Believe it or not?

1. Believe it or not? • For each of the following case scenarios, answer the following questions: • Do you believe it? • If you do, what convinces you? If you don’t, why not? • Rate, from 1-10, how much you trust the authority or believability of the source. • What background or preexisting knowledge do you have on the subject? • What proof or evidence would make you change your mind?

2. Case #1: Obama Face Found On Ceres Dwarf Planet Source: NASA March 2015, UFO Sighting News “This morning I got a message on Facebook from a person that found a face on the dwarf planet Ceres. He said the face looks like President Obama’s face. I do see some resemblance, but we need a higher detail photo of Ceres to be certain. Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt and has been explored by the DAWN spacecraft. This face is so big, it is probably there to send a message to all those traveling through the asteroid belt...that this area of space belongs to this species. Marking their territory. Why are they covering in darkness part of Ceres? What is so massive thatNASA has to cover up 25% of the planet?” Source: http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/2015/03/obama-face-found-on-ceres-dwarf-planet.html

3. Case #2: Scientists warn that Earth has entered its sixth mass extinction Source: Professor Paul Ehrlich Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment Published in the journal Science Advances Estimates reveal an exceptionally rapid loss of biodiversity over the last few centuries, indicating that a sixth mass extinction is already under way. Written records of extinctions of large mammals, birds, and reptiles date back to the 1600s and include species such as the dodo, Steller’s sea cow, and the Rodrigues giant tortoise. The average rate of vertebrate species loss over the last century is up to 100 times higher than extinction rates earlier in the earth’s history. The total number of vertebrate species that went extinct in the last century alone would have taken about 800 to 10,000 years to disappear at previous rates. Text: Accelerated modern human–induced species losses: Entering the sixth mass extinction in Science Advances 19 Jun 2015: Vol. 1, no. 5, e1400253 http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/5/e1400253 Image: "Oxford Dodo display" by BazzaDaRambler - Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Uploaded by FunkMonk. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oxford_Dodo_display.jpg#/media/File:Oxford_Dodo_display.jpg

4. Case #3: The earth is a flat disk centered around the North Pole. Source: http://www.theflatearthsociety.org “The modern age of the Flat Earth Society dates back to the early 1800s, when it was founded by Samuel Birley Rowbotham, an English inventor. Samuel Rowbotham's Flat Earth views were based largely on a literal interpretation of Bible passages. His system, called Zetetic Astronomy, held that the earth is a flat disk centered at the North Pole and bounded along its 'southern' edge by a wall of ice, with the sun, moon, planets, and stars only a few hundred miles above the surface of the earth. The mission of the Flat Earth Society is to promote and initiate discussion of Flat Earth theory as well as archive Flat Earth literature.” Image by Orlando Ferguson [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

5. Case #4: Walnut sphinx caterpillars whistle like alarmed birds Source: Lindsay, Jessica, Why do Caterpillars Whistle? Acoustic Mimicry of Bird Alarm Calls in the Amorpha juglandis Caterpillar, thesis abstract Jessica Lindsay, senior honors student in wildlife biology at University of Montana, studied the unique whistling noises produced by the North American walnut sphinx caterpillar. Similar to the “seet” alarm call of many bird species, the caterpillar’s whistling prompted a “fight or flight” instinct in hunting birds. Lindsay theorizes that the whistling is a sophisticated imitation of alarm calls that frighten off potential predators. Text: Lindsay, Jessica, "Why do Caterpillars Whistle? Acoustic Mimicry of Bird Alarm Calls in the Amorpha juglandis Caterpillar" (2015). Undergraduate Theses and Professional Papers. Paper 60. http://scholarworks.umt.edu/utpp/60 Image: “Caterpillar of Amorpha Juglandis” by Vilseskogen is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/vilseskogen/9540937639/

6. Case #5: The Creator of the entire universe sent his only son to earth in the form of a human being for the purpose of dying in order to save the creation from sin and evil. Source: The Bible For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. - John 3:16 (NET) Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he likewise shared in their humanity, so that through death he could destroy the one who holds the power of death (that is, the devil)… - Hebrews 2:14 (NET) This is what we proclaim to you: what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and our hands have touched (concerning the word of life— 2 and the life was revealed, and we have seen and testify and announce to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us). - 1 John 1:1-2 (NET) “Sermon on the Mount” Tiffany glass, photo by John Stephen Dwyer is licensed under CC BY-SA from Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sermon-on-the-mount-tiffany.jpg