Earth Day 2026

Earthrise by Artemis II / NASA

The Earth and all that is in it belongs to the Lord;

    the world and all who live on it are His.

(Psalm 24:1)

Here's a quote by Astronaut Victor Glover, NASA pilot of the Artemis II Orion spacecraft Integrity on April 6, 2026.

“As we get close to the nearest point to the moon and farthest point from Earth, as we continue to unlock the mysteries of the cosmos, I would like to remind you of one of the most important mysteries there on Earth, and that’s love, Christ said, in response to what was the greatest command, that it was to love God with all you are. And he also, being a great teacher, said the second is equal to it. And that is to love your neighbor as yourself.”

Peace, Love and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)

Another 584 Million Miles Around The Sun

I just completed another lap around the sun and I'm still hanging on for dear life.

I haven't traveled much but I have covered nearly 38 billion miles circling the sun in my lifetime.

On a larger scale, since my birth our solar system has traveled over 292 billion miles around the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.

I should be eligible for some serious airline perks by now but all I seem to be getting are more aches and pains. Well, today I woke up on the sunny side of the lawn again and any day that you wake up on the sunny side of the lawn is a good day!

 

"Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?" ~Jesus

 

Peace, Love and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)

Map segment retrieved from the Library of Congress at: Map of the square and stationary earth

Fair Use Notice 

Fifty Years Ago Today - Apollo 11

Fifty years ago today I was glued to the television set watching the most amazing trek humankind had undertaken since Ferdinand Magellan circumnavigated the globe in 1519 - the flight of Apollo 11 and the first man to walk on the moon. The Apollo 11 crew consisted of Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin Buzz Aldrin.

 

This plaque was attached to one of the Lunar Lander's legs. It remains there on the moon to this day. I find it interesting that those words were chosen while the Vietnam war was ragging.

What an awesome view of our beautiful planet. The earth sure looks like a welcoming place to visit in contrast to the appearance of the moon. From here it looks so peaceful and alive. If we "came in peace" to such a desolate and uninhabitable place like the moon, then why can't we live in peace on earth?

Peace, Love, and Light through Jesus the Christ!
Kevin (Cloud)

All of these wonderful NASA photos can be found at The Project Apollo Archive.

(Originally posted on Saturday, July 21, 2007, updated July 16, 2019)

The Square And Stationary Earth

This is what the Earth looks like when the poetic, figurative language of the Bible is read as a science text - square and stationary!

Ferguson, Orlando, and L.H. Everts & Co. Map of the square and stationary earth: four hundred passages in the Bible that condemn the Globe Theory, or the Flying Earth, and none sustain it ; this map is the Bible map of the world. [Hot Springs, South Dakota: Orlando Ferguson, ©, 1893] Map. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/2011594831/

This is what the Earth looks like when the poetic, figurative language of the Bible is read as a science text - square and stationary! At least that is how Professor Orlando Ferguson portrayed the Earth in his Map of The Square and Stationary Earth back in 1893.

According to the map, the good Professor's view of a square and stationary Earth is supported by "Four hundred passages in the Bible".

As depicted in this comical detail from Prof. Ferguson's map, a round Earth rotating on its axis and circling the sun would have its inhabitants holding on for dear life to keep from being flung off into space by the terrific rate of speed they would be traveling at.

Apparently Albert Einstein had a bit to say about all of that a few years later.


Hanging on for dear life... figuratively.

Peace, Love, and Light!
Kevin (Cloud)

Spherical Lump of Congealed Cosmic Dust

The Milky Way. Photo Credit: NASA

In an earlier post, I'm Losing (and finding) My Religion - Again, I wrote about the reconciliation of my faith and current scientific understanding of the universe. I have come to believe that the Bible is not a science textbook and that science doesn't answer questions of faith.

We are no longer the center of the solar system or the universe, thank you Nicolaus Copernicus and Galileo Galilei. 

Abandoning a geocentric model of the universe and an egocentric view of creation my faith is no longer threatened by science. I am free to fully experience the wonder and shear awe of our universe without the cognitive dissonance that a literal reading of Genesis brings on. 

Last year I bought a new telescope and I am enjoying my rekindled love of the cosmos. While viewing sights such as the Orion Nebula, the Beehive Cluster, and the Pleiades, I can't help but think about our spherical lump of congealed cosmic dust and its place in the cosmos. Could there be other planets out there?

According to John Johnson, assistant professor of planetary astronomy at Caltech, “There’s at least 100 billion planets in the galaxy—just our galaxy, That’s mind-boggling.”

I started wondering how many Earth-like planets are in our galaxy, how many in the universe?

Joe Catanzarite, a scientist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, estimates that there might be "two billion Earth analog planets" in our galaxy alone. He added, "Then you start thinking about other galaxies. There are something like 50 billion, and if each one has two billion Earthlike planets, it's mind boggling."

I love it when scientists use technical jargon like "mind-boggling".

So, being neither an astrophysicist nor a mathematician, I'll do my best to "do the math"...

