Chapter 14 creation september 5 2014

Chapter 14 - The Creation P a g e |

Chapter 14 - The CreationPlain and Precious Truth

Earth is an orbiting classroom. Everything seems designed to teach, enlighten, test and inspire mankind...(see Moses 6:63).

“From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of particular interest. Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

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The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena “Do you take time to discover each day how beautiful your life can be? How long has it been since you watched the sun set? The departing rays kissing the clouds, trees, hills, and lowlands good night, sometimes tranquilly, sometimes with exuberant bursts of color and form. What of the wonder of a cloudless night when the Lord unveils the marvels of His heavens–the

twinkling stars, the moonlight rays–to ignite our imagination with His greatness and glory? How captivating to watch a seed planted in fertile soil germinate, gather strength, and send forth a tiny, seemingly insignificant sprout. Patiently it begins to grow and develop its own character led by the genetic code the Lord has provided to guide its development.

With care it surely will become what it is destined to be: a lily, crowned with grace and beauty; a fragrant spearmint plant; a peach; an avocado; or a beautiful blossom with unique delicacy, hue, and fragrance. When last did you observe a tiny rosebud form? Each day it develops new and impressive character, more promise of beauty until it comes a majestic rose. You are one of the noblest of God’s creations. His intent is that your life be gloriously beautiful regardless of your circumstances. As you are grateful and obedient, you can become all that God intends you to be. (Richard G. Scott, Ensign, May 1996).

Under the direction of Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ created the heavens and the earth. By his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. (Genesis 1; 2 Hebrews 1:1-2; Richard G. Scott – You are Gods Noblest Creation)

Teachings of Jesus and the Apostles: The Creation

(Gen. 1:26;Gen. 2:5; Gen. 2:7; Gen. 2:22; Ex. 31:17; Job 38:4; Ps. 51:10; Ps. 102:25; Isa. 48:13 ; Isa. 51:13 ; Zech. 12:1; Ps. 136:6; Ps. 148:5; Eccl. 11:5; Isa. 40:28; Isa. 42:5; Isa. 43:15; Isa. 64:8; Jer. 31:22; John 1:3; John 1:10 ; Acts 17:24; 1 Cor. 11:9; Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2; Heb. 11:3; 2 Pet. 3:5; Rev. 3:14; Rev. 4:11).

Early Christian Writings: The Creation

The earliest Jewish and Christian commentaries on the Creation assumed that God had organized the world out of preexisting materials, emphasizing the goodness of God in shaping such a life-sustaining order. This is much like the Teleological argument for intelligent design. (The First Apology of Justin, in Roberts and Donaldson, Ante-Nicene Fathers, 1:165; see also Frances Young, “‘Creatio Ex Nihilo’: A Context for the Emergence of the Christian Doctrine of Creation,” Scottish Journal of Theology 44, no. 1 [1991]:

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139–51; Markus Bockmuehl, “Creation Ex Nihilo in Palestinian Judaism and Early Christianity,” Scottish Journal of Theology 66, no. 3 [2012]: 253–70).

But the encroachment of new philosophical ideas in the second century led to the development of a doctrine that God created the universe ex nihilo—“out of nothing.” This ultimately became the dominant teaching about the Creation within the Christian world.

(See Gerhard May, Creatio Ex Nihilo: The Doctrine of ‘Creation out of Nothing’ in Early Christian Thought (2004).

In order to emphasize God’s power, many theologians reasoned that nothing could have existed for as long as He had. It became important in Christian circles to assert that God had originally been completely alone. (See Terryl L. Givens, When Souls Had Wings: Pre-Mortal Existence in Western Thought (2010).

The belief in ex nihilo creation was not held by the first Christians or Plato. In contending for the existence of God, theists often employed the teleological argument. “Teleology” has reference to purpose or design. Thus, this approach suggests that where there is purposeful design, there must be a designer.

Plato's Timaeus (427 – 347 BC) – Philosophical Belief in A Divine Purposeful Creator and Creation

In the Timaeus Plato presents an elaborately wrought account of the formation of the universe. Plato is deeply impressed with the order and beauty he observes in the universe, and his project in the dialogue is to explain that order and beauty. The universe, he proposes, is the product of rational, purposive, and beneficent agency. It is the handiwork of a divine Craftsman (“Demiurge,” dêmiourgos, 28a6), who, imitating an unchanging and eternal model, imposes mathematical order on a preexistent chaos to generate the ordered universe (kosmos). The governing explanatory principle of the account is teleological: the universe as a whole as well as its various parts are so arranged as to produce a vast array of good effects. It strikes Plato strongly that this arrangement is not fortuitous, but the outcome of the deliberate intent of Intellect (nous), anthropomorphically represented by the figure of the Craftsman who plans and constructs a world that is as excellent as its nature permits it to be. (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; First published Tue Oct 25, 2005; substantive revision Wed Mar 13, 2013)

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Justin Martyr (110—165 AD) – Creation out of Unformed Matter

“We have been taught that He in the beginning did of His goodness, for man’s sake, create all things out of unformed matter” (The First Apology of Justin, in Roberts and Donaldson,

Ante-Nicene Fathers, 1:165; see also Frances Young, “‘Creatio Ex Nihilo’: A Context for the Emergence of the Christian Doctrine of Creation,” Scottish Journal of Theology 44, no. 1 [1991]: 139–51; Markus Bockmuehl, “Creation Ex Nihilo in Palestinian Judaism and Early Christianity,” Scottish Journal of Theology 66, no. 3 [2012]: 253–70; see also Gerhard May, Creatio Ex Nihilo: The Doctrine of ‘Creation out of Nothing’ in Early Christian Thought (2004).

Greek philosophical ideas intruded on Christian doctrine.

Justin Martyr – Earth made out of Substance according to Preexistent Form

“By the word of God the whole world was made out of the substance spoken of before by Moses.” (First Apology of Justin," in Chapter 59 Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Philip Schaff Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886)1:182

[the earth,] “which God made according to the pre-existent form.” Hortatory to the Greeks," in Chapter 30 Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Philip Schaff (Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886)1:286.

“And His Son, who alone is properly called Son, the Word who also was with Him and was begotten before the works, when at first He created and arranged all things by Him, is called Christ, in reference to His being anointed and God's ordering all thing; through Him...”( First Apology of Justin," in Chapter 10 Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Philip Schaff; Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886)1:165.

Justin Martyr said, “We have been taught that He in the beginning did of His goodness, for man’s sake, create all things out of unformed matter” (italics added, The First Apology of Justin, in Roberts and Donaldson, Ante-Nicene Fathers, 1:165; see also Frances Young, “‘Creatio Ex Nihilo’: A Context for the Emergence of the Christian Doctrine of Creation,” Scottish Journal of Theology 44, no. 1 [1991]: 139–51; Markus Bockmuehl, “Creation Ex Nihilo in Palestinian Judaism and Early Christianity,” Scottish Journal of Theology 66, no. 3 [2012]: 253–70).

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Clement – Made out of a shapeless mass of Matter (Matter Unorganized)

"Hymn to the Paedagogus":

Out of a confused heap who didst create This ordered sphere, and from the

shapeless mass Of matter didst the universe adorn. Clement, "Hymn to the Paedagogus," Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Philip Schaff (Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886)2:296.

Paul the Apostle (5-67 AD)

Argues in Romans 1:18-20, that because it has been made plain to all from what has been created in the world, it is obvious that there is a God.

Marcus Minucius Felix (late 2nd to 3rd century AD)

"Supposing you went into a house and found everything neat, orderly and well-kept, surely you would assume it had a master, and one much better than the good things, his belongings; so in this house of the universe, when throughout heaven and earth you see the marks of foresight, order and law, may you not assume that the lord and author of the universe is fairer than the stars themselves or than any portions of the entire world?" (Marcus Minucius Felix (2010). The Octavius of Minucius Felix. OrthodoxEbook. pp. 359–361)

Augustine of Hippo (354–430 AD)

"well-ordered changes and movements", and "the fair appearance of all visible things" was evidence for the world being created, and "that it could not have been created save by God". Augustine of Hippo, City of God, Book XI, Chapter 4

1 Clement –Substrate is an Everlasting Fabric

"Thou . . . didst make manifest the everlasting fabric of the world. Thou, Lord, didst create the earth." 1 Clement 60, in J. B. Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers, ed. J. R. Harmer (1891; repr., Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book, 1956), 1:176.

