The (Not So) Itsy Bitsy Spider ... by Ted Slater on 10/20/2009 at 4:23 PM

... climbed up the side of my front door the other day. Intrigued by all things on the fringe of normalcy, my inner arachnologist provoked me to draw near. It was brown, it was hairy, it was pulsating with venom.

Or maybe not.

It's not a brown recluse, or a black widow, or a camel spider, or a dung beetle. The thing is, I don't really know what it is. Any idea?

Oh, I do want to say that no creatures were harmed over the course of my study. But that wouldn't be true.

God Is an Artist by Matt Kaufman on 10/19/2009 at 8:13 PM

I love fall: It's my favorite season. The leaves are starting to turn, and I never grow jaded with the sight. I just got back from a brisk walk where I savored everything around me -- the trees, the sky, the sun, the breeze. I just felt blessed. I get to live in this world!

This reaction isn't an October-only event. In all seasons, I'm struck by the beauty of creation. When I look around, one thought keeps recurring: God is an artist. He could have made a purely utilitarian universe, devoid of beauty and concerned only with function. But that's not Who He is. He pours forth His creative nature in colors, in shapes, in textures and dimensions. His signature strokes are all around us.

Even if I'd never read a word of Scripture, I wouldn't have it in me to imagine that all this awesome beauty just, somehow, evolved. Few people do. Individual atheists exist, but a truly atheistic society is just about unheard of. Even pagans, who don't know the Artist, can see that there is one. It takes an unusual degree of spiritual blindness to miss the signs. "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands."

As much as we may marvel at all we see, here's an even more marvelous thought. All the beauty of creation isn't God's best work. Great as it is, it's been vandalized: It's a fallen creation, with elements of ugliness in the mix, and its greatest beauty pales compared to what it used to be. How much more beautiful was Eden? And how much more beautiful will the new creation be? Just trying to imagine boggles the mind.

So don't try. Just wait. And while you wait, let the wonders you can see with your eyes drive you to know the Artist more deeply through His Word.

Climate Change Hits Colorado by Ted Slater on 10/08/2009 at 9:47 AM

I'm not sure if humans are causing this or something else, but the temperatures here in Colorado have changed dramatically over the past few weeks.

A month ago I could be found in my back yard, rolling in the lush green grass, listening to the apple tree's leaves wave in the breeze, wondering when my still-green tomatoes might turn red. But today, like late last month, it's snowing. The grass is growing brittle, the leaves have all left, and my still-green tomatoes are still green.

This unexpected cooling cycle is causing havoc with the plants I steward, and it's heartbreaking.

I remember a recent warming cycle we went through -- must've been about half a year ago -- when the plants seemed to relish the higher temperatures. The increasing warmth beckoned them to spring to life. Flower buds, tender shoots, the earthy smell of potential. The warmer temperatures drove them to drink in greenhouse gases -- water, CO2, and so on -- as though they were emerging parched from months in an icy desert.

All because the temperature had increased.

I'm distressed by this climate change thing. I'm distressed to see plant life die as warm weather recedes. My plants dream of the warmth of the lush tropics, but have nightmares of the chilly wind-swept landscape of the poles.

I pray that, whether by human hands or the hand of God, Colorado experience climate change in the direction of something warmer. Lord, I plead, expanding the concern I have for the plant life in my back yard to all the plants in all the back yards in all the world, please bless the greenery you've entrusted to us with a bit of global warming.

Genesis Fun: Water by Ted Slater on 10/06/2009 at 6:00 AM

I really enjoy the book of Genesis. A theme in the first few chapters that intrigues me has to do with water.

Genesis 1:6-7 explains that on Day #2, God separated the water into two parts: one part "above the expanse," and one part "under the expanse." The next day He gathered the waters "under the expanse" into seas, which allowed other areas "under the expanse" to be dry land.

From what follows, it seems that this water "above the expanse" is not a mere layer of clouds, but some sort of water canopy or layer of ice particles. Why do I think that? Because of a few reasons: first, there didn't seem to have been any rainfall prior to Noah's flood. Rain clouds didn't provide water for the plants, according to Genesis 2:6; instead, "a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground." There was also no record of rainbows until Noah's flood.

And how did Noah's flood come about? Not through mere rain, from mere rain clouds, but from the rupturing of this water canopy and from vast amounts of water stored beneath the dry land. Check out Genesis 7:11-12, which explains that "all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened." So, stuff from the earth is erupted into the atmosphere first, which causes the water "above the expanse" to fall. Either whatever was holding it up was punctured, or there were for the first time particles (volcanic ash?) in the air around which water vapor could now finally condense and fall.

Note that after 40 days, "the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained." For weeks, water had been pouring onto the earth from both below the land and above it. Whew, that's a lot of water!

I find it interesting that Methuselah, who lived 969 years, died the same year as the great flood. I find it interesting that before the flood, most people lived a very long time; after the flood, their lifespans diminished. Moses lived 120 years, but wrote that humans might typically live 70 or 80 years before dying.

