Vol01no01 Eli Soriano Theblog

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Is There Another Earth? All my life I have been interested in Science. Fate has it, I believe, that this interest led me to the study of the Holy Scriptures. The Bible even enhanced my interest in everything scientific. The first time I heard Johnny Mathis singing “Fly Me to the Moon,” the lyrics and the melody were already printed in my mind. Do you want me to prove this? Pardon my voice, but I can sing it with gusto! e s o r i a n o . w o r d p r e s s . c o m

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I am interested about everything around me. I observe keenly how ants move, how birds fly, and how people live their lives. In my elementary grades, when I first heard the Darwinian Theory on evolution, the first doubt that came into my mind was that, if humans came from apes, why are there people with faces that look like horses and dogs? I am not a scientist and have never finished any degree in any branch of Science, but I always have with me a scientific attitude and approach in the study of everything I am interested in. The very recent discovery of a planet 2 light-years away from the earth, which they say is very much ‘earthlike,’ made it to the headlines of global news reports. This led to the resurrection of the very frequently asked question: Is there life in other places of the universe?

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Are there other planets that can sustain life much like that of the earth? I am sure of the answer! And my answer comes from the book which I have revered all my life because it is the only book that I found to be logical and scientific in answering not only the questions of hundreds of thousands of people I am favored to meet, but my own questions which I do not hear from other people. The Bible has it! In the book of Acts 17:26-27, it is written – “And He has made all nations of men of one blood to dwell on all the face of the earth, ordaining foreappointed seasons and boundaries of their dwelling, to seek the Lord, if perhaps they might feel after Him and find Him, though indeed He is not far from each one of us.”

The verse mentions the planet Earth, and we must especially notice the phrase “bounds of their habitation”. Scientists agree that until now, with all their sophisticated equipments, they have not yet found in the Solar system, or in our galaxy, much more in other distant galaxies, a place that can sustain or support human life. The recent planet discovered has a temperature of 300 degrees centigrade below zero, with its size, 5.5 times larger than that of the earth, and with its year, much shorter than an earth year, implying that it moves on a greater speed than the earth, and revolving on a star which is very much fainter than our sun. It is scientifically impossible for us to live in such a place, period.

“God is an exact God. Reduce the size of the earth; reduce the heat of the sun; and we will freeze.”

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God is an exact God. Reduce the size of the earth; reduce the heat of the sun; and we will freeze. Make it a little closer to the sun and we will be baked or burned. Make it as large as Mars and our weight will be more than doubled. The Earth’s size and distance from the sun are the exact measurements needed to sustain human life! GOD MEASURED IT. You want proof? Read the book of Job 38:4, it says: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell if you have understanding! Who has set its measurements, for you know? Or who has stretched the line on it? On what are its bases sunk, or who cast its cornerstone...” After all, the universe is the handy work of God’s hand.

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Psalms 19:1-3 has this to say: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the expanse proclaims His handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor are there words; their voice is not heard.” Undoubtedly, there are other planets in our own galaxy and in billion other galaxies, but the reason why God created man on Earth from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7) is because it is the only planet in the entire universe wherein human life will comfortably fit. Think of this: The best place for your eyes is where it is now. Put them a little below, i.e., in the belly or thighs and you can imagine how ugly your person will be. Put your nose or ears in other places of your body and you will not be a work of art, as written in the book of Hebrews 2:6-7

“But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands:” Human efforts and resources, which scientists devote in searching for other worlds that can sustain life, will be futile! Let us search, instead, from the Holy Scriptures the kingdom and the righteousness of God and discover a world called a “new Earth” where righteousness, peace, and love dwell (2 Peter 3:13). “But according to His promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”

“But according to His promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”

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Indeed, ignorance of the Bible will lead somebody to ‘wrestle’ the word of God! (2 Peter 3:16) “As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction.”

when he wrote to the Colossians that he was able to preach the Gospel to ‘every’ creature which is under heaven. At about the same time that Paul was preaching the gospel to the known world (the world of the Roman Empire), the famous Rice Terraces in Banaue, Mountain Province in the Philippines is being built by the Ifugaos, one of the aborigines of the Filipinos. The Banaue Rice Terraces are 2000-year old terraces that were carved into the mountains of Ifugao in the Philippines by ancestors of the Batad indigenous people. It is commonly thought that the terraces were built with minimal equipment, largely by hand. The terraces are located approximately 1500 meters (5000 feet) above sea level and cover 10,360 square kilometers (about 4000 square miles) of mountainside. They are fed by an ancient irrigation system from the rainforests above the terraces. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Banaue_Rice_Terraces)

“The idea of a worldwide flood did not come from the Bible, but from people who do not understand its language!” But Paul did not reach the Philippines, or the Americas, so, having flexibility in mind in understanding the language of the Bible we can discern that what the apostle Paul means when he said he “preached the gospel to every creature under heaven”, is to the people only of the known world then. Incidentally, the Philippines was discovered only in the sixteenth century by the Europeans led by Ferdinand Magellan. When the Bible classified the bats (Leviticus 11:13,19) as belonging to the ‘oph’ (Hebrew), it means that it is classified with those “as covering with wings” or those “that flieth”. e s o r i a n o . w o r d p r e s s . c o m

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seventeenth century.

