Saturday 27 January 2024
Yet more re:the God hypothesis.
Andrew Klavan and Stephen Meyer Talk God and Science
On a classic episode of ID the Future, philosopher of science Dr. Stephen C. Meyer sits down with talk show host and bestselling novelist Andrew Klavan to discuss Meyer’s Return of the God hypothesis. In this fast-paced conversation the pair touch on the Judeo-Christian roots of science, how fine-tuning in physics and cosmology point to intelligent design, and how a great many scientists held out hope that the universe was eternal and therefore did not require a creator, until the evidence for a cosmic beginning mounted. What about the multiverse hypothesis as an escape for atheists wishing to explain away the evidence for a cosmic designer? Meyer explains why it fails the test of Occam’s razor. Finally, Meyer and Klavan discuss a noted atheist philosopher who frankly admits that he doesn’t want theism to be true and yet also admits that modern Darwinism has failed and that the evidence for design in various scientific fields is too powerful to be ignored.
Download the podcast or listen to it here.
Friday 26 January 2024
The rise of the machines is a thing?
Artificial General Intelligence: An Idol for Destruction
Artificial general intelligence, or AGI, if it is ever achieved, would be a computing machine that matches and then exceeds all human cognitive ability. To those like Ray Kurzweil, who are convinced that humans in their essence are computing machines, humans will soon achieve AGI by creating such machines. Then for a time, humans will become cyborgs, merging with machines. But ultimately, humans will dispense with their bodies, uploading themselves without remainder onto machines. In this way, they will achieve digital immortality.
This vision, which I will be considering in a series at Evolution News, has captured the imagination of many, though not always with the optimism of Kurzweil. Worries about a dystopian AGI future in the vein of Skynet (The Terminator), Hal 9000 (2001: A Space Odyssey), or the Matrix (The Matrix) are widespread. Elon Musk, for instance, sees the coming of AGI as a greater threat to humanity than nuclear weapons, and thus warns about placing safeguards on artificial intelligence, as it currently is being developed, so that as AGI emerges, it doesn’t run amuck and kill us all. Musk’s worry loses some urgency because AGI does not appear to be imminent. Even with the recent impressive advances in artificial intelligence, the improvements have been domain specific (text generation, automatic driving, game playing) rather than all encompassing, as they must be for a true AGI.
Even so, many notable intellectuals and influencers are now convinced that AGI is in our near future. Some, like Kurzweil, think this will be the best thing ever to happen to humanity. Others, like Musk, see grave dangers. But even Musk feels the siren call to play a part in bringing about AGI. Take his Neuralink initiative, which is to “create a generalized brain interface to restore autonomy to those with unmet medical needs today and unlock human potential tomorrow.” The Neuralink brain interface is invasive, requiring electrodes to be implanted into the brain. It’s one thing for technology to unlock human potential by acting as a servant that minimizes tedious chores so that we can focus on creative work. But it’s another thing to merge our brains/minds with machines, as with neural implants. To the degree that this merger is successful, the mental will give way to the mechanical and render AGI all the more plausible and appealing.
The Argument of This Series
I will argue in this series that AGI is an idol and so, like all idols, that AGI is a fraud. Idols are always frauds because they substitute a lesser for a greater, demanding reverence for the lesser at the expense of the greater. Granted, we misappraise things all the time. But with idolatry, the stakes are as high as they can be because idolatry misappraises things of ultimate value. The AGI idol is a call to worship technology at the expense of our humanity (and ultimately of God). Humans, as creators of technology, are clearly the greater in relation to technology, and yet AGI would reverse this natural order. The AGI idol demeans our humanity, reducing us to mere mechanism. Because of the inherent fraud in idols, there’s only one legitimate response to them, namely, to destroy them. This series attempts a demolition of the AGI idol.
An obvious question now arises: What if AGI eventually is realized and clearly exceeds every human capability? Will it then cease to be an idol and instead become a widely accepted fact to which we must reconcile ourselves if we are to maintain intellectual credibility — or just be functioning citizens in an increasingly technological world? We might equally ask whether a SETI cult that worships advanced alien intelligences would still be idolaters if aliens superior to us in every way finally did clearly and unmistakably land on Earth. Such counterfactuals, whether for AGI or SETI, raise intriguing possibilities, but for now they are only that. As we will see, the evidence for taking them seriously is lacking.
There are sound reasons to think that AGI is inherently unattainable — that the human mind is not a mechanical device and that artificial intelligence can never bootstrap itself to full human functioning (to say nothing of achieving a human’s full inner life, such as consciousness, emotions, and sensations). I will offer such an argument in this series. But the real point at issue with the AGI idol is the delusional effect it has on its worshippers. For thinking AGI a live possibility, AGI worshippers reduce humans to machines and thereby denigrate our humanity. In this, AGI worshippers are merely following the logic of their beliefs. The key feature of belief is its power to govern our actions and thoughts irrespective of the actual truth of what we believe.
Not every anticipated scientific or technological advance is an idol. It becomes an idol when the prospect of that advance degenerates into religious zealotry aimed at dethroning God. Kurzweil displayed such zeal when he wrote a 2005 book titled The Singularity Is Near and then, without apparent irony, followed it up with a 2024 book titled The Singularity is Nearer. It’s like the old cartoon of a man wearing a sandwich sign with the words “The world ends today!” A cop stops him and says, “Okay, but don’t let me see you wearing that sign tomorrow.” I’m eager for Kurzweil to release The Singularity is Here.
An Even More Intense Zeal
Though Kurzweil’s zeal for AGI may seem hard to beat, we find an even more intense zeal for AGI at OpenAI, whose ChatGPT has put artificial intelligence front and center in the public consciousness. OpenAI chief scientist and board member Ilya Sutskever is reported “to burn effigies and lead ritualistic chants at the company,” such as the refrain “”Feel the AGI! Feel the AGI!” We even find OpenAI cofounder Sam Altman now the subject of articles with titles such as “Sam Altman Seems to Imply That OpenAI Is Building God.” Altman describes AGI as a “magic intelligence in the sky” and foresees that AGI will become an omnipotent superintelligence. Likewise, the Church of AI teaches that “at some point AI will have God-like powers.” If this is not idolatry, what is a more apt description?
Before we go further, let me emphasize that this series is not religious in nature. Granted, I will be using religious terminology and themes to illuminate AGI and its destructive role in misshaping our view of the world and of ourselves. But this series is principally a philosophical and scientific critique of AGI. Religious themes provide a particularly effective lens for understanding the challenges raised by AGI. Worshippers of the AGI idol agree that AGI has yet to be realized but they see its arrival not only as imminent but also as a messianic coming. Whereas artificial intelligence is a legitimate field of study, artificial general intelligence, as its apotheosis, is a religious ideology. AGI worshippers are like those apocalyptic sects that are forever predicting a new order of things and constantly rationalizing why it has yet to arrive, scapegoating those who resist their vision.
