We live in an amazing world, and when you study it, you are amazed at the complexity and the unbelievable marvels of the natural world. Not only that, but the infinitesimal brain of man has no way of understanding the universe. I love to study the universe (astronomy) and our natural world, and that causes you to wonder how it can all be. Firstly, where did it all come from? Secondly, how can it all operate the way it does?
OUR SUN
The sun lies at the heart of the solar system, where it is by far the largest object. 99.8% of the solar system’s mass is occupied by the sun, which is so large that about one million Earths could fit inside the sun.
The temperature at the surface of the sun is about 5,500 degrees Celsius (10,000 degrees Fahrenheit), while temperatures in the core reach more than 15 million C (27 million F), driven by nuclear reactions. One would need to explode 100 billion tons of dynamite every second to match the energy produced by the sun, according to NASA. If we take time just to absorb that, it is mind-blowing for the human intelligence.
The sun is one of more than 100 billion stars in the Milky Way (our own galaxy). The sun is relatively young compared with ages of other stars.
NASA has said this: “The Sun does not “burn” like we think of logs in a fire or paper burning. The Sun glows because it is a very big ball of gas, and a process called nuclear fusion is taking place in its core. Nuclear fusion occurs when one proton smashes into another proton so hard that they stick together… and release some energy as well. This energy then heats up the other materials (other protons and electrons and such) nearby. This heating eventually grows out from the center (or core) of the star to the outside, finally leaving the surface and radiating out into space to be the heat and light we know stars emit.”
People, including scientists, sometimes say that the Sun “burns hydrogen” to make it glow. But that is just a figure of speech. Hydrogen really doesn’t burn in the sun; it fuses into helium, so no oxygen is required! By fusion, the sun “burns” about 5.64 million tons of hydrogen per second, resulting in 5.59 million tons of helium. We all know how light hydrogen is, so 5.64 million tons is enormous – staggering – incomprehensible! I can’t understand it.
LET’S TRANSLATE THAT TO THE UNIVERSE
Our own sun burns/changes 5 million tons of hydrogen every second into helium and produces incredible light and energy.
This is from the European Space Agency – [[“There are something like 1011 to 1012 stars in our Galaxy, and there are perhaps something like 1011 or 1012 galaxies. With this simple calculation, you get something like 1022 to 1024 stars in the Universe. This is only a rough number, as obviously not all galaxies are the same, just like on a beach the depth of sand will not be the same in different places.”]] This is one estimate. I have seen the number as high as 1027, but what are a few billion stars when we talk these figures?
Our sun is about an average-sized sun, but let’s see how much hydrogen is being “burnt” every second in the entire universe. It is 5 million tons multiplied by 1022 to 1024 stars. AND THIS IS HOW MUCH HYDROGEN IS BEING BURNT/CHANGED EVERY SECOND:
5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons every second in God’s universe.
I cannot take it in, not one little bit. Where did such a mass of hydrogen come from? Young people told me once in a forum that everything just made itself. That is like, “Take God out of the equation, and it just happens all by itself.” What is wrong with an education system that dismisses God and claims that all matter just happens to be there all by itself, or worse still, it made itself. That is the position of the fool David Attenborough. (I am correct to call him a fool, for he is a deep-seated atheist, and God says atheists are fools (Psalms 14:1).
THE IMMENSITY OF GOD DEFIES BELIEF
Things are so astounding – “What are these incredible facts going to do to us?” Make us feel incredibly insignificant, I would think. Powerless, in the whole scheme of things. Now we need to take a look at Psalm 8.
Psalm 8:1-6: “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth, Who has displayed Your splendour above the heavens! From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength because of Your adversaries, to make the enemy and the revengeful cease. When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars which You have ordained, what is man, that You take thought of him, and the son of man, that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands. You have put all things under his feet.”
I don’t know how God made the universe. Not by the explosion of a particle the size of a grain of sand, but then again, it is likely He did not place all the galaxies and the solar systems in there exactly as we see today. Astronomers are seeing the end of life of stars and galaxies crashing into each other and new stars being born. However, God does not work in disorder or mindless randomness. He uses the laws of physics to continue what He put in place. We don’t need to argue that case but be content with what David said. Psalm 19:1-2: “The heavens are telling of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.”
