#49 The Moon

Everybody likes the Moon, right? Have you ever met anyone who had bad things to say about the Moon?

The Moon is associated with love and romance. Songs, poems, and art describe it all the time. We think of it as our friend. Sometimes after a really struggling time or when we are feeling especially lonely, we look up in the sky and are surprised by a full Moon. Then the feeling comes over us, “At least God loves me.”

All throughout history the Moon has provided light in the night. It has been of incalculable value to our ancestors. Even today many peoples of the world have to depend on the light of the Moon at night. If it were just an average moon in our Solar System it would be 10 times smaller and give off only 1/20th the light, virtually worthless. [1]

How many wonderful memories do you have over your lifetime that include the Moon?

The cycles of the Moon help us tell time and the passing of months and seasons. Many cultures celebrate festivals centered on the Moon. Our own bodies have emotional cycles that correspond to 28 - 29 days, known as biorhythms. Women of course have a fertility cycle of similar length.

No other known planet in the whole Universe has a moon like it. 

That’s all really wonderful stuff. That is almost enough proof for God by itself. Such a truly sentimental rock existing up in the sky that moves our hearts so much is very, very unlikely to happen by accident. 

However, I need to tell you more about the Moon. Without it, we would all be dead. We could not survive on the Earth if there were no Moon.

The Moon stabilizes the Earth on its axis. If not for the Moon, the Earth would swing back and forth on its axis up to about 90 degrees [2] instead of just the few degrees it varies now. This would cause unbelievable chaos in the temperatures, climate conditions, volcanoes, oceans and more. Nothing would be stable and we could not live here.

The Moon is primarily responsible for the ocean tides. This constant churning, up and down twice a day, is what cleans and refreshes the oceans and shorelines keeping them from getting stagnant. It stirs up the nutrients in the oceans providing the food sources needed by the tiniest of sea creatures, algaes, and oxygen-providing microbes. [3] All life in the sea depends on them. [4] So we depend on them too. Ocean tides are now also being studied as a potential source for clean renewable energy.

The Moon plays a role as a protector in the sky shielding us from such things as asteroids and cosmic dust. Look at all the pock marks on the Moon from collisions. One crater is 8 miles deep and 1,500 miles across, the largest known in the Solar System. [5]

Scientists have been able to learn a lot about the Sun and the Universe only because of the Moon. It is exactly 400 times smaller than the Sun and 400 times closer. What a coincidence! It also revolves around the Earth in the same plane as the Earth revolves around the Sun. This is very unusual and not one of the 150 other moons in the Solar System does it. [6]

Because of all this, the Moon is able to eclipse the Sun. Especially valuable to scientists is the total solar eclipse which allows them the only time they can possibly view the Sun’s Corona and take measurements on it. This has led to untold leaps in knowledge in fields such as astronomy.

Gravity is another amazing fact of nature that we learn more about with the aid of the Moon. Sir Isaac Newton was trying to understand the Moon’s rotation when he discovered gravity. Here is an amazing fact. If you had to replace the strength of gravity between the Earth and Moon with a long steel pole, you would have to get a pole that is 531 miles in diameter. Think about that! It’s hard to even imagine an invisible force that strong. It is estimated at 70 million trillion pounds.

OK. Here comes the best part of all. Scientists don’t know where the Moon came from! [7] That’s right. As long as they exclude God, they have no viable theory for the origin of the Moon.

There have been a number of theories over the years, but we have sent 12 men to walk on the Moon and they've brought back 842 pounds [8] of rock and dust samples. All those theories fell apart. Known laws of physics and geology would have to be violated if they were true.

Godless theories for the source of the Moon fit into three areas: (1) formation from the earth (or fission, somehow a chunk of earth broke off), (2) formation independent of the earth (capture, the moon was passing by), and (3) formation simultaneously with the earth (condensation, from a dust cloud). For a brief consideration of each and how it fails to explain the origin, see the sources in the footnotes. [9] [10] [11]

The latest theory which is what they will try to tell you in textbooks and on websites is about how a Mars-sized planet slammed into the Earth and ended up creating the Moon. But if you read all the way down the page you can find where they mention the arguments against this theory. For example, it’s almost impossible that such a collision could happen. Secondly, even if it did, the Moon would certainly NOT be made of the material that is in the rocks that were brought back.

Think that over.

Here’s my simplification of what those texts are saying. “Here’s the truth about the origin of the Moon. We know that the odds that this is the truth are about 1 in a million, but believe us because we’re scientists. It’s the truth.”

I’m sorry, but in my world, the real world, that is not the definition of truth. And it’s not scientific either. If the odds are only 1 in a million that it is true, I would simply call it false, and not lie about it. Scientists who promote lies should have their funding cut off.

Here’s a funny description of their state of affairs by one scientist. “The best explanation [for the existence of the Moon] was observational error — the Moon does not exist.” [12]

The Moon was created by God. There aren't any other options. There has to be God.