Lightfoot translates this text as: "Thou through Thine operations didst make manifest the everlasting fabric of the world" (1:303).

The terms used here by Clement are significant. He asserts that God did "make manifest" (ἐϕανεροποίησας) the "everlasting fabric of the world" (Σὺ τὴν ἀέναον του κόσμου σύστασιν). He is referring to an eternal substrate that underlies God's creative activity. Clement is important because he is at the very center of the Christian church as it was then developing. His view assumed that God had created from an eternally existing substrate, creating by "making manifest" what already existed in some form. The lack of argumentation or further

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elucidation indicates that Clement was not attempting to establish a philosophical position; he was merely maintaining a generally accepted one.

However, the fact that such a view was assumed is even more significant than if Clement had argued for it. If he had presented an argument for this view, then we could assume that it was either a contested doctrine or a new view. But because he

acknowledged it as obvious, it appears to have been a generally accepted belief in the early Christian church. Blake T. Ostler, "Out of Nothing: A History of Creation ex Nihilo in Early Christian Thought (review of Review of Paul Copan and William Lane Craig, "Craftsman or Creator? An Examination of the Mormon Doctrine of Creation and a Defense of Creatio ex nihilo," in The New Mormon Challenge: Responding to the Latest Defenses of a Fast-Growing Movement, edited by Beckwith, Mosser, and Owen)," FARMS Review 17/2 (2005): 253–320. See Oscar de Gebhardt and Adolphus Harnack, Patrium Apostolicorum Opera: Clementis Romani (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1876), 1:100.

Matthew Roper- Job describes Adam as brought forth or Born

In contrast to the Genesis account of the creation, the first man in Job is described in the text as having been born or brought forth rather than “created” (Genesis 1:27; Proverbs 8:23, 25 ) or “formed”(Gen 2:7; Job 15:7), ). In a recent study of the first man mythology in the Book of Job Dexter Callender notes, “In these words of Eliphaz, we learn that the first human was thought to have been born before the hills. The verbal root here is hwl which means `to dance or writhe’. It is used in connection with birth imagery, denoting writhing in travail; and hence can render the meaning `to bear or bring forth.’” The meaning of the verb is clear in the parallelism here with yld as in Isaiah 51:2. In other words, “The first human is described as having come into existence through natural means, that is through birth.” This usage points to an event which precedes the formation of man from the dust of the earth in Genesis 2:7. (Dexter E. Callender, Adam in Myth and History: Ancient Israelite Perspectives on the Primal Human (Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 2000), 141.Best of FAIR 6: Adam in Ancient Texts and the Restoration).

Pre Existence of Adam and the Role of Gods Council in the Creation - Howard Schwartz’s “Tree of Souls: the mythology of Judaism”

Many traditions predated the revelations received by Joseph Smith, that attest to the ancient belief of the pre-existence of the soul and righteous spirits counseling and participating with God in the Creation. The souls of the righteous existed long before the creation of the world. God consulted these souls in creating the universe, as it is said, they dwelt there in the king’s service (I Chron. 4:23). God called upon the souls of the righteous, who sat on the council with the Supreme King of Kings, to come together. He then took counsel with them before Hebrought the world into being, saying, “Let us make man” (Gen. 1:26). So too did they helpHim with His work. Some assisted in planting and some helped create the borders of the

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sea, as it is said, Who set the sand as a boundary to the sea (Jer. 5:22). Nor does God make anyimportant decision without consulting the Council of Souls. So too did God take counselwith the souls of the righteous. He asked them if they were willing to be created. Andthat is how the souls of the righteous, including the souls of Abraham and the otherpatriarchs, came into being.(see also Abraham 3:22-24)

While there are traditions that God took council with the angels or a divine partner such as Adam in creating the world, here the phrase, “Let us make man” from Genesis 1:26 is said to refer to a Council of Souls (nefashot shel Tzaddikim), with whom God consulted before creating the world. These souls of the righteous are said to have existed before the creation of the world...

Further, they not only give their consent for the creation of the world, but they participate in it, assisting God in planting and creating the boundaries of the sea. Rabbi LeviYitzhak of Berditchev interprets God’s consulting with the souls of the righteous tomean that He asked them if they were willing to be created. Evidence of a divine council can be found in several biblical passages, such as Psalms 82:1, which states that God stands in the divine assembly; among the divine beings He pronounces judgment. Here the term for the divine assembly is “adat el.”

In Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic, Frank Moore Cross describes this council as the Israelite counterpart of the Council of El found in Canaanite mythology, referring to El, the primary Canaanite god. It would thus seem that this obscure Jewish tradition is directly drawnfrom the Canaanite. Psalm 82 adds a strange twist to this myth: God appears to condemnthe gods of the Council of Gods to death: “I had taken you for divine beings, sons ofthe Most High, all of you; but you shall die as men do, fall like any prince” (Ps. 82:6). Thismight be interpreted to mean that monotheism declares the death of polytheism. Jeremiah 23:18 also describes a divine council: But he who has stood in the council of Yahweh, and seen, and heard His word—He who has listened to His word must obey.. By pre-existing, these soulsbecome identified as primordial gods, such as are found in other Near Eastern mythologies.By calling them together as a council, God implicitly recognizes their power.It must be assumed that the council of souls gave its approval for the creation of theuniverse, since God proceeded with it after that.

Another possible explanation would be to identify “the souls of the righteous” inthis midrash with the angels. In other sources, God is said to have consulted with theangels before creating man, and there are traditions and countertraditions of the notionthat the angels somehow participated in the creation of the world itself. (See “Creationby Angels,” p. 116; see also Genesis Rabbah 8: 7; Maggid Devarav le-Ya’akov 1; No’am Elimelekh, Bo 36b. Studies: Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic by Frank Moore Cross, pp. 36-43, 186-190. “The Council of Yahweh in Second Isaiah” by Frank Moore Cross. “The Council of Yahweh” by H. Wheeler Robinson. “God and the Gods in Assembly” by Matitiahu Tsevat.

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Assembly of the Gods: The Divine Council in Canaanite and Early Hebrew Literature by E. Theodore Mullen).

Loss of Plain and Precious Truth: The Creation

The concept of creation ex nihilo began to be adumbrated (foreshadowed) in Christian circles shortly before Galen's time (130—200 AD). The first Christian thinker to articulate the rudiments of a doctrine of creation ex nihilo was the Gnostic theologian Basilides, who flourished in the second quarter of the second century. Basilides worked out an elaborate cosmogony (theory concerning the coming into existence (or origin) of either the cosmos (or universe)) as he sought to think through the implications of Christian teaching in light of the platonic cosmogony.

Basilides

He rejected the analogy of the human maker, the craftsman who carves a piece of wood, as an anthropomorphism that severely limited the power of God. God, unlike mortals, created the world out of ‘non-existing’ matter. He first brought matter into being through the creation of ‘seeds’, and it is this created stuff that is fashioned, according to His will, into the cosmos. (Edwin Hatch, The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church, 195–196).

Thus, the doctrine of creation ex nihilo was first advanced by a Gnostic (a heretical branch of Christianity), and did not appear until more than a century after the birth of Christ.

Literary and Scientific Commentary on the Creation

Screwtape suggests to Wormwood that he must at all costs keep his “patient’s” attention fixed on immediate sensory experience and not on abstract matters of reasoning or philosophy:

Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church. Don’t waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true! Make him think it is strong, or stark, or courageous — that it is the philosophy of the future. That’s the sort of thing he cares about. The trouble about argument is that it moves the whole struggle onto the Enemy’s own ground. By the very act of arguing, you awake the patient’s reason; and once it is awake, who can foresee the result?

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Above all, do not attempt to use science (I mean, the real sciences) as a defence against Christianity. They will positively encourage him to think about realities he can’t touch and see. There have been sad cases among the modern physicists. If he must dabble in science, keep him on economics and sociology…

Read more: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/essays/the-screwtape-letters/#ixzz3CTHgjECC

Darwin – If I had to live my life Again…

“I have said that in one respect my mind has changed during the last twenty or thirty years. Up to the age of thirty, or beyond it, poetry of many kinds, such as the works of Milton, Gray, Byron, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Shelley, gave me great pleasure, and even as a schoolboy I took intense delight in Shakespeare, especially in the historical plays. I have also said that formerly pictures gave me considerable, and music very great delight.