The Problem with Idolatry Historically
Before getting into the nuts and bolts of AGI, I want to say more about idolatry and why historically it has been regarded as a problem — indeed, a pernicious evil. Traditionally speaking, an idol attempts to usurp the role of God, putting itself in place of God even though it is not God or anywhere close to God. By analogy, it is an “Antichrist” vying to take the place of the true Christ. The Greek preposition “anti,” when appearing in modern English, is usually translated as “against.” But “anti” in the Greek actually means “instead of.” The Antichrist falsely assumes the role of the true Christ. Idols are always “anti” in this sense to whatever has, up to now, been regarded as of ultimate value (which traditionally has always been God).
In the Old Testament of the Bible, idolatry is universally condemned. The first two of the Ten Commandments are explicitly against it: Don’t have any other gods (except God) and don’t make any graven image of any gods (even of God). It can be argued that the last of the Ten Commandments is also against idolatry, namely, the prohibition against coveting. In the New Testament Epistle to the Colossians, the apostle Paul warns against covetousness, which he explicitly identifies with idolatry (Col. 3:5). But what is covetousness except an inordinate desire for something to advance one’s selfish interests at the expense of others and ultimately of God? It is placing a created thing above God as well as above creatures made in the image of God (namely, other humans). In his Four-Hundred Chapters on Love (I.5 and I.7), the seventh-century Christian saint Maximus the Confessor elaborated on this connection between covetousness and idolatry:
If all things have been made by God and for his sake, then God is better than what has been made by him. The one who forsakes the better and is engrossed in inferior things shows that he prefers the things made by God to God himself… If the soul is better than the body and God incomparably better than the world which he created, the one who prefers the body to the soul and the world to the God who created it is no different from idolaters.
Idols are inherently ideational. An image carved into wood is just an image, but it becomes an idol depending on the ideas we attach to it and the reverence we give those ideas. What’s important about idols is their perceived, not their actual, connection to reality. Consequently, AGI’s power as an idol does not reside in its attainability but in the faith that it is attainable. Idols can be given physical form, as the idols of old. But they can be purely ideational. The great movements of mass murder in the 20th century were governed by ideas that captured people’s imaginations and produced a collective insanity. These idols of the mind are arguably more pernicious than the physical idols created by ancient cultures, which can be reverenced without understanding. But an idol of the mind created out of ideas must, by its nature, be understood to be reverenced.
Prohibitions against idolatry abound in the Old Testament. Yet most of those prohibitions do not explain what exactly is wrong with idolatry. In the worldview of the Old Testament, idolatry was so obviously wrong that its condemnation was typically enough, requiring no further justification. The uncreated God who resides in heaven surpasses any humanly created idol — end of story. But Isaiah 44:9-20 examines the problem of idolatry more deeply. The idol maker who fells a tree uses part of it for basic needs like warmth and cooking, and from the remainder crafts an idol. This idol, despite being the handiwork of the idol maker, thereby becomes an object of worship and devotion.
Isaiah’s critical insight is to explain the idol’s deceptive power. The craftsman, blinded by his own creativity, fails to recognize the idol as merely his creation, and so becomes entrapped in worshiping a delusion: “A deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, ‘Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?’” (Isaiah 44:20, NIV) Unlike other Old Testament passages that emphasize the uselessness of idols, Isaiah points out a more insidious danger: the temptation to craft gods according to our own desires and specifications and then to delude ourselves into thinking that these mere creations are worthy of our highest regard, which is to say worthy of our worship. When we worship something that is not worthy of our worship, we degrade ourselves. (This and the previous paragraph are drawn from Leslie Zeigler’s talk at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1994 titled “Christianity or Feminism?”)
Effusive Praise and Hushed Awe
Just to be clear, I understand that to the modern secular mind, the language of idolatry and worship will seem out of place and off-putting. But given the effusive praise and hushed awe with which the advent of AGI is being greeted, this language is hardly a stretch. The secular prophets who are promising AGI, who are earnestly striving to be at the forefront of ushering it in, see themselves as creating the greatest thing humans have ever created, which they advertise as a giant leap forward in our evolution. Even if AGI were to turn against them and the rest of humanity, killing all of us, they would view AGI as the pinnacle of human achievement and take satisfaction in whatever role they might play in its creation.
If idolatry is so gross an evil, what should be done about it? In the Old Testament, idols were embodied in physical things (golden calves, fertility images, carvings of Baal), and so the obvious answer to idolatry was the physical destruction of the idols. But the problem with idolatry is not ultimately with an idol’s physical embodiment but with what’s in the heart of the idolaters that turns them away from the true God to lesser realities. That’s why, in both the Old and New Testaments, the call is not just to destroy physical idols but more importantly to change one’s heart so that it is directed toward God and away from the idols. Without that, people will simply keep returning to the idols (as with the constant refrain in the Book of Judges that the Israelites yet again did evil in the sight of the Lord by worshipping idols). In the Old Testament, God’s people are called to turn (Hebrew shuv) from evil and return to a right relationship with God. In the New Testament, the same concept takes the form of redirecting one’s mind (Greek metanoia), and is typically translated as repentance.
How then to get people to turn or repent from idolatry? Ultimately, overturning idolatry requires humility, realizing that we and our creations are not God, and that only God is God. The eastern Orthodox theologian Alexander Schmemann saw the problem clearly: “It is not the immorality of the crimes of man that reveal him as a fallen being; it is his ‘positive ideal’ — religious or secular — and his satisfaction with this ideal.” For AGI worshippers, AGI is as positive an ideal as exists. The answer to it is humility, realizing that AGI will never rival God and thus also never rival the creatures made in God’s image, namely, ourselves. In particular, we do not get to create God.
The closest thing to AGI in the Bible is the Tower of Babel. The conceit of those building the tower was that its “top may reach unto heaven.” (Genesis 11:4) Seriously?! Shouldn’t it have been obvious to all concerned that however high the tower might be built, there would always be higher to go? Even with primitive cosmologies describing the “vault” or “arch” of heaven, it should have been clear that heaven would continually elude these builders’ best efforts. Indeed, there was no way the tower would ever reach heaven. And yet the builders deluded themselves into thinking that this was possible. Interestingly, God’s answer to the tower was not to destroy it but to confuse its builders by disrupting their communications so that they simply discontinued building it. AGI’s ultimate fate, whatever its precise form, is to run aground on the hubris of its builders.
Thursday 25 January 2024
On the ingenious design of trees.
Paper Digest: Are Trees Well Designed?
Editor’s note: Evolution News is delighted to continue an occasional series, “Paper Digest,” looking back at past publications in peer-reviewed journals of interest in the debate about intelligent design.
