How the April 8 Eclipse Shows the Genius of God

Whether one believes that God created the universe on purpose, or that something else did in a random and chaotic manner – the Big Bang comes to mind – it’s difficult to argue against the order of the cosmos. This order will be visible on April 8 when millions of Americans can witness a total eclipse of the sun as the path of totality arcs across the nation from the Rio Grande Valley to northern Maine. 

This is a very big deal for a lot of people. Because Texas is less prone to cloud cover and will be the first state to experience this eclipse, droves of people are traveling to the Lone Star State to see it. So many people are coming to north Texas that Kaufman County, which is adjacent to Dallas, declared a state of emergency. So has the entire state of Indiana. 

The Royal Museum of Greenwich, England explains why this event is so extraordinary. A total solar eclipse is visible somewhere on Earth about once every 18 months. The last time people witnessed this phenomenon where I live in north Texas was July 29, 1878, beating the Royal Museum’s estimated average of about 400 years between total solar eclipses passing over any given point on the planet.

But is this eclipse a function of chaos or order? Science, for its part, provides us with something of a paradox. Some speculate that the origin of the universe was utter chaos at the moment of the Big Bang. Others theorize, “we live in a chaotic universe that, in many ways, is completely unpredictable,” while others still say cosmic rotation is increasing chaos in the universe. At the same time, it’s thought that there is order in the universe but this aforementioned chaos hides certain patterns. Which is it? 

To the extent there are hidden patterns in the universe, there are many to discover for one simple reason: We can only see about 5% of our universe. The other 95% is completely invisible to us, most of it described by science as dark energy – about 68% – and dark matter, reckoned to comprise another 27%. 

We know little about dark matter and dark energy, but we know a little more about the remaining 5% of the universe and it appears to be put together rather well. Monday’s eclipse demonstrates how well. One newspaper, The Oklahoman, reported “On April 8, 2024, a total eclipse will pass over the far southeastern corner of Oklahoma and through Dallas.” That might sound mundane today until realizing that this report was published on April 30, 2000. 

The order in the observable universe is so precise, a newspaper in Oklahoma City reported on next week’s eclipse nearly a quarter century in advance, and astronomers calculated the date and time before that. Such exact calculations are impossible in a random, chaotic environment. It is because of the structural precision of our universe that very smart people can calculate when a solar eclipse will occur. In case you’re curious, the next one that can be seen in the United States will happen on August 23, 2044. 

Skeptics of the biblical account of creation are free to lecture us on how the creation story in Genesis cannot possibly be true, and non-believers routinely deride Bible-believing Christians as bumpkinesque rubes as they explain how it wasn’t God that created the universe, but something else.

That “something else” embraced by science and people who claim to follow it cannot be seen, cannot be fully explained and cannot be proved. It encapsulates a belief system requiring faith that the quantum vacuum – which some believe created everything out of nothing – a second Big Bang about a month later, and other theories played some part in creating the universe. However, it’s difficult to argue for a chaotic universe in light of the consistent accuracy with which astronomers can calculate when solar eclipses will take place. 

Many so-called rationalists who believe in things they cannot see, explain or prove ridicule Christians for believing in things they cannot see, explain or prove. But how is a belief that a timeless, all-powerful God created an orderly universe any more preposterous than a belief that the quantum vacuum created everything out of nothing in an accidental explosion? 

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Wise people will admit that science does not know for sure how the universe came to be. They have theories and conjecture to support their belief in a chaotic, random event somewhere in time and space, and a strong faith in those theories. But the exactitude within the observable universe which reflects the first sentence of the Bible – In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth – will be on full display during the afternoon of April 8. It promises to be a glorious exhibition of the absolute and limitless genius of the Creator. 

Americans Differ on Ukraine and Gaza

When Russia invaded Ukraine, Americans overwhelmingly supported Ukraine–as they did with Israel after Oct. 7.

No wonder: Ukraine was surprise attacked by Russia, and Israel was by Hamas.

It seemed an easy binary of good versus evil: Both the attacked Ukraine and Israel are pro-Western. Both their attackers, anti-Western Russia and Hamas, are not.

