Neptune is the Roman name for the Greek god of the seas and of earthquakes. Poseidon, in Greek mythology, is the father of Polyphemus, the tyrannical, man-eating cyclopes of Homer's Odyssey. Because the Odysseus blinded Polyphemus, it was Poseidon and his wrath which ultimately made Odysseus' trip home a little more circuitous than was to the Big O's liking.
Thankfully, Poseidon and his offspring exist only in the long-gone minds and imaginations of Homer and the Greco-Roman world.
But there is a true King of king and Lord of lords, which even the wind, wave, continental plates and distant planets obey.
Who is this King of Glory? How do the heavens declare His glory? And what might the enigmas and mysteries of our solar system's most distant planet tell us about Him?
Come and see!
To see pictures comparing the actual colors of Uranus and Neptune see this article.
https://www.space.com/uranus-neptune-similar-shades-of-blue-voyager-2-images
Music featured for the first 7 minutes of the broadcast comes from Gustav Holst, The Planets Op 32 Vii Neptune The Mystic https://youtu.be/cZt9oXP1OKc?si=d8ZYuTbYtSKuwXtN
CNN special episode of Voyager 2 arrival at Neptune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwb-o5N9LBM
Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BqnN72OlqA
Sarah Salviander article
https://sarahsalviander.substack.com/p/top-10-reasons-ill-never-go-back
Wayne's blog article on 'Easter - Then and Now'
https://creationanswers.net/answersblog/2025/04/18/easter-then-and-now/
Podbean enables our podcast to be on Apple Podcasts and other major podcast platforms. To support Good Heavens! on Podbean as a patron, you can use the Podbean app, or go to https://patron.podbean.com/goodheavens. This goes to Wayne Spencer. If you would like to give to the ministry of Watchman Fellowship or to Daniel Ray, you can donate at https://www.watchman.org/daniel. Donations to Watchman are tax deductible.
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1:03:04
The Artistry of Uranus - Wonders of the 7th Planet
You don't hear much about Uranus these days. Probably because it's 1.8 billion miles away, or maybe because the last time an Earth-launched satellite probe visited the enigmatic ringed world was in 1986. A few years ago the James Webb Space Telescope took the beauteous portrait of Uranus you see in the thumbnail, but for the most part, most folks don't think much about the quirky planet that orbits the sun whilst rolling on its side.
Hopefully, this episode will at least make you think about Uranus as a work of art, the "handiwork" of God (Psalm 8 and 19), which silently declares His glory.
The background music you hear in the introduction is from Gustav Holst's - The Planets, Op. 32 - VI. Uranus, the Magician [Copyright Free].
https://youtu.be/DEb1gtMljyA?si=e8qCMcurFy18Gmte
Uranus press conference original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAEUvts2F6g
Book on Uranus and Neptune (not Christian): https://a.co/d/8QlE8ur
Also, this is Wayne's blog with an article on Easter and Jesus' resurrection:
https://creationanswers.net/answersblog/
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Podbean enables our podcast to be on Apple Podcasts and other major podcast platforms. To support Good Heavens! on Podbean as a patron, you can use the Podbean app, or go to https://patron.podbean.com/goodheavens. This goes to Wayne Spencer. If you would like to give to the ministry of Watchman Fellowship or to Daniel Ray, you can donate at https://www.watchman.org/daniel. Donations to Watchman are tax deductible.
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44:56
Like a Bridegroom - Insights about the Sun from Scripture and the Parker Solar Probe - Part 2
What does the Bible say about the sun? What is the purpose of the sun? Why did God create it? How does the sun remind us of God's invisible attributes? How could there have been life on earth before the sun? How can we best understand both what the Bible says and what science says about our sun?
The sun was designed and created for God's glory; for signs and for seasons, for days and years, to govern the day, and to give light on the earth. Come and see with Wayne and Dan what the Bible and the Parker Solar Probe can tell us not only about the sun, but about what God is like.
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Audio clips used in this episode:
Grackles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLteSIxC1hs
Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OwP2MONfcE
Dr. Carl Sagan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLPkpBN6bEI
Dr. Nour Rawafi Ted Talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hktbamn2jX4
Podbean enables our podcast to be on Apple Podcasts and other major podcast platforms. To support Good Heavens! on Podbean as a patron, you can use the Podbean app, or go to https://patron.podbean.com/goodheavens. This goes to Wayne Spencer. If you would like to give to the ministry of Watchman Fellowship or to Daniel Ray, you can donate at https://www.watchman.org/daniel. Donations to Watchman are tax deductible.