But now for many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry: I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me. I have also almost lost any taste for pictures or music.-Music generally set me thinking too energetically on what I have been at work on, instead of giving me pleasure. I retain some taste for fine scenery, but it does not cause me the exquisite delight which it formerly did.

This curious and lamentable loss of the higher aesthetic tastes is all the odder, as books on history, biographies and travels (independently of any scientific facts which they may contain), and essays on all sorts of subjects interest me as much as ever they did. My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts, but why this should have caused the atrophy of that part of the brain alone, on which the higher tastes, depend, I cannot conceive. A man with a mind more highly organized or better constituted than mine, would not I suppose have thus suffered; and

…if I had to live my life again I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week; for perhaps the parts of my brain now atrophied could thus have been kept active through use. The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral

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character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature”. (Improvement Era 1935)

Hugh Nibley

"The tone of science at Cambridge in 1932 was the tone of Rutherford. [They had discovered the planetary structure of the atom.] Magniloquently boastful, creatively confident, generous, argumentative, and full of hope. [What more could he ask?] . . . He enjoyed a life of miraculous success." "But I am sure that even late in life he felt stabs of sickening insecurity."

The author goes on to talk about the other giants at Cambridge: "Does anyone really imagine that Bertrand Russell, G. H. Hardy, Rutherford, Blackett and the rest were bemused by cheerfulness as they faced their own individual state? In the crowd, they were leaders; they were worshipped. But by themselves they believed with the same certainty that they believed in Rutherford's atom that they were going after this life into annihilation. Against this, they only had to offer the nature of scientific activity; its complete success on its own terms. It itself was a source of happiness. But it is whistling in the dark when they are alone." C. P. Snow, Chronicles of Cambridge University, cited in Hugh W. Nibley, "Science Fiction and the Gospel," Latter-day Science Fiction, ed. Benjamin Urrutia (Ludlow, MA: Parables, 1985)

Carl Sagan

“The Miller-Urey experiment is now recognized as the single most significant step in convincing any scientists that life is likely to be abundant in the cosmos.” (Carl Sagan, quoted in Shapiro’s Origins-A Skeptics Guide to the Creation of Life on Earth, 1986, p.99)

Dammon

“Stanley Miller cooked up many of the molecules necessary to life. Because the conditions inside his apparatus imitated conditions on early Earth, his experiment supports the hypothesis that life could have originated in the early seas under lightening filled skies.” (Discovering Biology, Cain, Dammon, et al. New York: Norton, 2007, 8.)

In the past forty years, Miller’s experiment has been replicated many times, using electrical sparks, heat, ultraviolet radiation, shock waves, high energy chemical catalysts, all under tightly tuned controls. And indeed, almost all of the twenty naturally occurring types of amino acids have been detected in origin-of-life experiments.

But in every case, the results were much the same as Miller: glycine and alanine. When occasional other amino acids have occured, they have been in highly insignificant trace amounts. Remember that these rather pitiful results have come as a result of experiments

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designed to optimize the production of the building blocks. Everything has been arranged perfectly!

Michael Behe

“As an analogy, suppose a famous chef said that random natural processes could produce a chocolate cake. In his efforts to prove it, we would not begrudge him taking whole plants—including wheat, cacao, and sugar cane—and placing them near a hot spring, in the hope that the heated water would extract the right materials and cook them. “But we would become a little wary if the chef bought refined flour, cocoa, and sugar at the store, saying he didn’t have time to wait for the hot water to extract the components from the plants. We would shake our heads if he then switched his experiment from a hot spring to an electric oven, to ‘speed things up.’ And we would walk away if he then measured the amounts of the components carefully, mixed them in a bowl, placed them in a pan, and baked them in his oven. The results would have nothing to do with his original idea that natural processes could produce a cake.” (Michael Behe Professor of Biochemistry at Lehigh University)

Robert Shapiro

“The very best Miller-Urey chemistry, as we have seen, does not take us very far along the path to a living organism. A mixture of simple chemicals, even one enriched in a few amino acids, no more resembles a bacterium than a small pile of real and nonsense words, each written on an individual scrap of paper, resembles the complete works of Shakespeare.” (Dr. Robert Shapiro chemistry prof. New York Univ. Not by Chance!, 116)

Dose

“More than 30 years of experimentation have led to a better perception of the immensity of the problem of the origin of life on Earth rather than to its solution. At present all discussions on principal theories and experiments in the field either end in stalemates or in a confession of ignorance” (Dose, K., "The Origin of Life: More Questions Than Answers," Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, Vol. 13, No. 4, 1988, p.348).

Paul Davies

Theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and astrobiologist. Currently professor at Arizona State.

"When I set out to write this book I was convinced that science was close to wrapping up the mystery of life's origin.... but we are a very long way from comprehending how [it

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happened]. This gulf in understanding is not merely ignorance about certain technical details, it is a major conceptual lacuna. I am not suggesting that life's origin was a supernatural event, only that we are missing something very fundamental about the whole business. ...something truly amazing is happening in the universe, something with profound philosophical ramifications. My personal belief, for what it is worth, is that a fully

satisfactory theory of the origin of life demands some radically new ideas" (The Fifth Miracle: The Search for the Origin of Life, Penguin: Ringwood NSW, Australia, 1998, pp.xvi-xvii)

Francis Crick - Nobel Prize winning co-discoverer of the double helix shape of DNA

“An honest man, armed with all the knowledge available to us now, could only state that in sum, the origin of life appears at the moment to be almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to have been satisfied to get it along.” (Life Itself, Its Origin and Nature, Futura: London, 1982.)

George Wald - Nobel Prize winning Harvard biochemist

“One has only to contemplate the magnitude of this task to concede that the spontaneous generation of a living organism is impossible. Yet we are here - as a result, I believe, of spontaneous generation.” “When it comes to the origin of life there are only two possibilities: creation or spontaneous generation. There is no third way. Spontaneous generation was disproved 100 years ago, but that leads us to only one other conclusion, that of supernatural creation. We cannot accept that on philosophical grounds; therefore we choose to believe the impossible: That life arose spontaneously by chance!” (“The Origin of Life,” Scientific American 191:48).

Chris Williams

“Few people outside of genetics or biochemistry realize that evolutionists still can provide no substantive details at all about the origin of life, and particularly the origin of genetic information in the first self-replicating organism. How did huge information-rich molecules arise before natural selection? Exactly how did the genetic code linking nucleic acids to amino acid sequence originate? Clearly the origin of life – the foundation of evolution - is still virtually all speculation, and little if no fact” (Chris Williams, Ph.D., Biochemistry, Ohio State)

Nikola Tesla

“The gift of mental power comes from God, Divine Being, and if we concentrate our minds on that truth, we become in tune with this great power. My Mother had taught me to seek all truth in the Bible.”

Nikola Tesla

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Invented the means to transfer and to distribute electricity over long distances, once said, “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.”

String Theory-

The Elegant Universe NOVA - Transcript

According to string theory, absolutely everything in the universe—all of the particles that make up matter and forces—is comprised of tiny vibrating fundamental strings. Moreover, every one of these strings is identical. The only difference

between one string and another, whether it's a heavy particle that is part of an atom or a massless particle that carries light, is its resonant pattern, or how it vibrates.

All objects, not just fundamental strings, have resonant patterns associated with them. Pluck the string of a violin and you

hear mainly one tone. This is the string's fundamental resonant pattern, or frequency. And the instrument's resonance doesn't stop there. The body of the violin has resonant frequencies, which work to amplify the sound created by the vibrating string. There's resonance in objects that aren't musical, too. Your desk has resonant frequencies, and so does a flagpole, and so does the Earth. (Aired 7/11, 7/18, and 7/25, 2012 on PBS)

One of the crowning achievements of 20th century science is that all the laws of physics, at a fundamental level, can be summarized by just two formalisms: (1) Einstein’s theory of gravity, which gives us a cosmic description of the very large, i.e. galaxies, black holes and the Big Bang, and (2) the quantum theory, which gives us a microscopic description of the very small, i.e. the microcosm of sub-atomic particles and radiation.

