Category Archives: science

Rep. Steve Austria on Blue Ribbon Commission

Posted on July 19, 2010 by | Leave a comment

It is important now, more than ever, to focus on how our region can be more competitive and bring additional jobs to Ohio. This week,  I joined members of the Blue Ribbon Commission at a meeting held at Wright State University. I appointed the commission to examine how local companies and universities can better position themselves to win more contracts, create more jobs and support Wright Patterson Air Force Base, one of the largest single site employers in the state. It is made up of a broad cross-section of talented and energetic community leaders who have extensive experience both inside and outside the fence, including business leaders and individuals in academia.

When the commission was formed, members were tasked with submitting their recommendations for increasing the number of contracts awarded to local companies, in turn creating more private-sector jobs in the area that can be sustained for years to come. They were asked to look into a wide variety of issues including identifying any impediments to local companies and determining the best business model to receive contracts.

The commission has completed its work and identified 18 specific ways we can enhance regional economic opportunities through partnerships with the business community, academia and government in the Dayton area. John McCance, who is retired Air Force, and Gary Kowal, who has several years of experience in defense contracting, served as co-chairs of the Blue Ribbon Commission and presented the commission’s findings, conclusions and recommendations to the public. Some recommendations highlighted in the report include,

* Utilize social media (a website, or collaborative networking site) to house centralized information to include such items as a calendar of events; detailed information on government requirements; prime/sub contractor opportunities and links to related informational sites.

* Leverage the region’s engineering capabilities and skill base to accelerate subcontractor opportunities with large defense contractors who are involved in the research, development and manufacture of weapon systems acquired by WPAFB.

* Publish the “Corporate Development Education Framework” as a tool to help beginning, intermediate and advanced businesses assess their government contracting maturity and identify areas for improvement.

* Establish a centralized electronic capability for local area businesses having service, R&D, manufacturing, and other capabilities to provide detailed information about their qualifications, capacity and contact information and have it indexed by product and service.

* Encourage the State of Ohio and local governments to support a program, similar to the State of Utah, which provides funded support in the areas of opportunity assessment, strategy, proposal development, contract negotiations, capture and program support.

* Provide access to additional resources and training in the area of proposal writing and preparation.

Leave a comment

Posted in business, economy, Greene County, news, Ohio, politics, research, schools, science, taxes

Tagged ,

Ohio Senate Passes Ban On Human Animal Hybrids

Posted on June 9, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Last Wednesday, Ohio’s Senate voted 24-8 to pass legislation prohibiting the creation, transportation, or receipt of a human-animal hybrid, the transfer of a nonhuman embryo into a human womb, and the transfer of a human embryo into a nonhuman womb.

Though the latest version of the bill, S.B. 243, does not ban human cloning as an earlier one had, it was still hailed by pro-family and Christian groups as “vital legislation” amid “outrageous” advancements in science.

“Ohio Christian Alliance believes that no human life should begin and end as the subject of an experiment,” the organization stated following Wednesday’s vote.

“We attest that a process that knowingly encourages human life to be created, manipulated for research, and ultimately destroyed is immoral and should be prohibited,” it added.

For this and other reasons, OCA said it worked for the past seven years with members of the Ohio Legislature to ban embryonic stem cell research, human cloning, and in recent years, animal-human hybrid.

And for the past three years, OCA worked with State Senator Steve Buehrer (R-Delta) and other members of the Ohio Senate to introduce S.B. 243, which – until recently – also banned human cloning.

Though the original bill was eventually stripped down to help move it forward and to broaden its appeal, OCA still commended sponsors of the final legislation and said “[a]ll who believe that human life, including nascent human life, is a unique and precious gift from our Creator have an obligation to support efforts to ban it.”

“Science has advanced to the point where DNA from animals and humans can be intermixed in scientific laboratory experimentation. This is simply outrageous,” exclaimed OCA President Chris Long in a statement.

Following Wednesday’s vote, the bill now moves to the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives for further consideration.

Source: Christian Post June 03, 2010.

Leave a comment

Posted in health, news, politics, science, Senate

Tagged ,

Vote Yes On Issue 1?

Posted on May 4, 2010 by | Leave a comment

A businessman from Central America responding to a post made a very enlightening observation about Ohio. He said Ohio is a like a third world country lacking adequate development. Almost all media outlets, business organizations, universities, as well as the mother, brother and sister of nearly everyone else, seems to agree; they are all promoting the renewal of the not-yet-ended Third Frontier funding for high tech development.

So, why not follow the crowd. Well, because crowds generally chant whatever smooth talking speakers claim. Like other dumb animals, we like sheep are easily led astray–also called the herd mentality.

