Good Heavens! The Human Side of Astronomy

How does philosophy inform modern physics? And how do physicists incorporate philosophy into their research? On this episode, we dive into those questions with philosopher Dr. Timothy McGrew and astrophysicist Dr. Luke Barnes in order to help you fine tune your thinking about the fine tuning of the universe. Critics of the fine-tuning argument will often invoke probabilities in order to get around the argument's deeper implication of the existence of God. Tim and Luke will explore some of the issues in probability theory as it informs the physics of the fine-tuning argument. Dr. Timothy McGrew https://timothymcgrew.com/ Timothy McGrew is Professor of Philosophy at Western Michigan University, where he has taught for the past 25 years. His research interests include formal epistemology, the history and philosophy of science, and the history and philosophy of religion. When he is not doing philosophy, he enjoys playing chess online, coaching at his local chess club, running trails, and making high quality paper airplanes. He lives in SW Michigan with his wife, Lydia McGrew, and their daughters. Dr. Luke Barnes. https://letterstonature.wordpress.com/luke/ Dr Luke A. Barnes is a Senior Lecturer in Physics at Western Sydney University. With a PhD in astronomy from the University of Cambridge, he has published papers in the field of galaxy formation and on the fine-tuning of the Universe for life. He is the coauthor with Prof. Geraint Lewis of A Fortunate Universe: Life in a Finely-Tuned Cosmos and The Cosmic Revolutionary's Handbook: (Or: How to Beat the Big Bang), published by Cambridge University Press. Free Articles from Watchman Fellowship Naturalism: https://www.watchman.org/Naturalism/ProfileNaturalism.pdf Scientism: https://www.watchman.org/scientism/ProfileScientism.pdf Atheism: https://www.watchman.org/profiles/pdf/atheismprofile.pdf Additional Resources FREE: We are also offering a subscription to our 4-page bimonthly Profiles here: https://www.watchman.org/Free PROFILE NOTEBOOK: Order the complete collection of Watchman Fellowship Profiles (around 700 pages -- from Astrology to Zen Buddhism) in either printed or PDF formats here: https://www.watchman.org/Notebook SUPPORT: Help us create more content like this. Make a tax-deductible donation here: https://www.watchman.org/Give Good Heavens! is a podcast ministry of Watchman Fellowship For more information, visit https://www.watchman.org/ © 2025 Watchman Fellowship, Inc.

The brand new Vera Rubin Observatory recently opened its 28-foot diameter mirror and snapped a few stunning images that astronomers displayed to the public for the first time in June. You can explore the amazing imagery of the heavens at the observatory's website at this site:  https://rubinobservatory.org/news/first-imagery-rubin Why so many stars? Why is the universe so immensely enormous, beyond our comprehension? What is the universe saying to us? There would be no science of the heavens if the universe was not speaking to us. But what is it saying? And who are we among all these stars? Why are we here to see such wonders? We here at Good Heavens! think it is all because God created us to be here, for such a time as this. He has numbered and named all the stars and knows our names too. And just like He did with stars, God has numbered all the hairs of our head, too, even though we might not be able to see every follicle ourselves. The heavens and our human frames all are fearfully and wonderfully made and attest to God's glory. We continue our conversation with author Seth Lewis about his lovely little book The Language of Rivers and Stars - How Nature Speaks of the Glories of God. Come and see! For more about Seth, go to this site:  https://sethlewis.ie/2025/04/30/the-language-of-rivers-and-stars/ To help Texas flood victims, see this site: https://cftexashillcountry.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create/fund?funit_id=4201 Podbean enables our podcast to be on Apple Podcasts and other major podcast platforms.  To support Good Heavens! on Podbean as a patron, you can use the Podbean app, or go to https://patron.podbean.com/goodheavens.  This goes to Wayne Spencer. If you would like to give to the ministry of Watchman Fellowship or to Daniel Ray, you can donate at https://www.watchman.org/daniel. Donations to Watchman are tax deductible.

