Dr. Einar C. Erickson
Ancient Document Mormon Scholar
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The chief purpose and significance of baptism is first that the individual by immersion enters into close communion with the world of light, thus receiving a share of salvation and secondly receives an outer and inner purification from transgression and sin.

 

INTRODUCTION

To what has been said in the previous discussions of the Creational story, we add the following cosmological information:

“In 1998, astronomers discovered an astonishing fact Some antigravitational force was speeding up the expansion of the Universe. Two decades later, this “DARK ENERGY” [30 Sep. 30, 2019]” force] is still a mystery.  But next month, a veteran telescope in Arizona will begin to hunt for clues after being retrofitted with a robotic system to map an unprecedented 35 million galaxies and how they clump across space and time. That huge sample, spanning most of the visible universe, will allow the Dark Energy spectroscopic Instrument (DEST) to look for fluctuations in the clumping patterns that might betray the nature of dark energy …the dark energy  appears to have the same accelerating effect everywhere, across most of the history of the universe…it is a constant  pressure …associated with the fabric of space…but if dark energy turns out to vary over time, it requires a more exotic explanation, such as an additional force, sometimes dubbed…  quintessence, that could point to the need for more fundamental rewrite of the general theory of …Einstein’s theory of gravity…. DESSI …has turned out to be the most powerful dark energy probe so far.“ (Clery p. 1066) As noted elsewhere in these series, Astronomers  have ambitious plans for the James West Space Telescope (JWST) science across the entire range of visible [light] through infrared astronomy and astrophysics research areas….[finding] the first stars and galaxies, formed during the dark ages of the universe. (Bell p. 496)  

GETTING THE DETAILS

“Astronomers with the Dark Energy Survey in Chile … looked for tiny distortions in the shapes of galaxies caused by intervening matter, the distribution of which holds clues to the stretching of space… DESI … will  use what has turned out to be the most powerful dark energy probe…to look for ripple patterns which washed through the universe in the 400,000 years after the BIG BANG when it was a swIrling mass of of particles and energy…which drew matter to them  and formed  the foundations for galaxy clusters….By using  the 4-meter Nicholas, U of Mayhall,  telescope on Kitt Peak in Arizona, DESI galaxies deeper in space and time than [the Sloan survey], (SDSS) …5,000 fibers snake down the back of the telescope…to a temperature controlled room containing 10 spectrographs each analyzing the light of  500 galaxies simultaneously…” (Clery p. 1066)  [testing will be done in 2020 and within five  years  a full cosmic galaxy map will be in hand.]  …aimed at all of the weirdest things we see in the universe.” (Clery p. 1066)

WATER

In order to understand the great creations of life, we need to be aware of water. “The Earth’s outer layers are dominated by water.  More than two  thirds of its surface is covered with liquid water… if frozen water …ice …is included …it is more than four-fifths.  Water is essential to life…can move or flow easily.  Living organisms require not merely the presence of water, but a continuing supply for the maintenance of life. Humans are typical of most animals being 62 percent water, most soft bodied aquatic creatures such as jellyfish are, more than 98 percent water. [All of this had to be worked out in detail as one thinks ahead to the FITH DAY]. Pure water has no color, taste or smell. Its freezing point, at which is turns to solid ice is 32 degrees F., (0 degrees C.) …. and its boiling point…where it turns to vapor is 212 degrees F.  (100 degrees C.)  Water’s density …is exactly I kg per liter…or about one pound per pint …a standard when comparing densities of other substances. Each molecule of water is made of two hydrogen atoms, and one  oxygen atom (H20)…A pinhead-sized drop of water contains about one billion billion molecules.“ (Luhr p. 126) Their strong mutual attraction creates a surface skin or tension that permits it to creep into small holes, along narrow cracks and  to change state easily.  Water is always on the move.  “The film that forms on water is strong enough to support the weight of insects such as the common back-swimmer. This predatory bug can hang down from the surface of ponds.” (Ibid).

“Almost four-fifths of the worlds freshwater is locked up in polar regions as glacier ice, the other fifth… Lies under the surface, as groundwater in rocks. At any one given time four-fifths of all fresh water is frozen solid as ice…in numerous forms including, mountain glaciers, polar ice sheets, icebergs, periglacial landforms, and mountainous coverings [dictating where animal and plants can live]…The mass of floating ice in the Artic  Ocean is on average 16  to 23 feet hick…The ice covering the landmass of Antarctica has accumulated  over thousands of years to become more than 2.8 miles thick… Ice is less dense than water so floating ice has one eighth  to ten percent of it mass above water…As water cools toward its freezing point, it becomes most dense at 39 degrees  F. (4 degrees C), below this temperature , water starts to expand again. This property is helpful to aquatic life. In a pond or lake, the densest water at 39 p F. (4 degrees C.) sinks to the bottom, which enables animals to survive beneath the ice that forms at the colder surface.” (Luhr p. 126-127)