Now everything is bifurcating. And the politics of the wars in America reflect incoherence.

Both Ukraine and Israel are portrayed in the media as supposedly bogging down in their counteroffensives.

More pro-Israel Republicans are troubled by Ukraine’s strategy, or lack thereof, in an increasing Somme-like stalemate.

Yet more pro-Ukrainian Democrats are turning away from Israel as it dismantles Gaza in the messy, bloody slog against Hamas. The left claims either Israel cannot or should not defeat Hamas, or at least at the present cost.

So the left pushes Israel to a cease-fire with Hamas.

It blasts Israeli “disproportionate” responses.

It demands that Israel avoid collateral damage.

It pressures it to form a wartime bipartisan government.

It lobbies to cut it off from American resupply.

It is terrified that Israel will expand the war by responding to aggression from Hezbollah and Iran.

Yet on Ukraine, the left oddly pivots to the very opposite agenda.

It believes Ukraine should not be forced to make peace with Russian “fascists.” It must become disproportionate to “win” the war.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy deserves a pass, despite canceling elections while suspending political parties.

America must step up its resupply to Kyiv with more and far deadlier weapons.

Ukraine has a perfect right to hit targets inside Russia.

Russian threats to widen the war should be considered empty and thus ignored. America should hate Russia far more than Hamas.

By contrast, conservatives are less supportive of Ukraine’s offensives, if more than ever allied with Israel.

In their realist views, Ukraine is a smaller power, vastly outnumbered by a richer, better-armed Russia. Thus, it should negotiate while it can, rather than eventually losing everything.

Israel, however, is, in their view, defeating Hamas. If allowed to finish the job, it can soon win the war in Gaza and still handle Hezbollah and deter Iran.

Furthermore, the right is wary that Russia is a nuclear power. The Ukraine war is unfortunately creating a new, potent anti-American axis of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea and drawing in former U.S. allies like Turkey and Qatar.

Yet, in Israel’s case, the U.S. is far more powerful than Hamas’s patron, Iran, and can easily deter it should Tehran intervene.

As of now, none of Hamas’s allies have nuclear weapons. Israel, however, does, unlike Ukraine.

Many conservatives further point out that Israel is a long-time U.S. democratic ally.

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Ukraine’s elections are currently suspended while the country remains under martial law.

In realist terms, the old idea of Russian triangulation still makes some sense. Russia should be no friendlier to China than to the U.S., and China is no more aligned with Russia than with America.

Hamas, by contrast, is a terrorist clique, as are Hezbollah and all of Iran’s terrorist appendages. Their hatred of the U.S. is long-standing, immutable and transcends the Gaza war.

How about the public’s views in general?

With over $35 trillion in debt, still smarting over the humiliating withdrawal from Kabul, and the military short 40,000 recruits, the public does not wish to get heavily involved in either war, even as polls still show radically differing left/right attitudes toward both.

Americans once overwhelmingly supported vast aid for Ukraine. Now they decidedly believe the U.S. is providing too much to Kyiv.

They still poll strong support for Israel over Hamas, but less so for Israel’s ongoing destruction of Hamas given the collateral damage that follows.

Given there are few Russian-Americans, there are almost no demonstrations on behalf of Moscow’s war. But there are plenty of protests for Hamas since there are lots of Middle Eastern Americans and visitors within the U.S.

What are we to conclude about these contradictory wars and American attitudes toward them?

The more democratic and defensive the power, the more Americans support it–but only up to a point.

Even more, they demand quick victory–and lose interest when the wars stagnate, costs increase and protests grow.

When Ukraine and Israel began costly counteroffensives, the former losing thousands and the latter killing thousands, the American public began to be less invested in either war.

Final lessons?

Israel should do all it can to destroy Hamas as quickly as possible and end the war.

Ukraine does not have the wherewithal to defeat Russia. It should cease costly offensives against Russia’s fortified lines and seek to negotiate.

Or, put another way, fickle Americans sympathize with those who are attacked. But their continuing support seems contingent on whether the victim can remain sympathetic–and win decisively to end the war rapidly.