Why the change in lifespan? Perhaps the water canopy kept out harmful solar rays and regulated the temperature of the earth; when it collapsed, our environment became less amenable to long life.

As I mentioned in the first paragraph above, I'm intrigued by all this. There seems to be an internal consistency here, an affirmation of scientific principles, and a hint at how our current geological topography has come about.

Cap And Trade Could Cost Families $1,761 A Year by Ted Slater on 09/16/2009 at 12:30 PM

CBS News revealed yesterday that:

The Obama administration has privately concluded that a cap and trade law would cost American taxpayers up to $200 billion a year, the equivalent of hiking personal income taxes by about 15 percent.

This information was not released freely by the White House, but was gathered through a Freedom of Information Act request.

This Cap and Trade bill, also known as Markey-Waxman, was purportedly created to combat alleged man-caused global warming. The thing is, even if it does go into effect, it will only affect temperatures by 0.05 degrees (Celsius) over the next 40 years.

This is one reason I keep blogging about global warming and its opportunistic alarmists: The ideas behind it have real consequences for each of us. Proposed global warming policies won't enrich the air you breathe; they'll only make you poorer.

The politicians pushing for this cap and tax bill don't care about that 0.05 degree change in global temperatures. They are simply using that as a smokescreen. What these bureaucrats really want is more control, and more of our hard-earned money.

From Global Warming to Global Cooling by Motte Brown on 09/14/2009 at 3:26 PM

Since Boundless has become a trusted source of information on the latest science regarding global warming, I thought it prudent to report on a development that's akin to President Obama giving a speech saying Roe v. Wade must be overturned. Because as Canada's National Post puts it, "When a leading proponent for one point of view suddenly starts batting for the other side, it's usually newsworthy."

More from the article "Global Warming Takes a Break" asking why a leading climate expert predicting a cooling trend has been ignored:

So why was a speech last week by Mojib Latif of Germany's Leibniz Institute not given more prominence?

Prof. Latif is one of the leading climate modelers in the world. He is the recipient of several international climate-study prizes and a lead author for the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He has contributed significantly to the IPCC's last two five-year reports that have stated unequivocally that man-made greenhouse emissions are causing the planet to warm dangerously.

Yet last week in Geneva, at the UN's World Climate Conference -- an annual gathering of the so-called "scientific consensus" on man-made climate change -- Prof. Latif conceded the Earth has not warmed for nearly a decade and that we are likely entering "one or even two decades during which temperatures cool."

Latif said this cooling trend could last up to 20 years. But you alarmists shouldn't think we're headed for an ice age. Because Latif expects that warming trends will begin again around the year 2030.

Hmm. Warming followed by cooling followed by warming. Maybe it's cyclical.

At least there's one climate expert willing to take an objective look at the science and make appropriate concessions. I wonder if others will follow.

HT: Tim Challies

I Need a Big Gas Guzzler by Motte Brown on 05/21/2009 at 11:34 AM

My heart sank when President Obama announced new fuel economy standards for auto makers for models to be built between 2012-2016. And it wasn't because our government is forcing regulations on us to curb greenhouse gasses to "prevent' unproven man-caused global warming. It was because I have a family of eight.

Let me explain.

The new standards will force auto makers to build smaller cars. The auto makers complain that Americans do not want smaller cars and worry no one will buy them unless the government helps push gas prices above $4 a gallon. President Obama has said in the past that he wants to "help people make the adjustment" to $4 a gallon fuel prices.

$4 a gallon gas prices will mean my monthly fuel bill will go from $200 to $400 or more. That's $200 more a month that I can't put toward food, clothing, school supplies, health care, or housing. For a family of eight trying to live on one salary, it's substantial.

And what happens when my big Suburban gives out and I need another big car? Is it possible for the auto industry to make eight+ passenger vehicles that meet the new emissions standards of 35.5 mpg?

I wonder if by "help people make the adjustment" to higher fuel prices, what President Obama really means is forcing them to have smaller families.

Greener Than Thou by Motte Brown on 04/22/2009 at 6:48 PM

Just in time for Earth Day, Pew Research released the results of a study examining views on global warming among religious groups. They're not surprising really, essentially breaking along the political leanings of the groups represented in the survey ... except for black Protestants.

Here's the breakdown from Pew:

The unaffiliated (58%) are the most likely among the religious groups studied to say there is solid evidence the earth is warming because of human activity. White evangelical Protestants are the most likely to say there is no solid evidence the earth is warming (31%), and the least likely to believe that humans have contributed to heating up the planet (34%). While only 39% of black Protestants say global warming is a result of human activity, they are, however, the least likely of the religions studied to deny global warming is occurring (15%).

What you don't see in this Pew summary is the full breakdown to the question, "Is there solid evidence the earth is warming?" which includes the option "Yes, because of natural patterns." And here, I believe the black Protestants have it right ... by a large margin. 36% believe the earth is warming due to "natural patterns," a full 16 percentage points higher than any other group.

This view seems to be the most consistent with the one presented in a recent Boundless article from Jay Richards titled "Question Global Warming." In it, Jay concedes that the earth is likely warming but that it's also likely that it's due to natural causes.