Good Heavens! The Human Side of Astronomy

This is why we produce Good Heavens! God's creation shows us His invisible attributes. He uses His creation to lead us to Christ, through whom and for whom the entirety of the heavens and earth were made (Colossians 1).Dan recently met a former atheist who became a Christian and has recently completed the final edits on a remarkable docudrama film about the cosmos and how it all points us to Jesus. The film is called Universe Designed and it is the passion project of our guest on Good Heavens! for the next two episodes, filmmaker Michael Ray Lewis. Universe Designed rivals anything produced by National Geographic or the Discovery Channel, without the naturalism of course, and is entirely Christ-centered. It is due to be released sometime toward the end of this year. Here on part one, Michael shares with us his story about how God began a good work in his life. For more about the film and how you can help get it into theaters, do visit the website at https://www.universedesigned.com for more information. Podbean enables our podcast to be on Apple Podcasts and other major podcast platforms. To support Good Heavens! on Podbean as a patron, you can use the Podbean app, or go to https://patron.podbean.com/goodheavens. This goes to Wayne Spencer. If you would like to give to the ministry of Watchman Fellowship or to Daniel Ray, you can donate at https://www.watchman.org/daniel. Donations to Watchman are tax deductible.

You don't hear much about Uranus these days. Probably because it's 1.8 billion miles away, or maybe because the last time an Earth-launched satellite probe visited the enigmatic ringed world was in 1986. A few years ago the James Webb Space Telescope took the beauteous portrait of Uranus you see in the thumbnail, but for the most part, most folks don't think much about the quirky planet that orbits the sun whilst rolling on its side. Hopefully, this episode will at least make you think about Uranus as a work of art, the "handiwork" of God (Psalm 8 and 19), which silently declares His glory. The background music you hear in the introduction is from Gustav Holst's - The Planets, Op. 32 - VI. Uranus, the Magician [Copyright Free]. https://youtu.be/DEb1gtMljyA?si=e8qCMcurFy18Gmte Uranus press conference original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAEUvts2F6g Book on Uranus and Neptune (not Christian): https://a.co/d/8QlE8ur Also, this is Wayne's blog with an article on Easter and Jesus' resurrection:https://creationanswers.net/answersblog/ Podbean enables our podcast to be on Apple Podcasts and other major podcast platforms. To support Good Heavens! on Podbean as a patron, you can use the Podbean app, or go to https://patron.podbean.com/goodheavens. This goes to Wayne Spencer. If you would like to give to the ministry of Watchman Fellowship or to Daniel Ray, you can donate at https://www.watchman.org/daniel. Donations to Watchman are tax deductible.

Our thumbnail image this week is not a doctored or photoshopped image, but a genuine picture of the sun from October 2024. Taken in 193 angstrom light on Oct. 26, 2024, NASA captured our sun in a state of rejoicing, or so it seemed (image credit NASA/GSFC/SDO). The darker regions you see that comprise the eyes and mouth are actually regions of the surface of the sun that have been blasted off by coronal mass ejections that can trigger solar storms here on earth. In fact, solar storm warnings were issued because of this particular image. All that "missing" material is fired off into space and some of it could (and did) strongly interact with Earth's atmosphere, creating the Northern Lights effect. The charged particles from the sun interact with the magnetic field of Earth, which shields us from just such ejections. Without the magnetic shield, Earth's atmosphere would be stripped bare by these solar ejecta. This is a perfect analogy to what the Bible says about God in Psalm 84:11. "Our God is a sun and shield." The radiant and fiercely powerful light of the sun reminds us of God as a "consuming fire", while the Earth's magnetic field reminds us that God is a shield to us. We are protected by God's wrath through Christ on the cross. God provides us with His own righteous shield, in the person of His Son Jesus who, upon the cross, has taken away our sin. Come and see what the Bible and the Parker Solar Probe have to say about our Sun, the handiwork of God. EPISODE NOTE: In the beginning of part one, Dan mentions the faint, young sun problem but we forgot to get back to it. So here is an article about the problem you can check out if you're interested! https://creation.com/young-sun-paradox Audio clips featured in part one ABC DFW Northern Lights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XM6FJbehp28 Solar Probe whistle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50kwxyFQalI Solar Probe CME sounds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF_e5eYgJ3Y Podbean enables our podcast to be on Apple Podcasts and other major podcast platforms. To support Good Heavens! on Podbean as a patron, you can use the Podbean app, or go to https://patron.podbean.com/goodheavens. This goes to Wayne Spencer. If you would like to give to the ministry of Watchman Fellowship or to Daniel Ray, you can donate at https://www.watchman.org/daniel. Donations to Watchman are tax deductible.