ôph From H5774; a bird (as covered with feathers, or rather as covering with wings), often collective: - bird, that flieth, flying, fowl (Dictionaries of Hebrew and Greek Words taken from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance by James Strong, S.T.D., LL.D., 1890.) Detractors of the Bible say that it is not scientific because science classifies bats as belonging to the mammalian group. They rely very much on science, and for them science is the final authority of what they believe. This author is not against science, but human science is not as exact as ‘divine science’ in the Scriptures. (Daniel 1:4) “Children in whom was no blemish, but well favored, and skillful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans.” Human science has classified plants and animals only on the

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At any one time in history, there are millions of different kinds of plants and animals in the world. In 1753, a scientist in Sweden named Carolus Linnaeus thought of an orderly system for classifying plants and animals. He grouped all organisms according to a two-part name (binomial). The first part of the name is the “generic” grouping or genus. The second part is the “specific” grouping or species. Scientists today still use this basic idea of his system, but modern classifications systems are much more complicated having many levels of hierarchical organization. For example, taxonomic systems group organisms according to structure and physiological connections between organisms. (http://www.fi.edu/tfi/units/life/ classify/classify.html)

Before these times, the acceptable classifications for bats, because they fly, is that they belong to the ‘ophs’ or the fowls, or the birds. The book of Leviticus was written almost 2500 years before classifications in human science came. Note that the classification introduced by Linnaeus employs two basic ideas: the ‘generic’ and the ‘specific’. The classification used in the Bible is exactly generic, and therefore, in a way, scientific! After all, the word mammal is not

in the Bible! The word mammalia was coined by Linnaeus only in 1758! Mammalia (1773), coined 1758 by Linnaeus for the class of mammals, from neut. pl. of L.L. mammalis “of the breast,” from L. mamma “breast,” perhaps cognate with mamma. (http://www.etymonline.com/ index.php?search=mammal&sear chmode=none) The book of Leviticus that records the existence of bats was written by Moses in around 1512 BC, more than three thousand years before Linnaeus was born! When the apostles were commissioned by the Lord Jesus Christ to make disciples and ‘teach all nations’, the Lord Jesus Christ knows, and the apostles understood it, that He speaks only of all nations of the ‘known world’. It is impossible for the apostles to physically reach the Americas or my country, the Philippines. The apostles do not have the slightest idea that there are countries existing that time, like the Philippines and the Americas! The phrase “all nations” does not necessarily include all nations of the world or the whole earth. When the Bible mentioned that the whole ‘erets’ was flooded, it does not necessarily mean that the whole world, including the seas, were flooded! Remember that the

word ‘erets’ was used in the Bible, not only to mean the planet earth, but also the dry land. Most probably, Noah lived not far from where Adam and Eve lived. He is about the tenth generation from Adam. Adam and Eve lived not far from Eden after being expelled from the garden of Eden. Eden is within Turkey. So, the probability is that the flood happened within Turkey. The highest mountain ranges in Turkey are the mountains of Ararat. It was where the ark rested. (Genesis 8:4) “And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.” The mountains of Ararat are at the extreme eastern part of Turkey. The ark of Noah did not go too far from ground where it floated because it was not meant to travel, but to float. The idea of a worldwide flood did not come from the Bible, but from people who do not understand its language! e s o r i a n o . w o r d p r e s s . c o m

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Uric Acid; Toxic Component of Meat to Humans About 5% of the flesh volume of all animals consists of waste material called uric acid that is normally eliminated by the kidneys. Uric acid is a poison to humans because it is toxic and nonmetabolizable. Nearly 100% of Americans suffer some form of osteoporosis

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which is due in large part, to the acidic end-products of meat (and grain) eating. All carnivorous animals however, secrete the enzyme uricase that breaks down uric acid so it can be readily eliminated. Humans do not generate this enzyme. Instead, we ABSORB uric acid when meat is eaten. As a result, calcium-urate crystals form and concentrate in joints, feet, and in the lower back. These deposits lead to arthritis, gout, rheumatism, bursitis, and lower back pain. Humans are physiologically unsuited to utilizing meat as food. Natural carnivores swallow hunks of carrion almost unchewed, and the flesh is digested in the stomach with ease and facility. If humans were to do the same, we would digest very little of it before putrefaction set in and illness ensued. For humans, meat is a pathogenic and nutritionally deficient food. Saliva pH Varies Widely Among Species