Back in 2004 in the Journal of Engineering Design, Stuart Burgess, a longtime proponent of intelligent design theory, and D. Pasini Published on the physics and design principles of trees. Specifically, the study looks at the mass-efficiency of the structural shapes and forms found in trees. Burgess and Pasini explain that their purpose is “to understand how high levels of mass-efficiency are achieved [in trees] and to identify lessons for engineering designers.”
Consistent with Burgess’s general research strategy — using the assumption of good design in nature to guide investigation, further scientific knowledge, and better elucidate how natural systems work — this paper is an excellent example of how ID research can be applied in a scientific discipline.
A Key Step in Reverse Engineering.
To classify the function of structural features of a tree, Burgess and Pasini use a methodology called a function-means tree. This is just a graphical way of identifying a hierarchy of functions, beginning with the highest and then depicting how these are fulfilled by lower-level functions. Building this hierarchy of objectives is a very important step in reverse engineering because it helps one to understand the functional reasons for structures observed in nature.
Major Sources of Load
To appreciate the design of a tree, Burgess and Pasini explain that it is important to understand the major sources of loading or forces that a tree must endure. These loads come from the wind and the weight of the tree itself. Using their engineering toolset, Burgess and Pasini offer equations to estimate the aerodynamic force due to the wind, the bending of the trunk, and the maximum stress the tree endures. From these equations, they discover the engineering importance of a tree’s structural design features, such as a tapered trunk and the structural hierarchy of little branches being supported by bigger branches. They also discover fun facts like large trees don’t have greater bending stress than small ones, but taller trees might have greater bending stress due to higher wind speeds further up from the ground. They authors are also able to determine some of the fail points and they note that for storms with winds of greater than 100 mph, trunks and branches are very vulnerable to breaking.
Next, Burgess and Pasini discuss the self-weight of the tree trunk and note that the compressive stress is not significant even for large trees because of their structure. Since trees grow straight up and then have branches emerging from all sides, much of the bending stress is alleviated through this excellent design of counterbalance.
Burgess and Pasini mention that one of the most important things about the overall structure of the tree is its structural hierarchy. There is first the trunk, then the main branches, then the secondary branches, and finally the tertiary branches and leaves. This hierarchy provides several advantages. First, it allows the surface area of the tree’s canopy to be linked to its source efficiently. The hierarchy also allows a relatively direct load path from the canopy to the trunk. Finally, the hierarchy mediates the ability for gradual growth. Through their expertise and with the help of a design lens, the authors can reverse engineer and understand the structural design of trees
Structural Features of the Trunk and Main Branches
Key structural features in the trunk include tapering and residual stresses. Tapering is the effect of the top of the trunk having a smaller diameter than the bottom of the trunk. Burgess and Pasini explain that this is a good design because the maximum bending varies the least at the bottom and the most at the top. It also reduces the amount of biomass that the tree must produce. The design of the trunk to bend also enables pre-stressing. This helps to improve the tree’s strength by relieving stress a little at a time instead of all at once in a devastating snap. They explain
When the tree is subjected to aerodynamic loading, bending stresses are superimposed on the residual tensile stresses. Pre-stressing is a beneficial structural feature because when the trunk is subjected to bending moments, the net compressive stresses are less than the net tensile stresses. Since the compressive strength of wood is lower than the tensile strength, the preloading significantly improves the strength of the tree.
Major branches connect the smaller branches to the trunk of the tree, which means they are subject to large loads because of the number of small branches and leaves attached. Burgess and Pasini note that, to compensate, the main branches, just like the trunk, are tapered — with the greatest diameter near the trunk, and tapering to a point. With major branches, the diameter of the branch changes from circular to rectangular, and the depth, especially at the connection point, is increased to support increased load bearing as the branch supports more and more weight.
How Leaves Minimize Aerodynamic Loading
Burgess and Pasini explain that in engineering, designs are often optimized around either strength or stiffness. When optimizing a design for strength, more flexibility is possible because stiffness is not a strict requirement. The authors observe that trees seem to be structurally designed more for strength. This is especially clear when we look at the smaller branches of a tree and its leaves, which readily deform in the wind, thereby minimizing aerodynamic loading. Despite their extreme flexibility, the design of the leaves still keeps them stable enough to provide a flat surface for light collection. In engineering, this is called high bending stiffness but low torsional stiffness.
The Structural Role of Roots
Hold-down bolts in concrete, connecting a building to its foundation, are comparable to sinker roots, a type of root that grows deep into the soil. Unlike hold-down bolts, though, roots are multifunctional, providing not only structural support but also water uptake. Burgess and Pasini explain that the lateral roots extend perpendicular to the sinker roots and provide an anchoring system through the creation of a plate of soil to which the tree structure is bound. For some trees with high growth rates, buttresses provide additional support as the underground root systems develop more slowly than canopy growth.
The Amazing Design of Wood’s
Microstructure
Burgess and Pasini briefly discuss the incredible design of wood’s microstructure, which is that of hollow cells with a hexagonal shape. They explain that being hollow reduces the overall density of wood, which reduces the load needed to be borne by the trunk and branches. They also derive an equation for a performance factor, demonstrating how the hexagonal microstructure strengthens the structure significantly.
Inspiration for Engineers
In this publication, Burgess and Pasini describe how trees are incredibly well-designed to withstand the forces of their own weight and the wind. Trees have smart structural design features like a multilayered hierarchy, counterbalance of loads, tapering to preserve resources, flexibility for minimal aerodynamic loading, and an appropriate microstructure. The authors note the structural efficiency of the tree is essential to its survival and ability to fulfill its roles in the ecosystem. Interestingly, engineers use nearly all the structural aspects of trees, but trees still have more multifunctionality than is commonly seen in human engineering. Burgess and Pasini conclude by looking forward, with the expectation that trees still offer additional sources of inspiration for engineers, especially when it comes to “multi-functioning structures with smart, adaptable behavior.”
On the role of the "Logos/prototokos" in the originating of the creation.
John Ch.1:3NIV"Through(dia) him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made."
Colossians Ch.1:15,16KJV"Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16For by (en)him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by(dia) him, and for him: "
Proverbs Ch.8:22NAB"The LORD begot me, the first-born of his ways, the forerunner of his prodigies of long ago;"
Proverbs Ch.8:30NAB"Then was I beside him as his craftsman, and I was his delight day by day, Playing before him all the while,"
The Holy scriptures NEVER use prepositions like "en" and "dia" in connection with JEHOVAH'S Role in the originating of the creation. Instead we read statements like this .
Acts Ch.4:24NIV"When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them."
Genesis Ch.14:19NIV"and he blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth."
Revelation Ch.10:6NIV"And he swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, “There will be no more delay!"
Revelation Ch.4:11NIV"Thou art worthy, O LORD, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."