But the supreme irony, and surely one of Nature’s cosmic jokes, is that they look bewilderingly different; even the world’s greatest physicists, including Einstein and Heisenberg, have failed to unify these into one. The two theories use different mathematics and different physical principles to describe the universe in their respective domains, the cosmic and the microscopic. Fortunately, we now have a candidate for this theory. (In fact, it is the only candidate. Scores of

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rival proposals have all been shown to be inconsistent.) It’s called “superstring theory,” and almost effortlessly unites gravity with a theory of radiation, which is required to solve the problem of quantum wormholes. The superstring theory can explain the mysterious quantum laws of sub-atomic physics by postulating that sub-atomic particles are really just resonances or vibrations of a tiny string. The vibrations of a violin string correspond to

musical notes; likewise the vibrations of a superstring correspond to the particles found in nature. The universe is then a symphony of vibrating strings. An added bonus is that, as a string moves in time, it warps the fabric of space around it, producing black holes, wormholes, and other exotic solutions of Einstein’s equations. Thus, in one stroke, the superstring theory unites both the theory of Einstein and quantum physics into one coherent, compelling picture.

Pure Energy

Scientific experiments in Quantum Physics and particularly those at the European Organization for Nuclear Research — CERN — at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland, continue to demonstrate that once we break everything down to its core, pure energy is behind everything. When we go down to the sub-atomic level we do not find matter, but pure energy. Some call this the unified field or the matrix. Others talk about pure potentiality: all being energy.

Vibrating Field

This pure energy vibrates a field around it. A vibrating field of energy, which attracts — like a magnet — and attaches to energy of the same vibrating frequency. The more vibrating energy that is compressed into this field of energy, the more intense the vibration gets within that field. Eventually the energy field manifests into matter: particle-by-particle. As the father of Quantum Physics, Max Planck, once said, “All the physical matters are composed of vibration.”

Illusion

A table may look solid and still, but within the table are billions and billions of subatomic particles “running around” and “popping” with energy. The table is pure energy and movement. Everything in this universe has its own vibrational frequency. It is the law of vibration in action. However we can’t see it so it appears separate and solid to us. This is actually an illusion! Our frequency of perception of electro-magnetic waves defines what we can and cannot see within the visible spectrum of light. However, at a different frequency, like X-rays, the entire solid object would appear to be completely like a sieve.

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Unified Field

Every object in the Universe moves and vibrates — everything is vibrating at one speed or another. Nothing rests. Everything we see around ourselves is vibrating at one frequency or another and so are we. However, our frequency is different from other entities in the universe, hence it seems like we are separated from what we see around ourselves — people, animals, plants, trees and so on. But we are not separated — we are in fact all living in a continuous ocean of energy. We are all connected at the highest level: the unified field.

Frequency Control

At the very leading edge of biophysics today, scientists are recognizing that the molecules in our bodies are actually controlled by these frequencies. In 1974, Dr Colin W F McClare, an Oxford University Bio-Physicist, discovered that frequencies of vibrating energy are roughly one-hundred times more efficient in relaying information within a biological system than physical signals, such as hormones, neurotransmitters, other growth factors and chemicals.

Vibration as Sound and Light

What’s most interesting is that, if a frequency is vibrating fast enough, it’s emitted as a Sound and if it is vibrating much faster, it is emitted as a colour of Light. If we wanted to convert Sound to Light, we would simply raise its frequency by forty octaves. This results in a vibration in the trillions of cycles per second. So, if a pianist could press a key way above the eighty-eight keys that exist on a piano, that key would produce Light. This could create a chord of Light in the same way they can create a chord of sound. And it would be seen as colours of Light because it would be moving at the speed of Light.

Resonance

When two frequencies are brought together, the lower will always rise to meet the higher. This is the principle of resonance. So, when a piano is tuned, a tuning fork is struck, and then brought close to the piano string that carries that same musical tone. The string then raises its

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vibration automatically and attunes itself to the same rate at which the fork is vibrating. This principle of resonance works for biological systems too. (DK Matai, Chairman: mi2g, ATCA 5000, The Philanthropia)

Musical Vibrations- Ballam

Simply defined, music is sound that has been organized, Ballam said.

"Sound is vibration. Vibration is movement. Movement requires energy and energy is the source of life," he said. "Music is life."

Thousands of years ago, Greek philosophers hypothesized that music held the heavens and earth together.

"Plato and Aristotle described the fact that the universe itself is held in order by music. Now that was a pretty statement to have said thousands of years ago. The interesting thing is that they're right," he said.

Researchers in the 1950s were able to calibrate the vibrations -- or music -- of the earth and the planets in our solar system, he said, and their findings show that some planets' vibrations were octaves apart.

"The universe is held by vibration in its order. Someone must have put it there," he said. "Someone who understands music because it comes from him."

Isaiah taught that the whole creation, including rocks, will sing at Christ's second coming, which isn't hard for Ballam to believe as research indicates that they already are.

Music has profound spiritual implications, he said, which reach farther than many realize. Christ's birth was attended by singing angels, and his Second Coming will be accompanied in a similar fashion. Jesus and his apostles also sang together in an upper room before the Last Supper. These songs aren't just to provide some sort of rest hymn, he said, but because music itself has power to invite the spirit. The music of Handel and Bach, for instance, was clearly composed with the light of Christ, he said, and invites all who listen to it to do good.

Ballam's address was filmed and will be broadcast on BYUTV the week of Sept. 20-24.

It is the same power that created our earth and the whole universe" ... I came across some info on http://www.ufoc.org/ that Michael Ballam

Music is a fundamental part of worship, and was even more so anciently than it is today. Before the printed word made the sacred word so accessible to the masses, it was passed on from generation to generation orally. But this was not just the spoken word. In order for the word to be remembered and said the same way over and over again, over decades and centuries, a mnemonic device was employed to facilitate the reciter. This device was music. The sacred word, every word, was put to music.

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This can be seen in the way the Bible is written in Hebrew, one of the oldest languages in the world. In Hebrew, particularly the Hebrew Bible, there are cantillation marks that specify how the text should be sung: Cantillation is the ritual chanting of readings from the Hebrew Bible in synagogue services.

Dan McCollam - The Physics of Heaven

Physicists claim that the universe is in a constant state of vibratory motion. String theory claims that there are tiny vibrating strands of energy at the center of all matter. Genesis and the leading authority on creation research tell us that the Holy Spirit vibrated over nuclear matter to energize it, giving it the ability to be shaped and formed. Colossians tells us that God created all visible and invisible things and that, “…By Him all things consist.” Are you seeing the picture? All created things vibrate and the Creator initiated this vibration in the Genesis account of creation.

Let’s add another piece to our sound puzzle. Dr. John Beaulieu is a psychologist, musician, and practitioner of naturopathic medicine who has proposed an interesting application of quantum field theory. Quantum field theory, as Dr. Beaulieu applies it, suggests that the quantum field in a scientific experiment is more significant than its manifestation. Simply put, the cause is greater than the effect it produces.

If one were to apply this principle to vibration and creation you might say that created matter is only the response to a greater field, in this case a vibration. Beaulieu proposes that trees, plants, rocks, and people are perhaps music that has taken on visible form. Assuming the application of this theory has merit, one would be led to ask, “Where then is the voice or music coming from that shapes creation?”

C. S. Lewis must have imagined a similar concept in his acclaimed children’s fiction, The Magician’s Nephew, from the Chronicles of Narnia series. Here, Lewis pictures the great lion Aslan singing Narnia into existence. Polly and Digory are two young children who watch in amazement as everything the lion sings takes on the shape, character, and color of his song. Now it’s quite obvious that C.S. Lewis was writing children’s fiction, not establishing quantum theory or systematic theology, but Beaulieu’s principle and Lewis’s fiction could easily make one wonder if all that we see and enjoy in creation is simply a visible form of the “Lion’s song.”

Not only does it appear that there is certainly a vibration at the center of all creation, but that same vibrating strand may be what holds the universe together.