As human beings we occupy a wondrously peculiar size in the cosmos. With our unique stature, we are able to see and comprehend scales of the universe at the inconceivably huge and the unimaginably small. We here at Good Heavens! believe God has arranged this peculiar state of affairs and wants us to know and delight in what He has made. The heavens are telling of His glory and we want to be a part in getting His word and the works of His hands out there for everyone to contemplate, consider, and enjoy. On this very special episode of Good Heavens! Dan had the remarkable opportunity this month (January) at the Defend 2025 apologetics conference at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary to have a fun and inspiring chat with not one, but two professionally and popularly published doctors of the cosmos (at the same time!), one who studies the subatomic scale and one who studies galaxies, some of the largest entities in the cosmos. Dr. Michael G. Strauss is a particle physicist at CERN and the University of Oklahoma and Dr. Luke Barnes is a researcher and lecturer of cosmology and astrophysics at Western Sydney University in Sydney, Australia. Both have published works at the professional and popular levels. It was a wonder and a privilege to get them both at the table together to hear their insights about the structure of the universe at the large and small scales and how they see God in all of it. Here on part one, we chat about the standard models of cosmology and particle physics, the wonder of stars, and the unsolved mysteries facing doctors of the cosmos today. Whether you are a theist, non-theist, or take a young earth or old earth perspective as a Christian, we hope you'll find these episodes encouraging and informative. Above all, we hope it will inspire you to have thoughtful and respectful dialogue with others with whom you might disagree. Good Heavens! this was a fun conversation. We hope you'll enjoy it as much as Dan did putting it together for you! Soli Deo Gloria.More about LukeMore about MichaelLuke's books Michael's book Podbean enables our podcast to be on Apple Podcasts and other major podcast platforms. To support Good Heavens! on Podbean as a patron, you can use the Podbean app, or go to https://patron.podbean.com/goodheavens. This goes to Wayne Spencer. If you would like to give to the ministry of Watchman Fellowship or to Daniel Ray, you can donate at https://www.watchman.org/daniel. Donations to Watchman are tax deductible.

Black holes remain one of the most enigmatic and wondrous entities in the cosmos. We have only known about them for less than a century. And just when you think you've got a handle on what exactly they are, new discoveries begin to challenge these assumptions. Just in the last decade, astrophysicists have not only photographed a black hole but have detected gravitational waves, the ripples in spacetime fabric created by the merger of two supermassive black holes. (See a video on this at https://www.youtube.com/live/aEPIwEJmZyE?si=tZhq0Gs-WKZfRvOX ) Here on part one, Wayne and Dan discuss the wonderful strangeness of black holes and a recent discovery of a black hole in a relatively young part of the universe. This black hole, based on current theories, shouldn't be there, as there were not enough stars or enough time for it to have accreted its mass. So how did it get there? Astronomers are trying to figure that out. Come and see how the Good Heavens! duo thinks these dark stars point us once more back to the glory of God in Christ. Mysterious Supermassive Black Hole mentioned here on Part One https://phys.org/news/2024-06-black-hole-inexplicable-mass-jwst.html Sarah Salviander's video on the history of science's understanding of black holes: https://youtu.be/xi0CwpY5ICg?si=3wZUSmRaQ-9pGyLO How are Quasars related to Black Holes?https://www.space.com/17262-quasar-definition.html First photograph of a black hole: https://www.youtube.com/live/XlrfBiuMzfE?si=RU3ZM2scyPAZE1wV FREE! Four-page articles from Watchman Fellowship - These articles help you better understand the ideas and ideologies of our time that challenge our Christian faith. Each profile offers a history, critique, and solidly biblical response to the topics. Scientism https://www.watchman.org/scientism/ProfileScientism.pdfNaturalism https://www.watchman.org/Naturalism/ProfileNaturalism.pdfCarl Sagan's Cosmos https://www.watchman.org/files/ProfileCosmos.pdfUFOS/UAPS https://www.watchman.org/ProfileUFOs.pdfAstrology https://www.watchman.org/files/profileastrology2018.pdf If you like the profile articles, be sure to check out Watchman's comprehensive two-volume collection of all of our profile articles, nearly 700 pages. You can get a print or digital edition. Check out our preview video of the notebook at https://www.Watchman.org/Notebook. Podbean enables our podcast to be on Apple Podcasts and other major podcast platforms. To support Good Heavens! on Podbean as a patron, you can use the Podbean app, or go to https://patron.podbean.com/goodheavens. This goes to Wayne Spencer. If you would like to give to the ministry of Watchman Fellowship or to Daniel Ray, you can donate at https://www.watchman.org/daniel. Donations to Watchman are tax deductible.

