What’s in a Name? Guest post by Hannah Hood Lucero

   I discovered this author through the Avid Readers of Christian Fiction Facebook group back in April of 2024. I read the first book in her epic Sons of Vigilance Series on Kindle Unlimited, then immediately bought all 4 books in paperback. She had 5 books out at that point, and has since written 4 others plus a story for an anthology of pro-life stories. Her books are seriously epic. 

I asked her if she would write a guest blog post, whatever she wanted to write, and she graciously agreed, even though she is busy and her husband recently got back from deployment. Thanks Hannah. 

What’s in a Name? Guest post by Hannah Hood Lucero

As an author, I think about names a lot. I’m forever scrolling through baby name websites, trying to find unique and meaningful monikers that haven’t been overused by other writers, and which aren’t similar to other characters from my own works. It’s a bit exhausting, to be honest. 

When I was preparing to publish my debut novel and considering what my pen name should be, I asked my husband what he thought. Being a mysterious wallflower, his instinct is to consistently lean toward anonymity. As soon as he told me he wouldn’t use his real name, I had my answer. The social butterfly inside gasped. My whole spirit rejected the idea of a bookish alias. This rose, by any other name, would utterly and completely STINK! I earned an eye roll when my response was, “I’ll use my full name. Like, the entire thing.” And so, Hannah Hood Lucero (the author) was born.

Growing up, I hated my middle name—which I dropped upon filling out my marriage certificate. Most girls have something sweet like Elizabeth or Jane or Lynn. My parents went the family name route, and mine was Evans. It wasn’t until after I had my own kids that I began to appreciate the uniqueness and beauty of it. And when I started brainstorming characters, I jumped at the chance to make my debut main character a namesake. Evans Sutton became the level-headed teen I wish I had been, and she has popped up from time to time in other books.

I recently drew on the poor attitude of my younger self, writing an entire book about characters who want nothing more than to escape the attention their identities bring. In A Name to Remember, Isobel Lee is famous because of a national tragedy. Hank Olsen is infamous due to the sins of his family. Together, they come to realize that the only identity that matters is the one they have in Jesus. And they each face the question: Will I take the hand I’ve been dealt and rise to the challenge of living a life that glorifies God?

I am intrigued by the multiple instances in scripture, when people were given new names. Upon God’s covenant, Abram’s name changed to Abraham, father of a multitude. His wife, Sarai, became Sarah to designate her the mother of nations. When Jacob wrestled with God, he walked away as Israel, signifying his new status as a prince with God. Joshua (which means “the Lord saves”) was known as Hosea prior to being Moses’s successor. And, of course, we know that Jesus renamed Simon to Peter, he called James and John “sons of thunder”, and Saul—persecutor of Christians—became Paul upon his conversion.

What does your name mean? What do people think about when they see it pop up on a social media thread or email? When I see Mark’s posts and comments, I know a great book recommendation is to follow. My prayer is that my name makes people smile and think of faith-filled fiction, quippy banter, and characters worth remembering.

Find out more about Hannah and her books at HannahHoodLucero.com

Does Science Disprove God? Part III The Code. Guest post by author John Galt Robinson

Third guest blog post by author and doctor John Galt Robinson: 

Does Science Disprove God? Part III

The Code

By John Galt Robinson

Imagine you are strolling barefoot down a sandy beach on a lush tropical island. A warm breeze blows through your hair while waves roll across the turquoise water, musically washing ashore. You come across five letters scrawled in the sand that spell ALOHA. How did those letters come to be in the sand? Would a reasonable person conclude that the letters were a random result of the sand being moved about by the wind and the waves? Did a crab scrawl these letters? A bird? Of course not. A reasonable person would look at these five letters, see they are clearly letters from a written language that are precisely arranged in an order and sequence that communicates a message. In other words, a reasonable person would conclude that someone intentionally scrawled these five letters into the sand in order to communicate a message. To say it differently, we would sea this word, or this code and reason back to its source being an intelligent mind.

