes of quantifying the number of civilizations, but as a way to stimulate scientific dialogue…”(1) Therefore, the terms in the equation are considerations of what would have to be known in order to quantify (that is, count) civilizations. It is a thought experiment, and since we cannot go to many of those places (or probably any of them) because the distance is too great for even several lifetimes of travel [“Hey, grandkids, the goal of this mission when we started out 60 years ago was for you to visit two planets around the third star from our home star, Sun, to see if there is anybody living there. We’ll be there 40 years or so after your grandchildren are born.”], the whole scheme is pure speculation. In fact, I would go a step further and say that it is not even useful speculation.
So, to answer your question, no, it can neither be solved nor checked (proven). Based on my belief in the God of the Bible, I believe that it is not even a useful thought experiment. The Scripture says,”in as much as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.” (Hebrews 9:27-28) Since “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23), and since “Christ…offered once [died]”, then if any civilizations did exist, they would be without hope because God has not redeemed any of them. Instead, I think that it means they do not exist. And because of the distance we cannot know if they exist. The whole thought experiment becomes fruitless, a deceptive worldview way of avoiding the real truth about how [we got here and how] we “die once” and need that salvation.
A better thought experiment would be to explain how the rocks and ice we see confirm what God said about a worldwide flood in Genesis 6-9. Check out the “Lost Squadron” that landed on Greenland(2). Ask yourself some questions. 1) How deep were the “Lost Squadron” airplanes under the ice? 2) How long did it take for the ice to accumulate? 3) In how long of a time could the whole ice sheet have accumulated at that rate? 4) Has the rate of accumulation always been the same? 5) Is there any evidence for the rate of accumulation changing? 6) Comparing these estimates to the “declared age” of ice cores in Greenland, is there a problem with the present explanation of how the ice sheet got there?”
I think you will realize that the standard explanation for what the layers in the ice sheets means is flawed. Therefore, distractors are thrown up to keep us from seeing the logical fallacies of the ill-conceived conclusions masquerading as a scientific theory. There are many worthy thought experiments to be done. Einstein was particularly good at those, but much of today’s theoretical science is lacking in a creativity that adheres to truth as its basis, instead heralding false agendas and distracting from useful science. Let us be done with having any part of that.
1- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation
2- https://creation.com/the-lost-squadron
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