Out of My Hat

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Showing posts with label apologetics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label apologetics. Show all posts

Thursday, 27 December 2012

The Old Farmer's Almanac

Posted on 23:34 by Unknown
I know that The Old Farmer's Almanac is one of those outdated publications that just keeps hanging on. I would guess that the information in the annual publication is available through the online site, but I've never been to their website.

On the one hand, they still have the hole punched in the upper left-hand corner of their printed publication so that you can hang it on a nail in your barn or gardening shed. On the other hand, they have mobile apps, a website and are on social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

Something for everyone!

I am perusing my 2013 traditional printed edition now. Although each year's Almanac comes out in the fall, my copy has been a stocking stuffer for more than twenty years. Over the past two decades I have managed to misplace a couple of editions but have most of them since 1991.

Even before 1991, The Old Farmer's Almanac was my source of information for finding the visible planets, knowing when the principle meteor showers were taking place, watching an eclipse or finding a particular star or constellation in the night sky.

Maybe it seems strange not to have the "app" or that I haven't "liked" them on Facebook or followed them on Twitter (Actually, it's more strange that I don't have a smart phone that can even get the app!), but I happen to like the old fashioned printed edition.

...And I like the information that it contains--the regular movement of the stars across the night sky, the predictability of the planetary dance within our solar system, the effect of the moon on the tides--this is science in its purest form. The Almanac contains valuable information on plants and their growing seasons, the climates they thrive in and the amount of sun, water and warmth that they need. It is full of information and experience that has been distilled over more than two hundred years.

It is funny how some can look to science and say, "See, there is no god. It's just nature." But when I look to the heavens, when I see the life on Earth, I say, "See, there has to be a God! This is no accident!"

In case you were wondering:
On Jan. 1st, the Earth will be at perihelion--that's the closest to the Sun in its slightly elliptical orbit. We will be just 91,402,639 miles from the Sun. On July 5th the distance will be more than 3 million miles greater at 94,501,041!
Spring comes early this year as the Earth reaches the vernal equinox at 7:02am EDT on the 20th of March. The first full moon of Spring is on the 27th, making Easter Sunday the 31st of March.

I'll keep you posted as more of 2013's celestial events take place.

John <><

"We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; in feelings, not figures on a dial." --from an 18th century edition of The Old Farmer's Almanac
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Posted in apologetics, trivia, What I Like About ... | No comments

Friday, 21 December 2012

December Solstice

Posted on 10:47 by Unknown
It's been almost seven hours since the Earth past that point in its orbit where the days (in the northern hemisphere) start to get longer and the sun begins to make its way higher in our daytime sky. Having friends, relatives and blog readers that are in the southern hemisphere, it occurs to me that the name "Winter Solstice" really only describes the event for half of the Earth.

It's funny that I've never really thought about that before now. I guess the internet and regular contact with those that live Down Under and in other cultures around the world does, in fact, give one an awareness of how others see the world. Just as we look forward to longer, warmer days ahead, our friends from the south might be looking forward to some cooler temps as the sun's angle increases, the temps start to drop and they move towards their fall season.

Unfortunately, that whole radiant heat thing takes a few weeks before we really start to feel the difference. So we still have a few weeks where temps will get colder and they'll still have to deal with their hottest temps of the year. Maybe that's why the solstice marks the beginning of winter (or summer, depending on your location). I reality, shouldn't this mark the mid point of our respective seasons with greatest angle to the sun marking winter's halfway point and the least angle marking mid summer?

I actually look forward to this day and can understand why ancient cultures of the northern hemisphere celebrated it. The sun is returning to its warmer place in the sky. Pagan, Christian or simply Deist, that's something that we can all celebrate.

Sure, some will simply call it an annual event that is dictated by the science of the universe. However, I see the hand of a magnificent Designer that set it all in motion long ago. The size and temperature of the yellow dwarf star that anchors our solar system, the distance and slightly elliptical orbit of our planet, the angle of the axis that provides us with seasons and regulates temperatures to make the Earth hospitable to life, the moon that orbits the Earth providing tides to clean the oceans and circulate the waters; these things are far too complex to have happened by accident.

Saying that today is the first day of Winter is a little depressing. I rather like the idea of celebrating the first day of days getting longer and the slow return of the sun to its rightful and majestic place high in the summer sky. It really is no wonder that ancient cultures saw the sun as a god.

But I'm humbled to know that their god had a Creator, my God.
And my God has provided a way to know Him personally through His son, Jesus.
It's a good time to celebrate that, too!

Merry Christmas and Happy Solstice!
John <><


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Posted in apologetics, Christmas, fun stuff, trivia | No comments

Tuesday, 27 November 2012

Our Amazing Solar System

Posted on 04:55 by Unknown
I'm a little bit crazy. I know it.
I'm the guy that took a day off work, pulled the kids out of school for a day, and traveled several hours to make a day trip to be within the path of total annularity during the annular eclipse of 1994.
I'm the guy that called home to wake everybody up to view the Leonid meteor shower of 1998 ...at 2 in the morning.
I'm the guy that people call to ask about night sky events. They call on their smart phones that can give them expert answers rather than the regurgitated information that spills from the trivia crowded brain matter in my head.

I find our solar system, our Milky Way Galaxy, our entire universe to be unbelievably fascinating. The order of our universe is complex, intricate and beautifully perfect.

This morning I set my alarm clock for 4 AM. I got up, brewed a thermos of coffee and headed out in the 20 something degree temps (F) to find a place where I could view Venus and Saturn rising in the eastern sky. They were just 0.6 degrees apart. That's practically on top of each other, astronomically speaking.