Now, if we can reach that conclusion from just five arranged letters, what if we were to stumble upon and entire sentence written in the sand, say; EAT AT JOE’S. Would the presence of additional letters arranged into specific words that form a sentence be more or less likely to have come from an intelligent mind? Of course, we would reason that these nine letters came from an intelligent mind. What if we were to discover a paperback book laying on a beach towel? Would we flip through the pages, each containing thousands of letters arranged into hundreds of words all arranged to communicate a cleverly written story and conclude this was the result of a random event where some type of ink spilled across hundreds of sheets of paper (where did the paper come from?) and a story resulted? I write thriller novels and not one contains less than 100,000 words. Are my novels the products of blind natural processes? I think you can see where I’m going with this. The higher number of letters involved, the less likely we are to conclude that such a finding would be the product of natural events. 

So how is it that one can look at a simple life form and conclude it just came to be as a result of a freak natural events? Let’s look at the simplest life form, a single celled organism called an amoeba. Even the simplest life form such as an amoeba has to have its own unique genetic code in order to exist and function. This genetic code is made up of strands of DNA consisting of precise arrangement of nitrogenous bases, letters if you will, that form each cell’s genetic code. Remember, we concluded that a simple five letter word had an intelligent source, more so for a sentence and exponentially more so for a book made up of several hundred thousand letters. Can you guess the amount of genetic code in an amoeba? Well, it’s enough code to fill volumes of books. In fact, it would fill enough books to stock a small library! And that’s just in an amoeba! By comparison, the human genome contains 3.2 Billion letters of code. It is also crucial to point out that these billions of letters of code MUST be precisely arranged in order  for the organism to exist and function.  If just one of these letters of code is out of sequence, the organism may have severe mutations or even be incompatible with life.

This begs the question; if we can look at five letters scrawled into the sand and reasonably conclude they came from and intelligent mind, how can we look at a complex organism with 3.2 Billion letters of precisely arranged code and NOT conclude it is the product of an intelligent mind. 

Author’s note: nearly all of this information was obtained from the book I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek. If you would like to much more detailed and comprehensive study of this topic and much more, I highly recommend this book or visit Frank Turek’s website www.crossexamined.org

John Galt Robinson is a board certified emergency medicine physician practicing in South Carolina. He is also a published fiction author writing the Joe O’Shanick/Christy Tabrizi series as well as his soon to be published Nate Kelsey series in the suspense/thriller genre. His website is www.johngaltrobinson.com.

Does Science Disprove God Part II: The Teleological Argument by author John Galt Robinson

 Last month I asked author and Dr John Galt Robinson, who is one of my new favorite authors - and an ER physician - if he would do a guest blog post on whatever he wanted. He picked the topic of discussing if science disproves God, and offered to do more than one post on it. (Last month's post here.)

(And my post about his books here.)

In his books, his fictional characters discuss this. The hero of his Joe O'Shanick Series is an agnostic or atheist at the beginning of the series, and I loved the discussions between he and Christian and ER doctor Christy Tabrizi.

So here is John's blog post for this month:

Does Science Disprove God? Part II

The Teleological Argument

By John Galt Robinson

Last month, we entered the debate over whether or not God, or a god, or gods exist, an argument that has permeated society throughout the ages. As we discussed last month, the German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche famously declared; “God is dead.”. More recently, naturalists have asserted that science explains “everything” thus replacing the need for a god and have essentially declared the universe to be of natural origin with no evidence for any god, a worldview that has gained significant traction in today’s post-modern society. In fact, post-modernism goes so far as to declare that there is no absolute truth, only relevant truth.

So, is this the case? Last month we examined the Cosmological Argument which states that since science has proven that the universe - time, space and matter - had a beginning, that it is beyond reasonable to presume it had to have been created by something rather than nothing as it is illogical to conclude that something can be created from nothing. We further determined that, based on the evidence, whatever or whoever created the universe had to meet several characteristics. It had to be timeless, spaceless, immaterial, incredibly powerful, highly intelligent, and personable. All of the characteristics we would expect to see in a god. Now, this does not prove this to be the God of the Bible but He does meet all these criteria and is therefore on the list of possibilities. Continuing along this line, now that we have established that the universe was created and all creations require a creator, let us now look at the design of the universe and see whether or not that speaks to an intelligent designer. This is what is known as the fine-tuning or teleological argument.