We know from the Genesis account that God spoke creation into existence, but according to the book of Hebrews, his powerful word is still what is holding the universe together. “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.” (Hebrews 1:3)

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I believe that the string or vibration at the center of all matter in the universe is in fact the sound wave from the word God spoke over each created thing at its entry into existence. His voice, that God vibration, is the glue holding all creation together. Colossians 1:17 states, “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

The words that God speaks live forever and supersede our material reality. “Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will never pass away.” (Luke 21:33) Like the quantum field theory we examined earlier, we see that God’s words shape physical matter but the words themselves are a greater reality than what they create because they “never pass away.”

Johannes Brahms –Creation of Music through inspired vibrations

When asked where his inspiration came from, Johannes Brahms said, "I immediately feel vibrations that thrills my whole being. These are the Spirit illuminating the soul power within, and in this exalted state, I see clearly what is obscure in my ordinary moods: Then I feel capable of drawing inspiration from above, as Beethoven ... Straighway the ideas flow in upon me, directly from God, and not only do I see distinct themes in my mind's eye but they are clothed in the right forms, harmonies, and orchestration. Measure by measure, the finished product is revealed to me when I am in those rare, inspired moods." "The powers from which all truly great composers like Mozart, Schubert, Bach and Beethoven drew their inspiration is the same power that enabled Jesus to work his miracles. It is the same power that created our earth and the whole universe" ("Talks with Great Composers", Arthur M. Abell)

Aristotle

"Music has the power of producing a certain effect on the moral character of the soul, and if it has the power to do this, it is clear that the young must be directed to music and must be educated in it."

MUSIC & THE MIND

Developing "neural circuits" or pathways of synaptic response which causes and retains learning |

"Last October researchers at the University of Konstanz in Germany reported that exposure to music rewires neural circuits. In the brains of nine string players examined with magnetic resonance imaging, the amount of somatosensory cortex dedicated to the thumb and fifth finger of the left hand - the fingering digits -was significantly larger than in non players. How long the players practiced each day did not affect the cortical map. But the age at which they had been introduced to their muse did.

"The younger the child when (he or) she took up the instrument, the more cortex (he or she) devoted to playing it. Like other circuits formed early in life, the ones for music endure. Wayne State's Chugani played the guitar as a child, then gave it up. A few years ago he started

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taking piano lessons with his young daughter. She learned easily but he couldn't get his fingers to follow his wishes. Yet when Chugani recently picked up a guitar, he found to his delight that "the songs are still there," much like the muscle memory for riding a bicycle".

The musical Brain: Learning window 3 to 19 years. What we know: String players have a larger area of their sensory cortex dedicated to the fingering digits on their left

hand. Few concert-level performers begin playing later than the age of 10. It is much harder to learn an instrument as an adult. What we can do about it: Sing songs with children. Play structured, melodic music. If a child shows any musical aptitude or interest, get an instrument into (his or) her hand early. NEWSWEEK, February 19,1996 pages 57-61

Plain and Precious Truth Restored: The Creation

The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea and its motion, yea and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator. (Alma 30:40)

Under the direction of Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ created the heavens and the earth (see Mosiah 3:8; Moses 2:1). From scripture revealed

through the Prophet Joseph Smith, we know that in the work of the Creation, the Lord organized elements that had already existed (see Abraham 3:24). He did not create the world “out of nothing,” as some people believe. Elder James E. Talmage, “within the gospel of Jesus Christ there is room and place for every truth thus far learned by man, or yet to be made known.”

The scriptures also teach that Adam was “the first man of all men” (Moses 1:34). God created Adam and Eve in His own image and in the image of His Only Begotten (see Moses 2:26–27). The Creation is an integral part of Heavenly Father’s plan of salvation. It gives each of us the opportunity to come to the earth, where we receive a physical body and exercise our agency.

Russell M. Nelson

I testify that the earth and all life upon it are of divine origin. The Creation did not happen by chance. It did not come ex nihilo (out of nothing). And human minds and hands able to build buildings or create computers are not accidental. It is God who made us and not we ourselves. We are His people! The Creation itself testifies of a Creator. We cannot disregard the divine in the Creation. Without our grateful awareness of God’s hand in the Creation, we would be just as oblivious to our provider as are goldfish swimming in a bowl. With deep gratitude, we

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echo the words of the Psalmist, who said, “O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.” Elder Russell M. Nelson, The

Creation, Ensign (CR), May 2000, p.84

Brigham Young

“The whole object of the creation of this world is to exalt the intelligences that are placed upon it, that they may live, endure, and increase for ever and ever” (Brigham Young, Discourses of Brigham

Young, 57).

Bruce R. McConkie

“We know that Jehovah-Christ, assisted by ‘many of the noble and great ones’ (Abr. 3:22), of whom Michael is but the illustration, did in fact create the earth and all forms of plant and animal life on the face thereof. But when it came to placing man on earth, there was a change in

the Father himself became personally involved. All things were created by the Son, using the power delegated by the Father, except man. In the spirit and again in the

flesh, man was created by the Father. There was no delegation of authority where the crowning creature of creation was concerned” (Bruce R. McConkie, The Promised Messiah, 62).

Bruce R. McConkie

“This earth was created first spiritually. It was a spirit earth. Nothing then lived on its face, nor was it designed that anything should. Then came the physical creation, the paradisiacal creation, the creation of the earth in the Edenic day and before the fall of man. …

“Man and all forms of life existed as spirit beings and entities before the foundations of this earth were laid. There were spirit men and spirit beasts, spirit fowls and spirit fishes, spirit plants and spirit trees. Every creeping thing, every herb and shrub, every amoeba and tadpole, every elephant and dinosaur—all things—existed as spirits, as spirit beings, before they were placed naturally upon the earth” (Bruce R. McConkie, The Millennial Messiah, 642–43).

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Joseph Smith

“In the beginning, the head of the Gods called a council of the Gods; and they came together and concocted a plan to create the world and people it” (Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 349).

“Now, the word create came from the word baurau which does not mean to create out of nothing; it means to organize; the same as a man would organize materials and build a ship. Hence, we infer that God had materials to organize the world out of chaos—chaotic matter, which is element, and in which dwells all the glory. Element had an existence from the time he had. The pure principles of element are principles which can never be destroyed; they may be organized and re-organized, but not destroyed. They had no beginning, and can have no end” (Smith, Teachings, 350–52).

Joseph Fielding Smith- Who participated in the Creation?

“It was Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, who, under the direction of his Father, came down and organized matter and made this planet. …

“… It is true that Adam helped to form this earth. He labored with our Savior Jesus Christ. I have a strong view or conviction that there were others also who assisted them. Perhaps Noah and Enoch; and why not Joseph Smith, and those who were appointed to be rulers before the earth was formed? …

“… The account of creation in Genesis was not a spirit creation, but it was in a particular sense, a spiritual creation. …

“… The account in Genesis one and two, is the account of the physical creation of the earth and all upon it, but the creation was not subject to mortal law until after the fall. It was, therefore, a spiritual creation and so remained until the fall when it became temporal, or mortal” (Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 1:74–77).

Parley P. Pratt – The earth was formed in a paradisiacal state

An earth was then organized (Abr. 5:4). Adam and Eve in a paradisiacal state were the first man and the first woman (Moses 1:34; 3:5, 7; 6:3-10, 22, 59)

...It becomes necessary for us to take a view of creation, as it rolled in purity from the hand of its creator,

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and if can discover the true state in which it then existed, and understand the changes that have taken place since, then we shall be able to understand what is to be restored:

...we hear the Lord God pronounce the earth, as well as everything else, very good. From this we learn that there was neither deserts, barren places, stagnant swamps, rough broken and rugged hills; nor vast mountains covered with eternal snow; and no part of it was located in the frigid zone, so as to render its climate dreary and unproductive, subject to eternal frost or everlasting chains of ice...its climate was delightfully varied, with moderate changes of heat and

cold, of wet and dry, which only tended to crown the varied years with the greater variety of productions, all for the good of man, animal and fowl , or creeping thing ; while from the flowery plain or spicy grove, sweet odors were wafted on every breeze; all the vast creation of animated beings breathed not but health, and peace and joy....everything that grew was just calculated for the food of man, beast, fowl and creeping thing; and their food was all vegetable. ...the lion ate straw like the ox, the wolf dwelt with the lamb ...all was peace and harmony and nothing to hurt nor disturb in all the holy mountains.

