Tribute to Zac Young

In among our IOPNA's let's have a tribute to my 19 year old friend, Zac Young, who tragically died yesterday (Saturday 30th) on a beach at Coffs Harbour, NSW, after being mauled by a shark while body-boarding.

I met Zac for the first and only time on Wednesday at a Youth for Christ seminar for years 9 & 10 at Westport High School, Port Macquarie. As a local YFC intern he was boldly sharing with current students that Jesus Christ had turned his life around and later he told me his story...

Not one for tears, it all came undone for Zac after a wild party when he fell to his knees in the shower and sobbed, begging God to forgive him. Realizing that only God could have done this he then dedicated the rest of his (short) life to serving our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He later gave testimony in a local church, predicting it may need a tragedy to occur for us to wake up and get real about this 'Jesus business'.

Farewell Zac. We will miss you but we know you are in safe hands and your death will not be in vain after touching so many lives in your brief Christian walk.                 
You're a hard act to follow, mate!

 

Acknowledgements: theaustralian.com.au

 

Somethin' fishy

Somethin' fishy

Back in July we took the kids stargazing:
"Camping with the grandkids"
"Brekkie 'round the campfire"
"Grandkids find a scorpion" ...plus
"Born to die"
...and saw the constellations Virgo, Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius.   

Grandad you promised to show us more stars in October but now it's November!

Not to worry. At least we won't have to wait up so late but we are going to have to get well away from any lights because the next four constellations are quite hard to see.....a bit of mystery in the sky really! Capricornus, Aquarius, Pisces and Aries…even their names sound a bit mysterious, hey!

Well the first one might have something to do with the Tropic of Capricorn that I learnt about in school, and Aquarius sounds a bit like water. I haven't got a clue about the next two.

I hope you brought our special red torch and star map along. Let's lie down here and look straight up at that brilliant star above us - Fomalhaut.

Fomalhaut??...whatever does that mean?
That's Arabic for 'mouth of the fish' - in Piscis Austrinus or ‘southern fish’.
Now look down there towards our north-western horizon and we find the star Altair in Aquila the eagle.

Huh?...I can't see any fish - or any eagle!

Nevermind. What we're looking for is an upside-down goat between them.

A goat now??

Yep, a dying goat with a fishy tail!....called Capricornus or horned goat. If you look very carefully you'll see some faint stars in pairs: 2 towards the north-west are on its horns, 2 towards the south are on its foreleg and the last 2 are on its fishy tail.

How do you know it's dying Grandad?...you used to have goats didn't you?

Healthy goats use their hind legs first to get up, not their front legs.                       
Now then, when the Sun is directly over the Tropic of Capricorn, the southern limit of the tropics, on...

...I know, the 22nd of December...just before Christmas…

...yes, the Sun used to be in front of Capricornus then - it's running about a month late these days. Now moving toward the east you can see 2 bright stars near each other, on the shoulders of Aquarius who also looks upside down to us....

...let me guess – pouring water!

...yes, out of his flask where those 3 little stars are together in a curve. The water is splashing in front of the fish where there's a sprinkling of stars just east of Fomalhaut.    

Now, can you see a faint ‘V’ of stars east of Aquarius? This has the Latin name of Pisces, because there are 2 more fish, tied by a band on the monster Cetus. His tail is marked by the star Diphda, high up in our northern sky.

This is all very fishy!  That leaves Aries - what does that mean Grandad?

Aries is Latin for 'ram' and there he is - upside down again - north-east of Pisces. The bright star is Hamal on his back and the two close together mark his eyes.

These constellations are sure hard to see and their meaning must be a bit of a mystery too….mmm…fishy-goat, water for a fish, more fish, and then a ram.  

Let’s keep that for tomorrow, hey Grandad.

NEXT:  Hope springs eternal

http://discoveryiopna.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/hope-springs-eternal.html

Image credit: Stellarium

 

 

 

#3. A GERMAN JEW??

Continuing on from: “Don’t take the Bible literally”… we thought we lived at the centre of our solar system, even the centre of the universe, until 5 European scientists came along and spoilt that by unwittingly challenging the Bible, then…

 

Just when virtually everybody had accepted the Sun being the centre of our solar system (and the notion that the Earth must be millions of years old), we’re watching the German Nazis rid the world of those ‘embarrassing’ Jews - the writers of the Bible that contradicts those ideas!                                                         

Meanwhile, a German Jew of all people – the genius Albert Einstein (1879–1955) - comes up with his profound theories of Relativity showing that all position and movement in the universe is RELATIVE - so it is not actually wrong to say our solar system is ‘geocentric’, after all!                                                        

 

(He also said: “Time is an illusion”…try that one on a parking officer!)                           