Let’s begin with the fact that, even though the universe burst into existence, it should have disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared. In fact, the universe shouldn’t exist and we should not be here. It’s true. The universe and the natural laws that govern it are so precise and highly fine-tuned that even the minutest deviation would make life on earth impossible and, in many cases, the existence of the universe impossible. Sir Isaac Newton attested to this when he wrote, “This most beautiful system of the sun, planets and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being.” William Paley made the argument that every watch has a watchmaker. Imagine walking along a beach and finding an Apple Watch laying in the sand. Did the wind and the waves spontaneously create this watch over billions of years of erosion and the random effect of natural forces? Nobody would conclude that. Wouldn’t it be reasonable to conclude that the watch and each of it’s parts were designed by intelligent beings and crafted by other intelligent beings and with purpose? Our universe is much the same except even far more complex and far more fine-tuned. There are dozens of precise environmental conditions, many of them interdependent, known as anthropic constants that must exist in order for the universe and life to exist. In fact there are well over a hundred but we will touch on just a few here today.

1. Oxygen Level - the earth’s atmosphere is made up of 21% oxygen. If it were just slightly higher at 25%, conditions would be ripe for widespread fires that could begin spontaneously and make life scarce. Conversely, if the oxygen level were to drop below 15%, there would not be enough oxygen for human beings to live.

2. Atmospheric Transparency - if the atmosphere were any less transparent, too little solar radiation would reach the earth’s surface making plant life non-existent and conditions too cold for life. If the atmosphere was was too transparent, the solar radiation would be too extreme for life. This atmospheric transparency is dependent on precise levels of oxygen as described above along with carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and ozone. Any variation among these and we would not be able to survive.

3. Moon - Earth gravitational interaction - if the gravitational component were any stronger, the moon would crash into earth or the tidal effect on the oceans would be too strong. if it were any less, there would be severe climactic instability.

4. Carbon Dioxide level - if it were any higher, we would have a escalating greenhouse effect and would all burn up. Any less and plants would not survive.

5. Gravity - if the gravitational force was off by 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000001 percent, our sun would not exist. Needless to say, neither would we.

These are just five anthropic principles that, if just one was minutely altered, life would not exist on earth and, in many cases, the universe would not exist. There are more. As we mentioned in last month’s article, according to the late Stephen Hawking, widely considered one of the most brilliant minds in physics, if the expansion rate of the universe was off by just one millionth of a percent, it would never have formed. That minute amount too fast and the galaxies would never have formed. Too slow and it would have collapsed back in on itself. THAT is how fine tuned our universe is. One can say it is still possible to believe that the universe could have defied the odds but, believing in a virtual statistical impossibility takes way more faith than it does to believe in a powerful, highly intelligent being designing the universe and ordering it in such precise fashion as to allow it to exist and function, let alone, allow for life to exist. And that’s just ONE anthropic constant! As stated earlier, there are over 100 of these precise anthropic constants, each of which is a statistical improbability or impossibility. If just one is not met, we wouldn’t be here. For the purpose of brevity, I will list just a few more. 

1. The centrifugal force of planetary movement has to precisely counteract the gravitational force. Otherwise, planets would not be able to orbit the sun without either falling into the sun or flying off into the universe.

2. If the speed of light (299,792,458 meters per second) were even minutely off, all of the laws of physics and constants be altered to the point where life on earth could not exist.

3. Similar to carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, if water vapor levels were even slightly off, there would be a runaway greenhouse effect or the earth would be too cold to support life.

4. Jupiter the space magnet - Jupiter’s large mass creates a strong gravitational field that acts as a cosmic vacuum, attracting asteroids and comets that could otherwise strike our planet.