Despite how secular most disciplines in the physical sciences are today, those who study nature assume that nature is intelligible and that it should be explored. But how does modern science actually explain what nature is saying to us? How do the explain that nature is intelligible to us at all? Is science the only way to understand the physical universe and everything it contains? From silvery meandering rivers to the variegated heavenly canopy of stars above us, all creation is speaking to us, but in the words of the late Dr. Carl Sagan, "Who speaks for Earth?" God does. And creation is His workmanship. He has revealed to us His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine glory, through what He has made. He has given us two books to know Him better, creation and the Bible. We should be diligent students of both. On the next two episodes of Good Heavens this month, we speak with someone who has exegeted the physical creation with great care and attention. His name is Seth Lewis and he is the author of a brilliant little book The Language of Rivers and Stars - How Nature Speaks of the Glories of God. Seth will share with us his insights and wisdom as to how he sees all of creation pointing us, drawing us, toward Christ. You can find out more about Seth and his work on his website: https://sethlewis.ie/2025/04/30/the-language-of-rivers-and-stars/ Here on part one we talk about how we can respond to God through creation and how we can sustain hope through the midst of the terrifying reality of natural disasters. If you would like to donate something, no matter how small, to the flood relief efforts in South Central Texas, visit this website. (https://cftexashillcountry.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create/fund?funit_id=4201 ) Your donations will go directly to those in Kerr County and surrounding regions affected by the flood. Podbean enables our podcast to be on Apple Podcasts and other major podcast platforms.  To support Good Heavens! on Podbean as a patron, you can use the Podbean app, or go to https://patron.podbean.com/goodheavens.  This goes to Wayne Spencer. If you would like to give to the ministry of Watchman Fellowship or to Daniel Ray, you can donate at https://www.watchman.org/daniel. Donations to Watchman are tax deductible.

The Bible tells us that we can see and understand "God's invisible attributes" through what He has created. And this is precisely what former atheist Michael Ray Lewis discovered as he spent three years examining the evidence for Christianity. One of the most impressive arguments he encountered during his time of searching was that of the fine tuning of the universe. Jesus eventually got hold of Michael and not long thereafter his wife encouraged him to make a documentary about the evidence he had uncovered for Christianity. Here on part two of our conversation with filmmaker Michael Ray Lewis, we'll hear the story of how the idea of the film, Universe Designed, became a reality. For more info on the Universe Designed film, click here: https://universedesigned.com/ Podbean enables our podcast to be on Apple Podcasts and other major podcast platforms.  To support Good Heavens! on Podbean as a patron, you can use the Podbean app, or go to https://patron.podbean.com/goodheavens.  This goes to Wayne Spencer. If you would like to give to the ministry of Watchman Fellowship or to Daniel Ray, you can donate at https://www.watchman.org/daniel. Donations to Watchman are tax deductible.

This is why we produce Good Heavens! God's creation shows us His invisible attributes. He uses His creation to lead us to Christ, through whom and for whom the entirety of the heavens and earth were made (Colossians 1). Dan recently met a former atheist who became a Christian and has recently completed the final edits on a remarkable docudrama film about the cosmos and how it all points us to Jesus. The film is called Universe Designed and it is the passion project of our guest on Good Heavens! for the next two episodes, filmmaker Michael Ray Lewis. Universe Designed rivals anything produced by National Geographic or the Discovery Channel, without the naturalism of course, and is entirely Christ-centered. It is due to be released sometime toward the end of this year. Here on part one, Michael shares with us his story about how God began a good work in his life. For more about the film and how you can help get it into theaters, do visit the website at https://www.universedesigned.com for more information. Podbean enables our podcast to be on Apple Podcasts and other major podcast platforms.  To support Good Heavens! on Podbean as a patron, you can use the Podbean app, or go to https://patron.podbean.com/goodheavens.  This goes to Wayne Spencer. If you would like to give to the ministry of Watchman Fellowship or to Daniel Ray, you can donate at https://www.watchman.org/daniel. Donations to Watchman are tax deductible.