It cannot be denied that 48,000 new jobs have been created as a result of the Third Frontier economic stimulus fund. Ohio taxpayer gave the state $500 million to help develop high tech industries and job. Each job created cost taxpayers over $10,400. SRI Intl. research claims it also produced a positive economic impact of $6.6 billion. (A must read is an article by Tom Breckenridge on Cleveland.com)

If we forget that politicians and big business sold off our low tech industrial job to China and other nations, we also forgot the much how much greater the Third Frontier has actually cost. And, did most Ohioans really benefit from the sale? I doubt it.

Yes, Third Frontier is a boondoggle for universities, big energy, drug companies, General Electric, and some new enterprising tech companies. They will create new jobs while eliminating old ones. The costs are likely higher for many individuals than politicians and big business concerns care to acknowledge. For example, many young Americans will end up having to compete with foreigners with Green Cards.

Yet, in spite of the young who will benefit from those new jobs, if foreigners are need to fill positions, those jobs will in the end not be such great paying jobs. Just asks those experienced in computer technologies.

Trusting the hype media, business leaders, and politicians is like believing FDR’s welfare program would be a temporary remedy for those affected by World War II. You can be certain that Third Frontier welfare for high tech corporations will be as temporary.

Who pays for corporate welfare? All of the middle class who supposedly benefit from all of the great new jobs. Remember, low-tech Wal-Mart and the factory farm.

Carrie Mihalick wrote an article in which she traces the fascist or progressive history of the Third Frontier movement across the world and to Ohio. Her research facts reminds of the Progressive results of Obama and progressive Congressional Democrats economic policy. Third Frontier may seem more discrete than Obama and Company in how it will eventually run tech business in partnership with big business but I doubt it. (Her article is another must read.

Allowing the Third Frontier to continue will the Ohio Constitution’s 5% cap on state debt service to be violated. (See the rest of the argument by a number previous Ohio legislators by going here.)

A better plan is to give venture capitalists bigger tax breaks for investing to create new high tech industries and jobs. Let big corporation reinvest in their own high tech developments. Make politicians stick to policies and funding initiatives that actually do benefit all citizens rather than the chosen few.

Leave a comment

Posted in business, economy, news, Ohio, politics, research, science, taxes

Tagged , ,

Ohio Governor Strickland Signs Umbilical Cord Blood Bill

Posted on April 13, 2010 by | Leave a comment

On March 31, 2010, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland signed H.B. 102. The new law, which was sponsored by Rep. Todd Book (D, McDermott), requires the Ohio Department of Health to place printable information on umbilical cord blood banking and donation on its website. The Department of Health also will encourage health care professionals to provide the information to pregnant women.

H.B. 102 passed the Ohio Senate by a vote of 32-0 on March 24, 2010. The Ohio House then voted 97-0 to concur in the Senate amendments to the bill. Umbilical cord blood is an ethical and non-controversial source of stem cells that can be obtained with no risk to the mother or child. Stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood have been used to successfully treat over 70 diseases including sickle cell anemia, leukemia, and lymphoma. Unfortunately, most umbilical cord blood is currently being discarded after birth.

Banking cord blood for personal or family use with a private bank can involve significant expense. However, donations to public cord blood banks involve no expense for the donor.

“We are delighted that Ohio has adopted this important life-saving legislation,” said Mike Gonidakis, Executive Director of Ohio Right to Life. “By Improving public awareness about cord blood donation, this law should increase the number and diversity of cord blood donations and thus increase the number of patients who can obtain the match they need,” Gonidakis said.

The new law takes effect in 90 days.

Source:Ohio Right to Life, 4/1/10

Leave a comment

Posted in House of Representatives, news, Ohio, politics, science, Senate

Tagged , , ,

Scientists discover world’s smallest superconductor

Posted on April 12, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Scientists have discovered the world’s smallest superconductor, a sheet of four pairs of molecules less than one nanometer wide. The Ohio University-led study, published today as an advance online publication in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, provides the first evidence that nanoscale molecular superconducting wires can be fabricated, which could be used for nanoscale electronic devices and energy applications.

“Researchers have said that it’s almost impossible to make nanoscale interconnects using metallic conductors because the resistance increases as the size of wire becomes smaller. The nanowires become so hot that they can melt and destruct. That issue, Joule heating, has been a major barrier for making nanoscale devices a reality,” said lead author Saw-Wai Hla, an associate professor of physics and astronomy with Ohio University’s Nanoscale and Quantum Phenomena Institute.

