SCIENCE INCREASINGLY MAKES THE CASE FOR GOD Published in the Wall Street Journal on December 25, 2014 by Eric Metaxas illustrates a compelling case that science is increasingly making the case for a Creator of the universe. #grownostr #plebchain #Christianity #Bible #science

Eric Metaxas -

Science Increasingly Makes the Case for God - Eric Metaxas

The op-ed, “Science Increasingly Makes the Case for God,” was published in the Wall Street Journal on December 25, 2014. Since then, the articl...

FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS AND JESUS CHRIST Flavius Josephus was a prominent Jewish born historian in the first century AD. He wrote about the history of Isreal and the surrounding area of that time. In his book "Jewish Antiquities" he discusses the historical Jesus of Nazareth.  "Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, 9 those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; 10 as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day."  ~ Flavius Josephus, “Jewish Antiquities”, 18.3.3 #grownostr #plebchain #Christianity #Bible #nostr #apologetics

Salvator Mundi (c. 1510) by Leonardo da Vinci #grownostr #plebchain #nostr #Christianity #paintings #art

THE SACRIFICE OF ST. DAMIEN OF MOLOKA’I St. Damien of Moloka'i, also known as Father Damien, was a Belgian priest who devoted his life to missionary work among the Hawaiian lepers in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. Damien volunteered to take charge of the leper settlement of Kalaupapa on the island of Moloka'i in Hawaii. He served there for 16 years until his death on April 15, 1889. During his time serving the colony as their Pastor and physician, Father Damien cared for the sick in both their physical and spiritual needs. He also improved many of the colonies buildings and improved the water and food supplies. Father Damian was not afraid to do the one thing that the victims of leprosy never experienced, he touched them. This was his sacrifice to the people that he loved, people that were untouchable by regular society. In 1884, he contracted leprosy but refused to leave the colony. Father Damian choose to stay with his people and continued to care for them until his death. His remains were returned to Belgium in 1936 to be buried in Leuven which is close to the village where he was born. However, his right hand was returned to Moloka'i in 1995 to be buried in his original resting spot as a beautiful testament to the people that he touched with his compassion. “My greatest pleasure is to serve the Lord in his poor children rejected by other people.” ~ St. Damien of Moloka'i #grownostr #plebchain #nostr #Christianity

“Every time you think you’re being rejected God’s actually redirecting you to something better. Ask him to give you the strength to press forward.” ~ Nick Vujicic

THE BELL OF THE TEMPLE PRIEST A gold bell was found during an archaeological excavation of a drainage canal near the Pool of Siloam which is near the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The bell which is shaped like a pomegranate is suspected to be from a high priest or official during the Second Temple period before the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD. It was customary for the Temple priest to sew in bells along the fringes of their garments as stated in Exodus, so that when entering the Holy Place before the Lord the priest would not die. (33) On its hem you shall make pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet yarns, around its hem, with bells of gold between them, (34) a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, around the hem of the robe (35) And it shall be on Aaron when he ministers, and its sound shall be heard when he goes into the Holy Place before the LORD, and when he comes out, so that he does not die. Exodus 28:33-35 ESV #grownostr #plebchain #God #history #apologetics If you find value in my notes and articles please like, boost or follow! Zaps are always appreciated!

NOAH’S ARK DROGUE STONES The Durupinar site in the Middle East has many landmarks that have been associated with Noah's Ark over the centuries. Among these are the Arzap drogue stones, which are large standing stones found near the site. These stones were believed to have been attached to the ark and used as sea anchors or drogue stones. They are heavy and flat with a hole for tying a line at one end. Drogue stones were the equivalent of a storm anchor on an ancient ship and kept it stable in rough seas. The stones were continually used in ancient times after the possible flood and can be found in places like Israel and the Nile River in Egypt. #grownostr #plebchain #apologetics #Bible #history If you find value in my notes and articles please like, boost or follow! Zaps are always appreciated!

THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD The Cosmological Argument is a philosophical argument for the existence of God and can basically be summed up by the following logical form: Premise 1: Everything that begins to exist has a cause of its existence. Premise 2: The universe began to exist. Conclusion: Therefore, the universe has a cause of its existence. Premise 1: States that for everything that has a definite point in time where it begins to exist, there must be a cause or another entity that brings forth that existence. For instance, if you have a seedling growing in your front yard there must have been another plant that initiated that seed that is spouting. Things in our universe just don’t pop into existence from nothing, it is contrary to the reality that we know. Premise 2: States that our universe has a definite beginning point where it began to exist. We know this by many reasons. First, the Big Bang Theory is evidence that points to this conclusion. Second, one can point to the increasing entropy of the universe, where the universe will eventually run out of usable energy making and infinite past is impossible because entropy would have run out an infinite time ago and we would not be here. Lastly, you can use the argument that Aquinas used in his Second Way that an infinite regression is absurd and doesn’t make sense.  The conclusion ties premise 1 and 2 together. The universe had a beginning, thus it had a cause. Some people take this part as an objection to the Cosmological Argument. They will say that it doesn’t prove the existence of the Judeo-Christian God. Yes, they would be right, it doesn’t. It is not meant to prove there is a God, only a cause sufficient to create the universe. Now, that cause would have some of the attributes of the Judeo-Christian God like all-powerful, timeless, and spaceless just to name a few. Another objection to the Cosmological Argument is the need for the first cause of the universe to have a cause. The answer to the question, “Who made God?”. I believe that to be a premise that doesn’t take all the facts of the situation into account. Remember in the preceding paragraph that the cause would have the attribute of timelessness? If you are timeless, how do you have a beginning or a cause? There is no time. If you cannot measure with the parameter of time then there is no beginning or end, everything exists in a timeless realm. Something we cannot even begin to comprehend, and we exclude from this kind of philosophical discussion. #grownostr #plebchain #apologetics #philosophy #God If you find value in my notes and articles please like, boost or follow! Zaps are always appreciated!

THE CREATURE IN THE NILE MOSAIC OF PALESTRINA The Mosaic was originally in Palestrina, Italy as part of an ancient floor mosaic. It dates to 100 B.C. and it depicts life in Ptolemaic Egypt during the flooding of the Nile River. Along the landscape there can be seen a variety of animals that were common to the Nile at that time and their corresponding Greek name. There is one animal that is curiously strange in its appearance and name. The label is translated from the Greek as “crocodile leopard” and it is located on the right middle portion of the mosaic. It does not resemble any known animal living in the region at that time and as the name suggests it is an animal that resembles a crocodile but with distinctive features setting it apart. This remains a fascinating possible crypid animal captured within the mosaics tiles that has strong resemblance to the Eotitanosuchus dinosaur. #grownostr #plebchain #nostr #science #dinosaurs #cyptid If you find value in my notes, please like, boost or follow! Zaps are always great too!

#zapathon

FIVE NOTABLE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL FINDS (1) The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in the mid-20th century within a series of caves along the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea. They contain some of the earliest known copies of the Hebrew Bible and other Jewish texts.
 (2) The Nag Hammadi Library, discovered in 1945 hidden beneath a large boulder near the town of Nag Hammadi in Egypt. It contains a collection of early Christian texts within thirteen different volumes, including several lost Gnostic gospels.
 (3) The Tel Dan Stele, discovered in 1993, is a standing stone marker discovered in Tel Dan in the Upper Galilee in Israeli. On the stone is a Canaanite inscription that refers to the "House of David.” The stele provides evidence for the existence of the biblical King David. 
 (4) The Beit She'arim cemetery, excavated in 2022, contained an inscription on a grave marker referring to "Jacob the Proselyte.” A proselyte is a convert to Judaism usually from the Ancient Greek religion. The marker provides evidence for the existence of first century non-Jewish converts to Judaism in ancient Israel.
 (5) The discovery of a 10,500-year-old basket in 2021 within the caves along the Dead Sea. It is the oldest known basket in existence and is reminiscent of the baskets mentioned in the Bible, such as the one that held the baby Moses in Exodus and the basket from which Jesus fed the multitudes.
 #grownostr #plebchain #nostr #Bible #Christianity #apologetics If you find value in my notes and articles please like, boost or follow! Zaps are always appreciated!

KACHINA BRIDGE DINOSAUR PETROGLYPH On the base of Kachina Bridge in Natural Bridges National Monument in southeastern Utah is an ancient petroglyph depicting what appears as two sauropod dinosaurs. #grownostr #plebchain #science #dinosaurs #creation #youngearth #apologetics If you enjoy my posts, please like, boost or give me a follow! Zaps are always great too!

“Essentially, I realized that to stay an atheist, I would have to believe that nothing produces everything; non-life produces life; randomness produces fine-tuning; chaos produces information; unconsciousness produces consciousness; and non-reason produces reason. Those leaps of faith were simply too big for me to take, especially in light of the affirmative case for God's existence and Jesus' resurrection (and, hence, his divinity). In other words, in my assessment the Christian worldview accounted for the totality of the evidence much better than the atheistic worldview.” ~Lee Strobel #grownostr #plebchain #nostr #apologetics #Christianity

THE MOST GOLDILOCKS IN ALL OF PHYSICS The fine-tuning of the universe is one of the most compelling arguments for the existence of God. Fine-tuning refers to the “just right” initial conditions that were set into the equations that govern physics and how they effect life. One of the most finely tuned parameters in physics is the entropy of the universe. It refers to the initial low entropy state of the universe, which was necessary for the existence of life. If the Big Bang Theory is correct and the universe started with a massive expansion, our newly formed universe was not a chaotic soup of energy and matter. It was quite the opposite, it was orderly. This is because of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. This law states that there is a natural tendency of any isolated system to degenerate into a more disordered state. This direction towards disorder is called entropy. The entropy of the universe was fine-tuned to such an exquisite degree. Physicist Roger Penrose estimated that the odds of the initial low entropy orderly state of our universe occurring by chance are on the order of 1 in 10 raised to the 10th power then raised to the 123rd power. [1] This number is absolutely unfathomable odds, even in the world of physics and mathematics. Basically, there would be a VERY large number of universes in which the entropy would be so chaotic in the beginning that it would be uninhabitable for life; before one is formed that could sustain life. This leads to the view that the equations that govern physics and in turn life were designed to be just right for life to exist. [1] Penrose, Roger. (1989). Emperor’s New Mind. Penguin Books. 339-345. #grownostr #plebchain #nostr #naturallaw #apologetics #science If you find value in my notes and articles please like, boost or follow! Zaps are always appreciated!

JESUS WALKS ON WATER Painting by Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky. (1817 - 1900) #grownostr #plebchain #Christianity #Bible #paintings #FollowTheLight #zapathon If you enjoy my posts, please like, boost or give me a follow! Zaps are always great too!

PASCAL’S WAGER Pascal's Wager is a philosophical argument presented by the French mathematician, philosopher, physicist, and theologian Blaise Pascal in the 17th century. It posits that human beings wager with their lives that God either exists or does not. Pascal argued that people can choose to believe in God or can choose not to believe, but the potential benefits of believing in God are so vast that it is rational to bet on theism. Pascal's Wager is a practical argument for belief in God that applies elements of game theory to show that belief in the Christian religion is rational. #grownostr #plebchain #apologetics #history #God If you find value in my notes and articles please like, boost or follow! Zaps are always appreciated!

THE UNIVERSE FROM NOTHING IS ABSURD Link to my first Habla article discussing how the explanation of the origin of our universe does not make sense without God. #grownostr #plebchain #nostr #apologetics #God #naturallaw #philosophy If you find value in my notes and articles please like, boost or follow! Zaps are always appreciated! https://tinyurl.com/2p8vrdds

NOAH’S ARK DROGUE STONES The Durupinar site in the Middle East has many landmarks that have been associated with Noah's Ark over the centuries. Among these are the Arzap drogue stones, which are large standing stones found near the site. These stones were believed to have been attached to the ark and used as sea anchors or drogue stones. They are heavy and flat with a hole for tying a line at one end. Drogue stones were the equivalent of a storm anchor on an ancient ship and kept it stable in rough seas. The stones were continually used in ancient times after the possible flood and can be found in places like Israel and the Nile River in Egypt. #grownostr #plebchain #apologetics #Bible #history If you find value in my notes and articles please like, boost or follow! Zaps are always appreciated!

Sadly, the best argument against Christianity can be a life that in no way represents the teachings of Christ. #grownostr #nostr #Christianity

THEY HAD THE WINGS OF A BAT Herodotus, respected Greek historian who lived in approximately 450 B.C., once wrote: “There is a place in Arabia…to which I went, on hearing of some winged serpents; and when I arrived there, I saw bones and spines of serpents, in such quantities as it would be impossible to describe. The form of the serpent is like that of a water-snake; but he has wings without feathers, and as like as possible to the wings of a bat (n.d., emp. added).” Herodotus recognized that such creatures were not birds, mammals, or insects—but reptiles with wings. #grownostr #plebchain #nostr #history #cyptid If you find value in my notes and articles please like, boost or follow! Zaps are always appreciated!