Category Archives: The Bible and Science

The Bible and Science – Infrared Light

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Matthew 5:15-17 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. (NIV 1984)

This beautiful metaphor needs to be a guiding principle in our lives so we can be the witness that will lead people to Jesus. But you really do shine with a type of light/EM wavelength! On the EM spectrum, it is just before visible light and is known as infrared EMSpec(which means before red). You know it better as the heat lamps in your favorite fast food place that keep your French fries/chips warm. Now our eyes are not designed to see this wavelength of energy but we are always emitting them (of course that depends on how close to red light they are). Spy movies and “CSI” shows have highlighted the technology we now use to “see” people through walls using infrared light; the hotter you are the brighter you glow.

jesus at doorIt makes you wonder about the pictures of saints with halos? FYI – Christians were not the first to put halos on religious people, it would seem to look at Wikipedia that it probably started in the Orient. It makes you wonder how the idea to start doing that happened? Could it be that someone could actually see an infrared glow!

Father help us to glow brightly so the world will see You.

Jesus at the Door was taken at the Museum on the Campus of Houston Baptist University.

The Bible and Science – Light #3

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Luke 11:34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness. (NIV1984)

Light is produced when electrons in atoms get extra energy and jump into a higher energy level than they normally belong but due to the pull of the nucleus it comes back to its normal level. When it drops back it has to give up the extra energy and it is lost as an electromagnetic wave. Different elements will produce their own special color of light/EM wave; this is one-way chemists know what is in a sample they are testing. The Greek word here for light is related to our word phosphorous and photo.

We are like those electrons when we take God’s energy and “jump” out of our comfort zone; we light the world up. Since everyone in the Body of Christ is not the same (element) our “lights” will look different. Another great picture here is that God will pull you back where you belong to get you ready for the “next time.”

If “eyes as lamps” makes you think of super-heroes with glowing eyes I don’t think you are Dynamo5alone. (see Light #2 on eyes) I have taught this verse before, as to how you look at things make a difference; like you always finding the positive or negative in something. But lamps light things up and since your body is what is full of light we need to reverse that idea. What we choose to look at and put in front of our eyes is “fueling” our lamps and that is what fills us with light.

Father, help us fuel our lamps with your fuel so we can go light up your world.

superhero pic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Dynamo_(comics)

The Bible and Science -When Nothing Is Something!

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When Nothing Is Something!

hst_hourglass_nebula_smallI recently watched an episode of Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman the title was Nothing. What they were exploring was the emptiness of space and even the concept of the space between electrons. The total thought of the show was that because of “dark matter” that maybe the emptiness of space may not be empty instead it has energy in it. Now I know many people are reaching for the mouse to find something else to read while saying this is a Bible Study blog. Please hang in there and finish reading. The reason I am commenting on this is that after Mr. Freeman opened with a slight miss quote of Genesis 1:1 he basically said that science had their own “god” and their own “beginning.” I wanted to know how “NOTHING” was replacing God. I also found it aggregating that the next scene was Freeman as a boy in an old country church holding a Bible trying to figure out what true nothingness felt like. His point was he could not.

The main point that the panel of experts made was that there is a lot of nothing in the universe; which is correct. Another point is that our idea of nothing/empty for space is not completely correct; since we see light from distant stars and galaxies there is light energy passing through it. So what the science community is doing is redefining space/time and our concept of “nothing.”

Some of the things they discussed were: 1. There was something before the big bang, 2. The states of things before the big bang were at a “higher level” than afterward, 3. “Empty” space is filled with energy that should have the potential to destroy the universe and 4. That this energy/waves are causing the universe to expand. It may sound strange but these do not disprove God and some actually agree with Scripture: 1. The thought that something was there before the big bang agrees with Genesis 1:1; the Spirit of God was hovering over water in an empty world. 2. The different “levels” sound like the Second Law of Thermodynamics that basically states that systems start in order and proceed to a state of disorder. A perfect creation becoming what we see now on earth agrees with that Law. 3. The idea that the universe is filled with energy and some of those energies are canceling each other out is a constant symbolism in the Bible an example of this is found in Colossians 1:12 + 13 where the inheritance of the saints is referred to as the “Kingdom of Light” and that we have been rescued from the “dominion of darkness.” The idea that these energies could destroy the universe is echoed in Isaiah 34: 4 where stars of heaven will be dissolved and fall and the sky will roll up like a scroll. 4. This idea is not really Biblical but preachers have been using it for a long time; the light should just keep going so the phrase is “when God spoke to light into being it started and is still going.”