Superconducting materials have an electrical resistance of zero, and so can carry large electrical currents without power dissipation or heat generation. Superconductivity was first discovered in 1911, and until recently, was considered a macroscopic phenomenon. The current finding suggests, however, that it exists at the molecular scale, which opens up a novel route for studying this phenomenon, Hla said. Superconductors currently are used in applications ranging from supercomputers to brain imaging devices.

In the new study, which was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Hla’s team examined synthesized molecules of a type of organic salt, (BETS)2-GaCl4, placed on a surface of silver. Using scanning tunneling spectroscopy, the scientists observed superconductivity in molecular chains of various lengths. For chains below 50 nanometers in length, superconductivity decreased as the chains became shorter. However, the researchers were still able to observe the phenomenon in chains as small as four pairs of molecules, or 3.5 nanometers in length.

To observe superconductivity at this scale, the scientists needed to cool the molecules to a temperature of 10 Kelvin. Warmer temperatures reduced the activity. In future studies, scientists can test different types of materials that might be able to form nanoscale superconducting wires at higher temperatures, Hla said.

“But we’ve opened up a new way to understand this phenomenon, which could lead to new materials that could be engineered to work at higher temperatures,” he said.

The study also is noteworthy for providing evidence that superconducting organic salts can grow on a substrate material.

“This is also vital if one wants to fabricate nanoscale electronic circuits using organic molecules,” Hla added.

Collaborators on the paper include Kandal Clark, a doctoral student in the Russ College of Engineering and Technology at Ohio University; Sajida Khan, a graduate student in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Ohio University; Abdou Hassanien, a researcher with the Nanotechnology Research Institute, Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and the Japan Science and Technology Agency’s Core Research of Evolutional Science & Technology (JST-CREST) in Japan who conducted the work as a visiting scientist at Ohio University; Hisashi Tanaka, a scientist at AIST and JST-CREST who synthesized the molecules; and Kai-Felix Braun, a scientist with the Physikalisch Technische Bundesanstalt in Braunschweig, Germany, who conducted the calculations at the Ohio Supercomputing Center.

Leave a comment

Posted in news, Ohio, science

Tagged

Scientists cannot figure out why type 1 diabetes is rising three percent every year

Posted on April 12, 2010 by | 1 comment

Back in 1890, about one American child out of every 100,000 died each year from type 1 diabetes. Fast forward to the 21st century and the number is as high as 24. Each year, scientists estimate that the number of deaths among children due to type 1, or juvenile, diabetes increases by three percent with no signs of slowing down.

Type 2 diabetes, the kind most often associated with obesity and excessive sugar consumption, is often referenced in media reports and medical journals as increasing at a dangerously high rate, but type 1 is rarely addressed despite the fact that it is rising at a similar rate.

Dan Hurley, an investigative journalist who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1975, is compiling a report on his findings about the disease, noting that it is much more prevalent than people have been led to believe. Evidence is showing that, despite the widespread belief that type 1 diabetes is rare and develops from a genetic predisposition, juvenile diabetes is probably being triggered by environmental or lifestyle factors in a similar manner as type 2.

In his book, Hurley outlines five potential causes of the disease and its rapid increase. These include a lack of natural sunlight exposure, the destruction of natural skin pathogens that create immunity, exposure to cow’s milk at a young age, persistent exposure to pollutants and carcinogens, and the accelerated production of insulin-producing beta cells due to overall growth in height and weight averages among children.

Someday western medicine will catch up to the truth that the natural health community already knows: That drinking pasteurized, processed cow’s milk can promote autoimmune disorders such as type-1 diabetes.

Conventional medicine, as usual, remains entirely clueless about the real causes of type-1 diabetes (or even cancer or diabetes, for that matter). And because the medical system refuses to acknowledge the fact that environmental influences (chemicals, dietary choices, etc.) can cause these conditions, it is unable to offer any solutions for patients. So patients are simply put on a lifetime regimen of dangerous pharmaceutical chemicals instead of being taught real solutions for avoiding autoimmune disorders altogether, according to Health Ranger Mike Adams.

Another interesting comment by Adams is a reference to an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency in western society. The common cold, flu, and now type 1 diabetes all result from a deficiency of vitamin D, at least in part.

From Natural News, March 26, 2010

1 Comment

Posted in health, news, science

Tagged , , ,

Eugenics in 2010: Obamacare Cost-Cutting Genetic Discrimination

Posted on April 7, 2010 by | 2 comments

In the March 31st edition of LifeNews, Kristan Hawkins, executive director of Students for Life, wrote how Obamacare further the eugenics the Left introduced in the United States through abortion.

