UFO Religions

Archive for the ‘Science and Religion’ Category

I just blogged about this over at Naked Bible, and figured Facade fans would find it interesting. I just came across an online journal article that provides an overview of pre-Reformation and Reformation opinion on Genesis 6:1-4. It’s by a historical theology professor and it’s entitled, “Demon Semen: Traditional and Metaphysical Assumptions in Early Lutheran and Reformed Treatments of Genesis 6:1-4.”

Technorati Tags: Aquinas, Calvin, Genesis 6, Luther, nephilim, sons of God

The UFO Trail (a blog I recommend following) posted a helpful summary of the Higgs-Boson particle (“God particle”) discovery. It’s brief and covers the salient points, including the regrettable hype.

Technorati Tags: Boson, CERN, God, Higgs, hype, particle

Okay, I’m not a physicist, so there’s going to be an enthusiasm gap from the get-go. Still, I guess that the new “discovery” (if that’s an accurate label; still seems to be some level of uncertainty there) of the Higgs-Boson “God particle” is truly important. But the holy grail of physics? I’d think the holy grail would discovering what produced the “God particle,” not the fact that this particle is apparently what gives all other particles their mass (maybe readers can follow this explanation; it didn’t help me much). But that’s just me, I guess. I’d still want to know where the particle came from.

The name is pretty unfortunate, too. It gives the impression to people that the particle is the cause of the universe — that thing that explains the Big Bang — but it isn’t. The term is only meant as an analogy, not a substitute for deity (though some will think that way, ignoring what the physicists are actually saying).

And I’m betting that enterprising physicists will soon come up with something it doesn’t explain. Then they’ll have to come up with another name that will draw headlines. How about the Elvis particle? The Oprah particle? Even better … the Obama particle! You heard it here first.

Technorati Tags: God, Higgs-Boson, mass, matter, particle

I just came across my lecture from the 2003 God, Man, and ET Conference on YouTube. The event was hosted at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. I participated in the planning of the event. Aside from myself, the speakers were Dr. Hugh Ross, Dr. Paul Nelson, Richard Hoagland, and the late David Flynn.Cheryl Jones was MC and my good friend and former teaching colleague Doug Vardell served as moderator.

I had no idea it was on YouTube. You can watch it below (be patient, it takes 8-9 minutes to actually get to the lecture, and the whole thing is one hour and twenty minutes long).

I also found the panel discussion from the event (also over an hour long). Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: Christianity, conference, David Flynn, ET, extraterrestrial life, fundamentalism, God, Heiser, Hoagland, Hugh Ross, judaism, man, Paul Nelson, religion

The Uncommon Descent blog has some pull quotes from an article from the Technology Review/Physics Archiv blog entitled, “The Amazing Trajectories of Life-Bearing Meteorites from Earth” that make that point.

This is the idea that, when earth was struck by space objects in the distant past (e.g., asteroids), material from earth was ejected up into space from the impact, and that material held living organisms. The material was then drawn out into space by various forces. The implication is that if some of that debris made it to various moons or back to earth and was discovered today, it might mistakenly be interpreted as ET life, but it actually originated on earth.

As the Uncommon Descent link notes, astronomer Hugh Ross has been saying this for many years. I recall it from the God, Man, and ET Conference where we were both speakers, as well as some of his radio appearances. But I’d never seen (probably because I never felt compelled enough to look) any journal literature on it. Very interesting.

Technorati Tags: asteroids, extraterrestrial life, impact, meteorites, Panspermia