And to crown the whole, we behold man created in the image of God, and exalted in dignity and power, having dominion over all the vast creation of animated beings which swarmed through the earth, while at the same time he inhabited a beautiful and well watered garden in the midst of which stood the tree of life, to which he had free access; while he stood in the presence of his maker, conversed with Him face to face, and gazed upon his glory, without a dimming veil between.

O reader, contemplate for a moment, this beautiful creation, with peace and plenty; the earth teeming with harmless animals, rejoicing over all the plain; the air swarming with delightful birds, whose never ceasing

notes filled the air with varied melody; and all in subjection to their rightful sovereign, who rejoiced over them ; while in a beautiful garden, the capital of creation man was seated on the throne of this vast empire, swaying his scepter over all the earth with undisputed right; while legions of angels encamped round about him and joined their glad voices in grateful songs of praise and shouts of joy. (Parley P. Pratt - A Voice of Warning, p.110-113) Abr.3:24

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The Teleological or Intelligent Design Argument

A teleological or physico-theological argument, also known as an argument from design, is an argument for the existence of God or, more generally, for an intelligent creator "based on perceived evidence of deliberate design in the natural or physical world". (Oxford English Dictionary, Phrase P3 for Design: "argument from design n. Theol.

an argument for the existence of an intelligent creator (usually identified as God) based on perceived evidence of deliberate design in the natural or physical world).”

Atheist Richard Dawkins

“The more statistically improbable a thing is, the less we can believe that it just happened by blind chance. Superficially, the obvious alternative to chance is an intelligent Designer” (1982, p. 130, emp. added). That is the very conclusion theists have drawn from the available evidence—in keeping with the law of rationality. The statistical improbability of the Universe “just happening by blind chance” is staggering. The only alternative is an Intelligent Designer—God.

The Earth’s Orbit around the Sun

The sun of our solar system is powered by the Son. It is difficult for us to comprehend the amount of heat, energy, and light that emanate from this one celestial orb. Science tells us that the temperature at the surface of the sun is 5800 degrees Kelvin, while the core of the sun measures 15,600,000 degrees Kelvin.

"The Sun's energy output (3.86e33 ergs/second or 386 billion billion megawatts) is produced by nuclear fusion reactions. Each second about 700,000,000 tons of hydrogen are converted to about 695,000,000 tons of helium and 5,000,000 tons (=3.86e33 ergs) of energy in the form of gamma rays." (http://www.nineplanets.org/sol.html)The Sun is like a giant nuclear engine. It gives off more energy in a single second than mankind has produced since the Creation. It converts 8 million tons of matter into energy every single second, and has an interior temperature of more than 20 million degrees Celsius (see Lawton, 1981)The Earth is rotating on its axis at 1,000 miles per hour at the equator, and moving around the Sun at 70,000 miles per hour (approximately 19 miles per second), while the Sun and its solar system are moving through space at 600,000 miles per hour in an orbit so large it would take over 220 million years just to complete a single orbit. Interestingly, however, as the Earth moves in its orbit around the Sun, it departs from a straight line by only one-ninth of an inch every eighteen

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miles. If it departed by one-eighth of an inch, we would come so close to the Sun that we would be incinerated; if it departed by one-tenth of an inch, we would find ourselves so far from the Sun that we would all freeze to death (Science Digest, 1981, 89[1]:124).

The Moon and Tides

The Earth is poised some 240,000 miles from the Moon, whose gravitational pull produces ocean tides. If the Moon were moved closer to the Earth by just a fifth, the tides would be so enormous that twice a day they would reach 35-50 feet high over most of the Earth’s surface.

Asimov - The Ocean

The oceans provide a huge reservoir of moisture that is constantly evaporating and condensing, thus falling upon the land as refreshing rain. It is a well-known fact that water

heats and cools at a much slower rate than a solid land mass, which explains why desert regions can be blistering hot in the daytime and freezing cold at night. But water holds its temperature longer, providing a natural heating/air-conditioning system for the land areas of the Earth.

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Temperature extremes would be much more erratic than they are, were it not for the fact that approximately four-fifths of the Earth is covered with water. In addition, humans and animals inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. On the other hand, plants take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen. We depend upon the world of botany for our oxygen supply, yet approximately 90% of that oxygen comes from microscopic plants in

the seas (see Asimov, 1975, 2:116). If our oceans were appreciably smaller, we soon would be out of air to breathe.

Fibonacci Code, Golden Segment and the Logarithmic Spiral

The logarithmic spiral is found everywhere in nature. The logarithmic spiral based on a simple mathematical ratio is found everywhere in nature. It appears in seashells. It allows the horns of animals to grow, each horn spiraling in an opposite direction. It appears in the arrangement of seeds in flowers, in the arrangement of limbs on trees, in their height from one another, and in the way they are arranged on the stem at just the right angle to catch the most light. Spirals of one kind or another are found from the smallest virus to the largest galaxy. Where living things must change size and maintain shape the logarithmic spiral appears.

Scribe an arc through a square formed inside a rectangle, continue it in a smaller one and the next and you form a spiral, a logarithmic spiral with precise mathematical proportions of the golden segment and quite remarkable properties.

In the 12th century, Leonardo Fibonacci discovered a simple numerical series that is the foundation for an incredible mathematical relationship behind phi.

Starting with 0 and 1, each new number in the series is simply the sum of the two before it.

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144 . . .

The ratio of each successive pair of numbers in the series approximates phi (1.618. . .), as 5 divided by 3 is 1.666..., and 8 divided by 5 is 1.60.

1.618033988749895

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If a simple rectangle is formed so that the short side has the same proportional relationship to the long side as the long side does to both sides put together, it has a precise mathematical ratio of 1.618.

The relationship of those two segments to one another was known anciently as the golden segment, and is referred to in literature as the "divine proportion," for it embodies

qualities of both precision and beauty. It is an infinite proportional relationship, which continues forever, much as the mirrors in the sealing room of the temple form a corridor of diminishing images which goes out of sight and on into infinity.

Somehow this proportion activates that part of human nature which responds to beauty. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" (Hungerford). There is something in that eye, that human eye, which is pleased with shapes which embody that proportion. Whether angular, spherical, conical, or of spiral dimension, it is felt to be beautiful. The musical words harmony, symmetry, rhythm, and balance are used to describe paintings and statues and also buildings and creations of every kind which embody this proportion. They are regarded as beautiful. Why? Because there is some interconnection between the perception of man and that mathematical proportion. (Boyd K. Packer, The Law and the Light)

Some of the greatest mathematical minds of all ages, from Pythagoras and Euclid in ancient Greece, through the medieval Italian mathematician Leonardo of Pisa and the Renaissance astronomer Johannes Kepler, to present-day scientific figures such as Oxford physicist Roger Penrose, have spent endless hours over this simple ratio and its properties. But the fascination with the Golden Ratio is not confined just to mathematicians. Biologists, artists, musicians, historians, architects, psychologists, and even mystics have pondered and debated the basis of its ubiquity and appeal. In fact, it is probably fair to say that the Golden Ratio has inspired thinkers of all disciplines like no other number in the history of mathematics. Mario Livio, The Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi, The World's Most Astonishing Number, p.6

DNA

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The examples are everywhere, some as small as the double helix of DNA, others as large as the orbits of celestial bodies. (Boyd K. Packer, The Law and the Light)

Since 1991, several researchers have proposed connections between the golden ratio and human genome DNA. Perez, J.-C. (September 2010). "Codon populations in single-stranded whole human genome DNA are fractal and fine-tuned by the Golden Ratio

1.618". Interdisciplinary Sciences: Computational Life Science 2 (3): 228–240.

The Human Body

Actually, you need look no further than your own physical body to find an application of the golden segment. An example is as close as your own hand. Whether you are short or tall, slim or stout, the second and third bone in your finger equal the length of the longer one…the Golden ratio is 1.618. That is just the beginning. This body of ours embodies that golden segment in dozens of ways …With billions of us on this earth no two of us is exactly alike.