If there are 50 Billion galaxies in the known universe (a conservative estimate according to some scientists, the number could be 100 Billion) and multiply it by 2 Billion Earth-like possibilities, we come up with the "mind-boggling" number of 100,000,000,000,000,000,000. That is a 1 followed by 20 zeros (1 x 10²⁰). I could be wrong about the name, but I think that number is called 100 quintillion. 

Perhaps we are not alone in the universe on our little spherical lump of congealed cosmic dust after all.

Peace, Love, and Light!
Kevin (Cloud)

The Gospel According To Woodstock - We Are Stardust

Section of Galaxy Cluster MACS J0416.1-2403 - Photo Credit NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute

In August 1969 the Woodstock Music and Art Fair took place on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, NY with over half a million people in attendance.

I always loved Joni Mitchell's song about Woodstock, but it wasn't until my faith journey took me off of the Young Earth path and on to the Old Earth path that I fully appreciated the line "We are stardust". You can read a little about that part of my faith journey in an older post of mine titled I'm Losing (And Finding) My Religion - Again.

In fact, I didn't even remember until today that she wrote the line "We are billion year old carbon". I think that I blocked it out of my mind all of these years because it didn't fit with my previous Young Earth perspective.

The knowledge that everything on this planet; every plant and animal, every human being, and even every rock contains the remnants of a star that exploded somewhere in the universe - that knowledge excites me.

The basic elements that were created during the Big Bang and then added to by super novas became the building blocks of our solar system. Every molecule of iron in my blood, every calcium atom in my bones came from a star... we are quite literally made of stardust, billion(s) year old carbon.

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,
till thou shalt return to the ground;
for out of it wast thou taken:
for dust thou art,
and to dust shalt thou return. 
(Genesis 3:19)

Here is a video of Joni Mitchell singing her song Woodstock...



 
Peace, Love, and Light!
Kevin (Cloud)

Fair Use Notice

(Originally posted 08/01/2011, updated 08/17/2019)

I'm Losing (And Finding) My Religion - Again

When I was a young boy my mom sent me off to Sunday School. I remember that church attendance in my parent's home was mostly limited to special occasions; Christmas, Easter, and funerals. That is not to say that my parents weren't spiritual or even religious in their own way, but it was a bit out of the ordinary to be sent off to Sunday School with my little sister that bright Sunday morning.

I don't recall exactly what the Sunday School teacher said one day, but I do remember thinking to myself that it was totally unscientific, even impossible. Science was my world, and even though I was only nine years old, I realized that there was a gulf between modern science and literalistic religious dogma - so I quit going to Sunday School.

At the beginning of the Jesus People Movement I returned to that church and was swept up in the excitement and comfort of finding a deeper meaning to life, especially during a time when the whole nation and my personal life was in turmoil.

To fully embrace my new found faith I was faced with a choice... Accept a literal reading of the six day Creation Story in the Bible and the popular evangelical thought that the earth was only about six thousand (6,000) years old, or believe that the earth was about four-and-a-half billion (4,500,000,000) years old as I had been taught in the public school system.

My dilemma was that if the first few verses of the Bible were not correct how was I to believe the sixty-six books that followed? So, knowing God to be a higher authority than the Los Angeles Unified School District, I chose the suspension of all scientific thought. I believed that the geologists and astrophysicists were wrong, that they simply had too many zeros in their calculations.

I spent the next forty years as a student of the Bible until 2009 when my dad passed away. My dad's passing triggered within me what I called a mid-faith crisis. I questioned everything, but mostly I questioned the gulf between modern science (which I loved but had abandoned forty years earlier) and ultra conservative fundamentalist Christianity.

I read everything I could find on the Young Earth vs. Old Earth debate, and as most debates go there are good arguments on both sides. With my personal leanings heading towards an Old Earth point of view, I began seeking out how to reconcile my Christian faith and current scientific understanding of the universe.

In my search for reconciliation I came across the book Thank God for Evolution by Rev. Michael Dowd. Michael Dowd makes the statement that "Facts are God's native tongue" and that "The discovery of facts through science is one very powerful way to encounter God directly." Rev. Dowd's book has revolutionized my faith and revitalized my love of science.

I have come to believe that Scriptures proclaiming a six day creation story, given at a time when scientific knowledge was limited to a flat earth perspective, were an acceptable explanation for the origin of the universe for that time. With our current scientific understanding of the cosmos, the six day creation story serves us best as a mythic account intended for a time when scientific knowledge was limited. How could the ancients have known about super novas, black holes, or plate tectonics? How else could they explain the creation of the earth but in the terms we find in the Genesis account?

My rejection of a literal interpretation of the six day creation story is not a rejection of the inspiration of the Bible, but rather a new understanding of the creation story as inspired for a particular time. It is a beautiful metaphor for a Creator who lovingly provided for His creation all of the essential life giving elements of a complex and interdependent world.

With the return of my love for science I feel like I have been born again. I feel as if I have been cured, if you will, of schizophrenia. The marriage of faith and science in such a way as to be intellectually honest and at the same time true to my Christian faith has liberated me from a sense of denial. I am no longer in denial of scientific facts or in denial of my personal experiential spirituality. I am free from having to be an apologist for fundamentalist beliefs and free from having to explaining away scientific observations about the universe as lies of the Devil.