Neptune is the Roman name for the Greek god of the seas and of earthquakes. Poseidon, in Greek mythology, is the father of Polyphemus, the tyrannical, man-eating cyclopes of Homer's Odyssey. Because the Odysseus blinded Polyphemus, it was Poseidon and his wrath which ultimately made Odysseus' trip home a little more circuitous than was to the Big O's liking. Thankfully, Poseidon and his offspring exist only in the long-gone minds and imaginations of Homer and the Greco-Roman world. But there is a true King of king and Lord of lords, which even the wind, wave, continental plates and distant planets obey. Who is this King of Glory? How do the heavens declare His glory? And what might the enigmas and mysteries of our solar system's most distant planet tell us about Him? Come and see! To see pictures comparing the actual colors of Uranus and Neptune see this article. https://www.space.com/uranus-neptune-similar-shades-of-blue-voyager-2-images Music featured for the first 7 minutes of the broadcast comes from Gustav Holst, The Planets Op 32 Vii Neptune The Mystic https://youtu.be/cZt9oXP1OKc?si=d8ZYuTbYtSKuwXtN CNN special episode of Voyager 2 arrival at Neptune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwb-o5N9LBM Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BqnN72OlqA Sarah Salviander article https://sarahsalviander.substack.com/p/top-10-reasons-ill-never-go-back Wayne's blog article on 'Easter - Then and Now' https://creationanswers.net/answersblog/2025/04/18/easter-then-and-now/ Podbean enables our podcast to be on Apple Podcasts and other major podcast platforms.  To support Good Heavens! on Podbean as a patron, you can use the Podbean app, or go to https://patron.podbean.com/goodheavens.  This goes to Wayne Spencer. If you would like to give to the ministry of Watchman Fellowship or to Daniel Ray, you can donate at https://www.watchman.org/daniel. Donations to Watchman are tax deductible.

You don't hear much about Uranus these days. Probably because it's 1.8 billion miles away, or maybe because the last time an Earth-launched satellite probe visited the enigmatic ringed world was in 1986. A few years ago the James Webb Space Telescope took the beauteous portrait of Uranus you see in the thumbnail, but for the most part, most folks don't think much about the quirky planet that orbits the sun whilst rolling on its side. Hopefully, this episode will at least make you think about Uranus as a work of art, the "handiwork" of God (Psalm 8 and 19), which silently declares His glory. The background music you hear in the introduction is from Gustav Holst's - The Planets, Op. 32 - VI. Uranus, the Magician [Copyright Free]. https://youtu.be/DEb1gtMljyA?si=e8qCMcurFy18Gmte Uranus press conference original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAEUvts2F6g Book on Uranus and Neptune (not Christian): https://a.co/d/8QlE8ur Also, this is Wayne's blog with an article on Easter and Jesus' resurrection: https://creationanswers.net/answersblog/   Podbean enables our podcast to be on Apple Podcasts and other major podcast platforms.  To support Good Heavens! on Podbean as a patron, you can use the Podbean app, or go to https://patron.podbean.com/goodheavens.  This goes to Wayne Spencer. If you would like to give to the ministry of Watchman Fellowship or to Daniel Ray, you can donate at https://www.watchman.org/daniel. Donations to Watchman are tax deductible.

What does the Bible say about the sun? What is the purpose of the sun? Why did God create it? How does the sun remind us of God's invisible attributes? How could there have been life on earth before the sun? How can we best understand both what the Bible says and what science says about our sun? The sun was designed and created for God's glory; for signs and for seasons, for days and years, to govern the day, and to give light on the earth. Come and see with Wayne and Dan what the Bible and the Parker Solar Probe can tell us not only about the sun, but about what God is like.   Audio clips used in this episode: Grackles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLteSIxC1hs Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OwP2MONfcE Dr. Carl Sagan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLPkpBN6bEI Dr. Nour Rawafi Ted Talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hktbamn2jX4 Podbean enables our podcast to be on Apple Podcasts and other major podcast platforms.  To support Good Heavens! on Podbean as a patron, you can use the Podbean app, or go to https://patron.podbean.com/goodheavens.  This goes to Wayne Spencer. If you would like to give to the ministry of Watchman Fellowship or to Daniel Ray, you can donate at https://www.watchman.org/daniel. Donations to Watchman are tax deductible.  