Paul, in writing to the Hebrews, wrote – Hebrews 11:3: “By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.”
The secret is in the verse – “By faith.” However, the god of this world has so blinded the eyes of those who won’t believe, they can’t acknowledge the truth. One of the greatest of these blind leaders of the blind is the late Stephen Hawking. Here are some things he wrote:
“I think the universe was spontaneously created out of nothing, according to the laws of science,” Hawking, who died in March, wrote. “If you accept, as I do, that the laws of nature are fixed, then it doesn’t take long to ask: What role is there for God?”
In a new book that was published posthumously, Stephen Hawking wrote that it is impossible for God to exist in our universe. Stephen Hawking’s Final Book says, “There’s ‘No Possibility’ of God in Our Universe.” “Did God create the quantum laws that allowed the Big Bang to occur?” Hawking wrote. “I have no desire to offend anyone of faith, but I think science has a more compelling explanation than a divine creator.”
Let’s look at what Hawking said another way. “Did God create the laws of physics and mechanics that allow a big motor vehicle to operate?” Hawking would then conclude that it is the quantum laws that would cause that vehicle to operate, just pure science in isolation. BUT THEN, who made the materials such as steel and thousands of other pieces of material, without which there would be no vehicle?
Hawking is one of those Paul speaks of in his epistles – 1Corinthians 2:14: “A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised.” 1Cor 1:18: “The word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
Romans 1:21-22: “Even though they knew God, they did not honour Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools.” Sadly, Hawking now knows the truth.
THE MYSTERY OF UNBELIEF – OR IS IT?
We ask what is it in human minds that will dismiss God but accept all sorts of irrational propositions instead? I think the human race is just as stupid as people who stand before a brick wall with portals, e.g., 7 of them each fitted with a door. Each door has pictures painted on it from things enticing, lustful, depraved, greedy and pleasure-filled. On one of those doors, there are no pictures, just a plain wooden door. On it is written, “This is the way to God”; and on the other six are written, “This is the wrong way,” “This is the way to destruction,” “This is the path to disaster,” “This is the path to damnation,” “This road leads to a place of lost misery,” and the last, “This is heading to everlasting ruin.”
We stand there and watch, and as the human race passes by, each one chooses the door of his/her liking. But it is noted, not many at all choose the door, “This is the way to God.”
Firstly, we must understand man is a fallen creature, and all his decisions are foolish and “anti-God,” for the nature within him propels him away from wanting to acknowledge God or be in His presence. Only by divine grace can that be done. When a human being is heading away from God and towards destruction, the fallen nature within will want to stay on that path, and in most cases, all warnings and instructions are ignored and/or rejected.
There is an old adage, “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.” But when you transfer that to spiritual matters, it makes it so much harder because, unless the Spirit of God is present, that man may be convinced but is still blind since he is not spiritually discerning. That is why argument never makes a Christian, but the Holy Spirit in conviction will lead a person to Christ. That is why a person just can’t arbitrarily decide to become a Christian. “But when He, the Spirit of truth has come, He will convict the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment.”
God has positioned the universe in place and has provided millions of insights and wonders in creation, and they are all bright lights mapping the path to God. And if a man genuinely acknowledges that and turns to God, the Lord will not disappoint. That man will find God.
People like David Attenborough, now touting in strongest terms this hoax of climate change with its consequential anti-Christian concepts, is a man who will be held a lot more accountable than most other people because he has seen unbelievable wonders in Nature over the years in the Nature programs he produced; but he vociferously rejects any notion of God. It is the fool who says in his heart there is no God. Each man and woman will be judged according to the light afforded to him and her. The South American in the Amazon rainforest 1,000 years ago, who had never heard of Christ or anything relating to Christianity, had the light of creation to guide him to God to recognize a Creator. That is all he had. However, the over-privileged in the western world who have so much access to the Christian faith and the means of considering God, if they reject God, they have a great penalty on them because they have rejected greater light.
