Category: Science

12/3/2020

The WOW Factor

The Wow Factor paraphrased - is an experience and/or observation that grabs your attention and holds it.. as you exclaim "WOW".

For me, I love sports. The speed, power, finesse, strategy, and teamwork of great athletes and teams playing to win the game. The thrill of victory and agony of defeat was the tag line for the old 'Wide World of Sports' show, and this all makes me go.. WOW!

It also love Art. Ok, not true art.. but cartoons. You may never catch me in an art gallery perusing the works of Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet, Rembrandt, or Leonardo de Vinci, because I save my WOWs for Gary Larson - The FarSide, Berke Breathed - Bloom County, Bill Watterson - Calvin & Hobbes, and Jim Unger - Herman. WOW!

side note: one of my favorite Christmas presents of all time my wife bought me The Complete Farside collection (3 volumes) in hardcover. While many may think, "WOW, what a wasted of time and $$, but for me it was simply.. WOW!

Others love beautiful music. Music is that Wow their lives while I am busy checking my TV for a game while drawing Back Pew cartoons. It may be a symphony, jazz quartet, rock & roll, hymnfest, or a modern worship service there is for most of music that makes us go Wow. Of course I am old enough now that hip-hop, pop, and rap leave me shaking my head, cringe, and mutter "people like this stuff?.. wow."

Of course Disco, and Polka music I will just say.. no comment.

Next, let's travel further from the center of my universe as we look up at the night sky mesmerized by the stars while our planet Earth orbits around a blazing ball of burning gas (not Washington DC,.. it's the sun) realizing we are only one planet of 8 or 9 planets orbiting this sun and all this is part of The Milky Way Galaxy in an ever expanding universe all with order all functioning with precise science and math.. which the collective scientific community responds in one voice.. WOW!

- note the above is an 89 word runon sentence... WOW.

Did I choose your WOW tirgger? Well no matter if it is science, music, art, sports, or watching the Wheel of Fortune ( I like the wheel) realize all WOWs come from our creator.

Don't get me wrong, our Wow moments are real and there is no need to apologize for shouting wow (unless you are in church, or during a funeral).. BUT step out further to realize our God is the source of all things WOW.

If we don't we miss the point of this big ol' Beautiful world. Life is not about me, my passions or hobbies.. LIFE IS FOREMOST ABOUT GOD, and the worship and adoration he deserves.

How great is our God! WOW!

For as the Heavens are Higher than the Earth so are my ways than your ways, and my thoughts yours. Is 55:8-9
He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Ps 147:4
Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God? Ps 77:3
and last but not least
For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes will not perish but have eternal life. Jo 3:16 Wow, and WOW!

Thank you God for your amazing creation that is your handiwork, and thank you for your love and grace in this life, and the promise of eternity with you our wonderful creator.

Blessings

Jeff

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10/9/2020

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The Evolution of.. EVOLUTION 2020

While I do not believe in any monkey ancestry kind of evolution I do believe life certainly evolves. Rest assured Ancestry.Com will not find any chimps, gorillas, or Orangutans in your family roots.

Let me share 'my' scientific findings from my exhaustive study here at the Back Pew Institute for Common Sense.

Don't roll your eyes at me.. this is SCIENCE!

Exhibit A (Valentines Day)
THEN: On February 14, 1984 I bought my wife an engagement ring, flowers and proposed marriage. Good news for me Mary was very excited about spending the rest of her life with ME! Til death do us part.. thank you very much.
NOW: On February 13th 2016 my wife informed me she was going to pick up some flowers for my 86 year old mom for Valentines Day. I replied "Great, and while you're at it, pick up something nice for yourself from me.. cuz I like ya."

Exhibit B (Romance)
THEN: Mary and I were married in August 1984. The newlywed excitement of starting our lives together, holding hands, the excitement of the kiss, and all the other 'fringe benefits' of being married were truly wonderful.
NOW: Just the few years ago I remember trying to kiss my wife Mary on the lips before I headed out the door to work. But she turned her head at the last moment offering me only to her cheek to kiss. So I said to my bride "I noticed you turned away", and she replied matter of factly.. "yes I did not want you to wreck my lips." Wreck her lips? I was her husband wanting a simple kiss, not a zombie wanting to eat her lips.

Exhibit C (Sports)
THEN: March Madness Year 1 was a simple game where dunking was not possible as the hunched over Neanderthal players had little to no vertical jump compounded by using a ball which technically was a medium sized boulder.
NOW: The game now is fast, the players tall and athletic, the action is high flying, and the courts are free of dinosaur droppings.

Exhibit D (Me)

THEN: When I was a kid I could spend hours drawing cartoons.

NOW: Hmmm, never mind that is still what I like to do.

Exhibits E-Z (God)
THEN & NOW: Outside of all the above 'scientific' examples of evolution and in the spiritual realm let's be clear.. our God does not evolve nor does He need to. God is timeless, and so are his truths.

Our growingly secular society has chosen to travel down a progressive road of self-enlightenment at 90mph in a Woodstock like hippy van mind set while smoking doobies. While believing they are evolving, and in fact some believe God is evolving/learning.

