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from Does God Exist? 4th Quarter 2024

STAY UP-TO-DATE ON NEWS AND NOTES. The stories in News and Notes are condensed from articles previously published on our website DOES GOD EXIST? TODAY. You can use the links within each of these articles to see the original posts (on the Does God Exist? Today website) for more details. (Some of the articles below have links to outside sources, which may not be available after we have published this page.) There are also many other interesting and informative articles on the Does God Exist? Today website each day. We encourage you to follow us daily on “Does God Exist? Today.” On that website you can also subscribe to our free weekly e-mail update. We call it “The Best of the Week from DOES GOD EXIST?” It contains links to the most popular of our posts on DOES GOD EXIST? TODAY and our facebook page (Facebook.com/evidence4god).

OPPORTUNITY TO STUDY WITH JOHN CLAYTON: Because of the COVID pandemic and age, we have suspended our lectureship schedule. In place of that, we are providing an opportunity for congregations to have a lectureship electronically. We want to give the readers of this publication the same opportunity to study with John Clayton.

We will mail you a DVD of the first four lectures in our video series. You or your group can watch the four programs writing down questions and challenges to the material. Please send us your questions via e-mail or postal mail, and John Clayton will respond to them. If you are satisfied with that material, return the DVD, and we mail you the next one. Your only cost is the return postage for the DVD.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please send us your name and address, and we will send you the first DVD. Watching the Does God Exist? presentations in the comfort of your home is an excellent way to receive the information without risk from COVID or the inconvenience of driving to a lectureship site. E-mail your request to John Clayton at jncdge@aol.com.

JUST RIGHT FOR LIFE: Since astronomers have discovered more than 5,000 exoplanets orbiting stars other than our Sun, many insist there must be life elsewhere in the cosmos. If there is life out there, God created it, but the Bible only speaks to our planet. A “Goldilocks” planet is at the proper distance from its star, so the temperature is “just right” for liquid water to exist on the surface. Some exoplanets appear to be in the habitable zones of their stars, but many other factors must also be just right for life to exist there.

To support life, a planet must be the right size, have a stable orbit inside the habitable zone of a stable star, and have the right atmosphere. It must also have working plate tectonics and a large moon to maintain a stable axis tilt. It must also be in the habitable zone of its galaxy — not near the center where it would be exposed to lethal gamma-ray bursts.

Another star system requirement for life would be having outer planets large enough and in the correct position to sweep away asteroids and comets that would bombard an inner planet. To support life, a planet also needs a strong magnetic field to shield the surface from the star's radiation and cosmic rays. The bottom line is that Earth is a special place created by God for a special purpose and is unique among all other known objects in the cosmos.

Reference: “Is Earth the Only Goldilocks Panet?” in Discover magazine, July/August 2024, page 54

ANIMAL MEMORY CAPACITY: Memory is designed into animals to benefit them and other life forms in their ecosystem. We see an excellent example of partial memory in squirrels who bury massive numbers of acorns but only remember where they put a fraction of them. The squirrels have enough to eat while they plant trees over a large area.

On the other hand, some life forms, such as the Clark's nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana) remember virtually 100%. They survive on pinion seeds, and a single bird may hide as many as 30,000 seeds, placing 4 or 5 seeds in each spot. When hungry, the bird will return to each hiding place to get food. When spring arrives, it will have consumed almost all the seeds hidden in thousands of locations.

God has given different memory storage capacities in the brains of each creature. In the animal world, the memory capacity is designed to benefit the animals and the environment. Trying to explain that by evolutionary reasoning is difficult. Those of us who believe in God believe it speaks of his wisdom and design in the world around us.

Reference: Our Fascinating Earth: Strange, True Stories of Nature’s Oddities, Bizarre Phenomena, and Scientific Curiosities by Dr. Philip Seff, Ph.D.

NEANDERTHAL DATA: Past research has not shown that Neanderthals lived together in communities. However, Neanderthal DNA in Siberia indicates a possible community, and some 600 footprints recently found near Normandy, France, indicate a group of adults with children and teenagers. Another interesting discovery is that the communities cared for individuals with deformities or severe injuries, and Neanderthal burials indicate that they showed special care to children.

The fact that Neanderthals clearly lived more than 6,000 years ago flies in the face of some denominational teaching about Earth's age. The point is that the Bible is silent on how long ago Adam lived. There is also a tendency to make Adam in our physical image when the Bible says Adam was created in God's spiritual image.

Since you and I are created in God's image, we all have equal value and demonstrate spiritual characteristics and talents. These include creative ability in art and music, the capacity to worship, empathy and sympathy, and guilt, which have nothing to do with our physical or racial makeup. New data on Neanderthals shows that they demonstrated some of those characteristics, and we have some Neanderthal markers in our DNA.

