Category Archives: Science

My wife and I have taken a stab at growing tomatoes beside our house a couple of times in our marriage. We succeeded in Kentucky. We failed in Florida. Not long after we built our house here in Florida, we decided to plant a lemon tree. In seven years, we have had one season of a decent harvest, getting 18 lemons off the tree.

This year we decided to plant a garden. We did it because I somehow heard about square foot gardening. So for my birthday, my dear wife got me a couple of easy-to-construct garden boxes, and suddenly my intentions were void of excuses.

In less than two weeks, I had cleared a spot in the yard, removed the grass, laid down the weed fabric, constructed the garden boxes, and mixed and filled the soil (1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermeculite, and 1/3 compost). All that was left to do was lay the string to mark off the “square feet” and plant the seeds.

On the evening of Wednesday, April the 13th, we did just that. Below is a chart, showing what we planted, who planted, and when the book says we should expect a harvest. Chase did the calculations on the calendar, so we are trusting his 2nd grade homeschool education is a sufficient foundation for accuracy!

The Maragni Square Foot Garden

The kids loved the idea of planting a garden and stood there waiting to watch it grow in front of their eyes. At one point in the process, Lacey asked our five-year-old son, “Bryce, do you have a green thumb?” He pulled his right hand up, pointed upward with his dirty thumb, looked at it real good, and said with all seriousness, “No, it’s brown.”

Planting our First Garden

That evening for our family devotional time I read from 1 Corinthians 3:5-9:

5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers.”

We did our part by taking and applying what God has given: seeds, soil, wisdom to know how to plant them. Now we will water it. God will cause it to grow…we hope and pray.

…then turn off your computer and pick up a book. I think this is the advice author Nicolas Carr would suggest. Carr says our increased internet surfing is actually causing our brains are being rewired for the worse. So grab a good book and keep your brain sharp.

…is being exposed for what it really is: a bunch of bunk. Pardon my poor English, but if there is one thing that continually causes me to scratch my head it is how easily people jump on a bandwagon driven by “science.” I still have no doubt that global warming is a total hoax. The scientists in the mid-70s said we were entering an ice age as Time Magazine reported.

The leaders of the movement cast themselves as caring about the planet, saving the human race, and all this noble sounding blah, blah, blah. But far too many of them are more concerned about securing funding for research or finding ways to line their pockets with the profits of being an expert about the subject. Al Gore has become far more rich than he already was by flying around the planet in a big jet, polluting the environment with his huge carbon footprint, preaching the gospel of environmentalism, all for the worthy cause of saving the planet.

The followers of the movement are people who need a cause. Everyone needs to feel part of a cause bigger than themselves. They need to feel like they are contributing their money and efforts and thoughts toward something great and grand and noble…say like…saving the planet! So they believe the “scientists” who say that humans are causing our planet to warm up and so they start recyclying (not a bad thing) and they buy a smaller car or even a hybrid and they “go green.”

The only problem is that it’s simply not true. The founder of the weather channel, John Coleman, has called global warming the “greatest scam in history.” He recently produced and hosted a show to debunk the scam. You can watch that HERE. I encourage you to watch it, and then pass the word along. Let’s put an end to this ridiculous hoax.

Sometimes Christians can be intimidated by intellectuals who don’t believe in God, especially when they have “impressive” academic credentials. But we have some pretty impressive minds on our team as well. Alvin Plantiga is one such mind. Justin Taylor posts an interview of Plantinga by Simon Smart (told you we had some impressive minds, “Smart”!). Of course, I don’t endorse his beliefs on every subject, but hopefully I can post interviews without implying full-scale endorsement of all a person’s beliefs. Anyway, it’s worth your time.

Ask anyone who knows me well…I have been a skeptic of this non-sense all along. Do you remember back in the 70s when all the science “experts” were predicting another ice age?

Well, dear reader, if you have been duped by the global warning lie, would it shake your confidence at all to know that the founder of the Weather Channel has called it “the greatest scam in history”? John Coleman, the founder of the Weather Channel, wrote an article exposing the lie. Here is a portion: