Sensory Awareness

 Our post title refers to our knowledge of the sensory systems of the human body. There are five traditional senses—visual, auditory, olfactory (odor), gustatory (taste), and touch. Several others are considered a subset of our traditional senses. The five traditional senses connect us to our environment in the most profound ways. Sight and sound may be considered the most treasured sensory gifts from the Creator.

When we focus initially on this pair of senses we are overwhelmed at God’s creative ability. Our visual and auditory systems are exceptional transducers. A transducer is a device converting energy from one form to another. Human eyes and ears are marvelous transducers. The energy of electromagnetic waves (visible light) first enters our eyes, carrying with it detailed information about our environment. Without our organ of sight the environmental information carried by electromagnetic light waves would be meaningless to us. Our eyes convert electromagnetic energy to a different form of energy. In this case the electromagnetic energy is converted to discrete digital electrical pulses traveling through our optic nerve to visual centers in the brain. Our brains translate the billions of digital electrical pulses into a mental picture implanted within our human consciousness. Therefore, it is not really our eyes doing the “seeing.” It is our brain! 

As a transducer our ears may be in second place. Human sense organs are transducers  converting data from the physical world to the world of our conscious mind where people interpret the information. This enables conscious perception of the surrounding world. We link posts from 2012 and 2014 where we discuss the sense of vision and audition:

https://jasscience.blogspot.com/2012/12/getting-picture.html

https://jasscience.blogspot.com/2014/07/astounding-transducers.html

In the link entitled “astounding transducers,” we discuss sound waves. Sound waves travel through air at about 1100 feet/second. Sound waves of a certain pitch, middle C on the piano, for example, are composed of 256 regions of air molecule compressions separated by 256 regions of air molecule rarefactions. These regions of compression and rarefaction strike your ear drum at 1100 feet/second—the speed of sound. Our physical ear mechanism then converts these regions of compression and rarefaction to electrical impulses transmitted to auditory regions of our brain through millions of neural circuits. Therefore, it is not really our ears doing the “hearing.” It is our brain! The complexities of vision and audition supply an opportunity to worship the God of Creation. He created the visual and auditory sensory systems of humans as well as all living creatures.

Human visual and auditory systems are joined by three other sensory systems which detect odor, taste, and balance. All sensory systems are transducers. The chemical signals of odor and taste have been studied by thousands of bioscientists. Our understanding of how these senses function increases continually.

There are many other sensory systems enabling humanity to be aware of their environment. The five major sensory systems are termed special senses. They are supplemented by the somatosensory system, a subset of the familiar sensory system. These senses are termed general senses. They provide information on temperature, pain, and body positioning, sometimes called muscle sense. These receptors are also transducers able to convert energy from one form to another. Our brain receives a storm of electrical impulses from our sensory receptor cells.

When we search for information on human sensory systems we become aware of the recent proliferation of knowledge of human body function, especially our sensory systems. For instance, the last several decades of visual research have resulted in a greater understanding of cellular signal transduction processes in the eye than in any other organ of the human body. Similar statements could be made concerning research in many other fields of human physiology.

God is not only the Creator of time, space, matter, and energy, but also He designed interlocking bodily sensory systems to provide enjoyment of our environment. One of our favorite personal scripture passages is Psalm 139:14 (NIV): I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. A study of human sensory systems spectacularly affirms the truth of this passage. 

      

  

Localized Weather Disasters

 Natural evil is a difficult concept to define and difficult to explain. The GotQuestions.org website defines natural evil as follows: “Natural evil is that which causes pain and suffering to humanity but which is NOT due to direct human involvement. Congenital diseases, tsunamis, earthquakes, droughts, and famine are all  outcomes of natural evil.”

In the past year there have been increasing instances of natural evil publicized in the media. For this post our focus will be on tornadoes and hurricanes. Tragically, these violent weather events have caused fatalities. The danger of tornadoes in the United States frequently occurs in springtime when tornadoes are generated on the Great Plains of the United States while hurricanes are generated over warm oceans from early summer to late autumn. 

This country has a geographic region sometimes dubbed “tornado alley” where  tornadoes commonly occur from March to June.  Cold, dry air masses from the north funnel south and collide with warm, moist air masses from southern water bodies producing conditions favorable to tornado formation. This happens on the Great Plains, a broad flatland area generally between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River. More tornadoes occur in this region than in all other countries of the world combined.

There is a caveat to the nickname “tornado alley.” The Great Plains region of the United States is  known as the “breadbasket of the United States” sometimes even the “breadbasket of the world.” Grain crops thrive better in Great Plains alternating warm and cold seasons. Crops are widely exported to other countries of the world. The Ice Age left behind rich glacial soils when the thick layer of ice melted—ideal for agricultural production.

Planet Earth is the only satellite in the universe known to possess life. Therefore, it is the only satellite where death occurs. The implications of this fact are far-reaching in terms of the existence of natural evil. We conclude that natural evil is most meaningful in relation to the ability of living creatures to experience death, suffering, or pain. In this respect Earth is a unique planet in our universe. There are many reasons why Earth is unique as a home for humanity. A few science authors have offered plentiful justification that there may be no other planet on which human life could possibly exist, in spite of their boundless optimism that other locations in our universe provide the necessary environment for sentient humanity.

Scientists have used a humorous phrase to describe vital planetary physical conditions for human life. The conditions must be in the just right “Goldilocks Zone,” not too much, not too little: (1) just right temperature, not too hot, not too cold (2) just right quantity and phase of water, and (3) just right atmospheric composition. Our list is incomplete—many other conditions must be “fine-tuned.”

Our planetary weather system functions because heat is its driving force:

https://jasscience.blogspot.com/2019/03/weather-is-all-about-heat.html

Heat energy arrives from the sun by infrared radiation. When it arrives on Earth the thermal energy is transferred from one location to another. Conduction, convection, and radiation are methods of heat travel. Planet Earth is a water world. Without an adequate supply of water, life would not be present on our planet. When liquid water evaporates or water vapor condenses, an enormous quantity of heat is generated. Latent heat of evaporation and latent heat of condensation are terms to describe such heat transfer. Thermal heat energy fuels the formation of tornadoes and hurricanes in our atmosphere. Likewise, if we did not have an atmosphere of nitrogen and oxygen in plentiful supply, life as we know it would not exist.

In many past posts we have stated that Earth is “a place to thrive,” not “a place of brokenness and despair.” However, the operating system designed by Our Creator for the present created world allows for events such as tornadoes, hurricanes, and many other weather tragedies. Skeptics have inquired why God does not eliminate every instance of natural evil if He is the omnibenevolent Divine Creator. A statistical study of human fatalities caused by natural evil reveal that human fatalities from tornadoes and hurricanes and other tragedies are actually quite rare—a tiny fraction of 1%. We do not trivialize any human death but the description of Planet Earth as “a place to thrive” is still appropriate. Humanity is gifted with the ability to avoid many destructive outcomes of natural evil.    

Tornadoes, hurricanes, and all other manifestations of natural evil will not be evident in the New Creation described in the last two chapters of scripture—Revelation 21 and 22.