Hawkins interest in the current health care reform stems from her infant son’s battle with Cystic fibrosis, an expensive-to-treat and fatal genetic disease. Obamacare threatens to ration top notch healthcare for children like her son.

The question is does she have any support for her concern?

The following quote is from her LifeNews article:

A week before the doomed healthcare vote, Representative Bart Stupak (D-MI) admitted to the National Review Online that Congressional Democrats argued that passing his pro-life amendment which prohibits taxpayer funding of abortion will result in more children and therefore higher healthcare costs. They’re saying: “If you pass the Stupak amendment, more children will be born, and therefore it will cost us millions more.”

This argument isn’t new but in fact is the same old 1970’s argument that John Holdren (the President’s Science Czar) used when saying that the more people there are, the less food there will be. This 1970’s argument has been regurgitated in 2010 with a healthcare slant: the more people, the less healthcare available for you and me.

Democrats in Congress know that incentivizing abortions by making them cheaper and more accessible will lead to higher abortion rates costing less healthcare dollars and making those limited funds available for some other person.

When the state is involved in the cost of healthcare, it knows that it is dealing with scare resources and that rationing will have to occur. This fact has already been reiterated multiple times by President Obama’s Comparative Effectiveness Research Council appointee and brother to his Chief-of-Staff, Dr. Zeke Emanuel.

Emanuel admitted in The Lancet medical journal last January that cost-cutting measures in healthcare reform are merely “lipstick” and rationing will have to occur in any government healthcare system.

He even went so far as to describe his ideal rationing plan where those at the beginning and end of life would receive 2nd tier healthcare when scarcity develops. In the article, he further talks about his sense of “communitarianism” and how those who are unproductive members of society are a burden and healthcare dollars could be best spent elsewhere. Bottom line Message: We only want the “genetically” superior people and less is better.

To Dr. Emanuel, my son Gunner is an excess burden on society.

Yet, he has been appointed by President Obama to serve on the President’s Comparative Effectiveness Research Council, the body that will make “recommendations” to doctors as to how to treat their patients in the most cost-effective way.

Today, new advances being made with prenatal genetic testing aren’t for the benefit of the family, but for the destruction of the pre-born child within the mother. The ability to diagnose diseases such as Cystic Fibrosis, Down Syndrome, and others while the child is still in the womb means a greater chance a woman will be encouraged and pressured to abort, thus limiting that child’s “burden” on society.

It is shocking what you find if you Google search the phrase “cost benefit analysis of prenatal testing” and read the medical journal articles (especially those coming out of Europe on this issue).

Now that Obamacare has passed, will prenatal genetic tests eventually move from being voluntary to mandatory, in the name of cost-savings? Down the road, will abortions be encouraged by the state or even forced on those children who will have special needs or will need life-long medical care?

Further, what will happen to children to who are born with costly diseases? Will they receive the best medical care or just enough to “make them comfortable?” Today, in America, this rationing is already happening to many babies born with Trisomy 18 and 13, as parents have gone on the record proving medical doctors told them they had to think about “resources” when making the decision as to how to treat their children. Thankfully, the cases today aren’t uniform but the misjudgment of one or two doctors. What will happen if people like Dr. Emanuel are writing the guidelines of care for all doctors?

Let me offer some additional observations.

Obamacare as depicted above is a cost-benefit application of Darwin’s survival of the fittest, but one imposed by the socialist state. This is not much different than Hilter’s Darwinian-based eugenic program to create a superior Aryan race. The difference is not in principle but rather one of goal. Unlike Hitler, the goal of the socialist Left may not be creating the perfect race. Their goal may be more practical: Forcing on America one world socialism–their version of perfect economics and governance.

Now, that the courts and Left have declared abortion is a Constitutional right with many true believers, the Left funded by those like billionaire Soros and led by Pelosi, Reed, and Obama are seeking to further the original agenda of creating the Great Society by bankrupting the nation while promising to decrease the budget at the great expense of more innocent lives. (Remember, the reason for the Great Recession was over-indebtedness.)

The loud proponents of anti-discrimination it turns out are the most hideous of discriminators. They obstruct the right to life because they are fully prejudiced against any who they deem unworthy of it. Just as the CIA has been used to destroy uncooperative regimes, the Left uses courts and deceit to convince the masses that killing the unwanted is a right to the good life. Irresponsibility, immorality and killing is part of the Left’s definition of freedom. Freedom has thus been perverted for the benefit of killing those who may cost the socialist state too much money.

Yet, no one seems to question whether the genetic diseases of those like Hawkin’s son, Gunner, who will be discriminated against are preventable. That is, are they merely the result of genetic accidents or are they induced by a polluted environment, contaminated food, stress resulting from an unjust political economy, or other factors?
If the later, one solution maybe be in public policy that is based on a holistic view of the common good for all citizens rather than imposing ideological party or special interest agendas though piecemeal problem solving policies.

