101 Questions and Answers about Weather and the Bible

B. DeYoung Donald

Description

Everyone experiences weather. In this fascinating book, scientist Donald DeYoung explores 101 intriguing questions about weather patterns and phenomena, answering them from the biblical viewpoint of a creation planned for our well-being. Questions about weather basics, like What causes a rainbow? and Is there a creationist view of the weather? along with questions about past weather, such as Was there an ice age? and Did a climate change end the dinosaur era? are answered in order to reveal the order and grandeur of creation and encourage an appreciation of all God has made. This introduction to commonly asked weather questions affirms God's power and illustrates the Creator's provision for the earth's weather system. Perfect for Sunday school teachers, parents, and homeschoolers.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 12 août 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781441246271
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

© 1992, 2014 by Donald B. DeYoung
Published by Revell
a division of Baker Publishing Group
Grand Rapids, Michigan
BakerBooks.com
Ebook edition created 2014
Ebook corrections 02.12.2024
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4412-4627-1
Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Baker Publishing Group publications use paper produced from sustainable forestry practices and post-consumer waste whenever possible.
To Sally, my wife and companion for 48 years. She is a faithful partner through all kinds of weather.
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Figures and Tables
Foreword
Introduction
Part 1: Weather Basics
1. Should a Christian become a meteorologist?
2. Is there a creationist view of the weather?
3. How do weather and climate differ?
4. Why are weather predictions uncertain?
5. Are traditional weather sayings accurate?
6. Do moon phases control our weather?
7. What is the atmosphere?
8. What is the composition of the air?
9. Does the air have weight?
10. How much sunlight reaches the earth?
11. What is temperature?
12. What is a temperature inversion?
13. What are some weather extremes on Earth?
14. What causes dew and frost?
15. Does springtime drive the frost deeper?
16. How is the first day of spring determined?
17. Is the earth closest to the sun during summer?
18. How is the weather different below the equator?
19. What is seasonal affective disorder?
20. What are the wind chill factor and comfort index?
21. What is frostbite?
22. Does cold weather give people colds?
23. Why is the sky blue, sunsets red, and clouds white?
24. What is the ozone layer?
25. How does the air handle pollution?
26. What makes a desert?
27. How has the space program impacted our weather?
28. How do weather satellites work?
29. What is weather like on other planets?
30. What is solar wind?
31. What is evaporation?
Part 2: Water, Wind, and Clouds
32. What is the water cycle?
33. Why do lakes freeze from the surface downward?
34. How does water moderate our weather?
35. What causes the wind?
36. What makes the sound of wind?
37. How does wind picture the Holy Spirit?
38. Why do weather systems have circular motion?
39. What is the jet stream?
40. What is a wind farm?
41. What causes clouds?
42. How are clouds named?
43. What causes fog?
44. Why do jet aircraft sometimes leave contrails?
45. What are noctilucent clouds?
Part 3: Stormy Weather
46. Is there a lull before a storm?
47. Does Psalm 29 describe a storm?
48. What causes rain and snow?
49. What are biblical reasons for rain?
50. Has it ever rained frogs or fish?
51. What is acid rain?
52. How does cloud seeding work?
53. What gives a snowflake its shape?
54. Is every snowflake different?
55. What are some useful properties of snow?
56. What causes lightning and thunder?
57. Does lightning have a purpose?
58. Can lightning strike the same place twice?
59. Do certain trees tend to attract lightning?
60. What is ball lightning?
61. What is Saint Elmo’s fire?
62. What happens to thunder?
63. How do lightning rods work?
64. What causes a rainbow?
65. What makes a squall line?
66. What causes Chinook and Santa Ana winds?
67. Why does the Sea of Galilee have sudden storms?
68. Are there storehouses for hail?
69. Why is a downburst dangerous to aircraft?
70. What causes tornadoes and hurricanes?
71. What are El Niño and La Niña events?
72. Does God send severe storms?
73. Is it acceptable to pray for rain?
Part 4: Past Weather
74. What was the preflood climate?
75. What is the vapor canopy theory?
76. Did it rain before the great flood?
77. Where did the Genesis floodwaters come from?
78. What was weather like during the flood?
79. What happened to the floodwaters?
80. What are the catastrophic plate tectonic and hydroplate theories?
81. Was there an ice age?
82. What froze the woolly mammoths?
83. Did a climate change end the dinosaur era?
84. What is the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction?
85. Was Greenland once green?
86. What was the New Testament climate?
87. Has God controlled history with weather?
88. What was the Little Ice Age?
89. What caused the Dust Bowl of the 1930s?
90. Has the sun’s heat changed in the past?
91. Has our atmosphere evolved over time?
Part 5: Future Weather
92. Is the climate changing?
93. What are some results of a warmer or cooler earth?
94. What is the greenhouse effect?
95. How do rainforests impact the weather?
96. Should Christians be concerned with the environment?
97. How does feedback control the weather?
98. What is the future weather on an evolutionary time scale?
99. Do current weather changes predict the end of the world?
100. What weather events are predicted for the end times?
101. What will be the weather in the distant future?