Note nary an "en" or a "dia" in sight,note also that it is ONLY of the God and Father of Jesus the Lord JEHOVAH are such statements EVER Made. That is because the prepositions "en" and " dia" indicate instrumentality or an intermediary role. Thus the one referred to by these prepositions would not be the source of the authority or resources that made the creation possible but merely the instrument of this source.
E.g Matthew Ch.7:13NIV"“Enter through(dia) the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through(dia) it."
it is not the gate that is doing the entering it is instrument by which the entering is accomplished.
Hebrews Ch.1:1NIV"In the past God spoke to our ancestors through(en) the prophets at many times and in various ways, "
Thus it was JEHOVAH who was revealing his will but the prophets were his instruments.
Likewise at John Ch.1:3 and colossians 1:16 it is the God and Father of the Logos/Prototokos who is accomplishing the originating of his creation. His Logos/prototokos is his instrument.
Wednesday 24 January 2024
Why Origin of Life research struggles to be taken seriously.
Sunlight on the Puzzle of Prebiotic RNA?
In two previous articles for Evolution News (here and here) I have argued against the plausibility of generating biologically relevant polymers (proteins, RNA, and DNA) in a prebiotic world. Much of this argument was based on the requirement for homochirality of the building blocks and the precise chemical bonds necessary to achieve nucleotides for RNA and DNA. Admittedly, some scientists have proposed schemes that are more palatable to skeptics of origin of life (OOL) research. Therefore, here I will explain the positive steps that have recently been taken to solve the enigma of how RNA and DNA may conceivably arise in an abiotic world.
In my earlier article, discussing the discovery of uracil recovered from samples taken from an asteroid, I made clear that formation of RNA (or DNA) building blocks through linking ring-structured nucleobases (uracil, thymine, cytosine, adenine, guanine) to the ring-constrained back bone sugar ribose (or deoxyribose for DNA) is a hopeless abiotic endeavor. The chemistry needed to complete formation of the needed building blocks in high yield without the use of energetically charged substrates and enzymes (as living systems use) is untenable. Several OOL scientists have recognized this drawback. They have chosen a different path, considered below, to propose how biologically relevant nucleotides might have been produced chemically, using only starting compounds believed to be present prebiotically.
Facile Synthesis of Pyrimidine Nucleosides (Cytidine and Uridine)
The chemical scheme envisaged employs a mechanism to build pyrimidine ring structures ab initio on ribose, rather than attempting to link them to this sugar. The entire synthetic process is as follows:
Disparate reaction conditions in the multi-step syntheses (conditions are in bold text):
Step 1) Ribose + cyanamide / 0.2 M sodium carbonate (pH ~10), 55o C -> RAO
Step 2) RAO + cyanoacetylene / hydrosulfide in aqueous formamide, UV light -> Intermediates A
Step 3) Intermediates A / phosphate, anhydrous formamide, heat -> alpha & beta-ribopyrimidines (pyrimidine ribonucleosides completed)
Step 4) Intermediates A + 8-mercaptoadenine / dry state in magnesium chloride, 150o C -> Intermediates B
Step 5) Intermediates B / bisulfate in phosphate (pH 7), 60o C or sulfite in phosphate (pH 8-10), heat, UV light -> Intermediates C
Step 6) Intermediates C / nitrous acid (pH 4) -> adenine and inosine products (purine ribo- and deoxyribonucleosides completed)
The first step uses cyanamide, a compound likely present on the early Earth, to react with ribose in a two-step process that traps the 5-carbon sugar into the required furanose ring conformation.1 This putative RNA precursor, called ribo-aminooxazoline (RAO), now has the first three atoms destined to form the pyrimidine ring already attached to the appropriate carbon of ribose. It is noteworthy that ribose, competing against the other three possible 5-carbon sugars, is the preferential substrate in this reaction. From this point synthesis continues2 via step 2 in the table, using another simple abiotic prospect, cyanoacetylene, resulting in an intermediate that is readily converted to ribocytidine. Thus, in just three steps using simple reactants, the first nucleoside is nearly complete in fairly high yield. This product, however, needs to be in the beta configuration. But this is easily managed by exposure to UV light with a conversion rate as high as 74 percent. UV light also facilitates oxidation of cytosine to uracil (at much lower yield) completing the recipe for production of both pyrimidine nucleosides. The authors in the publication cited above describe an alternative route to uridine, offering some advantages in yield by performing the reaction with cyanoacetylene in the presence of hydrosulfide.
Facile Synthesis of Purine [Deoxy]Nucleosides ([Deoxy]Adenosine and [Deoxy]Inosine)
To tackle the production of purine nucleotides, another putative chemical precursor feasibly present in an abiotic setting (step 4) is reacted in the presence of bisulfate with an intermediate in the alpha-ribocytidine pathway.3 Two isomers of beta-deoxyadenine (dA) result upon UV irradiation where the biologically relevant isomer exhibits yields close to 50 percent. Treatment of dA with nitrous acid gives partial conversion to beta-deoxyinosine (dI). Subsequent research by this group demonstrated the feasibility of producing the corresponding purine ribonucleosides (A and I) by carrying out the first reaction in alkaline sodium sulfite instead of bisulfate.4 The yields of the desired products are appreciably lower than those found for the pyrimidine products (10-40 percent vs 40-50 percent). In summary, these chemical synthetic studies under hypothetical prebiotic conditions have demonstrated respectable yields for the beta versions of ribo pyrimidines and purines as well as for beta versions of deoxyribo purines, representing the canonical building blocks used in biology.
The Homochirality Challenge
None of the studies indicated above differentiate between the two stereoisomers of ribose. Certainly, L-ribose should have been equally present with D-ribose in a prebiotic world, so RAO precursors would likewise be a racemic mixture. Another laboratory explored an innovative approach taking advantage of the fact that chiral molecules can align with a magnetic field due to spin states of all their electrons.5 Enantiomeric pairs of a compound will exhibit spin states aligning with opposing magnetic polarity. This principle is known as chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS). Because magnetite is expected to be abundant in the sediment of bodies of water on the primordial Earth, it was hypothesized that Earth’s magnetic field would serve to magnetize the iron-containing sediment, providing a means to preferentially adsorb RAO enantiomers in different zones based on their CISS. The referenced experiments were performed in Petri dishes simulating this design, placing a magnet underneath the insoluble magnetite. The first round of selection eventually led to RAO crystallization on the magnetite surface, demonstrating a significant enrichment in either D- or L-RAO depending on magnetic polarity.
After collecting the crystals, redissolving them in buffer, and repeating the magnetite-induced selection, the second round of crystallization resulted in optically pure RAO. From experiments like these it was proposed that homochirality of RAO could have been achieved on the prebiotic Earth where a small enantiomeric imbalance is induced within zones to retain preferentially one of the two RAO stereoisomers. With this occurring near shore, water flow redissolves the RAO crystals, followed by a subsequent dry phase when the shoreline recedes. When the water rises to this level again, RAO recrystallizes to a greater enantiomeric excess. That is since the magnetite had been conditionally enhanced magnetically in the previous round through the CISS effect.6 It was suggested that this repeated cycle of adsorption, crystallization, and spin-alignment on the magnetite surface may serve as a positive feedback loop, leading to the ultimate prize of crystalizing homochiral RAO.