Ironically this 'progressive' world judges fundemental Christians as judgmental, and God's timeless loving truths (The Bible) as outdated needing their tweaking.. BUT in reality truth is ONLY found in our 'never-needing-to-evolve God'. His perfect love and grace are our hope, and He is the solid rock we can count on.

Please share this often with this ever changing/evolving tumultuous doubting world. Our God never changes. He is the creator of all things, and the ONLY savior of our souls. IT MATTERS ETERNALLY what we choose to believe, and who we choose to follow.

My prayer is for a return to our Christian roots. It is ok to have questions, in fact it is just being honest, BUT don't let your questions become your statements of deconstructing your faith in God.

Blessings

Jeff (Evolved to being 20 lbs overweight) Larson

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7/3/2020

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Speck on a Blue Ball (rr)

I have this prayer prep that I recently turn to when my mind is busy and unfocused. I slow my mind to take a glimpse of my significance.
Specifically, I am a speck on a blue ball (Earth) that spins at 1000 mph orbiting around our sun in our Solar System of 8 (or 9) planets, which is one of countess galaxies in our infinite Universe. ..

AND this existence.. my existence is just a microscopic blip on the timeline of .. eternity!

So while I admit I should lose like 25 pounds I also am feeling very small. Then to think of the intricacies of the human body, the human condition, that I have a free will, and I believe a His spirit makes me a very special speck on this blue dot.

While I attempt to grasp this perspective of significance.. I pray Psalms 8:4 Who am I that you are mindful of me? .. and I am in awe of creation and more importantly our creator and His inexplicable love for each of us. Better yet, y'all best read all of Psalms 8

Now .. I am ready to pray as the world slows down.. I am an awe of God, and thankful for this day (even the bad ones), and pray that my life, my family, my friends, church, community, state, nation, and world come to realize the significance, purpose, and place as their own speck like roles on this blue dot.

Love God, love others (less social media).. and all glory to God on this day! Cuz ya know, the rest is trivia by comparison.

Blessings!

Jeff (A Big Speck) Larson

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1/4/2020

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It was really GOOD!

Genesis 1 - In the beginning, God spoke the universe into existence. Some of those present claimed they heard a loud crackling sound like thunder, but most simply described it as sort of a.. BANG.. actually a BIG BANG!

At this point let me be clear, I am not here to discuss Old Earth v New Earth theories. This would be above the pay grade of this cartoonist, but what I will say is .. God created and it was GOOD!

Genesis 1:1-31 To summarize, this daunting project was completed in 6 days where Day 1: DAY , NIGHT , the SKY were spoke into existence by our Almighty Creator.

Genesis 2:1-3 Then on the 7th day God rested. In contrast I installed a bathroom floor in our town-home recently and I rested on the 5th, 6th, and 7th days and while it turned out nice it was not Hubble Telescope spectacular like God's Universe.

Those first 6 days His creation included the sun, stars, land, waters, and all the creatures in the sea and on land were created.

To rule over the lands and seas God created MAN Genesis 2:7 in His own image from the dust of the Earth followed by creating WOMAN from man's 'spare rib' declaring it is not good for man to be alone. Genesis 2:18

To which Adam declared.. "Hey beautiful, where have you been all my life?"

Then God commanded Adam and Eve to "be fruitful and multiply".. to which Adam quickly started working on his times tables.

This creation story is all recorded into the Bible book of Genesis. While many Cosmologists believe the Big Bang was the creation of EVERYTHING from NOTHING followed by billions of years of random collisions and explosions resulted in our ever expanding universe, all the planets including Earth including life with all it's complexities.

Ok, I believe you can collide a chocolate bar with a jar of peanut butter and end up with a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup.. but this Universe has too moving parts + complexities that are bound together with rules and order for me to believe EVERYTHING came from NOTHING.

So I choose to believe there must be an intelligent design behind creation. For me, I believe in a divine creator that exists outside the confines of time and space. I believe this Intelligent Design is described in the Bible Book of Genesis.

May God bless each of you greatly in your pursuit of truth. This is important stuff, and a foundation for life. If there is a God then the pursuit of Him is a greater science than can be found looking through any microscope or telescope. Bigger than Star Trek's five year journey exploring the stars.

Jeff (little bang) Larson

3 Comments

10/10/2019

2 Comments

The evolution of.. EVOLUTION (rr)

While I do not believe in any monkey ancestry kind of evolution I do believe life certainly evolves.

Let me share 'my' scientific findings from my exhaustive study here at the Back Pew Institute for Common Sense.

Don't roll your eyes at me.. this is SCIENCE!

Exhibit C (Sports)
THEN: March Madness Year 1 was a simple game where dunking was not possible as the hunched over Neanderthal players had little to no vertical jump compounded by using a ball which technically was a medium sized boulder.
NOW: The game now is fast, the players tall and athletic, the action is high flying, and the courts are free of dinosaur droppings.

Exhibit D (Me)
THEN: When I was a kid I could spend hours drawing cartoons.
NOW: Hmmm, never mind that is still what I like to do.

2 Comments

The WOW Factor

The Evolution of.. EVOLUTION 2020

Speck on a Blue Ball (rr)

It was really GOOD!

The evolution of.. EVOLUTION (rr)

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