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Things to Consider

One of my favorite science fiction books is Out of the Silent Planet - written by CS Lewis after a conversation with his friend, JRR Tolkien, where the two authors lamented the poor state of contemporary fiction.  Lewis is better known for his other literary works such as the Narnia series, Mere Christianity, etc.

Out of the Silent Planet explores a the idea of a cosmos with many worlds populated by sentient beings that were, like man, created by God.  On these other worlds, however, the Biblical fall never occurred as it did on Earth, which is now known throughout the cosmos as "the silent planet".  

You can get Out of the Silent Planet from Amazon.com or your favorite bookseller.

The Bethlehem Star is a compelling video by Rick Larson that discusses the historical Star of Bethlehem.

Larson notes that a typesetting error in 1544 of the writings of Jewish historian Josephus introduced an erroneous date for the death of Herod, king of Judea.  

By establishing 1 BC as the correct date for Herod's death, Larson shows the Biblical account of the birth, life and death of Jesus is not only history, but is also cosmic poetry, written at the beginning of time.

The full video is available for purchase at http://www.bethlehemstar.net

Cicero

Must I not here express my wonder that any one should exist who persuades himself that certain solid and individual bodies move by their natural force and gravitation, and that a universe so beautiful and so admirably arrayed is formed from the accidental concourse of those bodies? I do not understand why the man who supposes that to have been possible should not also think that if a great quantity of the one and twenty letters, whether in gold or any other material, were to be thrown upon the ground, it would be possible for them legibly to form the Annals of Ennius. A miracle of chance which I incline to think would be impossible even in the case of a single verse.

How, therefore, can these people assert that the world was made by the fortuitous concourse of atoms, which have no color, no quality? ... But if a concourse of atoms can make a world, why not a porch, a temple, a house, a city, which are works of less labor and difficulty?

Really, they talk such heedless nonsense on the subject of the universe as to give me at any rate the impression that they have never looked up to the marvellous ordering of the heavens...

Cicero (45 BC) - On the Nature of the Gods - Book 2, Chapter XXXVII

Paul the Apostle

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.  For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

(Romans 1:19-23 ESV)

Plato

The spangled heavens should be used as a pattern and with a view to ... higher knowledge; their beauty is like the beauty of figures or pictures excellently wrought by the hand of Daedalus, or some other great artist, which we may chance to behold; any geometrician who saw them would appreciate the exquisiteness of their workmanship, ...

...

And will not a true astronomer have the same feeling when he looks at the movements of the stars? Will he not think that heaven and the things in heaven are framed by the Creator of them in the most perfect manner?

(Socrates in Plato's The Republic, Book VII - 380 BC)

Hugh Ross

In all my conversations with those who do research on the characteristics of the universe, and in all my readings of articles or books on the subject, not one person denies the conclusion that somehow the cosmos has been crafted to make it a fit habitat for life. Astronomers by nature tend to be independent and iconoclastic. If an opportunity for disagreement exists, they will seize it. But on the issue of the fine tuning or careful crafting of the cosmos, the evidence is so compelling that I have yet to hear of any dissent.


Ross, Hugh. The Creator and the Cosmos: How the Latest Scientific Discoveries Reveal God. pp 160-161.  Reasons To Believe 2001.