Reasons to Believe Podcast Reasons To Believe

Join Fazale “Fuz” Rana and Jeff Zweerink as they discuss new discoveries taking place at the frontiers of science that have theological and philosophical implications, including the reality of God’s existence.
 
Biological Basis for Belief?
As human beings, our religious nature defines us. Treating it as a scientific question, many scientists wonder, how do we account for human spirituality and religiosity? Are there brain structures and processes that explain this behavior? Using lesion mapping, a research team from Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital recently determined the brain regions and neural circuits that account for religiosity and spirituality.
 
This study (amongst others) raises troubling questions for Christians.
 
Is our spirituality and response to religion based on our brain’s biology?
Is there a materialistic, mechanistic explanation for religious acceptance?
Do people really experience God?
 
In this episode, biochemist Fuz Rana addresses these questions and presents a model that accommodates these scientific findings, while retaining a biblical view of human nature.
 
Woke at the University
During the 2023–2024 academic year, Rice University offered a course called “Afrochemistry” that claimed to “apply chemical tools and analysis to understand Black life in the US.” From January 16 to May 16, 2024, AcademicJobsOnline.org advertised a job for the University of Victoria’s physics and astronomy department that was only open to an indigenous person. Both examples show how a worldview subversive to the scientific enterprise is spreading into the scientific community. This view of contemporary critical theory sees the world in terms of oppressors and oppressed. In contrast, the Judeo-Christian worldview sees all people as valuable and worthy of God’s and our love. Additionally, the Judeo-Christian worldview buttresses and supports the foundation needed for the scientific enterprise to flourish.
 
YOUTUBE LINKS:
 
Michael A. Ferguson et al., “A Neural Circuit for Spirituality and Religiosity Derived from Patients with Brain Lesions,” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34454698/
 
Additional Resources
 
Fazale Rana, “Is There a Biological Basis for Belief?,” https://reasons.org/explore/publications/articles/is-there-a-biological-basis-for-belief
 
Fazale Rana, “Is There a Biological Basis for Belief? A Follow Up,”
https://reasons.org/explore/publications/articles/is-there-a-biological-basis-for-belief-a-follow-up
 
Fazale Rana, “Does Oxytocin Cause Spiritual Experiences?,”
https://reasons.org/explore/blogs/the-cells-design/does-oxytocin-cause-spiritual-experiences
 
PODCAST LINKS:
 
University of Victoria, Department of Physics and Astronomy
New ‘Afrochemistry’ Course Widely Panned as Identity Politics Dumbing Down Hard Sciences
 
YOUTUBE LINKS:
 
AcademicJobsOnline, “University of Victoria, Department of Physics and Astronomy,” posted January 16, 2024, https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/27010
 
Jennifer Kabbany, “New ‘Afrochemistry’ Course Widely Panned as Identity Politics Dumbing Down Hard Sciences,” https://www.thecollegefix.com/new-afrochemistry-course-widely-panned-as-identity-politics-dumbing-down-hard-sciences/

Join Hugh Ross and Jeff Zweerink as they discuss new discoveries taking place at the frontiers of science that have theological and philosophical implications, including the reality of God’s existence.
 
Before the First Stars
A team of astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) “to boldly go where no man has gone before”: to observe and measure the composition of gas clouds before any stars formed. The JWST’s primary mission is to explore the cosmic dawn—the first billion years of cosmic history. Astronomers took a high-resolution spectrum of a giant gas cloud in the halo of GN-z11, a bright galaxy 13.38 billion light-years away, corresponding to only 410 million years after the big bang creation event. The only elements found in the gas cloud’s spectrum were hydrogen and helium. This is the first time astronomers detected an object in the universe where no elements heavier than helium exist. This discovery affirms a major prediction of the biblically predicted big bang creation model: that before stars formed, the elemental composition of the universe, by mass, will be 75.33% hydrogen, 24.67% helium, and a trace amount of lithium. The level of ionization in the gas cloud revealed that the stars in GN-z11’s core must all be in the range of 50–1,000 times the Sun’s mass. This mass range explains why astronomers observe many bright galaxies and several supermassive black holes in the cosmic dawn. All these discoveries provide yet more evidence that the more we learn about the universe, the more evidence we accumulate that a God beyond space and time created and exquisitely designed the universe so that at the just-right time and location, humans could live and thrive. 
The Universe: 28 GYr Old?
 