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36:54
Rejoicing to Run His Course - Insights about the Sun and the Parker Solar Probe - Part 1
Our thumbnail image this week is not a doctored or photoshopped image, but a genuine picture of the sun from October 2024. Taken in 193 angstrom light on Oct. 26, 2024, NASA captured our sun in a state of rejoicing, or so it seemed (image credit NASA/GSFC/SDO). The darker regions you see that comprise the eyes and mouth are actually regions of the surface of the sun that have been blasted off by coronal mass ejections that can trigger solar storms here on earth. In fact, solar storm warnings were issued because of this particular image. All that "missing" material is fired off into space and some of it could (and did) strongly interact with Earth's atmosphere, creating the Northern Lights effect. The charged particles from the sun interact with the magnetic field of Earth, which shields us from just such ejections. Without the magnetic shield, Earth's atmosphere would be stripped bare by these solar ejecta.
This is a perfect analogy to what the Bible says about God in Psalm 84:11. "Our God is a sun and shield." The radiant and fiercely powerful light of the sun reminds us of God as a "consuming fire", while the Earth's magnetic field reminds us that God is a shield to us. We are protected by God's wrath through Christ on the cross. God provides us with His own righteous shield, in the person of His Son Jesus who, upon the cross, has taken away our sin.
Come and see what the Bible and the Parker Solar Probe have to say about our Sun, the handiwork of God.
EPISODE NOTE: In the beginning of part one, Dan mentions the faint, young sun problem but we forgot to get back to it. So here is an article about the problem you can check out if you're interested! https://creation.com/young-sun-paradox
Audio clips featured in part one
ABC DFW Northern Lights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XM6FJbehp28
Solar Probe whistle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50kwxyFQalI
Solar Probe CME sounds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF_e5eYgJ3Y
Podbean enables our podcast to be on Apple Podcasts and other major podcast platforms. To support Good Heavens! on Podbean as a patron, you can use the Podbean app, or go to https://patron.podbean.com/goodheavens. This goes to Wayne Spencer. If you would like to give to the ministry of Watchman Fellowship or to Daniel Ray, you can donate at https://www.watchman.org/daniel. Donations to Watchman are tax deductible.
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49:26
The Very Big and the Very Small Part 2 - A Conversation with a Cosmologist and Particle Physicist
How might things like "spooky action at a distance" or mysterious as "dark matter" point us to the glory of God? Whether you are a theist or a non-theist or a Christian who believes in a young or an old universe, we can all agree on at least one thing.
The universe is a fascinating place in which we find ourselves. That the universe is intelligible to us is even more remarkable.
But here at Good Heavens! we like to think the cosmos is more than just fascinating. We believe, as the Bible reveals, that the physical cosmos, at both the incredibly large and infinitesimally small scales, reveal to us something about God's invisible attributes. As both the psalms and Isaiah tell us, the whole of the heavens and earth are filled with the glory of God.
Often we are told that Christianity and science cannot possibly go together, however. But hopefully our special guests will continue to dispel that misconception.
As mentioned on part one, Dan had the remarkable opportunity this month (January) at the Defend 2025 apologetics conference at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary to have a fun and inspiring chat with not one, but two Christians who are professionally and popularly published doctors of the cosmos (at the same time!), one who studies the subatomic scale and one who studies galaxies, some of the largest entities in the cosmos.
Dr. Michael G. Strauss is a particle physicist at CERN and the University of Oklahoma and Dr. Luke Barnes is a researcher and lecturer of cosmology and astrophysics at Western Sydney University in Sydney, Australia. Both have published works at the professional and popular levels.
It was a wonder and a privilege to get them both at the table together to hear their insights about the structure of the universe at the large and small scales and how they see God in all of it.
Here on part two, we chat about spooky action at a distance, the mystery of dark matter, and we'll glean some insights as to how we as Christians can have conversations about our differences in relation to the age of the universe.
Good Heavens! this was a fun conversation. We hope you'll enjoy it as much as Dan did putting it together for you!
Soli Deo Gloria.
More about Luke
More about Michael
Luke's booksÂ
Michael's book
Podbean enables our podcast to be on Apple Podcasts and other major podcast platforms. To support Good Heavens! on Podbean as a patron, you can use the Podbean app, or go to https://patron.podbean.com/goodheavens. This goes to Wayne Spencer. If you would like to give to the ministry of Watchman Fellowship or to Daniel Ray, you can donate at https://www.watchman.org/daniel. Donations to Watchman are tax deductible.