[continued from previous message]   
      
   to the very distinct conclusion that the universe is not an accident.   
   The "Big Bang" was not a cosmological firecracker. As the physicist   
   Freeman Dyson put it, the universe seemed to be acting in anticipation   
   for the appearance of mankind.   
      
   So it is on the basis of logic that we can understand that we live in   
   a universe made by a personal God.  It's logic from start to finish.   
      
   When it comes to God, many scientists lean toward assumptions which   
   are philosophically comfortable to them. For example, in the "Big   
   Bang" universe there is an unverifiable assumption called the   
   principle of homogeneity, which asserts that on a large scale there is   
   "no preferred center"—each point is equivalent in every sense to every   
   other point. This, then, is a drastic departure from the cozy   
   framework early cosmologists had worked with in their geocentric   
   universe models.   
      
   Let me explain: If we go back to the 1500s, before the impact of the   
   work of Copernicus, the worldview of the universe was a geocentric   
   one. The earth was the center and the sun went around the earth as did   
   all the stars, and to many it was a very reassuring ideal to adopt. In   
   1543 Copernicus' De Revolutionibus was published and we perceived   
   ourselves to be living in a heliocentric world, (although Ptolemy's   
   earth-centered system was still taught at Harvard University in the   
   first years after its founding in 1636). Mankind was dethroned from   
   his central position in the universe.   
      
   Many astronomers have gone to extremes by saying we are simply a   
   "zero" in this large cosmos. After all, there are 100,000 million   
   stars in our Milky Way galaxy. That can make us feel very lonely and   
   unimportant in the light of all the immensity. Yet a simple study   
   shows the opposite is true.   
      
   The universe has not always existed. It had a definite beginning. Our   
   early universe expanded at just the critical rate to avoid recollapse.   
   Galaxies and stars then formed, but one must realize that half the   
   stars in the night sky are members of binary or multiple star systems   
   and are therefore unable to support life. (No stable planetary orbits   
   could exist around such star systems.) Of the remaining half there are   
   about 30 parameters which must be met in order for them to support   
   life. With billions and billions of stars, it is improbable that all   
   the conditions which must be met for the existence of life exist   
   elsewhere.   
      
   I would not be surprised if we were the only intelligent life species   
   in the entire universe. In fact, leading evolutionists, such as   
   Dobzhansky and others have agreed that there has not been enough time   
   for mankind to have assembled spontaneously within the time span of   
   our universe.   
      
   We've astronomical evidence that demands a verdict. And I've examined   
   this evidence, not from an emotional point of view, but from a logical   
   point of view. We've got historical evidence that Jesus, the Jew,   
   lived and died and rose again from the dead. When Albert Einstein was   
   asked by a reporter if he accepted the historical existence of Jesus,   
   he responded, "Unquestionably! No one can read the Gospels without   
   feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in   
   every word. No myth is filled with such life. I am enthralled by the   
   luminous figure of the Nazarene."   
      
   To the person who is seriously seeking today I would say, read the   
   gospels from an objective point of view, as Albert Einstein did. As   
   Isaac Newton did. Don't let your emotions override or cloud your   
   decision.   
      
   Seek after truth and don't let anyone make up your mind for you.   It   
   is far too important.   It does matter what you believe.   
      
      
   Dr. David Block is Professor of Applied Mathematics and Astronomy at   
   the multiracial University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. He   
   has a Bachelor of Science degree in applied mathematics and computer   
   science, a Bachelor of Science Honors degree in applied mathematics, a   
   Master of Science degree in relativistic astrophysics and a Doctor of   
   Philosophy degree in astronomy dealing with "The Morphology of Spiral   
   Galaxies." He has been a visiting astronomer at the European Southern   
   Observatory near Munich, West Germany and at the Institute of   
   Astronomy, University of Hawaii. He resides in Johannesburg with his   
   wife, Liz, who is also a Jewish believer in Jesus.   
      
   (c) 2000 Jews for Jesus   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)