Recent images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) found galaxies that, given their age, appeared far larger and more complex than expected. In more lay-level arenas, this discovery was used to cast doubt on the standard big bang cosmological model. However, this discovery generated quite a bit of excitement in the scientific community because it revealed a fun problem to investigate. Consequently, astronomers have invested much effort trying to understand how to explain these large, complex galaxies. An author of a recent paper attempts to understand these galaxies by modifying how light propagates through the universe and by having some fundamental constants change over time. A careful analysis of this latter approach shows how standard big bang cosmology (with dark energy and dark matter) can give a robust explanation of the universe—and provide evidence for the God of the Bible.
 
 
References:
PODCAST LINKS:
JADES NIRSpec Spectroscopy of GN-z11: Lyman-a Emission and Possible Enhanced Nitrogen Abundance in a z = 10.60 Luminous Galaxy
 
JWST-JADES. Possible Population III Signatures at z = 10.6 in the Halo of GN-z11
 
YOUTUBE LINKS:
Andrew J. Bunker et al., “JADES NIRSpec Spectroscopy of GN-z11: Lyman-a Emission and Possible Enhanced Nitrogen Abundance in a z = 10.60 Luminous Galaxy,” https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202346159
Roberto Maiolino et al., “JWST-JADES. Possible Population III Signatures at z = 10.6 in the Halo of GN-z11,” https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2306.00953
 
References:
 PODCAST LINK:
Testing CCC + TL Cosmology with Observed Baryon Acoustic Oscillation Features
 
YOUTUBE LINK:
Rajendra P. Gupta, “Testing CCC + TL Cosmology with Observed Baryon Acoustic Oscillation Features,” https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad1bc6

*Unfortunately we encountered audio problems at the time this episode was recorded*
Join Hugh Ross and Jeff Zweerink as they discuss new discoveries taking place at the frontiers of science that have theological and philosophical implications, including the reality of God’s existence.
 
Xenotransplant Success
Worldwide, millions of people need organ transplants and many die while waiting. It is impossible to scale up human organ donation rates to meet the demand. However, recent success in xenotransplantation may solve the shortfall. Surgical transplants of pig hearts, livers, and kidneys all show promise of (at least temporary) function and no signs of organ rejection. Xenotransplantation provides yet more evidence that God designed the higher animals to enhance human health and well-being.    
 
References:
 
PODCAST LINKS:
 
First Pig Kidney Transplant in a Person: What It Means for the Future
First Pig Liver Transplanted into a Person Lasts for 10 Days
First Pig-to-Human Heart Transplant: What Can Scientists Learn?
Monkey Survives for Two Years after Gene-Edited Pig-Kidney Transplant
 
YOUTUBE LINKS:
 
Smriti Mallapaty and Max Kozlov, “First Pig Kidney Transplant in a Person: What It Means for the Future,” https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00879-y
Smriti Mallapaty, “First Pig Liver Transplanted into a Person Lasts for 10 Days,” https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00853-8
 
Sara Reardon, “First Pig-to-Human Heart Transplant: What Can Scientists Learn?,” https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00111-9
Max Kozlov, “Monkey Survives for Two Years after Gene-Edited Pig-Kidney Transplant,” https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03176-2
 
 
 
 
“Big Ring” of Galaxies Found
Astronomers recently announced the discovery of a “Big Ring” of galaxy clusters. According to calculations based on scientists’ best understanding of the universe, the size of this ring exceeds the largest size structure that could possibly form, and it joins a class of about 10 structures that are “too big.” While some people might take this find as evidence that our current understanding of the universe (size, age, composition, etc.) is wrong, the discovery highlights how well we comprehend the universe and provides insight that will direct us into a deeper understanding. It also affirms the biblical prediction that we live in an orderly, reliable, and understandable creation.
 
References:
 
PODCAST LINKS:
 
An Impossibly Huge Ring of Galaxies Might Lead Us to New Physics. Here’s How
Giant Ring? Giant Arc? These “Structures” May Not Even Be Real
 
YOUTUBE LINKS:
 
Keith Cooper, “An Impossibly Huge Ring of Galaxies Might Lead Us to New Physics. Here’s How,” https://www.space.com/big-ring-galactic-superstructure-celestial-anomaly
 
Ethan Siegel, “Giant Ring? Giant Arc? These “Structures” May Not Even Be Real,” https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/giant-ring-arc-structures-not-real/