2 Comments

Posted in economy, news, politics, science

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Resurrection of Jesus : Any proof?

Posted on April 3, 2010 by | Leave a comment

By Daniel Downs

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is to Christianity as bedrock is to a stable building. A building capable of withstanding violent storms must be anchored to a solid foundation. Earth’s bedrock is the best of all foundation. The one type of natural disaster that bedrock may be unable to withstand is an earthquake. Probably, the best type of foundation is one capable of flexing while retaining its structural integrity. The resurrection of Jesus is bedrock of the Christian faith. Its 2,000 years of growth throughout the world provides solid evidence of its stable reality. Moreover, the quakes of earthly life such as persecution, natural disasters, devastating illnesses, economics disasters, and other forms of suffering more often than not result in greater assurance that Jesus overcame the worst of all disasters, death. That is due to Jesus’ present help during disasters faced by individuals and families that enable them to not only overcome the terrible affects but to even deepen their faith.

We have witnessed a recent example of the triumph over tragedy in Haiti. Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse disaster relief mission has been sharing the experiences of Haitians tragedy and triumph. Motivated by the love of God for people, Christians like those Samaritan’s Purse volunteers go to places like Haiti to help in a multitude of ways. Without having experienced the love of God through the risen Christ, neither Franklin Graham nor his volunteers would have considered enduring the hassle or hardships of going to any devastated place and helping any devastated people. Yet, they do because of their own experiences of the risen Jesus’ overcoming help.

In other words, God works through people and nature to accomplish his good will toward people made in His likeness and image.

Even before Franklin Graham’s missionaries arrived in Haiti, news reports of people who were rescued after being buried in rubble for weeks gave God credit for their survival. Why? Because God and Christ was a present help in their time of trouble.

To help skeptics reading this, the above can be put in another way. Science teaches us that the composition of all matter is reducible to atoms. Yet, no nuclear physicist has ever observed an atom. According to nuclear physicist Russell Stannard, they only witness the residue of energy of where an atom once was. All elements, molecules, cell, organism, super organisms, like we humans, are made up of various types of atoms. Therefore, what we see–stars, sun, moon, earth, animals, people, and even microbes–are made of things that are not seen. Is it not then reasonable to believe that the unseen God created the things humans have never seen? It certainly is when personal experience verifies that God is a genuinely present and real.

Christian apologists often defend the faith based on the argument that none of the ancient disciples of Jesus would have died because of their faith and testimony to the resurrection of Jesus had they known it was a lie. As taught by sociologists and anthropologists, honor and prestige may have been of great importance to ancient peoples, but the disciples of Jesus and the early church had very limited honor or prestige. That only changed after Emperor Constantine made Christianity the imperial religion.

I still doubt the above has convinced the skeptical.

However, other evidence available to us includes the report by Paul that the 11 disciples were not the only ones who saw Jesus after his resurrection. Paul’s conversion to the messianic faith was the result of seeing and hearing Jesus after his resurrection and ascension to the throne of God. Paul also wrote that over 500 saw Jesus after his resurrection most of whom were still alive, and a similar account is mentioned in the gospel of Matthew. (1 Corinthians 15-52-53; Matthew 27:52-53).

There also exist documented cases of people in various parts of the world having been resurrected from the dead. David Servant has published his detailed investigation into the death and resurrection story of Nigerian Pastor Daniel Ekechukwu, which happened in 2001.

Contrary to denials of skeptics and atheists, the so-called contradictions are likely to have occurred from cursory reading of the lengthy report by David Servant. My postings on the blog, The State of America, reflect the same. I first said that the pastor had been embalmed and then raised from the dead. But, after carefully reading Servant’s report, I discovered that the mortician had attempted to embalm the pastor but was not able to do so. What caused the same mortician to demand the pastor’s family to remove the corpse from his mortuary was song coming from the place of the dead pastor without any live human present. This so-called rumor originated from the mortician as reported by Servant.

A healthy skepticism of supposedly strange or supernatural events is good. However, rejecting accounts of experienced events because of one’s belief (in this disbelief) does mean the events didn’t occur. The fact is skeptics and atheists will one day die too. They also will discover if life extends beyond the grave. Unfortunately, for them, they will get the justice they deserve rather than the grace that was extended to them by God during their mortal life.

