Electric Snowflakes

In the 38th chapter of the book of Job, God is pointing out that he knows everything and Job knows nothing! He emphasises his point by sarcastically asking Job a series of rhetorical questions:

• Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
• Who marked off its dimensions?
• Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea?
• Or walked in the recesses of the deep?
• Have the gates of death been shown to you?
• Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness?
• Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?
• What is the way to the abode of light?
• And where does darkness reside?
• Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain?
• Does the rain have a father?
• Who fathers the drops of dew?
• From whose womb comes the ice?
• Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens?
• Do you know the laws of the heavens?
• Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?
• Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God?

If you are a member of the Christian laity, then you won't agree with my opinion that god was being sarcastic in Job chapter 38, but you will easily understand that his questions were, indeed, rhetorical - and nothing more than that.

But if you are not a member of the Christian laity then what are you? Probably a money hungry control freak who preaches to fundamentalists because they are the dumbest people on the planet and so easy to fool.

About 30 years ago some of those money hungry control freaks came up with an education system which they sold to devout parents who wanted all subjects linked back to god and the bible. The group called themselves ACE (Accelerated Christian Education) and published a series of booklets which they called Packets of Accelerated Christian Education (PACE) and which can now be found in Christian schools all around the world. Here's an example of the nonsensical rubbish they teach:


Right in the middle of the 38th chapter of Job, the con artists at ACE read these words:

Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail, which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle?
(Job 38:22-23 - New International Version)

And while every sensible Christian knows that it is just another rhetorical question, the people at ACE are pandering to the dumbest, most gullible people on the planet and so they decided to put a scientific spin on those verses and include the story in PACE #1087. Here's the story as described by Johnny Scaramanga:

ACE’s Science 1087(aimed at students in year 9) suggests it might be possible to generate electricity from snow:

Scientists have known for years that snowflakes are shaped in six-sided, or hexagonal, patterns. But why is this? Some scientists have theorised that the electrons within a water molecule follow three orbital paths that are positioned at 60° angles to one another. Since a circle contains 360°, this electronic relationship causes the water molecule to have six ‘spokes’ radiating from a hub (the nucleus). When water vapour freezes in the air, many water molecules link up to form the distinctive six-sided snowflakes and the hexagonal pattern is quite evident.

Snowflakes also contain small air pockets between their spokes. These air pockets have a higher oxygen content than does normal air. Magnetism has a stronger attraction for oxygen than for other gases. Consequently, some scientists have concluded that a relationship exists between a snowflake’s attraction to oxygen and magnetism’s attraction to oxygen.

Job 38:22, 23 states, ‘Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?’ Considering this scripture, some scientists believe that a tremendous power resides untapped within the water molecules from which snowflakes and hailstones are made.

How can this scripture, along with these observations about snowflakes, show us a physical truth? Scientists at Virginia Tech have produced electricity more efficiently from permanent magnets, which have their lines of force related to each other at sixty-degree angles, than from previous methods of extracting electricity from magnetism. Other research along this line may reveal a way to tap electric current directly from snow, eliminating the need for costly, heavy, and complex equipment now needed to generate electricity.

My scientific knowledge isn’t superb – not helped by three years of ACE – so I asked Professor Paul Braterman, a chemist at Glasgow University and a committee member of the anti-creationist British Centre for Science Education, what he thought. “Bullshit on stilts” came his reply, in a brusque email pointing out that snow has no magnetic properties. The prospect of generating free electricity from snow, he added, “bears no relationship to reality”.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2014/sep/