The Human Hearts Dimensions and Ventricles reset to the Rhythm of the Fibonacci code

The Journal of the American College of Cardiology recently published the following findings from their studies of cardiac imaging. We determined that there is a constant ratio between the overall cardiac ventricle and transvers dimension similar to the golden ratio of 1.618 in the healthy heart of young … male adults. The use of the golden ratio may help us determine deviations from normalcy quickly and easily. We can therefore manage and treat the patient before irreversible changes occur. (JACC Vol. 62/18/Suppl. C, Oct. 26-29 2013)

The prominent parts of an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG) are the P wave, a deflection caused by the current originating in the atrium; the QRS complex, showing the passage of the electrical activity into the ventricles; and the T wave, as the ventricles reset themselves. The electrocardiograms (ECG or EKG) of human heartbeats vary considerably depending on a variety of factors.

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The Human Eye – Darwin

One of the best examples of design within the human body is the eye. Even Charles Darwin struggled with the problem of how to explain how such a complex organ as the eye could have “evolved” through naturalistic

processes. In The Origin of Species he wrote:

To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest sense (1859, p. 170, emp. added).

Evolutionist Robert Jastrow once wrote:

The eye is a marvelous instrument, resembling a telescope of the highest quality, with a lens, an adjustable focus, a variable diaphragm for controlling the amount of light, and optical corrections for spherical and chromatic aberration. The eye appears to have been designed; no designer of telescopes could have done better. How could this marvelous instrument have evolved by chance, through a succession of random events? (1981, pp. 96-97, emp. added).

How indeed? Though Dr. Jastrow argued that “the fact of evolution is not in doubt,” he confessed that “…there seems to be no direct proof that evolution can work these miracles.… It is hard to accept the evolution of the eye as a product of chance” (1981, pp. 101,97,98, emp. added). Considering the extreme complexity of the eye, it is easy to understand why Jastrow would make such a comment. In his book, Does God Believe in Atheists?, John Blanchard described just how complex the eye really is.

The human eye is a truly amazing phenomenon. Although accounting for just one fourth-thousandth of an adult’s weight, it is the medium which processes some 80% of the information received by its owner from the outside world. The tiny retina contains about 130 million rod-shaped cells, which detect light intensity and transmit impulses to the visual cortex of the brain by means of some one million nerve fibres, while nearly six million cone-shaped cells do the same job, but respond specifically to colour variation. The eyes can handle 500,00 messages simultaneously, and are kept clear by ducts producing just the right amount of fluid with which the lids clean both eyes simultaneously in one five-thousandth of a second (2000, p. 313).

Werner Gitt

In his book, The Wonder of Man, Werner Gitt explains how the retina is a masterpiece of engineering design.

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One single square millimetre of the retina contains approximately 400,000 optical sensors. To get some idea of such a large number, imagine a sphere, on the surface of which circles are drawn, the size of tennis balls. These circles are separated from each other by the same distance as their diameter. In order to accommodate 400,000 such circles, the sphere must have a diameter of 52 metres... (1999, p. 15).

Alan L. Gillen also praised the design of the retina in his book, Body by Design.

The most amazing component of the eye is the “film,” which is the retina. This light-sensitive layer at the back of the eyeball is thinner than a sheet of plastic wrap and is more sensitive to light than any man-made film. The best camera film can handle a ratio of 1000-to-1 photons in terms of light intensity. By comparison, human retinal cells can handle a ratio of 10 billion-to-1 over the dynamic range of light wavelengths of 380 to 750 nanometers. The human eye can sense as little as a single photon of light in the dark! In bright daylight, the retina can bleach out, turning its “volume control” way down so as not to overload. The light-sensitive cells of the retina are like an extremely complex high-gain amplifier that is able to magnify sounds more than one million times (2001, pp. 97-98, emp. added).

Alan Gillen explained it best when he wrote: “No human camera, artificial device, nor computer-enhanced light-sensitive device can match the contrivance of the human eye. Only a master engineer with superior intelligence could manufacture a series of interdependent light sensitive parts and reactions” (p. 99, emp. added). That master engineer was God. The writer of Proverbs knew this when he wrote, “The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord has made them both” (20:12).

Earth, Dirt and Mud-(See Helaman 12: 6-12)

There is a testament to law right under our feet. The very mud upon which we walk, when dried, cracks into three angles-each 120 degrees. Together that adds up to 360 degrees-a perfect circle, a compass. (Boyd K. Packer, The Law and the Light)

Magnetic Resonance

In 2010, the journal Science reported that the golden ratio is present at the atomic scale in the magnetic resonance of spins in cobalt niobate crystals. "Golden ratio discovered in a quantum world". Eurekalert.org. 2010-01-07. Retrieved 2011-10-31 (Note: Light is electromagnetic resonance)

Fractals

Many objects in nature aren’t formed of squares or triangles, but of more complicated geometric figures. Trees, ferns, clouds, and mountains are shaped like fractals. Other examples include snowflakes, crystals, lightning, river networks, cauliflower or broccoli, and systems of blood vessels and pulmonary vessels. Coastlines may also be considered as fractals in nature. As

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fractals are self-similar patterns that reveal greater complexity as it is enlarged, they portray the notion of worlds within worlds.

Trees and ferns are fractals in nature. They can be modeled on a computer by using a recursive algorithm:

"The power of recursion evidently lies in the possibility of defining an infinite set of objects by a finite statement. In the same manner, an infinite number of computations can be described by a finite recursive program, even if this program contains no explicit repetitions."

(Wirth, Niklaus (1976). Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs. Prentice-Hall. p. 126).

Standard examples of single recursion include list traversal, such as in a linear search, or computing the factorial function, while standard examples of multiple recursion include tree traversal, such as in a depth-first search, or computing the Fibonacci sequence.

This recursive nature is obvious in these examples—a branch from a tree or a frond from a fern is a miniature replica of the whole: not identical, but similar in nature. The connection between fractals and leaves are currently being used to determine how much carbon is contained in trees.

Abraham - Birth of Man and Woman

Abraham received the priesthood, from the line of authority all the way back to Adam, who was the firstborn or first man. Jesus was the only begotten in the mortal flesh. Adam was born of Heavenly parent spiritual and as a paradisiacal man. When he partook of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil blood formed in his veins and he became mortal the first fallen man on this earth.

2 …I became a rightful heir, a High Priest, holding the right belonging to the fathers.

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3 It was conferred upon me from the fathers; it came down from the fathers, from the beginning of time, yea, even from the beginning, or before the foundation of the earth, down to the present time, even the right of the firstborn, or the first man, who is Adam, or first father, through the fathers unto me. (Abr. 1:3)

First Presidency

It is held by some that Adam was not the first man upon this earth and that the original human being was a development from lower orders of the animal creation. These, however, are the theories of men. The word of the Lord declared that Adam was “the first man of all men” (Moses 1:34), and we are therefore in duty bound to regard him as the primal parent of our race.

Man is the child of God, formed in the divine image and endowed with divine attributes, and even as the infant son of an earthly father and mother is capable in due time of becoming a man, so the undeveloped offspring of celestial parentage is capable, by experience through ages and aeons, of evolving into a God. (Joseph F. Smith, John R. Winder, Anthon H. Lund) “The Origin of Man,” Ensign, Feb 2002, 26.

The First Presidency said in part: Adam was Begotten By his Father in Heaven

...that our father Adam --that is our earthly father the progenitor of the race of man, stands at the head being ‘Michael the Archangel, the ancient of days,’ and that he was not fashioned from the earth like adobe, but begotten by his Father in Heaven . (20 Feb. 1912; quoted in full in Man his Origin and Destiny [1954] p.344-45).