5. The earth’s rotational speed is so precise that any faster and atmospheric wind velocities would be too strong for life. Any slower and the differences in temperature between day and night would be too extreme.

6. The 23 degree tilt of the earth on its access is so precise that any variation would result in too great of surface temperatures.

7. If the thickness of the earth’s crust were any thinner, volcanic and seismic disasters would be too prevalent to allow for life. Any thicker and it would absorb too much oxygen from the atmosphere to make life possible.

So what can we conclude with this information? Using the earlier example, if we can look at an Apple Watch and conclude it was designed and created, how can we look at a vastly more complex yet exponentially more precisely designed and ordered universe and not draw the same conclusion. Every design has a designer. In regards to the laws of physics and the laws of nature, every law has a lawgiver just as every creation has a creator. One may still choose to believe this all came by random chance but the astronomical odds say otherwise and require a lot more faith. 

Now, some may argue that we are using the “God of the Gaps” theory in which they state we are injecting God into the things we do not know or cannot explain. To the contrary, we are arguing from what we DO know. Just as we cannot see gravity, we know it exists because we see its effect. From this effect, we can reason back to a cause, in this case gravity. Similarly, we see the effect of a created universe and reason back to a creator. In this article we see the immense precision and fine tuning in the design of the universe and reason back to a cause, in this case a designer. 

Even with this amazing evidence, we still have not proven this is the God of the Bible but it certainly puts Him on the list of possible gods. Whether or not it is the God of the Bible is a topic for a future discussion. For now, we must at least acknowledge that we are left with two possibilities; either the universe exists through shear random chance despite near impossible odds, or it was precisely designed to be able to exist and support life.

You may still be unconvinced and that is certainly understandable, but I hope this at least opens your mind to the possibility. In the next discussion we will delve into the evidence for God through life. For now, I will leave you with one question to mull over; If there is no god, how can anything exist?

Author’s note: nearly all of this information was obtained from the book I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek. If you would like to much more detailed and comprehensive study of this topic and much more, I highly recommend this book or visit Frank Turek’s website www.crossexamined.org

John Galt Robinson is a board certified emergency medicine physician practicing in South Carolina. He is also a published fiction author writing the Joe O’Shanick/Christy Tabrizi series as well as his soon to be published Nate Kelsey series in the suspense/thriller genre. His website is www.johngaltrobinson.com.

Guest blog post by author Sharon West Dunn

 

A little background first:
   Harlequin Publishing has a Christian imprint: Love Inspired Romance and Love Inspired Suspense Romance. 

 They have done several series of books, usually 8-9 about K-9 teams. Each book is by a different author, and has the same main characters and their dogs throughout the books. There is one continuing mystery that runs throughout the whole series, with each book also having an individual mystery that gets solved.  It has intrigued me from the first ones I read how multiple authors do this. 

Their latest K-9 series is The Mountain Country K-9 Unit Series. I reviewed the 8th book in the series, Search and Detect by Terri Reed. It was the book where everything was resolved, though there is a 2-story series finale coming next month. (That review is here, along with a list of all the books in this series.)

I happen to be Facebook friends with one of the authors who writes for Love Inspired Suspense, and who wrote the 7th book in this series, Tracing a Killer. I asked if she would tell a little about how they do these series, and about her books if she wanted. She graciously agreed. Her book was really good, by the way....and any of hers I have read. Onto what Sharon wrote:

Behind the Scenes: What goes into writing the K-9 series for Love Inspired Suspense

By Sharon Dunn

My newest book, Tracing a Killer, is number seven in a series of books called the Mountain Country K-9 Unit for Love Inspired Suspense. There are eight books and two novellas in the series. Each one is written by a different Love Inspired writer. Each book is complete in itself in that the suspense story and the romance is wrapped up by the end of the book. But there are subplots that carry through the whole series, from a missing dog to the search for a serial killer. In addition, reading the whole series gives a person an opportunity to see the growth in each character. 