Reference: “Family Ties” in Discover magazine, July/August 2024, page 24

SMOKE IN THE AIR AFFECTS TREES: Researchers at Colorado State University have found that even trees are affected by smoke from wildfires, but they have a defense system designed into them. Plant leaves have pores called stomata that do the opposite of our lungs by taking in carbon dioxide and expelling oxygen. However, taking in smoke could interfere with this process. The researchers found that when smoke wafted across ponderosa pines, the trees responded by closing their stomata, essentially holding their breath.

Since these trees are affected by smoke, they have a designed response to what might damage their ability to absorb carbon dioxide. This is just one more example of the incredible planning that went into their creation.

Reference: The Week, August 30, 2024, page 21

MAID AND HOSPICE CARE: “Medical aid in dying,” or MAiD, has been accepted in Europe, Canada, and other places. As expected, there have been abuses, and for that reason, the European Court of Human Rights recently ruled that access to assisted suicide is not a human right.

Now, the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association (HPNA) has announced a policy change that allows hospice nurses to participate in assisted suicide. The statement reads: “Nursing care for patients considering MAiD and their families is crucial to ensure that patients and families are not overtly or inadvertently disenfranchised or stigmatized as they proceed with MAiD and that they experience a safe and comfortable death, free from complications.”

Christians have grave concerns with medically assisted suicide. When hospice nurses are allowed to administer “medical aid in dying,” how long will it be before they are required to do so, regardless of religious and ethical objections?

Reference: The Life Legal Defense Foundation publication Lifeline for Summer 2024, page 6

MEDICATION ABORTION: Medication abortion is a two-drug cocktail that ends the life of the developing child during the first trimester of pregnancy. It is essential for women considering medication abortion to know what it does and its side effects. The first pill is mifepristone/RU-486, which prevents the pre-born baby from receiving hormonal support (progesterone) essential for development. The second pill (misoprostol) causes the uterus to contract and expel the baby. The process is painful for the woman.

The Mayo Clinic says the side effects include vomiting, fever, nausea, chills, diarrhea, and headache. Women may need painkillers to manage pain after a medication abortion. The Mayo Clinic also says that a woman undergoing a pill-induced medication abortion needs access to emergency services. Complications include hemorrhaging and infection. A 17-year study showed that of 423,000 abortions, there were 121,283 confirmed emergency room visits within 30 days.

When humans interfere with God's design, there are always problems, and the miracle of conception and birth is a design that works.

References: Mayo Clinic (https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/medical-abortion/about/pac-20394687) and 40 Days for Life (https://www.40daysforlife.com/en/)

PLANT NEUROSCIENCE? Several “plant neuroscientists” have written papers claiming that plants have intelligence and cognition and experience pain and other feelings. This is not the work of crackpots but of reputable scientists writing in professional journals.

The so-called plant neuroscientists accuse scientists who reject their claims of being “animal chauvinists.” If you reject eating plants because they have feelings and experience pain, you will also have to reject eating insects or animals of any kind, such as fish, birds, or even farm animals. That leaves you with nothing to eat.

In Genesis 1:29, God tells Adam and Eve, “I have given you every herb bearing seed … and every tree in which there is fruit for food.” In Genesis 9:3, God told Noah, “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you even as the green plants I have given you.” God gave humans the capacity to have adequate food and challenged us to manage his environment with intelligence and respect.

The fact is that plants do not have neurons. I know people who talk to their plants, and I must admit that I have spoken to my car when it was not working. Whether plants or vehicles, our conversations are for our benefit, not what we are taking to. God has designed plants to feed, shade, and show us beauty, but they are not created like us and are not to be worshipped.

Reference: Skeptical Inquirer, September/October 2024, pages 21

SMALLTOOTH SAWFISH: An interesting creature lives in the ocean off southern Florida and the Bahamas. The smalltooth sawfish (Pristis pectinata) is a member of the ray family with a snout lined with needle-sharp teeth used to cut vegetation or chop up a predator that gets too close. The amazing thing about this fish is that the babies are live-born. The question is how can a baby sawfish avoid cutting up its mother or siblings before birth.

Researchers at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in Charlotte Harbor have answered that question. They found that the baby sawfish's teeth are housed in a sheath while inside the mother. It is essentially a second skin that the smalltooth sawfish sheds about four days after birth. The researchers say the sheath feels like paraffin wax, which you cannot peel off, but with a slight give. The chemical composition of the sheath shows that it has two layers made of proteins similar to ordinary skin.

The ocean is full of living things with incredibly complex and specialized designs, enabling them to exist in unique environments. The lead researcher, Gregg Poulakis, said, “It's a cool thing Mother Nature figured out to protect mom from those calcified teeth and protect siblings from sword fighting in the uterus.” Perhaps it was not “Mother Nature” who figured it out, but an intelligent Creator.

Reference: Science News magazine, July 13, 2024, page 5 and sciencenews.org (https://www.sciencenews.org/article/stops-sawfish-from-sword-fighting-womb)

Answers to the 4th Quarter 2024 CROSSWORD puzzle: ACROSS: 1-Gospel; 2- ; 7-lie; 8-infinite; 10-seek: DOWN: 1-love; 3-example; 4-baptized; 6-DNA; 9-ten

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