Sam Heath - samheath's Blog

Sam Heath - samheath's Blog - Bakersfield.com http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/samheath General Interest and Speculation General Interest and Speculation en-us The Weedpatch Gazette http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/samheath/32648 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/samheath/32648 Recently discovered satellite galaxies described as “Puffy balls in space” may be orbs of dark matter. And these may be the explanation for the smaller orbs sometimes appearing in photographs, even the explanation for the many stories about ghosts and spirits, angels and demons belonging to a dimension apart from the physical limitations of space and time and confirming my belief life is of God and not a result of the separate creation of the physical universe as described in Genesis. But before sharing this recent and astounding discovery, apart from prejudice there is no mistaking the quality of the writings finally accepted into the canon of Scripture compared to other writings that were rejected, though there are undoubtedly things of historical fact contained in some of these extracanonical writings. There is the continued need for textual criticism that helps put things in historical perspective and separates the wheat from the chaff. However, over the many years of my own Biblical studies my beliefs and opinions have changed about many things found in the Bible but there has been one constant; and that is the objective fact there are no comparable writings to be found anywhere else in recorded history. The Bible despite some difficulties and discrepancies is quite unique and stands well apart and above all other writings of humankind, and I have no doubt some of its writers did have a special relationship to God and imparted things God intended people to know, and some especially chosen of God wrote these things down passing them on to others. That some of these things began as oral tradition before being written would explain facts lost to antiquity but resulting in stories about the Creation, Adam and Eve, The Fall, the Deluge and others open to interpretation, but still based on facts. One of the several things that confound critics of the Bible is that the writings are for the most part free of many fanciful stories current during the times in which the Bible was being written, among these some of the “Jewish fables” to which the Apostle Paul referred. Even though the Hellenic influence is evident in places for example, the various mythologies and fabulous stories belonging to such mythologies are for the greater part missing in the Received Text. Comparisons have been made from various myths in regard to some miracles described in the Bible, but upon close examination the Biblical accounts of such things are superior to these other accounts, particularly in the quality of the writings themselves. If someone were to take it upon themselves to make up a story about Moses they would be hard pressed to provide the many details found in Scripture and to tell it with the same authority of veracity as the original. The same can be said for the stories in the beginning chapters of Genesis. But the stories surrounding the birth and life of Jesus together with the rest of the New Testament would be the most daunting task of all. First of all, what would be the motive for anyone undertaking such a task? If it entered the mind of someone to make up such stories what would be gained by their doing so, and how would they convince others to follow along? History is replete with charlatans and false messiahs, but eventually they are found out. No, there is simply too much of veracity in the New Testament for all the writings to be discounted as intent to deceive. And it could be as simple as the words of those officers sent to take Jesus by force and refusing to do so because “Never man spake like this man.” One of many reasons I take the Bible very seriously in many places is because of scientific discoveries continually being made that affirm spiritual beliefs, such as the “Puffy balls in space.” Galaxy surprise sheds light on dark matter. Galaxies circling the Milky Way pack about the same mass, study shows: By Clara Moskowitz, Space.com: Updated 1:53 p.m. PT, Wed., Aug. 27, 2008: A study of small galaxies circling around the Milky Way found that while they range dramatically in brightness, they all surprisingly pack about the same mass. The work suggests there is a minimum size for galaxies, and it could shed light on mysterious dark matter. Spinning around the Milky Way are at least 23 <a href="http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070115_mm_hobbit_galaxies.html">pint-sized galaxies</a>, each shining with the light of anywhere from a thousand to a billion suns. Though each of these galaxies is very dim compared to large galaxies like our own, they span a large range in brightness. Astronomers led by Louis Strigari of the University of California-Irvine studied the movements of individual stars in these satellite galaxies to determine the mass of each galaxy. "What we found was astonishing, which was that they all had the same mass," said researcher James Bullock, a UC-Irvine astrophysicist. "It's not what we were expecting — we were really taken off guard." Loaded with dark matter: The finding could help explain the mysterious stuff called dark matter and how it affects the formation of galaxies. Nobody knows what dark matter is, but its presence is revealed by gravity that is not produced by the regular matter that can be seen. Despite their wide-ranging brightnesses, all of the <a href="http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?pic=080827-satellites-02.jpg&cap=A+map+of+the+major+satellite+galaxies+surrounding+the+Milky+Way.+Credit%3A+J.+Bullock%2C+M.+Geha%2C+R.+Powell">23 satellite galaxies</a> around the Milky Way seem to have a central mass of 10 million times that of the sun. And what's more, almost all of that mass seems to be made up of dark matter, with just the tiniest smidgen of visible matter producing stars. "These are by far the dimmest galaxies that have ever been discovered, and the least luminous of these things are the most dark-matter-dominated things that we know about," Bullock told SPACE.com. Though they qualify as galaxies, the satellites are not pinwheel spirals like the Milky Way and its cousins. Rather, these dwarf galaxies look more like diffuse, puffy balls of light…