Obviously, there’s a lot of co-ordination and communication required to ensure that the story line and the characters remain cohesive. I’ve been asked many times what the behind the scenes picture looks like for putting together such a series with so many moving parts. The first thing that happens is that once the writers are assigned which book they will write, they receive what is called the bible (small b). Unlike the Bible (capital B) this bible is far from perfect, but it does contain the series overview, a list of supporting characters and sometimes descriptions of key locations along with photos. The bible also contains a four or five page summary of each book that ends with a list of the subplots that carry over from story to story and what needs to happen with subplots in that particular book. The plot summaries also outline basic descriptions of hero and heroine and the K-9 along with photos. The bible runs about 70 pages and I usually have to read it two or three times start to finish to get my head around the story. I reread my own summary more times than that and if there is time, I like to read the whole bible once my book is ready to hand in. 

All the authors are put on an email loop so they can communicate with each other as they write. Like I said, this bible usually has flaws. Sometimes what works in summary doesn’t work when you try to flesh out a story from it. Any changes are discussed on the loop and then run by the editor in charge of the series. Each author “owns” the hero and heroine for their particular book so to speak and we want to make sure that even if someone else’s character plays a part in a different book, that the character is consistent in personality and appearance throughout the series. So much of the email loop discussion is about sharing scenes where other people’s characters make an appearance or just letting the other writers know what their character experiences in each book if it will affect the character in another book, like being shot or injured in some way. The books take place about a month apart, so a character who suffered an injury in one book shouldn’t magically be better in the following book. 

 A lot of commiserating, encouraging and prayer support take place on that email loop as well. Personal struggles that are affecting our ability to write are often shared. I think that is one of the reasons I like working on a series like this. Writing is such a solitary activity so getting to work with a team of authors is a nice break from the solitude. 

Books are turned into the editor in order. The editor reads them and gives feedback and usually there is at least one other editor who is reading the series looking for inconsistencies. 

I love working on the K-9 series not only for the connection with other writers but knowing that readers have eight books to get to know characters and be a part of their world as they catch bad guys and fall in love makes me feel good about writing.   

Sharon Dunn is award winning, USA Today bestselling author who has written over 30 books for Love Inspired Suspense as well as humorous mystery series for other publishers. You can learn more about Sharon and her books and sign up for her newsletter at www.sharondunnbooks.net.

Guest blog post by author June Foster

 Thanks to author June Foster for doing a guest blog post telling a little about the book she and her daughter Kelly just wrote, The Other Side of the Fairy House. 

The Other Side of the Fairy House by June Foster and Kelly Cordova.

Thanks for asking me to guest blog today, Mark. You are a great friend and certainly a wise connoisseur of fiction. 😊�I wrote this book with my daughter Kelly Cordova who lives in Texas. Amazingly, we conferred everyday while writing the book. Sometimes twenty or more times. One day, Google restricted my emails to her because they said something on the order that I’d reached my limits. Kelly and I work so well together which is a great blessing. She likes my ideas, and I love hers. Last April Kelly got on a plane to visit me. Then we drove to the location where our book was set to do research. Gatlinburg, Tennessee in the middle of the Smoky Mountains National Park. 

I can’t describe the fun and excitement of that trip, but I’ll try. Discovering the Fairy House. Exploring Gatlinburg, Tennessee in order to dive into writing our book The Other Side of the Fairy House proved more exciting than I’d have imagined. My daughter Kelly flew to Alabama from Texas, and then we traveled by car northeast almost 300 miles to our destination. Amid the charm and beauty of the Smoky National Park, we explored the area where our story was set. We had five whole days to locate and snap photos of the fairy house. Discovering the location wasn’t as easy as we’d hoped. Each time we asked a local about where the place was, we’d get different answers. One lady said she never went there, and tourists were discouraged from trying to locate it. Another said she’d hiked to the fairy house which still stood on the old Voorheis property. But her trek took several miles on a forest trail. The day we decided to explore the area, we donned hiking boots and set out. Kelly had watched a couple of videos on the location which helped immensely. Instead of miles of walking, we found a place where we could access the area after a short walk. The first time we saw the fairy house which is actually a springhouse we caught our breath. But best of all, we imagined our characters in that very spot and the mystical events which would happen. You can discover what the characters saw the day they made the same trip to the fairy house.