SOME NECESSARY TRACE OF ELEMENTS

“Only 0.3 percent of fresh water is in liquid form at the surface, in rivers, lakes and wetlands…in the form most useful for land animals… many aquatic Creatures and plants…fresh water…holds measurable amounts of a least 25 dissolved minerals, such as silica, calcium, potassium magnesium and iron…water is considered “hard” and “soft” depending on the amount of these element present.” (Luhr p.127) [Rainwater absorbs carbon dioxide gas from the air and from the soil and becomes a weak form of carbonic acid…this is enough to dissolve chemically most rock types. Acid rain is where the air pollution is cleansed out of the air by rain water but collects all the air pollutants from the atmospheric systems of the earth].                                   

“The proportion of water vapor in the atmosphere…is known as absolute  humidity…from  almost zero to 4 percent by volume…a  useful measure is  relative humidity …when relative humidity is 100 percent the air is completely saturated …no further evaporation can take place. …when water vapor…that float easily …condenses around  particles of dust, it forms tiny droplets or ice crystals….in even the weakest air currents upward into supercooled clouds where they rapidly freeze  …to fall again as…hailstones….Altocumulus, …mid-altitude clouds, a large air mass is forced to rise…cooling and condensation  over a wide area… wispy  strands of cirrus clouds are made of ice crystals blown into shape by the wind…form when an air mass cools at high altitude and becomes saturated, forming water droplets.” (Luhr p. 126) Water and its long term replenishment is absolutely necessary before  any kind  of life can be contemplated. Once this has been put in place one can expect positive results for plants to take hold and persist and survive most conditions found on earth, but the earth was patterned to be just that way.

 “Water represents only 0.2 percent of Earth’s weight, but the global water cycle, or hydrological cycle is one of the world’s most important systems. The sun provides a massive input of energy to Earth in the form of radiations, specifically ultraviolet radiations or heat. This warms liquid water which evaporates into invisible water vapor and then dissipates into the atmosphere. About 22 percent of the solar radiation that reaches earth heats oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers.  …This process is in effect, solar-powered distillation purification of water. Water vapor is also given off by plants during transpiration, and by animals [including man], in exhaled air… So the global water cycle continues. Water soaks Into the soil and rocks [and natural aquifers… and stored in lakes, oceans, and the tissues of living things.” (Luhr p. 129) Every year 9,500 cubic miles of water evaporates from the oceans and falls on the land… This yearly flow is about ten times that of the Amazon  River…enough to provide five  times the population of  the earth.” (Luhr p.130) The trouble is getting the water to the people. “More than 250 of the world’s largest river basins straddle more than one country.” (Luhr p. 130) Industry uses more than 25 percent of the water supply, agriculture uses 60 percent. The Human family only uses 10 percent.  Some great cities postponed the protection of their water supply, and now there are draughts, water wars, and great suffering.” (Luhr p. 130)

“Living organisms have been present on Earth for about 3.8 billion years…Over the course of about 2 billion years microorganisms drastically changed the composition of gases in the atmosphere, in particular by adding oxygen. Since then Organisms have spread throughout the seas and over most of the land, adapting to changing conditions. Their presence has also affected the nature of the planet so that the Earth today is the result of myriad intimate interactions between the nonliving and the living.” (Luhr p. 133)

LIFE

God created all life forms first spiritually. [The revelation specifies...’As the likeness …[of] the spirit of the beast, and every other creature or [plant form]  which GOD, ’has created.’ (D&C 77:2;  Moses 3:5, 7)…[and Put seeds of every kind and plant them on earth.] (McConkie pp. 750-751)  Everything was created spiritually by the Father. It seems from then on each earth was Terrestrial, or immortal, until the planned fall to mortal status. Plant life in all its forms were brought to the earth, as seeds, in one or more, episodes.

“Several key features help to define life. At some stage in its life cycle, an organism has an active internal chemistry in which substances dissolved in water are mobilized and change through chemical reactions. To power these chemical processes, the organism takes in and expends energy. It also takes in nutrients and raw materials so that it can grow. Organisms also reproduce, [after their own kind] they make more of their own kind. Viruses lie at the boundary between living and nonliving. These  microorganisms can be subjected to freezing, boiling, and crystallizing and remain totally inactive, but when conditions are favorable they burst into life.  Virus particles enter the cells of other organism and take over the machinery to make copies of themselves, which are released when the cell bursts open …Viruses cannot replicate on their own. They are packets of chemicals that simply copy themselves, without truly being alive.” (Luhr p. 132) They torment and vex mankind.  

