Good Heavens! The Human Side of Astronomy

What's the date today? What time is it? For many people and times, the answers to these questions were not always easy to determine. Today, we take it for granted we can tell time by a clock or look up a date on a calendar.  On this episode, Wayne and Dan discuss some fun and curious tidbits about calendars, from the Babylonians, Egyptians, and Romans to the late 16th century when there was a grea...

There is much to the universe we simply don't know. And this unknown aspect of the cosmos inspires and fascinates us, inviting us to explore and engage it's tacit voice, "Come and see!"  The psalmist (Psalm 111:2) proclaims, "Great are the works of the LORD, they are studied by all who delight in them". While many scientists who study the cosmos do not acknowledge God as the Creator, their dedicat...

The universe is filled with "known unknowns" to quote the former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. They are fascinating, mysterious and worthy of our attention. There are all sorts of wonderous and fantastically mysterious light sculptures in the cosmos. We talk about the mysteries of stars, galaxies, galaxy structures, fast radio bursts, gamma ray bursts, and all kinds of other things that pr...

Somehow Wayne and Dan are still riding along on a comet  as they explore the mysteries and intrigue of these celestial wonders!  Could comets actually have helped to kickstart life? Just what kind of things must line up in order for this to have happened? What comets can we see in 2021?   Dan made another video trailer for this episode, click here and HANG ON! Video clips from ESA, NBC News, the D...

Come along and ride a comet with Wayne and Dan as they explore the mysteries and intrigue of these celestial wonders!  Why are they so regular? Why are they so surprising? How do they behave? What are they made of? From where did they come? And could they have seeded life on our planet?  From Halley and ISON to the present day extraordinary accomplishment of the European Space Agency's Rosetta mis...

We live in a fragmented world where everything seems to be classified, separated, divided and reduced to its subatomic bareness. Morality seems subjective, beauty is illusory and subjective, and we are confused about what is ultimately true about the world.  We've lost or are barely holding on to the idea that it's not only possible, but absolutely necessary to see the world as being reconciled in...

There is a music in creation for those who have the ears to ear it. From the singing stars present at the foundation of the Earth, to the song of Moses after the miraculous crossing of the Yam Suf, to the silent songs of nature, from stars to sparrows, as well as songs we make as image bearers of God, all point to a kingdom and country not of this world.  Hearing this music helps us to understand...

This is part two of our conversation with chief veteran astronomer of Answers in Genesis, Dr. Danny Faulkner. If you've not caught part one, you don't want to miss it!  On this episode Danny and Wayne answer questions we took from Twitter, we talk about the recent tragic news about the Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico collapsing, and we talk about a some unusual objects that passed through o...

On day two of the Creation week, the Bible tells us that God created the "expanse" (raqia in Hebrew). For centuries, many have believed the "expanse" to be made of something solid. On day four, God creates the greater and lesser lights and the stars and places them all in the expanse. The translators of the Septuagint translated raqia as the stereoma, a solid, crystal sphere. Jerome translated raq...

What is string theory? In the field of physics, it's a relatively novel idea that suggests at the very smallest level, subatomic particles are made up of tiny, vibrating filaments, rather than point-like particles. These filaments are known as "strings", each with particular resonances, like strings on a musical instrument comprising different notes. The vibrations of the strings produce the parti...

A special Good Heavens!/Apologetics Profile presentation of Dr. Sarah Salviander's chapter on God and black holes from The Story of the Cosmos - How the Heavens Declare the Glory of God.    TheStoryoftheCosmos.com What is a black hole? Where are they? How were they discovered? How does the majesty, mystery, and enigma of black holes point to the glory of God? Come along on this special episode and...

C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe turned 70 this month (October 2020). In the midst of a difficult year of pandemics and politics, now is the perfect time to reacquaint yourself with C.S. Lewis's timeless classic. What's in your "spare oom" that can lead to adventures undreamt and unsought?  Come along with us on this special combined episode of Good Heavens! and Apologetics Profi...

This is the second episode in our series on the constellations from a biblical perspective. Leo is our featured constellation on this episode. We talk about Leo's kingly nature, a little bit of its legend and lore, and explore a few of the sights you can see within this ancient pattern of stars.    The Bible says that the heavens declare the glory of God, they do not predict the future nor tell an...