Our thumbnail image this week is not a doctored or photoshopped image, but a genuine picture of the sun from October 2024. Taken in 193 angstrom light on Oct. 26, 2024, NASA captured our sun in a state of rejoicing, or so it seemed (image credit NASA/GSFC/SDO). The darker regions you see that comprise the eyes and mouth are actually regions of the surface of the sun that have been blasted off by coronal mass ejections that can trigger solar storms here on earth. In fact, solar storm warnings were issued because of this particular image. All that "missing" material is fired off into space and some of it could (and did) strongly interact with Earth's atmosphere, creating the Northern Lights effect. The charged particles from the sun interact with the magnetic field of Earth, which shields us from just such ejections. Without the magnetic shield, Earth's atmosphere would be stripped bare by these solar ejecta. This is a perfect analogy to what the Bible says about God in Psalm 84:11. "Our God is a sun and shield." The radiant and fiercely powerful light of the sun reminds us of God as a "consuming fire", while the Earth's magnetic field reminds us that God is a shield to us. We are protected by God's wrath through Christ on the cross. God provides us with His own righteous shield, in the person of His Son Jesus who, upon the cross, has taken away our sin. Come and see what the Bible and the Parker Solar Probe have to say about our Sun, the handiwork of God. EPISODE NOTE: In the beginning of part one, Dan mentions the faint, young sun problem but we forgot to get back to it. So here is an article about the problem you can check out if you're interested! https://creation.com/young-sun-paradox Audio clips featured in part one ABC DFW Northern Lights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XM6FJbehp28 Solar Probe whistle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50kwxyFQalI Solar Probe CME sounds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF_e5eYgJ3Y Podbean enables our podcast to be on Apple Podcasts and other major podcast platforms.  To support Good Heavens! on Podbean as a patron, you can use the Podbean app, or go to https://patron.podbean.com/goodheavens.  This goes to Wayne Spencer. If you would like to give to the ministry of Watchman Fellowship or to Daniel Ray, you can donate at https://www.watchman.org/daniel. Donations to Watchman are tax deductible.

How might things like "spooky action at a distance" or mysterious as "dark matter" point us to the glory of God? Whether you are a theist or a non-theist or a Christian who believes in a young or an old universe, we can all agree on at least one thing. The universe is a fascinating place in which we find ourselves. That the universe is intelligible to us is even more remarkable. But here at Good Heavens! we like to think the cosmos is more than just fascinating. We believe, as the Bible reveals, that the physical cosmos, at both the incredibly large and infinitesimally small scales, reveal to us something about God's invisible attributes. As both the psalms and Isaiah tell us, the whole of the heavens and earth are filled with the glory of God. Often we are told that Christianity and science cannot possibly go together, however. But hopefully our special guests will continue to dispel that misconception. As mentioned on part one, Dan had the remarkable opportunity this month (January) at the Defend 2025 apologetics conference at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary to have a fun and inspiring chat with not one, but two Christians who are professionally and popularly published doctors of the cosmos (at the same time!), one who studies the subatomic scale and one who studies galaxies, some of the largest entities in the cosmos. Dr. Michael G. Strauss is a particle physicist at CERN and the University of Oklahoma and Dr. Luke Barnes is a researcher and lecturer of cosmology and astrophysics at Western Sydney University in Sydney, Australia. Both have published works at the professional and popular levels. It was a wonder and a privilege to get them both at the table together to hear their insights about the structure of the universe at the large and small scales and how they see God in all of it. Here on part two, we chat about spooky action at a distance, the mystery of dark matter, and we'll glean some insights as to how we as Christians can have conversations about our differences in relation to the age of the universe. Good Heavens! this was a fun conversation. We hope you'll enjoy it as much as Dan did putting it together for you! Soli Deo Gloria. More about Luke More about Michael Luke's books  Michael's book Podbean enables our podcast to be on Apple Podcasts and other major podcast platforms.  To support Good Heavens! on Podbean as a patron, you can use the Podbean app, or go to https://patron.podbean.com/goodheavens.  This goes to Wayne Spencer. If you would like to give to the ministry of Watchman Fellowship or to Daniel Ray, you can donate at https://www.watchman.org/daniel. Donations to Watchman are tax deductible.