Classifying living things

 “Of the different systems scientists use to classify living things…the most widely used is that of five kingdoms…on the basis of how they obtain energy and nutrients. The kingdoms are: Animals, Planets, Fungi, Protist, and Manerans.” (Luhr p. 132) 

“The animal kingdom is generally divided into two groups the vertebrates [a backbone]  and those without a vertebra. [They are also classified as flowering and non flowering].  Animals are complex multicellular organisms that gain energy by ingesting other organisms…they can sense and react to their surroundings…and they can move at least some part of their body. Plants are also multicellular but gain their energy from sunlight. [though there are some flesh eating plants] by the process if photosynthesis. FUNGI get their energy and nutrients from other living thing. PROTISTS are single cell organism with an ordered internal structure, Some ingest food like animals, others gain energy from plants. MONERANS are the simplest living organisms . They are single cell with very little ordered internal structure. They include the bacteria and cyanobacteria. Fifty years ago, when I was in college, there were only animals and plants. Debates since then, on classification issues went up to 30 kingdoms within in three super kingdoms.”  (Luhr p. 132)

“The species as the basic unit is usually defined not in terms of appearance, but by reproduction. An animal species includes all organisms that can breed with each other to produce viable offspring. The insects, class Insecta, are thought to include more than all other animal groups and all other kingdoms, added together-probably eight million, or about 12 percent of those that have been discovered and described. Every science has its publication which they publish daily, weekly, monthly, semi-monthly, semi-annually, and each publish something new discovered since their last issue.                                                                                                                                                                             

A summary of eleven of the diverse forms of life, will give some idea of what was involved in the creation of life on the FOURTH DAY, including vertebra, created on the FIFTH DAY. There are  estimated to be 700, thousand  species of Arachnids of which  10 % have been identified, here are more than 500,000 species of Viruses about 5 % have been identified, there are 400,000 Nematodes about 6 %  have been identified, there are about 400,000  bacteria perhaps only l  percent have been identified, new ones are discovered every day;  there are 350 million vascular plants, perhaps as many as 83 % have been identified so far;  about 200,000 protozoans with only about 20 % having been identified; There are about 300 thousand Algae species with 20 % of those being identified; There are a little less than 200 thousand  Mollusks, some 35 % of them have been identified; There are less than 200,000  crustaceans species with some 27 % identified; There are about 1250  species of vertebrates  and of these 95 % have been identified.  (Luhr p. 132) “The single cell bacteria called streptococcus …responsible for some Human illnesses …is so small that at least 500 of them could fit on the dot above the letter “I” in this sentence.” (Aguilar p. 153)                                                

“The vast majority of species that have ever lived on the earth are now extinct—they have died out completely. [There were at least two replantings of plant and animal life, after each extinction episode recorded in the fossil records in the strata or layers of the earth], the fossil record shows that creatures such as ammonites, trilobites, and dinosaurs once thrived in huge numbers but no longer exist.  Extinction is a natural part… of and turnover of species…  In the face of changes, climate, food sources, and competitors, some species adapt and thrive, while others perish. Throughout the earth’s history, there have been rapid major changes resulting in five mass extinctions. The most severe was the “great Dying” at the end of the Permian Period, about 252 million years ago, when over 75 % of land species and over 90 % of marine species died out.  The land mass extinction was 65 million years ago …the natural background rate of extinction among organisms is estimated at as about one species per century. However the rate has rocketed since humans spread over the earth and altered it for their own needs, and a sixth, mass extinction is currently underway. Today it is estimated that one species per day perhaps even one species every 20 minutes is being lost.” (Luhr pp. 132-133) Most of these extinctions occurred in the FIFTH DAY, so there will be more about these events in the study of the FIFTH DAY. Clearly one can say without equivocation, “O God, how great thou art.”

 

                                                  BIBLIOGRAPHY

AGUlLAR, David A., Planets, Stars, and Galaxies, National Geographic, Washington D.C., 2010

BELL, Jim, The Space Book, Sterling, New York, 2013

CLERY, Daniel, Robot Detector to Map Cosmos for Clues to Dark Energy’s Force, Science, Vol. 365, Issue, 6458, 13 September. 2019

LUHR. James F., Earth, DK, Smithsonian Institution, New York, 2003 

McCONKIE. Bruce R., 2nd Ed., Mormon Doctrine, Bookcraft, Salt Lake City. Utah, 1966                                                       

         

All research and opionions presented on this site are the sole responsibility of Dr. Einar C. Erickson, and should not be interpreted as official statements of the doctrines, beliefs or practices of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
To find out more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, please see their offical websites at ChurchOfJesusChrist.org