Available on Amazon.

                                                                June

Kelly

Guest post by author John Gault Robinson: Does Science Disprove God?

 John Gault Robinson is an author I only became acquainted with at the end of last year. He has 4 books out in his Joe O'Shannick Series so far, with two more coming. They are some of the best Christian fiction I have read.

I asked him a few weeks ago if he would consider writing a guest blog post, and he agreed. I told him to write whatever he wanted, and he sent this today. He is quite versed in Christian apologetics, and it comes across in his books. In the first book, his main character, Joe O'Shannick is pretty much an atheist, and ends up spending a lot of time with Christy Tabrizi, Christian ER doctor, and they have several interesting conversations where John's knowledge of the Bible and apologetics comes across

John himself is an ER doctor, and is a very fascinating individual. 

Does Science Disprove God?

By John Galt Robinson

The debate over whether or not God, or a god, or gods exist, has permeated society throughout the ages. The German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche famously declared; “God is dead.”. More recently, naturalists have asserted that science explains “everything” thus replacing the need for a god and have essentially declared the universe to be of natural origin with no evidence for any god, a worldview that has gained significant traction in today’s post-modern society. In fact, post-modernism goes so far as to declare that there is no absolute truth, only relevant truth.

So, is this the case? Is the universe simply the product of a cosmic accident? Are we simply an accidental collection of highly evolved molecules in motion even to the point that our thoughts are the byproduct of molecules colliding with one another as the naturalist explanation proposes? Has modern science really proven this beyond a reasonable doubt? Let’s delve into this.

Before we discuss a few of the more common scientific arguments, we must first address the post-modernism claim that there is no truth. More specifically, absolute truth. The mere declaration There is no absolute truth is a self-defeating statement. The Law of Non-contradiction declares that something cannot be true and false at the same time. This Law of logic applies to scientific arguments as much as it does to philosophical arguments. When applied to the above truth claim, we see that the premise cannot hold up. In short, if one were to declare “There is no truth.”, a logical response would be; “Is that a true statement?”. Similarly, if one were to declare “There is no absolute truth, only relative truth.”, a logical question to ask would be; “Is that an absolute truth or a relative truth.” If the reply is that it is a relative truth, then the truth claim has no standing. If they declare it to be an absolute truth, then they defeated their own truth claim. Either way, the claim has no basis on which we can accept it logically. Putting that argument to rest, let’s move on to the main thrust of this article.

Let us first define what science is: in lay terms, science if the process of studying the natural universe through a system of observation and experimentation. From the scientific process, we obtain data from which we draw conclusions. It is important to note here that despite a commonly used expression, science does not say anything, scientists do. In other words, scientists look at the data and form conclusions. Often times, scientists do not reach the same conclusions from the data. Furthermore, over the centuries, scientific conclusions can and have been disproven as new and better studies and data emerge. For example, scientific consensus once postulated that the earth was the center of the universe and all of the planets, stars, even our own Sun, rotated around the earth. Obviously, that position is no longer believed by many after later discoveries proved otherwise. It was also once believed the the universe is eternal and has always existed. Einstein’s theory of relativity suggested otherwise; specifically that time, space and matter came into existence in a single event and are co-dependent. Later studies, including an important discovery by Edwin Hubble (of whom the Hubble Space Telescope is named) of an expanding universe have confirmed Einstein’s theory and provided ample evidence that the universe did indeed have a beginning. There are many more scientific principles that we can discuss whether or not they prove of disprove the existence of a god and we can do so in subsequent articles but, for this article, let’s take a closer look at the beginning of the universe.

As already mentioned, scientific discoveries now point to the universe having a beginning. In other words, scientists can now trace back to a point where time, space and matter came into existence simultaneously. To quote the late Stephen Hawking, widely considered one of the most brilliant physicists of all time;

Almost everyone now believes that the universe and time itself had a beginning at the Big Bang.