The universe is a fantastically wondrous place. There are more things in heaven and earth than are often dreamt of in our philosophies, to paraphrase Hamlet a little bit. And for the many things we can observe in the physical universe, science sometimes struggles to come up with an explanation as to what is really going on. How much more mysterious are those things which we cannot see? How should Christians think about things that the science of the heavens tells us cannot be seen, such as the idea of the existence of many different universes? That's the question we tackle this week and next on the broadcast with astrophysicist from Reasons to Believe Dr. Jeff Zweerink. We talk about his 2008 book Who's Afraid of the Multiverse? Come and see! LINKS FOR JEFF BIO: https://reasons.org/team/jeff-zweerink. BLOG: https://reasons.org/explore/blogs/author/jeff-zweerink BOOK: https://support.reasons.org/purchase/whos-afraid-of-the-multiverse Astrophysicist Jeff Zweerink is a senior research scholar for Reasons to Believe (RTB), an organization dedicated to demonstrating the compatibility of science and the Christian faith. Jeff’s work focuses on helping people of all backgrounds bridge the perceived gap between science and the Christian faith. Jeff has also made many media appearances, on television, radio, and in print. He earned a BS in physics and a PhD in astrophysics with a focus on gamma rays from Iowa State University. He taught and ran the planetarium at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, until postdoctoral research in gamma rays led him to the University of California, Riverside. Prior to joining RTB, Jeff spent years working on the STACEE and VERITAS gamma-ray telescopes and was involved in research projects such as the Solar Two project and the Whipple Collaboration. He continues to work as a project scientist at UCLA on GAPS, a balloon experiment seeking to detect dark matter. Jeff is also a coauthor on more than 30 academic papers published in peer-reviewed journals, such as Astrophysical Journal, Astroparticle Physics, and Astrobiology. Free Resources from Watchman Fellowship Scientism: https://www.watchman.org/scientism/ProfileScientism.pdf Carl Sagan's Cosmos: https://www.watchman.org/CosmosTV Naturalism: https://www.watchman.org/Naturalism/ProfileNaturalism.pdf The Story of the Cosmos: DISCLAIMER The views expressed by Jeff regarding the multiverse or the big bang or the age of the universe do not imply an endorsement one way or the other by Good Heavens! and Watchman Fellowship, Inc. and its board of directors. We seek to present the best scientific information available to the body of Christ on these topics from Christians who are knowledgeable in their field who hold different perspectives. We have featured guests in the past who hold to both a young-earth and an old-earth view. Podbean enables our podcast to be on Apple Podcasts and other major podcast platforms. To support Good Heavens! on Podbean as a patron, you can use the Podbean app, or go to https://patron.podbean.com/goodheavens. This goes to Wayne Spencer. If you would like to give to the ministry of Watchman Fellowship or to Daniel Ray, you can donate at https://www.watchman.org/daniel. Donations to Watchman are tax deductible.