Feasibility of This Chemistry Was Demonstrated, but Is It Plausible Under Prebiotic Conditions?
Considering first the proposal to attain homochirality of RAO, weak assumptions are required to accept this achievement. The authors noted that timing of crystallization is important. That is because if crystals are allowed to grow for too long a period of time, enantiomeric excess decreases and thus the chiral spin state training of magnetite is reduced or jeopardized. It would take a string of good fortune to have that cycle spontaneously repeated at the right length of time. It would also be expected that different zones along the shore would each select their own enantiomer of RAO.6 Despite having individual homochiral crystals, over larger areas the opposite stereoisomers are also crystallized. So how do they remain separated before and after undergoing subsequent reactions, leading to nucleoside synthesis? This can be readily accomplished in the laboratory, keeping crystals and their down-stream products isolated. But there is no guarantee they will remain isolated under abiotic situations.
Regarding the synthesis of nucleosides from RAO, several concerns come into play: 1) Multi-step syntheses diminish the yields of final products and increase probabilities of generating by-products that might compete for incorporation into RNA building blocks. The yields of purine nucleosides, in particular, suffer from the requirement for additional steps needed in their synthesis. 2) Most reactions require disparate conditions. How do the reactants in an abiotic environment become sequentially incorporated under these different reaction conditions (Steps 1-6)? In the laboratory this is self-explanatory, but it is not a trivial matter when chemistry is left to stochastic events. 3) Predictions of the chemical repertoire of a prebiotic Earth are largely unsubstantiated. Support for such predictions could potentially come from analyzing samples from other extraterrestrial bodies as was done with the asteroid Ryugu. Retrieval of samples from Mars would be a particularly exciting venue to explore. Without this type of confirmatory data our suppositions of prebiotic chemistry could simply be shooting in the dark. 4) The role of UV light is likely critical to the formation of these RNA building blocks. This can be a double-edged sword as UV light can also damage purines and pyrimidines by several means. 5) A prebiotic synthetic scheme leading to guanine has still not been elaborated. Instead, they propose that inosine, which is included in the schemes presented here, can substitute for guanine since it is able to base pair with cytosine (as guanine does). Inosine, however, is more akin to being a wildcard as it also base pairs with uracil and thymine. Such promiscuous base pairing will undoubtedly limit the functional gamut of RNA/DNA polymers and alter the structural dynamics that we now know are important for the biological roles of many RNAs.
Truly an Extraordinary Solution
I appreciate the quality of work that went into devising chemical schemes to synthesize purine and pyrimidine nucleobases, achieving the mandatory stereo and chemical specificity of furanosyl ribose established in living systems. This is truly an extraordinary solution using alleged prebiotic conditions. In my opinion, other attempts to meet this challenge have not come close to attaining such a level of accuracy. Unfortunately, the most significant problem is how this can be completed without a guided mechanism to direct each successive reaction and maintain respectable yields along the entire process.
Beyond the initial synthesis of nucleic acid building blocks, there are more highly significant concerns once nucleotide chains have been assembled. Adjacent pyrimidines are very prone to form several types of chemical lesions elicited by UV light. Without a series of enzymes to repair such lesions, the repercussions for the damaged RNA/DNA molecule are poor. In current biological systems they result in mutations because of replication errors. Of course, in a prebiotic world repair enzymes would not exist. These concluding remarks shine light (pardon the pun) on future considerations of RNA/DNA polymers in a prebiotic world. If one wonders why origin-of-life science has its skeptics, unpretentious complications like those here reveal concerns and doubts that arise as we contemplate the field.
References
Springsteen G, Joyce GF. Selective derivatization and sequestration of ribose from a prebiotic mix. J Am Chem Soc 2004;126(31):9578-83 doi 10.1021/ja0483692.
Xu J, Tsanakopoulou M, Magnani CJ, Szabla R, Sponer JE, Sponer J, et al. A prebiotically plausible synthesis of pyrimidine beta-ribonucleosides and their phosphate derivatives involving photoanomerization. Nat Chem 2017;9(4):303-9 doi 10.1038/nchem.2664.
Xu J, Chmela V, Green NJ, Russell DA, Janicki MJ, Gora RW, et al. Selective prebiotic formation of RNA pyrimidine and DNA purine nucleosides. Nature 2020;582(7810):60-6 doi 10.1038/s41586-020-2330-9.
Xu J, Green NJ, Russell DA, Liu Z, Sutherland JD. Prebiotic Photochemical Coproduction of Purine Ribo- and Deoxyribonucleosides. J Am Chem Soc 2021;143(36):14482-6 doi 10.1021/jacs.1c07403.
Ozturk SF, Liu Z, Sutherland JD, Sasselov DD. Origin of biological homochirality by crystallization of an RNA precursor on a magnetic surface. Sci Adv 2023;9(23):eadg8274 doi 10.1126/sciadv.adg8274.
Ozturk SF, Bhowmick DK, Kapon Y, Sang Y, Kumar A, Paltiel Y, et al. Chirality-induced avalanche magnetization of magnetite by an RNA precursor. Nat Commun 2023;14(1):6351 doi 10.1038/s41467-023-42130-8.
Re:Norway's war on religious liberty.
Diplomat magazine
By Willy Fautré, director of Human Rights Without Frontiers
HRWF (08.01.2024) – From 8 to 19 January 2024, the District Court of Oslo will examine the de-registration case of Jehovah’s Witnesses on the grounds of their exclusion policy of members, also named disfellowshipping.
The case follows the government’s denial of the Witnesses’ application for state grants in 2021, which they had received for 30 years. These subsidies are not “gifts” but allocations provided for by the Norwegian Constitution and laws to respect the principle of equality between religious communities, whatever their size, since the Church of Norway (Lutheran) is supported by taxpayers’ money.
A timeline in short
On 27 January 2022, the County Governor (Statsforvalteren) for Oslo and Viken, Ms. Valgerd Svarstad-Haugland, issued an administrative decision denying the state subsidy for the year 2021 to Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The starting point of the legal saga was a report addressed to the Ministry of Children and Family Affairs by Prof. Furuli, a professor emeritus of Semitic languages at the University of Oslo and a disfellowshipped Jehovah’s Witness himself, in connection with the exclusion and expulsion policy of members. The question was raised about how the report should be assessed with regard to the registration of and state subsidies to the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Noteworthy is that Prof. Furuli supported a first decision in August 2021 by a Norwegian court “annulling” an ecclesiastical decision where the Jehovah’s Witnesses disfellowshipped one of their female members, Gry Helen NygÃ¥rd. However, this decision was reversed on 9 July 2021 by the Borgarting Court of Appeal and on 3 May 2022 by the Supreme Court of Norway with a unanimous decision (5-0). NygÃ¥rd then took her case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which rejected her complaint without giving any further reason, which is common when the ECHR regards complaints as clearly unfounded.