To see the show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbRvHbtB9AQ, This site is not endorsed by NASA and to see more images please go to http://www.freeimages.co.uk/galleries/space/nebula/index.htm

The Bible and Science – Light #2

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* Matthew 6:22b – If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. (NIV)

The only reason we see light is because of little receptors in our eyes called cones and rods. (They get their name from their shape.) The cones allow us to see colors while the Schematic_of_the_human_eye_enrods are responsible for black and white vision. Unless an object glows, the way we see it is by light reflecting off of it to our eyes. The light enters our eye, and the wavelengths of energy are focused on the receptors of our retina. The cones and rods are stimulated and pass the message to our brain by the optic nerve. In the brain, the message is decoded, and we “see” the image. The eye is designed to have the light hit the retina in the area of the eye called the Fovea; there is actually a higher concentration of cones in this area while the rods are more concentrated just outside of this area. The famous “apple of the eye” is the cornea.

The cones come in three types red, green, and blue. Now if that sounds familiar it should because they are the three colors that power our televisions and color monitors. RGB additive colorsNow, these three colors of light can be overlapped to produce all other colors of LIGHT in what is known as an additive process. (Light and color pigments do not combine the same way and yield different results.)

Visible (white) light is a combination of colors, but each individual color is its own particular wavelength, which translates into a specific energy. We depend on white light for many things, but the individual colors are also important. Our knowledge of colored light and pigments is expanding but we know that humans do react to colors.  There is evidence that they can affect our mood and how we feel while looking at various colors of light.

Interestingly, the triune of red, green, and blue light (energy) will give you white light while the same triune of colors in a physical material, like crayons, will give you a dark color. I have never really gotten black it is usually a dark brown color.

I like the comparison of light and the church; the church needs a blend of people (energy) to shine forth God’s glory. Just like it takes the colors of the rainbow to give you pure, white light.

Father, let us use our energies in Your Church so You will get the glory.

The Bible and Science – Light

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  • 1 Timothy 6:16 Who (God) alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light.
  • 1 John 1:5 – God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.

These verses share something other than mentioning God and Light in the same sentence; the two writers both had visions of Jesus in His gloried body. Paul, who wrote to Timothy, had the Damascus Road experience in Acts 9:24 and his visions of Heaven that he mentions in 2 Corinthians 12:2-4. John had his visions on Patmos in Revelation 1:12-16 and he witnessed Jesus transfigured on the mountain (Mark 9:2-4). So both of these men had a personal knowledge of the power/energy that does exist in Heaven.

Light is a small portion of the energy that belongs to the family of radiation called the Electromagnetic Spectrum. These energy waves/photons (small bundles of energy) range EMSpecfrom radio waves to gamma rays. A student asked why some were waves while others were light and rays, my best explanation was their wavelength and the amount of energy they carry. Now to be “unapproachable light” besides being a pure light like a laser it would need to have a lot of energy associated with it. The most powerful of the “light family” is gamma rays, which we know can damage our cells and kill us. According to NASA we really have no idea how powerful this energy can be but they are sure that the closer you are to the source the more powerful the energy will be.

It is nice to see His nature reflect His qualities and there-by announce His glories.

We divide the EM spectrum into three parts yet they are one continuous group. And light is acknowledged to have a dual nature both energy and particle so we have Jesus being both God and man.

Father, let us be close to you so we can have the energy to bring your Light to the world.

All verse are from the 1984 New International Version  http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970412e.html

http://www.lbl.gov/MicroWorlds/ALSTool/EMSpec/EMSpec2.html