A detailed explanation as to why the majority of physicists believe this would take volumes so I will briefly list five key findings that lead to this conclusion. We will simplify this explanation using the mnemonic SURGE.

S - Second Law of Thermodynamics

U - Universe is Expanding

R - Radiation Afterglow

G - Galaxy Seeds

E - Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity

The Second Law of Thermodynamics explains that the universe is slowly dwindling down in energy similar to a car running out of gas. Had the universe always existed, it would have long ago ceased to exist for this reason. Imagine running a car on one tank of gasoline for a day let alone an infinite amount of time. It would have long ago run out of fuel. The universe is no different. Hubble’s telescopic discoveries revealed an ever expanding universe that, if reversed, trace the entire universe back to a single point of origin. Radiation afterglow refers to scientists Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson who won a Nobel prize for their 1965 discovery of the residual light and heat that originated with the explosion that began the universe better known as The Big Bang. The Galaxy seeds refers to a monumental discovery made through the COBE satellite that revealed variations in the expansion waves of the universe that occurred in precise manners that allowed matter to congregate and form galaxies. Many leading physicists, chief among them, the late Stephen Hawking, postulated that any variation in the expansion rate of the universe would have led to the universe collapsing back in on itself or expanding too rapidly to allow galaxies to form in the first place. The expansion rate is so precise that if off as little as 1/40billionth of a percent too fast or too small, the universe would never have formed. In other words, the fact that the universe even exists is so statistically unlikely as to be nearly impossible, but that’s a point for a future discussion. Finally, Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, which has been proven to a very precise degree, demands that time, space and matter have an absolute beginning AND are interdependent and cannot exist without each other. Einstein was troubled by this discovery as he had long held to the belief that the universe was eternal and had always existed but his discovery proved it actually had a beginning which challenged his core beliefs and which was later confirmed with the aforementioned later discoveries. These five key discoveries and many more have led nearly all physicists to conclude that the universe - time, space and matter - had a beginning; the Big Bang.

So where do we go with this information? What can we conclude? Does the Big Bang point to an intelligent designer, a god or does it provide an adequate explanation for the origin of the universe and do away with any notion of a god? The Law of Causality states that everything that comes to be must have a cause. Since we now know the universe came to be, what is the cause? It cannot be nothing. We see the effect. In fact we live within it. From the effect we can reason back to a cause. Reason demands that, in order for time, space and matter to come into existence, the cause must be something that transcends time, space and matter; something, timeless, spaceless and immaterial. Something beyond nature ie supernatural. Creation must have a creator. Additionally, the highly fine-tuned and magnificent natural laws that govern the universe must come from a lawgiver. Not only must this creator/lawgiver be timeless, spaceless and immaterial but it is reasonable to conclude that this entity is infinite in order to transcend time, supremely intelligent in order to have designed the universe in all its complexity and precision, incredibly powerful in order to create, and personable in order to choose to create. Compare these attributes to those of the God of the Bible and one will see they line up. Now, we have not proven this is the God of the Bible but it certainly puts Him on the list of possible gods. Whether or not it is the God of the Bible is a topic for a future discussion. For now, we must at least acknowledge that we are left with two possibilities; either the universe created itself - which to believe violates The Scientific Method as it has never once been observed nor has anything been observed to spontaneously appear in created from in nature - or the universe was created by God or a god(s). 

You may still be unconvinced and that is certainly understandable, but I hope this at least opens your mind to the possibility. In the next discussion we will delve into the incredible fine-tuning of the universe which expands on the near statistical impossibility that the universe even exists, let alone life existing. For now, I will leave you with one question to mull over; If there is no god, how can anything exist?

Author’s note: nearly all of this information was obtained from the book I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek. If you would like to much more detailed and comprehensive study of this topic and much more, I highly recommend this book or visit Frank Turek’s website www.crossexamined.org

John Galt Robinson is a board certified emergency medicine physician practicing in South Carolina. He is also a published fiction author writing the Joe O’Shanick/Christy Tabrizi series as well as his soon to be published Nate Kelsey series in the suspense/thriller genre. His website is www.johngaltrobinson.com.