Fortunately for scientists and educators with an atheistic agenda, us lesser mortals can’t get our heads around Albert Einstein’s astrophysics, so don’t hold your breath waiting for the textbooks to be changed any time soon.                                  

Oh and by the way, guess who still use both heliocentric AND geocentric phenomena?
Astronomers of course!

-  geocentric positioning is used for observation, teaching, navigation, radio-telescopes and planetariums

-     there is no observational difference between the heliocentric and geocentric models – they both predict identical planetary movements

-     the sun is not actually centred on the geometric ‘barycentre’ of any planet’s orbit and is not centred on the centre of gravity of the solar system

…you still don’t get it??                                                              

We live in a vast environment where position and movement is RELATIVE. Here on Earth, anytime we talk about sunrise, time of day or night, sunset, planets rising and setting….we are using the Earth as our reference - not the Sun.  We are talking ‘geocentric’!   

When the astronauts stood on the Moon, that was their reference – not the Earth or the Sun, which both seemed to rise and set while orbiting the Moon. Why not check with an Apollo astronaut who’s been there? For them the Moon was the centre of the solar system (even the universe) – they were ‘lunarcentric’ - until they decided Earth was a more attractive option and headed for home.                                                   

What do you think?  Was Galileo closer to being right after all? (as usual!)…trying to have it both ways.

What about that Bible that is supposed to contradict Science?.....not so stupid after all??

Acknowledgements:                                                                            
wikipedia.org                                                                                      
scienceblogs.com                                                                                              
iskcondesiretree.net                                                                             
universetoday.com

Image credits: karmajello.com                                                          

 

 

#2. "DON'T TAKE THE BIBLE LITERALLY??"

Continuing on from the post: "GOLDILOCKS ZONE - Just right!"...Earth is definitely in the Goldilocks Zone – just right!...but is it centre-stage?

 

Let’s meet those 5 scientists from Poland, Denmark, Germany, Italy and England…...Nick, Tyco, Joe, Leo and ‘Zac’:

Nicholaus Copernicus (1473-1543), Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) and finally Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)….and whada ya know!... all Christians, telling us the Earth is not really centre-stage after all!    

Nick put the sun at the centre, Tycho half agreed, Joe did the maths, and Isaac laid down the Law (of Universal Gravitation).  

What about Galileo?  He tried to have it both ways, only to finish up under house arrest by Pope Urban VIII for 8 years - let’s come back to him later.                         
Hang on a minute…if these guys were Christians, how did they match their ‘heliocentric’ idea with their sacred book, the Bible?...

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”                         Genesis 1:1…before the sun on Day 4!  (verse 16)

“Who layeth the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.”      Psalm 104:5

 “Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool…”  Isaiah 66:1

 “It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in…”   Isaiah 40:22

Mmm…that puts Earth centre-stage with God claiming it as headquarters by either sitting on the Earth or resting his feet on it!  What about the sun?

“The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.”    Ecclesiastes 1:5

 “In them (heavens) hath he set a tabernacle for the sun…his going forth is from the end of heaven, and his circuits unto the ends of it…” Psalm 19

“And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies….so the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.”            Joshua 10:13

…and don’t forget 2 Kings 20 & Isaiah 38 where the shadow of the sun on the dial of Ahaz went BACK 10 degrees!                                                   

So according to the Bible, the sun is going around a circuit when it’s not stopped or going backwards!   
"Hohoho!…how are you Christians going to explain that one, hey??"                            

“Oh that’s just how it appeared in those days.”    
“You can’t read the Bible literally…they’re just figures of speech.”        

Well is that just a cop-out or what? 
Here’s the problem:                                                            
It looks like Science proved centuries ago that the Bible can’t be relied on when it comes to anything scientific - thanks to Christians even!                                  
So can the Bible be relied on at all??

NEXT:  A German Jew??

http://discoveryiopna.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/a-german-jew.html

 

 

Image credit: heavenlyfragrance.blogspot.com