Posts Made By: Jin Kim

no doubt...

Has anyone watched this movie? What are your thoughts? I would think that Gibson's movie would be welcomed because of the large number of Christians.

... is a woman! I thought the first female president would be Oprah not Hillary.

Okay christians get a lot of flak on here on account of missionaries and evangelising but....

...why do they send out missionaries?

Okay I can understand in olden times when the only way to spread the good news was to walk from town to town. Surely nowadays in developed countries, with all the tools of modern communication it's not neccessary. If anybody really wants to find out about christianity they can look it up on the Internet.

Wouldn't a christians duty to evangelise be fulfilled simply be responding fully to inquiries?

Can any christian enlighten me on this one?

Has anyone tried to install Starry Night Pro 5.0 into your computer that has the new OS named "Vista"? I just got my new computer that comes with Vista OS and tried to install Starry Night Pro 5.0 but wasn't successful. What's up with this OS?

Hello folks,

A while back I remember reading that one poster (very intelligent indeed) described that the scientific evidence to prove that God exists is simply that the universe exists, and maybe God is too complex for us to understand. I hope you folks help me understand God, faith, the universe better.

1. Why then do you think all those [COLOR="Blue"]ideas we have about God are right[/COLOR]? Most religious concepts, particularly Hell and other forms of cosmic retribution, seem more like oversimplifications to me.

2. Whether or not God did something, that the Universe started as a pinprick of substance which contained all matter and energy in the universe. How and why it turned into a universe we don't know, but we do know it wasn't "something from nothing." The question is whether God did it, whether a scientist in a lab did it, whether it's a natural process that's occurred millions of times, etc... Personally I think "God did it because He loves us" seems the least plausible.

3. Whenever people start using biblo-speak, I have to question them. This is one of those times. Then, [COLOR="Red"]what is 'faith'[/COLOR]?

4. Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle is the closest science has come to 'proving' that there is no God (against “the scientific evidence to prove that God exists is simply that the universe exists”) … and it comes pretty close. This is why Einstein so vehemently rejected it with his famous "God does not play dice."

5. Let’s say “It’s easy to believe in a supreme creator than believe something came from nothing. And nothing can be created from a vacuum unless a creator creates it. Being said that… So the choice is 1) The universe came from nothing or 2) God created it but where did God come from?

6. Imagine that (for example) 'nothing' could seperate out into positive and negative energy and that positive and negative energy when combined again create 'nothing' (physicists have actually seen this happen in the real world).

So in the beginning there is 'nothing'. 'Nothing' seperates out into positive and negative energy. Positive and negative energy existing in no dimension (the universe hasn't been formed yet so there are no dimensions) constitutes a singularity giving rise to the Big Bang etc.

Okay I'm not seriously trying to propose a real model for the existence of the universe I'm just trying to show that the idea 'everything' coming out of 'nothing' doesn't have to be rejected out of hand.

(It's also worth remembering that scientists believe that the universe is expanding into 'nothing'....this could just as easily be explained by saying that at the edges of the universe 'nothing' is seperating out to create more universe!)

I just happen to prefer that to 'God created it but [COLOR="Red"]where did God come from[/COLOR]?'

Thanks. I truly appreciate your time and help.

I live in southern California which is famous for polluted night skies. But I still enjoy looking up the night skies through the window of my bedroom. Last night I opened up the window and set up my Vixen refractor accordingly. Then I almost got a heart attack when I saw a bunch of diffraction patterns all over bright stars. I immediately called my 16-yr old son and started yelling at him because he was the one that took the scope out of my room and did something in the backyard with his friend some days ago. "Brian, what did you do with the scope? I told you... never let any of your friends touch the scope. blah blah blah..." My son told me that he didn't do anything bad to the scope and his friend didn't even touch it at all. I couldn't believe what he said. So I tried to figure out what's wrong with the Vixen, searching the internet and reading books and manuals. I cleaned the lense and replaced the eyepiece and prism. But despite all these efforts, yelling and blaming I still couldn't get rid of those evil diffraction patterns.

Then I suddenly realized I put the bug screen in the window a couple of day ago. I took the screen out, and of course, the telescope started working normally, showing pinpoint stars without any anomalies like diffraction patterns. Well, I felt sorry for my son... but at least I didn't put a blame on my wife though.

I just took out my Vixen 130ED refractor and opened the big bedroom window. But unfortunately I could barely spot any stars because of clouds. I've been so nervous all day and needed something to soothe my soul. And hoped that stargazing could help me forget things for a while. Just can't fall asleep. So instead... I'm writing something on this discussion forum. My son has been working so hard for the past 4 years in high school and is now trying to go to college that he always wanted. But things didn't go the way he hoped. Got rejected by MIT and Caltech (actually got waitlisted but chance of being taken off the list is almost zero)... these two were his dream colleges. Very very disappointed.

Today at 5 pm he will be receiving decisions via emails from ivy colleges. SO NERVOUS! But realistically he will be getting more rejections. He got into all public schools (UCs) that he applied to. So it seems like he will be attending Berkeley. I feel so helpless that... the only thing I can do for my son at this moment is to tell him that Berkeley is a good school and he can still achieve his goal as long as he works hard for the next 4 years.

Anyone else has a son or daughter applying to colleges? Anyway, I am planing a trip to central Nevada (middle of nowhere) with my son during his spring break (and my vacation) for some decent stargazing. Thanks for reading.

Larry bring the biggest refractor you have. You can get extra horse and guide/porter for a few more dollars. Mongolia is no Joshua Tree N.P. you can drive there every weekend. Why settle for less? Also make sure the moon is not up high shinning bright while you're over there. Enjoy the darkest sky on planet earth. Literally no horizon! Oh don't forget multi vitamin pills, energy bars and toilet tissues.

Buy a used Intes MK67 on astromart... it's about $600. You will love it for its good optics and great portability. I love my MK67 Deluxe sooooo much so won't sell it.