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Today's Little Lift
by Jim Bullington
As far as I am able to discover, Eliphaz the Temanite was the only man in biblical history that explicitly claimed to have experienced horripilation. I have heard of others in post-biblical times who have said that certain religious experiences were accompanied by such phenomenon, but I am no surer of these claims as I am of the one by Eliphaz. After all, many of the rest of his words seemed to be false, so perhaps he lied about his hair standing on end too!
However, I don’t doubt a recent news account in which a particular physicist said that he and a number of his colleagues felt goose bumps when they reviewed certain data which indicated that matter is stronger (at least to some degree) than antimatter. Pardon my sarcasm, but wouldn’t that discovery do the same for almost anybody! After all, according to one possible conclusion, the fact that matter is stronger than anti-matter accounts for our existence. In fact, the article from which some of these “facts” were gleaned was partially titled, Why We Exist.
You see, it turns out that if matter and antimatter were exactly equal in strength, and if matter and antimatter had existed in balance at one point in time, nothing would now exist; they would have simply cancelled one another out and voila – a big nothing would have come into existence! So according to some theories, we owe our existence to the fact that matter naturally wins over antimatter! Again pardon my sarcasm, but thank God that matter is stronger than antimatter and thank Him again that they are pitted against one another on a level playing field! Of course it could have just happened the other way if antimatter had proven to be stronger than matter; we would all exist, but we would exist in an anti-state. I think this would mean that I would weigh negative pounds (less than zero) and have a waistline that is negative rather than the “larger-than-comfortable” proportions I now have.
I admit that I am flabbergasted that educated men can be so blind to truth. If one concedes the fact that matter and antimatter exist, they both testify to the fact that something preceded them. The same laws of physics from which these physicists supposedly deduce the fact that we owe our existence to the dominant behaviour of matter over antimatter are the laws which demand that nothing comes from nothing. In other words, if something exists, something has always existed. The Bible declares that the something that has always existed is God. While some scientists may get goose bumps over data that suggests that matter is slightly stronger than antimatter, I get goose bumps over the fact that Creator God is stronger than all things and yet loved me enough to give His Only Begotten Son for me! One thing I think that I can conclude from this is that goose bumps just don’t go very far to prove one’s claims!
Want goose bumps? Try these facts: “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deep in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.” (Psalm 33.6-8). After all, according to Wikipedia, goose bumps (horripilation) involuntarily occur when a person is cold or experiences strong emotions such as fear or awe. As the psalmist said, “Let all the earth fear the LORD; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him!” Sounds like goose bumps to me!
Lest one get the wrong idea, I firmly believe that true science never contradicts the Bible nor vice versa. What we have in many cases is bad science. “Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar.” (Romans 3.4).
Questions:
1. How did the Psalmist say that the universe came into existence?
2. According to the Bible, just how much random chance was involved in the beginning of the universe and /or the beginning of humanity?
3. The Bible claims that God is eternal; some (not all) scientists claim that matter is eternal. Why is it necessary that something be recognized as eternal?
4. Brain teaser: If matter is all that exists (i.e. no God), what does it matter? If matter is not all that exists (i.e. God is real), what does it matter?
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