NygÃ¥rd has also taken her case to a different court, the media, and has found a sympathetic ear from people hostile to Jehovah’s Witnesses.
On 25 October 2022, the County Governor of Oslo and Viken, Ms. Valgerd Svarstad-Haugland, demanded via letter that Jehovah’s Witnesses change their religious beliefs and practices, otherwise they would lose their registration. In her letter, she did not refer to any court decisions or complaints to the police, child welfare authorities, or other relevant authorities. The Witnesses proposed to meet her but she declined their request.
On 22 December 2022, the County Governor revoked their registration as a religious community.
On 30 December 2022, Oslo District Court granted Jehovah’s Witnesses a temporary injunction suspending the County Governor’s decision and pending litigation.
On 26 April 2023, the District Court lifted the injunction in response to a request by the Ministry of Children and Families. The decision was appealed.
On 30 June 2023, the Borgarting Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal on technical grounds.
What are and can be the consequences of the de-registration?
News reports about the State revoking the Witnesses’ registration stigmatize the nearly 12,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses of Norway.
The negative media coverage has led to considerable increase in verbal abuse, physical assaults, as well as vandalism of places of worship (e.g., offensive graffiti, arson).
The community is losing the State’s recognition of their religious marriages as well as some $1.6 million (USD) in government grants.
The State intrusion into the beliefs and practices of Jehovah’s Witnesses that is being examined in Norway can have a very negative impact on other religious communities in Norway and other countries.
The ruling against that religious community “can have consequences for a whole range of other faiths,” stated Dag Øistein Endsjø, professor of Religious studies at the University of Oslo, in an interview published in the newspaper VÃ¥rt Land .
In an editorial, Vebjørn Selbekk (editor-in-chief of the respected Norwegian Christian newspaper, Dagen) expressed fear that the County Governor may go on and sanction other religious groups whose beliefs and practices she happens to disagree with. He regarded the decision as anti-democratic, and expressed the hope that the Jehovah’s Witnesses will “emerge victorious from the upcoming court process.” Noteworthy is that Mr. Selbekk is not a Jehovah’s Witness and is critical of their theology.
Monsignor Torbjørn Olsen, the Secretary of the Catholic Norwegian Bishops’ Conference, wrote in a Norwegian media: “If the denial of registration stands, it may soon only be a matter of time before a number of other communities with ‘incorrect’ positions will be deregistered.”
Last but not least, a collateral damage is also the reaction of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs whose spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, decried the hypocrisy of Norway which deregistered Jehovah’s Witnesses, while criticizing Moscow at international forums for banning that same religious community. She also added that Russia’s nationwide ban is hereby legitimized by the decision in Norway.
Psalms chapter 133 New World Translation study edition
1.Look! How good and how pleasant it is
For brothers to dwell together in unity!+
2 It is like fine oil poured on the head+
That runs down the beard,
Aaron’s beard,+
And runs down onto the collar of his garments.
3 It is like the dew of Herʹmon+
That descends on the mountains of Zion.+
That is where JEHOVAH decreed his blessing
—Life everlasting
Quantum neurology?
Brain as a Quantum System: Theory Gets New Traction
At New Scientist last week, George Musser talked about the way a theory of consciousness that sees the brain as a quantum system is now under reluctant consideration. Musser, author of Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023) went to visit anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff, who — with theoretical physicist Roger Penrose — advances the quantum-based Orch Or Theory (orchestrated objective reduction of the quantum state).
Do Quantum Phenomena Create Conscious
Experience?
Musser explains the basic idea of the Orch Or Theory (OOT), that conscious experience arises from quantum phenomena in the brain. The theory gained little traction in the past because it was difficult to test but Musser thinks that the use of anesthetics on brain organoids (picture above, they are lumps of brain tissue grown in a medium), along with other new methods, may enable the theory to be tested:
Such ideas have existed, in various guises, on the fringes of mainstream consciousness research for decades. They have never come in from the cold because, as their critics argue, there is no solid experimental evidence that quantum effects occur in the brain, never mind a clear idea of how they would give rise to consciousness.
GEORGE MUSSER, “CAN QUANTUM HINTS IN THE BRAIN REVIVE A RADICAL CONSCIOUSNESS THEORY?”, NEW SCIENTIST, 17 JANUARY 2024
What, more specifically, is the Orch Or theory?
In short, it says that consciousness arises when gravitational instabilities in the fundamental structure of space-time collapse quantum wave functions in tiny structures called microtubules that are found inside neurons — and, in fact, in all complex cells.
MUSSER, ”RADICAL CONSCIOUSNESS THEORY?”
In quantum theory, a particle does not really exist as a tiny bit of matter located somewhere but rather as a cloud of probabilities. If observed, it collapses into the state in which it was observed. Penrose has postulated that “each time a quantum wave function collapses in this way in the brain, it gives rise to a moment of conscious experience.”
Hameroff has been studying proteins known as tubulins inside the microtubules of neurons. He postulates that “microtubules inside neurons could be exploiting quantum effects, somehow translating gravitationally induced wave function collapse into consciousness, as Penrose had suggested.” Thus was born a collaboration, though their seminal 1996 paper failed to gain much traction.
Of course, the Nineties was the decade of the Astonishing Hypothesis (Scribner, 1994), wherein Nobel laureate Francis Crick (1916–2004) proclaimed, “You’re nothing but a pack of neurons.” In those days, many thought that materialism had already won and no more sophisticated analysis was needed.
Quantum Processing in Bird Brains
Musser tells us that recent research suggests some kind of quantum processing does occur in the brain. One suggested example is the way a bird’s internal compass includes radicals with an “odd, unpaired electron”:
When these radicals eventually react, the outcome will depend on the strength and orientation of the magnetic field. The thinking is that the bird is sensitive to this in a way that allows it to tell north from south. The process is highly quantum as the radical pair electrons are entangled, which means that they act as a single quantum object, even though they are some distance apart.
MUSSER, ”RADICAL CONSCIOUSNESS THEORY?”
If that’s correct, we already know of at least one quantum process in a nervous system. Linking that up to human consciousness is still a stretch but, he says, scientists are more willing now to at least consider it.
And Other Research?
Musser seems to be on to something. In 2022, for example, researchers at Trinity College in Dublin did experiments that suggest our brains do quantum computation. They think that their finding may help solve a mystery:
Quantum brain processes could explain why we can still outperform supercomputers when it comes to unforeseen circumstances, decision making, or learning something new. Our experiments, performed only 50 meters away from the lecture theater where Schrödinger presented his famous thoughts about life, may shed light on the mysteries of biology, and on consciousness which scientifically is even harder to grasp.
TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN, “NEW RESEARCH SUGGESTS OUR BRAINS USE QUANTUM COMPUTATION,” PHYS.ORG, OCTOBER 19, 2022. THE PAPER IS OPEN ACCESS
Likewise, Dorje C. Brody, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Surrey, hopes that quantum processes can shed light on human behavior. For example, the order in which questions are asked is important in quantum physics but not in classical physics. But in that respect, the human mind often behaves more in a quantum way, he says:
For example, in a study published 20 years ago about the effects that question order has on respondents’ answers, subjects were asked whether they thought the previous US president, Bill Clinton, was honest. They were then asked if his vice president, Al Gore, seemed honest.
When the questions were delivered in this order, a respective 50% and 60% of respondents answered that they were honest. But when the researchers asked respondents about Gore first and then Clinton, a respective 68% and 60% responded that they were honest.
DORJE C. BRODY, “COULD QUANTUM PHYSICS BE THE KEY THAT UNLOCKS THE SECRETS OF HUMAN BEHAVIOUR?,” JANUARY 19, 2024
He sees the human response as more like a quantum system.
How trying to understand human consciousness or behavior via quantum processes will work out is anyone’s guess. But here’s a prediction: It won’t help the cause of materialism much.
Tuesday 23 January 2024
On the bible's historical accuracy re: Media and Persia.
A Book You Can Trust—Part 4
Medo-Persia in Bible History
This is the fourth in a series of seven articles in consecutive issues of Awake! that discuss the seven world powers of Bible history. The objective is to show that the Bible is trustworthy and inspired of God and that its message is one of hope for an end to the suffering caused by man’s cruel domination of his fellow man.
THE ruins of palaces and royal tombs provide only a glimpse of the grandeur, power, and wealth of the ancient dual empire of Media and Persia. Before the two kingdoms united, Media was the dominant kingdom. But in 550 B.C.E., the Medes came under the control of Persian King Cyrus II, who thereafter ruled over the kingdom of Medo-Persia. Centered in the region north of the Persian Gulf, this vast realm eventually stretched from the Aegean Sea to Egypt to northwestern India and included Judea.
Medo-Persia ruled over the Jewish nation for more than 200 years—from the overthrow of Babylon in 539 B.C.E. until Medo-Persia itself was defeated by the Greeks in 331 B.C.E. Numerous Bible books comment on significant events that occurred during that time.
Trustworthy History
The Bible tells us that King Cyrus II freed the Jews held captive in Babylon, allowing them to return to Jerusalem and rebuild God’s temple, which the Babylonians had destroyed in 607 B.C.E. (Ezra 1:1-7; 6:3-5) Corroborating this account is a clay document known as the Cyrus Cylinder, discovered in 1879 in the ruins of ancient Babylon. The inscription identifies Cyrus by name and describes his policy of returning previously captured peoples and their religious objects to their native lands. The Bible writer Isaiah recorded Jehovah’s prophetic words concerning Cyrus: “‘All that I delight in he will completely carry out’; even in my saying of Jerusalem, ‘She will be rebuilt,’ and of the temple, ‘You will have your foundation laid.’”—Isaiah 44:28.
In fact, Cyrus ordered that funds for temple reconstruction “be given from the king’s house,” says Ezra 6:3, 4. This amazing statement harmonizes with secular history. “It was a consistent policy of Persian kings to help restore sanctuaries in their empire,” says the book Persia and the Bible.
The Bible tells us that opposers of the Jews later wrote to Darius the Great (also called Darius I) challenging the Jews’ claim that Cyrus had authorized the reconstruction of the temple. Darius commanded that a search be made for the original written decree. The outcome? A scroll containing Cyrus’ decree was found at Ecbatana, the capital. In response, Darius wrote: “I, Darius, do put through an order. Let it [temple reconstruction] be done promptly.” Opposition to the work then ceased. *—Ezra 6:2, 7, 12, 13.
Secular history supports these details. For one thing, Ecbatana was the summer residence of Cyrus, and he may have issued his decree from there. Also, archaeological discoveries show that Medo-Persian kings took a keen interest in religious matters affecting their realm and wrote letters to resolve disputes.
Trustworthy Prophecy
In a divinely inspired dream, the prophet Daniel saw a series of four beasts rising out of the sea, each representing a successive world power. The first beast, a winged lion, represented Babylon. The second was “like a bear.” The account continues: “This is what they were saying to it, ‘Get up, eat much flesh.’” (Daniel 7:5) The fearsome bear pictured Medo-Persia.
True to Daniel’s prophecy, Medo-Persia displayed a voracious appetite for conquest. Not long after Daniel’s vision, Cyrus defeated the Medes and then waged war against neighboring Lydia and Babylon. His son Cambyses II conquered Egypt. Later Medo-Persian rulers expanded the empire even farther.
How can we be sure of this interpretation? In a separate but related vision, Daniel saw a ram “making thrusts to the west and to the north and to the south.” The prophecy was fulfilled when Medo-Persia made “thrusts” against other nations, including mighty Babylon. An angel of God interpreted this vision, saying to Daniel: “The ram that you saw possessing the two horns stands for the kings of Media and Persia.”—Daniel 8:3, 4, 20.
Furthermore, some two centuries before Babylon’s defeat, the prophet Isaiah foretold both the name of the conquering Persian king—who was not yet born—and his strategy for taking Babylon. Isaiah wrote: “This is what Jehovah has said to his anointed one, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have taken hold of, to subdue before him nations, . . . to open before him the two-leaved doors, so that even the gates will not be shut.” (Isaiah 45:1) Both Isaiah and Jeremiah foretold that Babylon’s “rivers,” or canals fed by the Euphrates River, which served as a protective moat, would be dried up. (Isaiah 44:27; Jeremiah 50:38) The Greek historians Herodotus and Xenophon confirm the Bible’s prophetic accuracy, including the fact that the Babylonians were reveling on the very night that Cyrus took the city. (Isaiah 21:5, 9; Daniel 5:1-4, 30) Having diverted the Euphrates River, Cyrus’ armies entered the city through open gates along the river, encountering little resistance. In one night mighty Babylon fell!
This event, in turn, led to the amazing fulfillment of another prophecy. The prophet Jeremiah had earlier foretold that God’s people would be exiled in Babylon for 70 years. (Jeremiah 25:11, 12; 29:10) That prophecy was fulfilled right on time, and the exiles were allowed to return to their homeland.