I get that it is not a visually stunning event to witness. And yet, it is a truly remarkable event. The simple science of the planets of our solar system orbiting the sun on the same plane makes these events possible. The order of the universe could not have happened by accident. Nature does not move from chaos to perfect order; it moves from order and deteriorates into disorder.

It is the perfect design of our world, from a single celled life form to the vast expanses of space, that gives testimony of a Great Designer. It is the teleological argument that says if there is a design, there must be a Designer.

I am awed and humbled by the creation of our God. In all of His vast creation, He cares about us; about me. He knows me. He loves me. I can't understand why, but He does.

When I consider your heavens, 
the work of your fingers, 
the moon and the stars, 
which you have set in place, 
what is mankind that you are mindful of them, 
human beings that you care for them?
Psalm 8:3-4

John <><
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Sunday, 25 November 2012

Who is Jesus? ...and Why Should I Follow Him? (2)

Posted on 22:09 by Unknown
Is Jesus of Nazareth the Messiah?
Is He the appointed one?
The one whose coming is foretold throughout the prophesies of the Old Testament?

We've already looked at evidence that this Jesus really did exist (here). Though there are some varying accounts of the details of his life, there can be no doubt that he did, in fact, live and die in Israel around the time indicated by the gospels of the New Testament.

But is this same Jesus the long awaited Messiah?

There is much that has been written of the messianic prophesies, far more than I could ever read and written far better than I could ever write. There are more than 300 prophesies in the Old Testament that either promise a coming redeemer or tell something about the coming redeemer. Many of those scriptures can be found here.

Some might say that many of these are general in nature and could be fulfilled by any number of people. It many be correct that many people could fulfill many of the prophesies, but how likely is it that only one person is able to fulfill all of them.

Scientist Peter Stoner conservatively calculated the probability of just eight prophesies being fulfilled in just one person at 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. It has been said that if you covered an area the size of the state of Texas two feet deep with silver dollars and had one marked with an X; the odds of a blind man walking along and randomly stopping to pick up one coin and having it be the marked coin would be about the same!

You can see how Prof. Stoner arrived at these numbers here.

Also contained in the article by Dr. David R Reagan are other prophesies and probabilities and some oddities that point to divine revelation. Consider the following:


One of the most remarkable Messianic prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures is the one that precisely states that the Messiah will die by crucifixion. It is found in Psalm 22 where David prophesied the Messiah would die by having His hands and feet pierced (Psalm 22:16). That prophecy was written 1,000 years before Jesus was born. When it was written, the Jewish method of execution was by stoning. The prophecy was also written many years before the Romans perfected crucifixion as a method of execution.
Even when Jesus was killed, the Jews still relied on stoning as their method of execution, but they had lost the power to implement the death penalty due to Roman occupation. That is why they were forced to take Jesus to Pilate, the Roman governor, and that's how Jesus ended up being crucified, in fulfillment of David's prophecy.
The bottom line is that the fulfillment of Bible prophecy in the life of Jesus proves conclusively that He truly was God in the flesh. It also proves that the Bible is supernatural in origin.

Though it would appear, even to a casual reader, that there is a great deal of evidence that supports that Jesus is the indeed the Messiah, each of us gets to decide for ourselves what we will do with the information. If Jesus is the Messiah; if he is the Son of God; if he is God--what then?

What does His life and death mean for us? What are we to do with this information? How can it be that a God that is great enough to create the whole of the universe cares about each of us as individuals? Or does He? Is our God a god that desires to have a personal relationship with His creation?

Those are questions we'll address in another post. For now, who is Jesus--to you?

John <><

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Tuesday, 13 November 2012

Who is Jesus? ...and Why Should I Follow Him?

Posted on 06:44 by Unknown
I suppose that it is fair to address those two questions before we ever get around to discussing the things that Jesus taught. If we are not first convinced that there was such a person as the Biblical Jesus of Nazareth, we certainly are not going to get very far discussing the teaching or authority of what is perceived as a fictional character.

It is fair to ask if there are any ancient texts other than the Bible that give evidence of the life of Jesus. The answer is a resounding, "Yes!"

Even without looking at specific texts, we know from the history of Rome that the followers of Jesus were slaughtered in the Colosseum as entertainment for Nero and the citizens of Rome. If this Jesus never lived, a lot of people died for nothing.

Okay, you can say that many people can be caught up in false teachings and false prophets and these delusional Christians truly believed in the imaginary Jesus. After all, still today there are many that think of God as imaginary.

So, is there evidence outside of the Bible that testifies that Jesus was a real person and did the things that the Bible (and His followers) claims He did?

Fortunately, once again, the answer is yes.

Probably the earliest writing (and the best preserved writing) is from a Jewish slave to a Roman officer and later servant of Caesar Dominitan. Flavius Josephus wrote Antiquities of the Jews and is considered to be an authority on Jewish history. In addition to this writing, there are nine other (ten total) non-biblical texts from non-Christians written within 150 years of the life of Jesus. By comparison, there are only nine that mention the Emperor Tiberius.

The Quran, written 600 years later, also refers to Jesus. But the Muslims do not believe in the divinity of Jesus, only that he was a prophet to the Jews to direct them towards the future prophet Mohammed.

Lee Stroebel's A Case for Christ and Norm Geisler's and Frank Turek's I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Athiest are two good reads that cover evidences of Jesus and his fulfillment of Biblical prophecies.

The evidence is strong that the person of Jesus existed and even that he performed many miracles.
Next we'll take a look at the divinity of Jesus.

John <><
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