I know that God is real, and I know that the earth was created 4.5 billion years ago. These two are not mutually exclusive nor does one invalidate the other. There is a richness in my faith now that is derived from acknowledging the complex majesty and deep time age of the universe that was lacking in my past due to a narrow literal reading of the first chapter of Genesis.

"It is this mythical, or rather this symbolic, content of the religious traditions which is likely to come into conflict with science. This occurs whenever this religious stock of ideas contains dogmatically fixed statements on subjects which belong in the domain of science. Thus, it is of vital importance for the preservation of true religion that such conflicts be avoided when they arise from subjects which, in fact, are not really essential for the pursuance of the religious aims." ~Albert Einstein

Peace, Love, and Light!
Kevin (Cloud)

Yosemite - Light, Water, Earth, Sky, Spirt, and Time

Yosemite Valley at sunset. Truly, a magical event when a shaft of red-orange sunlight moves up the Merced River and strikes the eastern Yosemite Valley wall, adding a reddish glow to Bridal Vail Fall for just a brief moment of awesome wonder.

I am amazed at the grandeur of Yosemite. I can see why the native peoples wanted to keep it a secret and sacred place. I can't help but feel the presence of the Creator calling out to me, yet at the same time my analytical, science craving brain is questioning my earlier "Young Earth" literalistic views.

A mossy grove at the base of Bridal Vail Fall that I almost missed. Yosemite is all about light, water , and time.

None of this would be here without water and ice and the time required to carve out the valley.

None of the flora and fauna would be here without life giving water and sunlight.


Yosemite Falls, the Merced River, and Yosemite Valley Floor. None of this could be enjoyed without light.

We are blessed to have eyesight enabling us to interpret the sunlight reflected off the landscape that was created by stardust flung into the cosmos at the beginning.

When I am in such a magnificent place it is impossible for me to deny the Creator's existence or the events that pushed up the granite mountains that were then carved out by glaciers long ago.

The plate tectonics that pushed up the Sierra Nevada mountain range, and the carving out of solid granite by glaciers and rivers that created Yosemite Valley speak of a planet that is older than I can imagine.

The beauty and majesty that is Yosemite declares a Creator's hand and an invitation to a spiritual connection to our universe created in deep time.

"For from the world's creation the invisible things of him are perceived, being apprehended by the mind through the things that are made, both his eternal power and divinity, so as to render them inexcusable." (Romans 1:20)

"In God's wildness lies the hope of the world."
~John Muir

Peace, Love, and Light!
Kevin (Cloud)

Happy Easter Earthlings

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? (Psalm 8:3-4)

It is beyond my comprehension how the inhabitants of this tiny ball of dust spinning on the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy can be the recipient of the Creator's affection.

Peace, Love, and Light through Jesus the Christ!
Kevin (Cloud)

We Came In Peace For all Mankind

Thirty-eight years ago this week I was glued to the television set watching the most amazing trek humankind had undertaken since Ferdinand Magellan circumnavigated the globe in 1519 - the flight of Apollo 11 and the first man to walk on the moon. All these wonderful NASA photos can be found at The Project Apollo Archive.

This plaque was attached to one of the Lunar Lander's legs. It remains there on the moon to this day. I find it interesting that those words were chosen while the Vietnam war was ragging.

What an awesome view of our beautiful planet. The earth sure looks like a welcoming place to visit in contrast to the appearance of the moon. From here it looks so peaceful and alive. If we "came in peace" to such a desolate and uninhabitable place like the moon, then why can't we live in peace on earth?

Peace, Love, and Light through Jesus the Christ!
Kevin (Cloud)

Autumnal Equinox

This week marks the Autumnal Equinox - one of the two times during the year that the sun passes the equator, when the days and nights are equal in length. Fall has always been my favorite season, fall is so colorful, the oppressive heat of summer has passed and I can move about without breaking into a sweat. Fall is the Father's way of allowing his creation one last burst of color, a giant tie-dye blanket covering his creation before the winter nap begins.

Autumnal Equinox begins the time of the year that the final harvest is brought in, a time of thanksgiving, a time of preparation for change. The cooler temperatures and longer shadows tell my sub-conscience that winter is coming and changes yet unseen hang in the air. The Autumnal Equinox is a marker, a signal of the passing of seasons. Fall has always been a time for change for me, perhaps it goes back to my childhood days, fall is the time the new school year would begin.

This year is no different, this week I start in a new management position at work. What perfect timing the Father has, he knows that I am more receptive to change in the Fall. Most folks want to make new beginnings around the first of the year, not me - too many failed New Year's resolutions.

Here are two links about The Equinox and Fall Equinox Celebrations.

I love the Fall and the changes the Father brings my way. I look forward to long crunchy walks with my wife along leaf littered streets beneath the sycamore trees.

Peace, Love, and Light through Jesus the Christ!
Kevin (Cloud)