In 2005, Athet Pyan Shinthaw Paulu, a Myanmar Buddhist monk, was also raised from the dead after a number of days. He was on the funeral pyre being readied for public cremation when he was resurrected. The Monk said he went to the gates of hell first where he saw the Buddha and another renowned Buddhist saint. However, gatekeeper (read, prison door) turned him way telling him that he was not supposed to be there. So he walked away down a path where a man named Peter confronted him. He instructed to tell what he had witness and that the faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. This he did and was arrested for it. After he was released, he recorded his death experience on tape, which was first transcribed and published by Asian Minorities Outreach.

One of the most recent resurrection events came after an American pastor’s head on collision with a semi-truck. Pastor Don Piper was driving home after a conference. While he was passing over a single lane bridge, a semi-truck also entered the bridge but the driver didn’t see the pastor’s car. The impact crushed the pastor instantly killing him. Pastor Piper describes in great detail what he saw and heard in heaven where he went. In the meantime, another Baptist pastor came upon the scene. He would not have stayed to pray because the pastor was already dead. However, God told to pray for him. After a while, he stopped praying and began singing hymns. When the dead pastor was about to pass through the gate into the heavenly city, he suddenly heard singing coming from behind. Instantly, he was back into his body. That is he was resurrected. According to his surgeons and physicians, regaining the use of his severed arm and leg that they stitched back together was highly improbable. Yet, God healed him so that he has full use of all his limbs and organs. A number of his interviews (by Bill O’Reilly, NBC, CBN) are published on the internet and his book about his death and resurrection in titled 90 Minutes In Heaven.

Although not as well documented as the three previous events, other reported bodily resurrections include an Iranian named Sami by a Muslim name Mohammed, six-year-old Jyothi Pothabathula with her parents, and 45-year-old shop owner Mesheck Manepally, both of Andhra Pradesh, India.

The common denominator of all of the reported resurrection experiences is the risen Jesus.

Some scholars like Raymond Brown regard Jesus’ resurrection as substantially different from other biblical and modern experiences. In his book titled Virginal Conception and Bodily Resurrection of Jesus, Brown says that like those raised from the dead by Jesus, the above pastors, Buddhist, Muslim, and Indians will again die. Brown thinks resuscitation is a better word from this type of resurrection. Jesus, on the other hand, did not die again. As Elijah, he went to God’s heavenly kingdom alive.

Yet, Paul the apostle described Jesus’ resurrection this way:

“Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the imperishable inherit the imperishable. This perishable [body] must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” (1 Cor. 15: 50, 53, 44)

Paul teaching points to the impossibility of Jesus physical ascension to heaven not his physical resurrection. Jesus could not have departed earth’s atmosphere without his physical body disintegrating unless he had some sort of transport or a surrounding field of energy or something similar to capable of protecting his body from the various elementary changes that would have destroyed him. Paul’s writings claim Jesus put off his natural terrestrial body and put on a new form of celestial body to continue life in the place of the resurrected dead, the new heaven and earth. Paul’s teaching reflects his seeing after he had ascended to the throne of God (Acts 9:1-19). All people can look forward to this type of resurrection. There is a catch however. Jesus said, “Those who in this life did the good to a resurrection of life and those who did evil to a resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:28-29)

Leave a comment

Posted in Bible, Easter, religion, science

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

The Virgin Birth of Jesus: Is it a Reasonable Belief?

Posted on December 23, 2009 by | 1 comment

By Daniel Downs

Christians believe Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. The two gospels explicitly proclaiming the virgin birth of Jesus is Matthew 1:18-25 and Luke 1:26-45. The most succinct statement of the Christian confession is the Apostle’s Creed, which is the oldest version of Christian confession. The Apostle’s Creed is as follows:

“I believe in God the Father Almighty. And in Jesus Christ His only (begotten) Son our Lord, who was born of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary; crucified under Pontius Pilate, and buried; the third day He rose from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father, from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. And in the Holy Ghost; the holy Church; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; the life everlasting.”1

The Apostle’s Creed originated in apostolic times and was a baptismal formula. As such, new followers of Christ confessed this creed to confirm their faith in the essential message of the gospels and of the church. The Apostle’s Creed is the foundation of all other confessions including the Nicene, Chalcedon, Westminster, and all other creeds. It is venerated by the Roman Catholic Church and by most Protestant Churches.

The clause of importance here is “Jesus Christ His only (begotten) Son our Lord, who was born of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary.”

Liberal scholars and their followers deny the possibility of the virgin birth. Because other ancient religions claimed their saviors were virgin born or otherwise supernaturally born, liberals believe the early church adopted the myth probably to make the gospel more attractive to superstitious ancient people. This skeptical view might be true. However, what is often behind liberal skepticism is their outright rejection of the supernatural. Liberals tend to deny all of the miracles mentioned in the Bible, not just the virgin birth.

