The Christmas Star Puzzle

Christmas has a prairie schooner-load of traditions and legends associated with it that have nothing to do with the Bible. That does not necessarily mean they're automatically wrong, but we can't elevate those (as well as our opinions) above Scripture. The "no room at the inn" section has given rise to legends about the innkeeper and his wife, sometimes images of a cave, maybe a barn — all based on a mistranslation of "inn" that should have been rendered "guest room". Mixed with the legends and traditions are the false claims with which both atheists and uninformed use in attacks. A series of links for your edification and education can be found here.

Image credit: Clker clipart

A real event that has caused a great deal of speculation among scientists a laypeople alike is the Christmas star. There have been many speculations about what caused it using naturalistic explanations, but those miss some details of the narrative and fall short (see "The Star of Bethlehem: A Review" and "The Star of Bethlehem: Divine Design"). I disremember when, but I read of someone who said the Arthur C. Clarke short story "The Star", about a supernova that destroyed an alien civilization and announced the birth of Jesus, made him an atheist. Not only is that amazingly foolish to allegedly lose faith over a work of science fiction, but the star of Bethlehem was not a supernova.

Dr. John MacArthur believes that the star was God's shekinah glory, שכינה. Although that word is not in the Bible, it was coined by Jewish rabbis where the glory of God was tangible.

Dr. Jason Lisle has a compelling case that the star was a supernatural event, just like the virgin birth and other events at that time. For that matter, Creation itself and the Genesis Flood began as supernatural events.

The apostle Matthew records that the birth of Jesus was accompanied by an extraordinary celestial event: a star that led the magi (the “wise men”) to Jesus. This star “went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was” (Matthew 2:9). What was this star? And how did it lead the magi to the Lord? There have been many speculations.

To read the rest, click on "What Was the Christmas Star?" You may also want to see "Christmas Timeline of the Biblical Account", and for fascinating information on those people following the star, click on "The Mysterious Magi".

A long-lasting cause of speculation is the Christmas Star. It cannot be explained through strictly naturalistic explanations, as they have to leave out details found in the Gospel narrative. Dr. Jason Lisle has a compelling case.

A Nice Place in Space

Some people revere Carl Sagan's philosophical comments about the universe, what with being couched in science terminology and so forth. He said, "The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be". That's not a scientific statement, it's his personal religious view. 

Another religious remark from that tinhorn is, "For all our conceits about being the center of the universe, we live in a routine planet of a humdrum star stuck away in an obscure corner…on an unexceptional galaxy which is one of about 100 billion galaxies…That is the fundamental fact of the universe we inhabit, and it is very good for us to understand that". Actually, he's very wrong. Also, Sagan's dead now, so he's found out that biblical creationism is right after all.

Image credit: NASA/JPL, who is not endorsing the contents of this Weblog

Contrary to Sagan's expression of boredom, we are in an exceptionally fine area. That boring Sun is actually quite well behaved, and suitable for maintaining life. We don't get gamma-ray bursts that other stars in the universe emit so they can be the death of the party. The Van Allen radiation belts are planet-sized deflector shields. Plus, a whole heap more of evolution-defying benefits of our neighborhood in the created universe.

Everyone likes to live in a good neighbourhood—one that is safe, protected, friendly and predictable. And it turns out that Earth’s neighbourhood is very much like that.

Our planet is one of several which orbit the sun and, although it has long been realized that we occupy a special place in our solar system, it is becoming even more evident that the solar system and our place in it is anything but ordinary.

Every crater on the moon’s surface represents an object which might otherwise have impacted the earth. In fact, our world continues to look like it has been especially made as a home for us. This feature has even been given a name—the ‘anthropic principle’—and it confronts the atheist’s view that the world originated from unguided evolutionary processes.

To read the rest, be neighborly and click on "How good is our neighbourhood!" If you want to be extra nice, bring cake.

Carl Sagan was of the opinion that we're situated in a dull part of space. Actually, it's an excellent and protective neighborhood.

Further Muddling in Dark Matter

A good scientific procedure would require testing an idea, seeing if it is supported by data, making adjustments, and discarding it if the idea cannot be substantiated. Scientists advocating the Big Bang need dark matter to keep their paradigm, and they don't cotton to discarding it despite the lack of evidence or rationality — nor how occult their views become.

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The biggest rescuing device for the Big Bang is something called dark matter, which supposedly comprises most of the matter in the universe. Except that it can't be found, even with expensive equipment. Sure, they claim to infer that the effects of dark matter have been seen in deep space, but there is no actual evidence and other possible explanations of phenomena are ignored. Some scientists are aware that there are serious problems with the dark matter concept, so they're trying to saddle up alternative explanations that are equally outlandish. Cosmic evolution is unscientific and continually fails. The true explanation is that the universe was created, and created much more recently than they want to admit.

A rash of recent science articles shows that secular cosmologists have no idea where they are, or why.

Ever since cosmologists began invoking occult phenomena in the form of dark matter and dark energy, they have lost their way. If you don’t believe it, look at what they themselves are saying about their current state of knowledge – if it can be called knowledge at all.

For a passel of reports on the failings of the search for nonexistent dark matter, click on "Cosmologists Are Blind in the Dark".

Evolutionary cosmologists continue to search for nonexistent dark matter to keep the Big Bang idea going. Things are getting worse, and some scientists are searching for alternative explanations.

Evolution's Magic, and Fossil Fun

Although many atheists and evolutionists will say that Christians and creationists believe in "magic", an honest assessment of source materials shows that people who make such accusations are saturated with meadow muffins. If you study on it, the proclamations of proponents of common-ancestor evolution are far more like magic than science. But we've come to expect double standards from secularists, haven't we?

Scientists are human, but are expected by the public and other scientists to have some degree of consistency with procedure and analysis. Some time back, and unimpressive reptile fossil was found. A better specimen was found years later, and it baffled Darwinistas. What's  doing with one claw like come evil beastie out of a video game? Why does it resemble one of today's living mammals? Instead of admitting that this creature was designed by our Creator, evolutionists waved their magic wands and muttered spells with vague "maybe" terms, and then passed this stuff off as "science". That's not science, old son.

Once upon a time, only a single Italian fossil—a crushed specimen that paleontologists had to reconstruct—represented the extinct reptile Drepanosaurus. Now, a team of American scientists including dinosaur, anatomy, and geology experts described a new Drepanosaurus specimen from Ghost Ranch, New Mexico in the technical journal Current Biology. Instead of fingers, it had a massive claw on each hand, and its curling tail was claw-tipped. These features have some secular scientists scratching their heads over where it came from and why it looks more like a particular living mammal than a reptile.

Though its name sounds like a dinosaur, this odd reptile found in Triassic layers wasn't exactly a dinosaur—or even a lizard. It was probably its own brand of reptile. Drepanosaurus' enormous front claw connected to a broad and flat bone found in no other animal. This specimen, and the few others like it, had a slender snout. Its long muscular tail could curl around tree branches, and it had a unique tail spike that could help anchor the animal onto tree bark. This extinct reptile likely lived in trees and scratched away bark to feed on insects.

To read the rest, click on "Magic Words Can't Explain Strange Fossil".

When confronted with fossils that cannot be explained through evolution, scientists can resort to magic words and present them as "explanations".