Glossary
Scripture Index
Subject Index
About the Author
Back Ads
Back Cover
Figures and Tables
Figures
1. Moon phases (Q. 6)
2. Layers of the atmosphere (Q. 7)
3. Composition of the air (Q. 8)
4. Sunlight hitting the earth (Q. 10)
5. The sun’s annual path (Q. 16)
6. Earth’s orbit around the sun (Q. 17)
7. Weather satellites (Q. 28)
8. Structure of ice (Q. 53)
9. Meteor shower (Q. 100)
Tables
1. Wind chill and comfort index (Q. 20)
2. Floods and storms (Q. 99)
3. End-Time events (Q. 100)
Foreword
This book is a real treasure. It is packed with fascinating information, scientifically accurate, and completely true to Scripture, yet also easy and enjoyable to read. Weather and the Bible deals with a subject of universal interest in a uniquely refreshing manner, using a question-and-answer format that makes it difficult to put down, yet also nice just for browsing.
Donald DeYoung is a Christian physicist by profession and a Christian gentleman in character. He has already written several books relating science and Scripture, the most recent being Astronomy and the Bible (1989), a useful and well-received book of similar format to this present book. He knows science and can communicate it effectively; the same is true of his facility in the Bible.
He has been a respected member of the science faculty at Grace College in Indiana for many years, and is editor of the Creation Research Society Quarterly . In addition, he is an adjunct professor at the Institute for Creation Research Graduate School of Science in San Diego. Thus Don DeYoung is both an honored colleague and a personal friend.
I am pleased to write a foreword for this fine new book. I commend it heartily to everyone—young and old alike—as a book both to be enjoyed and from which to learn.
Henry M. Morris President, Institute for Creation Research 1992
Addendum
The preceding paragraphs were written by Dr. Henry Morris (1918–2006) for the previous edition of this book. Dr. Morris is known by many as the “father” of the modern creation science movement. His gracious defense of biblical creation over a lifetime continues to encourage many others to take up the cause of scientific research and study.
The astronomy book which Dr. Morris mentions has gone through three revisions, most recently in 2010. Instead of the Creation Research Society Quarterly editor, I am now honored to lead the Society as president. The Institute for Creation Research has relocated to Dallas, TX.
Donald B. DeYoung 2014
Introduction
Many of us keep a close watch on the weather. With each new day the weather helps determine what we will wear, the extent of outside activities, and perhaps our outlook for the day. This book is written to help readers notice and enjoy the major components of the weather. Instead of a comprehensive text on meteorology, the discussion gets quickly to the point, whether explaining why lightning strikes particular trees or how Greenland got its unusual name.
When appropriate I have interacted with biblical texts. Scripture provides us with a rich source for exploring the Creator’s provision of the earth’s weather system. Readers will notice that this book promotes a recent, supernatural view of origins. I find this to be an insightful and accurate approach to the study of nature. The global flood of Noah’s day is also taken as a major event in the history of the earth.
The book uses a question-and-answer format. Many of the 101 weather questions come from students in the college classroom. Other weather questions (the most difficult!) were asked by children in elementary school presentations.
Ongoing discussions and debates center on climate change, rising sea levels, ozone depletion, air pollution, and related troubling issues. Is there any positive weather news to report? The answer is a firm yes, but only in the light of God’s Word. The creation has been burdened by the Curse ever since Genesis 3, yet it still displays beauty, complexity, and wonder. The weather is no exception, and it has thus far frustrated our best efforts to control or make accurate predictions. Our precious atmosphere has the ability to purify itself as it adjusts to major environmental changes. Even with more than one billion vehicles and smokestacks emitting noxious gases, most locations across the earth still have clean, refreshing air to breathe daily. How is the world weather system designed to give us life? This book explores that and other questions from the refreshing perspective of biblical creation.
Donald B. D