The Christian confession would be meaningless if the supernatural was not an experienced reality. As the Apostle Paul said, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, and your faith is in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:14) The faith was not an exercise in philosophy or superstition to allay fear of death. Faith is rooted in eye-witness testimony as well as personal experience. Faith is (was) based on seeing, hearing, feeling the the reality of the resurrection of Jesus and of others. Healing and resurrection from the dead was an experienced reality during the apostolic era that continued well beyond the apostles’ witness to Jesus’ resurrection and heavenly ascent. In fact, healings and resurrections continue in our own time.

Even though the virgin birth of Jesus cannot be absolutely proved, it can not be disproved either. An appropriate question requiring a logical answer is whether it is reasonable to believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. Merely dismissing the possibility because one does not believe in miracles or the supernatural is as meaningless as blindly confessing the virgin birth is true. To answer the question, one must consider whether any historical evidence exists to support or refute the possibility of virgin birth. Is there any scientific evidence for virgin birth? If so, does the evidence prove the virgin birth? In addition, a search for evidence to support the reasonableness of Jesus’ virgin birth must consider any rational argument that might exist.

Skeptics readily supply a logical argument. However, from the outset, the argument against testimonials first defended by David Hume for miracles must be discarded. This argument states that the testimony of people who have presumably experienced a miracle is unreliable. It is unreliable primary because such testimony is not verifiable. Hume’s argument is no longer tenable because medical testing confirms divine healing miracles based on religious faith do occur. We can also eliminate arguments against resurrection because many have occurred. More importantly, they are being medically and empirical verified. Consequently, by eliminating those two arguments that confirm the reality of God and the supernatural, much time will be saved in order to focus on the primary argument: Is belief in the virgin birth of Jesus a reasonable belief?

A few observations from my past studies may be instructive. A number of years ago, I began searching for proof of the virgin birth of Jesus. I reviewed medical and scientific research on oocytology, regenerative medicine, genetics, reproductive behavior of animals and insects, neurology, paranormal science, and the like. Based on my less than infallible memory, I discovered research showing that virgin births do occur in nature. Moreover, medical research has proven men can have female type (XX) chromosomes of the 23rd pair just as women can have male type (Xy).

Since then, Frank Tipler wrote The Physics of Christianity. In this book, he shows how Jesus was virgin born. First, he notes studies that many researchers believe virgin births of humans are probably common occurrences. These medical scientist come to this conclusion because of the ease at which they are able to induce cell division of a woman’s egg without it being fertilized by the male component.2 Second, he explains three ways medical scientists propose human virgin births are possible. He argues for the one in which a woman’s XX chromosome is inserted by the male SRY gene. This hypothesis is preferred because almost all known males with an XX 23rd pair of chromosome also have an inserted SRY gene.3 Another reason is the genetic studies of both the Shroud of Turin (Jesus’ burial cloth) and the Oviedo Cloth (another burial cloth that was wrapped around his head).3 Third, he discovered in the latest genetic study of the Oviedo Cloth clear evidence of an XX male with the SRY gene inserted in the 23 chromosome pair.4 Four, Tipler also explains how Jesus could be directly descended from King David. As a descendant herself, Mary could have inherited the genes of David and his progeny. Because the Y genes of an XX male must come from one or more male ancestors of Mary, the X chromosome Jesus inherited could have had inserted into it most of the Y genes of David’s lineage.5 Thus, Jesus would have been a genetically legitimate descendant of David.

Assuming the Shroud and especially the Oviedo Cloth were in fact Jesus’ burial cloths, we can conclude that the virgin conception of Jesus by a creative act of the Spirit of God is a reasonable belief. And, assuming Mary was in fact a descendant of David, it is reasonable to believe Jesus was the heir of David prophesied about by the Hebrew prophets. Being rejected by the leaders of his time may have prohibited him from fulfilling his destined place on David’s throne, but it did not hinder him from becoming the light of the world–the ultimate plan of God for His Servant-Son.6

Notes:

1. James Orr, “The Apostle’s Creed,” International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Vol. 1, at www.reformed.org/documents/apostles_creed.html.

2. Frank J. Tipler, The Physics of Christianity, NY: Doubleday (2007): 167-168.

3. Ibid., pp. 171-173.

4. Ibid., pp. 181-187.

5. Ibid., pp. 174-175.

6. Luke 3:23; many scholars believe Luke gives Mary’s genealogy. The promise to David recorded in 2 Samuel 7:13-16; Jeremiah 33:14-22; Isaiah 9:7 has yet to be fulfilled, but Isaiah 49:5-9; 53-1-12; 9:6; Rev. 12:5 is being fulfilled.