Joseph F. Smith - Adam our earthly parent was also born of woman

The Son, Jesus Christ, grew and developed into manhood the same as you or I, as likewise did God, His Father grew and developed to the Supreme Being that He now is. Man was born of woman; Christ the Savior was born of woman; and God the Father was born of woman. Adam our earthly parent was also born of woman into this world the same as Jesus and you and I. (Joseph F. Smith, Deseret Evening News, 27 December 1913, section 111, p.7)

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Brigham Young – Man made of Adobe is an Idle Tale

Here let me state to all philosophers of every class upon the earth, when you tell me that Father Adam was made as we make adobes from the earth, you tell me what I deem as idle tale. When you tell me that the beasts of the field were produced in that manner, you are speaking idle words devoid of meaning. There is no such thing in the eternities where Gods dwell. (JD - Brigham Young, 7:285-86)

Parley P. Pratt – Man is the Offspring of Diety

Man molded from the earth, as a brick! Woman, manufactured from a rib...O Man! When wilt thou cease to be a child in knowledge? Man as we have said, is the offspring of deity. (Key to Theology – Parley P. Pratt [1943ed.] p.55-56) Bruce R. McConkie -Dust

Those natural elements that make up the physical earth are sometimes referred to in the scriptures as dust. Thus Adam was created from the dust of the ground meaning that the physical body which he received was created from the elements of the earth (Gen. 2:7; Moses 3:7; Abr. 5:7 D&C 77:12). Similarly all men are created from the dust of the earth; that is, the elements are organized into a mortal body are assembled together through the birth process. (Moses 6:59; MD - ‘Dust’)

Boyd K. Packer

No lesson is more manifest in nature than that all living things do as the Lord commanded in the Creation. They reproduce “after their own kind.” (See Moses 2:12, 24.) They follow the pattern of their parentage. Everyone knows that; every four-year-old knows that! A bird will not become an animal nor a fish. A mammal will not beget reptiles, nor “do men gather … figs of thistles.” (Matt. 7:16.)

In the countless billions of opportunities in the reproduction of living things, one kind does not beget another. If a species ever does cross, the offspring cannot reproduce. The pattern for all life is the pattern of the parentage.

This is demonstrated in so many obvious ways, even an ordinary mind should understand it. Surely no one with reverence for God could believe that His children evolved from slime or

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from reptiles. (Although one can easily imagine that those who accept the theory of evolution don’t show much enthusiasm for genealogical research!) The theory of evolution, and it is a theory, will have an entirely different dimension when the workings of God in creation are fully revealed.

Since every living thing follows the pattern of its parentage, are we to suppose that God had some other strange pattern in mind for His offspring? Surely we, His children, are not, in the language of science, a different species than He is? (October 1984;The Pattern of Our Parentage)

The Remarkable Human BodyElder Russell M. Nelson- Faith in Jesus Christ as a Creator

Think of the genesis of a human body. It begins with the union of two reproductive cells—one from the mother and one from the father. Together, these cells contain all of the new individual’s hereditary information, stored in a space so small it cannot be seen by the naked eye. Twenty-three chromosomes from each parent unite in one new cell. These chromosomes contain thousands of genes which determine the physical characteristics of the unborn person. Approximately 22 days after these cells unite, a tiny heart begins to beat. At 26 days, blood begins to circulate. Cells multiply and divide. Some become eyes that see; others become ears that hear or fingers that feel the wondrous things about us.

Each organ is an amazing creation. The eye has a self-focusing lens. Nerves and muscles allow two eyes to make a single three-dimensional image. The ear converts sound waves into audible tones perceived in the brain.

The heart has four delicate valves that control the direction of blood flow. They open and close more than 100,000 times a day—36 million times a year. Unless altered by disease, they are able to withstand this stress almost indefinitely. No man-made material can be flexed so frequently and so long without breaking. Each day, the adult heart pumps enough fluid to fill a 2,000-gallon (7,570-L) tank. At the crest of the heart is a source of electricity that transmits energy down special lines, causing myriads of muscle fibers to work together.

Think of the body’s backup systems. Each paired organ has instant backup available from the other of the pair. Single organs, such as the brain, the heart, and the liver, are nourished by two routes of blood supply. This protects the organ if blood flow should be impeded through one of those routes.

Think of the body’s capacity to defend itself. To protect it from harm, the body perceives pain. In response to infection, it generates antibodies. They not only help to combat an immediate problem, but they persist to bolster resistance to any future infection.

Think how the body repairs itself. Broken bones mend and become strong again. Skin lacerations heal themselves. A leak in the circulation can seal itself. The body renews its own outdated cells.

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The body regulates its own vital ingredients. Levels of essential elements and constituents are adjusted continuously. And regardless of wide fluctuations in temperature of the environment, the temperature of the body is carefully controlled within narrow bounds.

Through years of experience, I have learned that healing occurs only when all of the laws relevant to that blessing are obeyed. The structure and function of the body are governed by law.

A verse of scripture so states: “Unto every kingdom is given a law; and unto every law there are certain bounds also and conditions.”

Spiders

Sometimes we find evidence in the animal kingdom. Take the golden orb spider for instance. Pound for pound, the dragline silk of this spider is five times stronger than steel, and is twice as strong as the material that currently makes up SWAT teams’ bulletproof vests. In fact, due to its amazing strength and elasticity, it has been said that you could trap a jumbo jet with spider silk that is the thickness of a pencil. As of 2008, at least 43,678 spider species,[2] and 109 families have been recorded by taxonomists (Platnick, Norman I. (2009). "The World Spider Catalog, version 9.5". American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 2009-04-25).

How many species of animals are there in the earth?

The earth is teeming with an endless variety of plants and animals. What kind of God pays attention to such Beauty, perfection, diversity and detail?

sources vary as to how many species of animals insects and life forms exist on the earth. About 8.7 million (give or take 1.3 million) is the new, estimated total number of species on Earth -- the most precise calculation ever offered -- with 6.5 million species on land and 2.2 million in oceans. Announced by the Census of Marine Life, the figure is based on a new analytical technique. The number of species on Earth had been estimated previously at 3 million to 100 million. (ScienceDaily: Your source for the latest research news).

More than 200 years after biologists began naming and classifying the world´s plants and animals, they still do not know how many species exist. Estimates range from 3 million to 100 million or even more.

Taxonomists--biologists who specialize in identifying and classifying life on the planet--have named approximately 1.7 million species so far. Each year, about 13,000 more species are added to the list of known organisms. While scientists continue to turn up surprises--new species of whales, monkeys and deer within the past few years, for instance--a large portion of

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http://www.lds.org/topics/sciptures?lang=eng


the world´s mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and flowering plants are named. In contrast, the lion´s share of unknown species are small, mostly microscopic organisms that live in some of Earth´s least-accessible habitats: beneath the ground, in the deep sea, in the crowns of tropical trees, and on the backs or in the guts of other creatures. Such insects, worms, mites, fungi, bacteria and other tiny life forms are what Harvard University

biologist Edward O. Wilson calls "the black hole of taxonomy." Unimaginably abundant, their numbers could alter overall species totals by a factor of 10 or more.( Laura Tangley is an associate editor for U.S. News & World Report).

Even after centuries of effort, some 86 percent of Earth's species have yet to be fully described, according to new study that predicts our planet is home to 8.7 million species. (See "'Encyclopedia of Life' to Catalog All Species on Earth.")

The best estimate we have of the number of known plant species is around 400,000.

Plants

Flowering plants (angiosperms)281,82

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Conifers (gymnosperms) 1,021

Ferns and horsetails 12,000

Mosses 16,236

Red and green algae 10,134

Total Plants 321,212

Others

Lichens 17,000

Mushrooms 31,496

Brown algae 3,067

Total Others 51,563

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Mathematics and Creation

Galileo changed all that in the early 17th century. Eschewing the Greeks' attempts to explain why a pebble falls when you drop it, Galileo set out to determine how. The "great book" of the universe is written in the language of mathematics, he famously declared, and unless we understand the triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures

that form its characters, he wrote, "it is humanly impossible to comprehend a single word of it [and] one wanders in vain through a dark labyrinth."

Heliotropism

Heliotropic flowers track the sun's motion across the sky from east to west. During the night, the flowers may assume a random orientation, while at dawn they turn again toward the east where the sun rises. The motion is performed by motor cells in a flexible segment just below the flower, called a pulvinus. The motor cells are specialized in pumping potassium ions into nearby tissues, changing their turgor pressure. The segment flexes because the motor cells at the shadow side elongate due to a turgor rise. Heliotropism is a response to light from the sun.

Why do sunflowers often have precisely 55, 89, or 144 petals, numbers that figure in the famous Fibonacci sequence? Nature, it seems, has certain mathematical underpinnings. Photo credit: © sefaoncul/iStockphoto

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Chapter 14 creation september 5 2014

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