Join us as we have a lovely chat with physics professor and Fellow of the Royal Society, Dr. Tom Mcleish and physics & science teacher David Hutchings, both from the UK. We discuss why science and the Christian faith are not only not incompatible, but that science truly needs God, specifically the Lord Jesus.  Their book, the the title of this podcast episode, is not a superficial Christian sticky...

Johannes Kepler lived a remarkable life during equally remarkable times. On this special Third-Anniversary episode of Good Heavens, Wayne and Dan talk about Kepler‘s accomplishments and his character.  He lived during the Catholic Counter Reformation in a time when there was much superstition.  In spite of great hardship and personal loss Kepler influenced people away from superstition and made re...

This will be a new series on the constellations - short audio stories & astronomy facts about the visible constellations known today from the northern hemisphere. Each episode will hopefully be less than ten minutes.  Our first featured constellation will be Orion the Hunter. A hunter, a god, a fool, a warrior, with many beautiful astronomy sights you can see with your own two eyes. These celestia...

Cultivating a deeper appreciation and understanding of what God has created is an act of worship. God has given us two books, the book of nature and the book of Scripture. They are meant to be read together. As Psalm 19 shows, David speaks of creation in the first six verses and then speaks of God's revelation in and through His word in verses 7-13. He then concludes the Psalm with a prayer "May t...

On part two of our discussion with Dr. Tim Hamilton, we chat about something he discovered while sifting through images taken by Hubble!  The world is still filled with God's gifts, waiting to be discovered. You don't have to be an astrophysicist to receive from God's bounty! You don't have to be a scientist to make a discovery! God freely gives us gifts because He loves us, not because we earned...

Do cutting-edge astrophysics and the Christian faith go together? Yes!  On this episode, we speak with Dr. Tim Hamilton, an astrophysicist who recently made an exciting and unexpected discovery looking through images from the Hubble Space Telescope as he was studying quasars. The object TIm discovered is tentatively called by a colleague of his "Hamilton's Object".   Tim is also a Christian who en...

Does the Physics of the Universe do away with God?  Of course not!  On part 2 of our conversation with David Wilkinson and Dave Hutchings, we explore further the implications of the late Dr. Hawking's engagement with the idea of God and what the implications are for a universe bereft its Creator.  The late Dr. Stephen Hawking was a theoretical physicist whose pioneering work in black holes forever...

Dr. Stephen Hawking was a brilliant Cambridge theoretical physicist whose pioneering work on black holes and the origin of the universe put him in the public eye and imagination. His book A Brief History of Time was a runaway bestseller, with some 10 million copies having been sold worldwide since its publication in 1988.  Despite the limitations of ALS, Dr. Hawking went on to father children, wri...

Critics of Scripture have dismissed it. Skeptics mock it. And even some Christians will attempt to explain the heavenly events described in Joshua 10 as "natural" phenomenon or that Joshua's words were simply poetic or an allusion to something else.  Did the sun and moon really "stand still" in the Valley of Aijalon as described in the Bible? What really happened? How can this passage from the Old...

Did the sun and moon really "stand still" in the Valley of Aijalon as described in the Bible? Is Jesus still governing the goings on in the heavens and earth? We live in a time where we, like Joshua, should be strong and courageous. But only the Lord Jesus can give us that necessary strength and freedom from fear. We hope our reflections on Joshua 10 will be an encouragement to everyone. In this p...

"In conversations about science and faith, Jesus Christ rarely comes up." So begins the introduction to a 2018 anthology of essays titled Christ and the Created Order - Perspectives from Theology, Philosophy, and Science, edited by Andrew B. Torrance and Thomas H. McCall.  If Jesus is to have first place in everything, that means He should have first place in discussions about science and theology...

If you have ever tried understanding some of the cutting-edge theoretical models of the universe, you know what we're talking about! Yet for the most part, some scientists who study the universe, especially if they are professed skeptics or atheists, will say some pretty odd things about God, things that are far and away outside the realm of their particular cosmological ideas.    On this episode,...