A Hope You Can Trust
Shortly after Medo-Persia conquered Babylon, Daniel recorded a prophecy that sheds light on a most important event in the accomplishment of God’s purpose for mankind. The angel Gabriel informed Daniel precisely when the Messiah—the “seed” promised at Genesis 3:15—would appear! God’s angel said: “From the going forth of the word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Leader, there will be seven weeks, also sixty-two weeks,” a total of 69 weeks. (Daniel 9:25) When did this prophetic period begin?
Although Cyrus permitted the Jews to return to their land soon after the fall of Babylon, many years later Jerusalem and its walls were still in disrepair. In 455 B.C.E., King Artaxerxes granted permission to his Jewish cupbearer Nehemiah to return to Jerusalem and take the lead in the rebuilding work. (Nehemiah 2:1-6) This marked the start of the 69 weeks.
The 69 weeks, however, were not literal weeks of seven days but weeks of years. In fact, some Bible translations render the expression “weeks” as “weeks of years.” * (Daniel 9:24, 25) The Messiah would appear after a period of 69 “weeks” of 7 years each—a total of 483 years. The prophecy was fulfilled in 29 C.E. when Jesus was baptized, exactly 483 years from 455 B.C.E. *
The precise fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy adds to the abundant evidence confirming Jesus’ identity. This evidence also confirms our hope for the future. Jesus, as King of God’s heavenly Kingdom, will bring an end to harsh human rule. Thereafter, he will fulfill many more Bible prophecies, including those pointing forward to a resurrection of the dead to endless life in Paradise on earth.—Daniel 12:2; John 5:28, 29; Revelation 21:3-5.
Monday 22 January 2024
Sunday 21 January 2024
Saturday 20 January 2024
The stones rebuke the bible's naysayers.
How does archaeology confirm the role of Belshazzar of Babylon?
FOR many years, Bible critics claimed that King Belshazzar, who is mentioned in the book of Daniel, never existed. (Dan. 5:1) They held that view because archaeologists could find no evidence that he had actually lived. However, that changed in 1854. Why?
In that year, a British consul named J. G. Taylor explored some ruins in the ancient city of Ur, in what is now southern Iraq. There, located in a large tower, the explorer found several clay cylinders. The cylinders, each about four inches (10 cm) long, are engraved with cuneiform writing. The writing on one of the cylinders includes a prayer for the long life of Babylonian King Nabonidus and his oldest son, Belshazzar. Even critics had to agree: This finding proves that Belshazzar did exist.
However, the Bible states not only that Belshazzar existed but also that he was a king. Again, critics were skeptical. For example, the 19th-century English scientist William Talbot wrote that some state that “Bel-sar-ussur [Belshazzar] was co-regent with Nabonidus his father. But of this there is not the slightest evidence.”
That controversy was settled, however, when the writings on other clay cylinders revealed that Belshazzar’s father, King Nabonidus, was away from the capital city for years at a time. What happened during his absence? “When Nabonidus went into exile,” states the Encyclopaedia Britannica, “he entrusted Belshazzar with the throne and the major part of his army.” So Belshazzar served, in effect, as a coruler in Babylon during that time. Thus, archaeologist and language scholar Alan Millard stated that it was appropriate for “the Book of Daniel to call Belshazzar ‘king.’”
Of course, for God’s servants, the principal evidence that the book of Daniel is trustworthy and inspired by God is found within the Bible itself.—2 Tim. 3:16.
2Kings chapters 6 and 7 American Standard Version
6.1 And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell before thee is too strait for us. 2Let us go, we pray thee, unto the Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell. And he answered, Go ye. 3And one said, Be pleased, I pray thee, to go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go. 4So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down wood. 5But as one was felling a beam, the axe-head fell into the water; and he cried, and said, Alas, my master! for it was borrowed. 6And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he showed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither, and made the iron to swim. 7And he said, Take it up to thee. So he put out his hand, and took it.
8Now the king of Syria was warring against Israel; and he took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. 9And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place; for thither the Syrians are coming down. 10And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of; and he saved himself there, not once nor twice.
11And the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not show me which of us is for the king of Israel? 12And one of his servants said, Nay, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber. 13And he said, Go and see where he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan. 14Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about.
15And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, a host with horses and chariots was round about the city. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? 16And he answered, Fear not; for they that are with us are more than they that are with them. 17And Elisha prayed, and said, JEHOVAH, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And JEHOVAH opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. 18And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto JEHOVAH, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. 19And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. And he led them to Samaria.
20And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, JEHOVAH, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And JEHOVAH opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. 21And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them? 22And he answered, Thou shalt not smite them: wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master. 23And he prepared great provision for them; and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. And the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel.
24And it came to pass after this, that Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria. 25And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver. 26And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king. 27And he said, If JEHOVAH do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the threshing-floor, or out of the winepress? 28And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to-day, and we will eat my son to-morrow. 29So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him; and she hath hid her son. 30And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes (now he was passing by upon the wall); and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh. 31Then he said, God do so to me, and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day.
32But Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him; and the king'sent a man from before him: but ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, See ye how this son of a murderer hath sent to take away my head? look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold the door fast against him: is not the sound of his master's feet behind him? 33And while he was yet talking with them, behold, the messenger came down unto him: and he said, Behold, this evil is of JEHOVAH; why should I wait for JEHOVAH any longer?
7.1And Elisha said, Hear ye the word of JEHOVAH: thus saith JEHOVAH, To-morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be'sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria. 2Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if JEHOVAH should make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.
3Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die? 4If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there; and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die. 5And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians; and when they were come to the outermost part of the camp of the Syrians, behold, there was no man there. 6For the LORD had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us. 7Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life. 8And when these lepers came to the outermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; and they came back, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it.
9Then they said one to another, We do not well; this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, punishment will overtake us; now therefore come, let us go and tell the king's household. 10So they came and called unto the porter of the city; and they told them, saying, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, neither voice of man, but the horses tied, and the asses tied, and the tents as they were. 11And he called the porters; and they told it to the king's household within. 12And the king arose in the night, and said unto his servants, I will now show you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we are hungry; therefore are they gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, When they come out of the city, we shall take them alive, and get into the city. 13And one of his servants answered and said, Let some take, I pray thee, five of the horses that remain, which are left in the city (behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel that are left in it; behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel that are consumed); and let us send and see. 14They took therefore two chariots with horses; and the king sent after the host of the Syrians, saying, Go and see.
15And they went after them unto the Jordan: and, lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. And the messengers returned, and told the king.
16And the people went out, and plundered the camp of the Syrians. So a measure of fine flour was'sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of JEHOVAH. 17And the king appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned to have the charge of the gate: and the people trod upon him in the gate, and he died as the man of God had said, who spake when the king came down to him. 18And it came to pass, as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, Two measures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, shall be to-morrow about this time in the gate of Samaria; 19and that captain answered the man of God, and said, Now, behold, if JEHOVAH should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be? and he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof: 20it came to pass even so unto him; for the people trod upon him in the gate, and he died.
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