Guest post by Stephenia H McGee, author of The River Queen, with a giveaway

 Guest Post, Stephenia H. McGee

The River Queen

By the Vine Press, October, 2023

Lights! Music! Entertainment visiting your town! 

Enter the era of the grand showboat. A traveling theatre that brought delight to cities and towns along the river’s edge. While I was researching this fascinating world for my novel The River Queen, I noticed something quite interesting that directed the setting for the story. 

There were two distinct showboat eras. 

The first and primary era happened before the Civil War. This is the main time frame most people would probably expect a showboat story. So naturally, I had to go with something a little different.

In the early nineteen hundreds, a secondary showboat trend arrived. Unfortunately, this era didn’t last long, and by the mid-to-late 1920s, the glamourous showboat era simply drifted away. 

Oh, but the sliver of time in between—and right in the middle of prohibition with smugglers and river gangsters, no less—felt perfect for my quirky songbird Anola Flynn and The River Queen.

I dove in and tried to figure out a way that all these amazing elements could fit together. River pirates, bootleggers, prohibition, and smuggling all clashing with the glitz and glamour of a roaring 1920’s showboat. 

I gathered about 15 different books on river mysteries, river lore, and showboats to help me plot the story. That’s when I discovered a gym. I somehow ended up with an autographed biography of a woman who had grown up on exactly the type of showboat I wanted for the story.

Many scenes in the book were thus inspired by the real-life escapades of Betty Bryant, who gave a detailed account of her childhood on a showboat in the early 1920s in her book Here Comes the Showboat! She shows what life was like on the Bryant’s Showboat, giving descriptions of the boat, the acting troupe, the family’s schedule, and information on the crew from her life on the river. 

Now, throw in a close-knit family of Irish actors, and well, you have the makings of what turned out to be my favorite cast of characters I’ve ever written. 

So come and join us on The River Queen! As Anola would say in her welcome song to greet you as you come aboard:

“Welcome, welcome,

All my friends,

Welcome, welcome,

This is where the story begins,

Bring your sorrows,

Bring your joy,

Every man, woman, girl, and boy,

Welcome, welcome,

To The River Queen,

Where every moment is but a dream.”

Giveaway: https://kingsumo.com/g/bynmp1/the-river-queen-release-giveaway/z2lj7yj?

Book Description: 

River pirates, a stolen steamboat, and a deadly chase down the Mississippi—but falling in love might be the real adventure.

When river pirates attack and steal his steamboat, Emmett Carter barely escapes. Rescued and transported to a magnificent world of glitz and showbiz aboard a flashy showboat, Emmett is immediately captivated by something more than recovering his lost inheritance—The River Queen’s beautiful, but quirky, songbird.

Anola Flynn, the star singer on The River Queen, is struggling to keep the business running as attendance dwindles during the 1923 season. With her dreams of saving the family legacy—and the only life she’s ever known—slipping away, she forges an alliance with Emmett to keep her family afloat.

Now, to outsmart the gangsters chasing them, Anola and Emmett must wade through a dark current of deception and betrayal to save not only their dreams, but everyone they care about, from sinking deeper into the Mississippi River.

Author Bio:

Stephenia H. McGee is a multi-published author of stories of faith, hope, and healing set in the Deep South. She lives in Mississippi, where she is a mom of two rambunctious boys, writer, dreamer, and husband spoiler. Her novel The Cedar Key was a 2021 Faith, Hope, and Love Readers’ Choice award winner. A member of the ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) and the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution), she loves all things books and history. Stephenia also loves connecting with readers and can often be found having fun with her Faithful Readers Team on Facebook. For more on books and upcoming events and to connect with Stephenia, visit her at www.StepheniaMcGee.com.

Buy Links:

Direct from Author: Ebook, Audiobook, Paperback (US & International)

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/River-Queen-Christian-Historical-Romances-ebook/dp/B0C8L8DXPN

Barnes and Noble : https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-river-queen-stephenia-h-mcgee/1143824046