When the preacher in Ecclesiastes considered so many things, he concluded in Ecclesiastes 1:8, “All things are wearisome. Man is not able to tell it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear filled with hearing.” Man wearies himself with nonsense and vanity and lightness, but the weightier things of eternity, he refuses to consider. This is our generation. All is vanity.
GO TO THE FUNGI, YOU SEEKERS
I photograph and study tropical rainforest fungi, and the more you see of the behavior of these organisms, the more one is filled with wonder, and you realize the infinite wisdom of God in the tiniest degree. There is a tiny fungus that has a little cap on it, and before it rains, the cap lifts so a raindrop can hit the little spores inside to scatter them for the continuation of the species. It did not design that for itself, for in doing so with the hundreds of years of evolution, it would have been long dead!
Without fungi, plants could not live. The underground network of fungi is unbelievable, and they have a special relationship with the roots of plants and trees. Rather than use my own words, I will repeat this from the “Pacific Horticulture” site.
“The word “mycorrhizae” comes from the Greek words for fungus and root and refers to the symbiotic relationship that exists between plant roots and certain fungi. In natural settings, these mycorrhizal fungi are present in the soil in association with plant roots. The fungi colonize by attaching to the surface of the root (ectomycorrhizal) or to the inside of the root cells (endomycorrhizal). Then they send their filaments (called mycelium) into the surrounding soil, effectively extending the plant’s roots and root-absorbing capacity, 10 to 1000 times – far beyond what the plant can do alone. Several miles of these ultra-fine filaments can be present in less than a thimbleful of soil. Mycorrhizae supply the water and nutrients needed by the plant for its establishment and survival, and, in return, receive from the plant roots, sugars and other compounds needed by the fungus.”
How did trees grow for hundreds and thousands of years without fungi that were necessary for them to survive? They did not. How did fungi survive without the tree roots underground? They did not. It is a symbiotic relationship, and they had to develop together. God made them that way. That is just one little message from God in this world, along with millions He has given. People are without excuse.
Just as a matter of interest to show God’s wonders – “The largest terrestrial organism on the planet is a fungus called “Armillaria solidipes” – or honey fungus. The largest honey fungus identified in North America is in Malheur National Forest, Oregon. It measures 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometers) across! That’s considerably bigger than the biggest giant sequoia or African elephant. Scientists also believe that this particular honey fungus may be over 2,000 years old. The next largest honey fungus is in the neighboring state of Washington.” (from ‘EarthSky’) (The Oregon fungus is reported to weigh 400 tons.)
Armillaria ostoyae in the Malheur National Forest in Oregon spans 9.6 square kilometers. The Oregon fungus and another in Michigan are both informally called “the humongous fungus.” (New Scientist)
Honey fungus is widely distributed across the cooler regions of the United States and Canada. It is very common in the forests of the Pacific Northwest. These fungi grow in individual networks of above and below-ground fibers called mycelia. Mycelia work like a plant’s roots. They draw water and nutrients from the soil to feed the fungus. At the same time, they make chemicals that are shared with other organisms in the soil.”
The paragraph underneath contains a bit more on how Mycorrhizae work.
Also from Pacific Horticulture: “Mycorrhizae provide many other benefits to plants. The fungal filaments take up and store water, decreasing drought stress during dry periods. The fungal filaments bind soil particles into larger aggregates with organic glues such as humic compounds; the resulting soil structure allows air and water movement into the soil, encouraging root growth and distribution. Mycorrhizal fungi attack disease organisms that enter the root zone in several ways. Some produce antibiotics that immobilize or kill disease organisms. Others trap root-feeding nematodes and kill them. Some protect roots against attacking insects with a thick “net” of their mycelium. Some protect the plants from disease-causing fungi, such as Fusarium, Phytophthora, and Rhizoctonia.
These activities result in improved survival, enhanced top and root growth, and increased production of flowers and fruits, plus protection from disease and an improved soil structure. The plants can better compete against invasion by weed plants and can better survive drought conditions.”
God has placed so much in this world to prove His majesty and His creation. Do not refuse God or neglect the great salvation He offers.
In the post that follows this one, there is a poem I wrote called CREATION THEN – NOT EVOLUTION. I think you might like it. Please take a look.