1 Comment

Posted in Bible, Christmas, history, science

Tagged , , , , ,

Why Darwin’s propagandists oppose the book The Mystery of Life’s Origin

Posted on October 6, 2009 by | 1 comment

Propagandists for Darwin’s theory often claim their opponents are unscientific. They claim their opponents never offer science an alternative theory. They criticize their critics for their continual criticism. This is true of Eugenie Scott, PZ Meyer, Richard Dawkins, and the like.

I have noticed one so-called creationist work often mentioned and criticized by Darwinian propagandists. That work is The Mystery of Life Origins: Reassessing Current Theories by Charles B. Thaxton, Walter L. Bradley, and Roger L. Olson. Therefore, I bought that book and have been reading it.

While reading the first chapter, I began to realize why this book is a problem to Darwin’s propagandists. First, a better sub-title for the book would be Reassessing the Current Theories of Chemical Evolution. That is the actual subject of the book and for good reason: its authors are all professional chemists, evangelists or philosophers. Second, these authors identify the scientific community’s problems with chemical evolution, the statistical improbability of the evolution of cellular life by random chance, the lack of evidence for evolutionary predestination based on finding life on other planets, and the most troubling problem is with the nature of information available to and present by origin science theories.

Quoting preeminent scientists like George Gaylord Simpson, philosophers of science like Karl Pooper, and the prestigious scientific journal like Nature, the authors demonstrates the evolutionary theory of origins is mere speculation, which is exactly the claim made by Darwin’s propagandists against Intelligent Design. If you have watched the documentary Expelled, then you know they also admit they do not know how life actually began.

Consequently, the theories of Creation Science and Intelligent Design are as scientific as is the theory of Evolution to the extent the scientific community (meaning academia, big business, and government) produces and allows observational research by which to verify various theories. To test the plausibility of any theory and its inferences, real scientific research and publication of findings is required; but if it is prevented by the status quo in academia and society, academic and intellectual freedom is denied.

That is the underlying issue of the Evolution v Creation debate. It’s about philosophical views and the suppression of intellectual freedom. It’s bad politics as the many court cases hindering academic and freedom. According to Darwinian propagandists like Eugenie Scott, these cases presumably prove that the Creation Science and Intelligent Design theories are just religious theologies pretending to be science. Decisions of judges are not scientific judgments either.

The belief in a Creator of the material world and that the Creator intervenes in nature to direct or repair it is not illogical. To the members the Continental Congress of this nation, it was self-evidently rational. For a magnificently complex universe and life in it to come about by random accidents was self-evidently irrational. The proposition of Darwinian evolution that life developed by random chance mutations is still illogical as well as unproven. Complex machines do not just assemble themselves by accident. They are purposefully made according to a predetermined design according to ability and knowledge (information).

I have also noticed that all Origin theories, even the Genesis account, always assume preexisting material, organism, or universe from which our world and life in it came into existence. Both name elements and components, describe processes, identify sources, and employ reason and observation. Prior to Darwin and the rise of atheistic secularism, scientific discoveries were expected to give scientists and society a greater understanding of the Creator and his purpose(s) for creation. That is why religion is not a hindrance to science. On the contrary, it is only a hindrance to unethical scientific agendas.

If as David Bohm theorizes, the entire blueprint of the universe and all forms of life exist in every part of nature. Then, its source must have been very intelligent and skillful. Evolutionists like Richard Dawkins speculate that an intelligent being or being could have been the source. Others called that being God. For still others, their personal experience of God verifies their belief. Seeing that millions of people around the world for two millenniums have repeatedly have experienced the same verification, should not God then be regarded as an empirical fact?

Sources: Eugenie C. Scott, “American Antievolutionism: Retrospect and Prospect” in Evolution: The First Four Billion Years, Michael Ruse and Joseph Travis, eds., Cambridge, MA: Belnap Press, 2009): pp. 370-399; Expelled, No Intelligence Allowed, DVD, directed by Nathan Frankowski (Universal City, CA: Vivendi Entertainment, 2008); The Mystery of Life’s Origin (Dallas, TX: Lewis & Stanley,: 1984): pp. 1-7.

Note: I found “Evolution” at the Xenia Library but I could not find “Mystery,” but I did find it at the downtown Montgomery County Library. Other Greene County Libraries have “Expelled,” but the Xenia Library seems to prefer to spend tax dollars on Evolution.

1 Comment

Posted in Greene County, politics, religion, science, taxes

Tagged , , , ,