Speed of light between Earth and Moon

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[1] Donald B. DeYoung, "The Moon: A Faithful Witness in the Sky", http://www.icr.org/article/moon-faithful-witness-sky

[2] Danny Faulkner, "A Perfect Partner", http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v9/n1/perfect-partner

[3] Brian Thomas, "Water in Rocks May Support Moon's Bible Origins", http://www.icr.org/article/7712/

[4] Donald B. DeYoung, "The Moon: A Faithful Witness in the Sky", http://www.icr.org/article/moon-faithful-witness-sky

[5] The Institute for Creation Research, "Earth Was Created in a Wonderful Location". http://www.icr.org/earths-location/

[6] Donald B. DeYoung, "The Moon: A Faithful Witness in the Sky", http://www.icr.org/article/moon-faithful-witness-sky

[7] David W. Hughes, “The Open Question in Selenology,” Nature, Vol. 327, 28 May 1987, p. 291.
“In astronomical terms, therefore, the Moon must be classed as a well-known object, but astronomers still have to admit shamefacedly that they have little idea as to where it came from. This is particularly embarrassing, because the solution of the mystery was billed as one of the main goals of the US lunar exploration program.”

[8] Wikipedia, “Moon Rock”, During the six Apollo surface excursions, 2,415 samples weighing 382 kg (842 lb) were collected, the majority by Apollo 15, 16, and 17. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_rock

[9] Voy Forums, The Origin of the Moon”. http://www.voy.com/208012/3/641.html

    “Evolutionary theories for the origin of the Moon are highly speculative and completely inadequate. The Moon could not have spun off from Earth, because its orbital plane is too highly inclined. Nor could it have formed from the same material as Earth, because the relative abundances of its elements are too dissimilar from those of Earth. The Moon’s nearly circular orbit is also strong evidence that it was never torn from nor captured by Earth. If the Moon formed from particles orbiting Earth, other particles should be easily visible inside the Moon’s orbit; none are.”
    "Some claim that the Moon formed from debris splashed from Earth by a Mars-size impactor. If so, many small moons should have formed. The impactor’s glancing blow would either be too slight to form our large Moon, or so violent that Earth would end up spinning too fast. Besides, part of Earth’s surface and mantle would have melted, but none of the indicators of that melting have been found. Also, small particles splashed from Earth would have completely melted, allowing any water inside them to escape into the vacuum of space. However, Apollo astronauts found on the Moon tiny glass beads that had erupted as molten material from inside the Moon but had dissolved water inside! The total amount of water that was once inside the moon probably equaled that in the Caribbean Sea.”

[10] Evolution News & Views, "How the Moon Supports the Privileged Planet Hypothesis", December 5, 2013, http://www.evolutionnews.org/2013/12/our_moon_still079861.html

[11] Donald B. DeYoung, "The Moon: A Faithful Witness in the Sky", http://www.icr.org/article/moon-faithful-witness-sky

[12] . Jack J. Lissauer, “It’s Not Easy to Make the Moon,” Nature, Vol. 389, 25 September 1997, pp. 327–328.

#48 The Nitrogen Cycle

There are many complex ecosystems that exist all around us. All of them could become proofs for God in themselves.

Let me tell you some of the basic points of the Nitrogen Cycle and let you see that there must be an invisible creative genius behind it.

We all learned in grade school that the atmosphere we breathe is 78% Nitrogen. This is very important because if that percentage were to vary even 1%, we would probably all die.

Nitrogen in the atmosphere is in the form of N2 molecules which have a very strong bond and are basically useless to living creatures in that form.

However, every living creature requires Nitrogen. It is required in all the DNA and RNA in our cells. It is also required in amino acids and proteins.

The only way we can get usable Nitrogen is by a process which breaks the N2 bond and is called “fixation”. Most of this is done in nature by several types of specialized bacteria. They convert the N2 into other molecules such as ammonia (NH3), or nitrites (NO2), or nitrates (NO3). If chemical evolution were true, it is an incredibly lucky accident that all those very sophisticated bacteria exist. Otherwise, we wouldn’t. 

A God who designed the system makes a lot more sense.

Even more amazing is that those bacteria are not able to convert the N2 into other molecules if there is ANY Oxygen present at all. It interferes with the process. Where on earth is it possible to find a naturally occurring place with no Oxygen? Miraculously, plants provide little chambers in their roots called nodules and there is a protein called leghaemoglobin which is there and carries away the Oxygen.

Do you see the problem for evolutionists? There are so many miracles that had to happen for this system to exist and none of them involved their two basic tenants of mutation or natural selection. Without there first being plants with nodules, there would be no place for the Nitrogen fixation to take place converting it to a usable form. But without there first being Nitrogen in a usable form, there could be no DNA or RNA to build a plant.

The ecosystem, however, is even more complicated and unlikely than already explained. If the only existing bacteria converts Nitrogen all in one direction, then eventually the Nitrogen in the atmosphere becomes depleted. This would cause serious problems and eventually extinction. Well happily there also exist other types of bacteria which convert the other Nitrogen molecules back into N2 to replenish the atmosphere.

If you do a Google Images search for "Nitrogen Cycle", you will see many, many, many diagrams of the whole Nitrogen ecological system. [2] If you are interested in more information,, check out this series of animated diagrams by the PBS Learning site which is very detailed. [3]

Evolution Theory which depends on time and slow, gradual development cannot explain a large ecosystem where all the fully developed living beings that are a part of it must suddenly exist simultaneously or the whole system fails.

There must be a God.
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1. Nitrogen. Wikipedia article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen

2. Google Images search for Nitrogen Cycle: Link to Images of Nitrogen Cycle

3. Nitrogen Cycle. Learning diagrams from PBS Learning
http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/asset/lsps07_int_nitrogen/?utm_source=teachersdomain_redirect/asset/lsps07_int_nitrogen/utm_medium=teachersdomain/asset/lsps07_int_nitrogen/utm_campaign=td_redirects