A just weight and balance are the LORD’S: all the weights of the bag are his work.
(Proverbs 16:11) KJV
When we were taking our ‘O’ levels, grades 9 and 10, we strategically sought understanding of the theoretical anchors which which have been used to build the popular science narrative of godless existence (SciPop).
We really wanted evolution to be the origin of humanity because, logically, that would mean that the Bible wasn’t true. By implication this would mean that God wasn’t real and we could stop worrying about it and sin as much as we wanted, or could feasibly get away with. As we approached the beginning of the 2-year ‘O’ level course we were told about two different courses which were available for the teachers to use, and that the consensus among the teachers was that although the Nuffield syllabus was the most challenging it was felt that the students could handle it and that it would be beneficial.
The Nuffield Science Teaching Project was a programme to develop a better approach to teaching science in British secondary schools, under the auspices of the Nuffield Foundation. Although not intended as a curriculum, it gave rise to alternative national examinations, and its use of discovery learning was influential in the 1960s and 1970s.
– Nuffield Science Project (Wikipedia)
We were really excited because it looked like we were going to get some of the answers that we were looking for, in particular the one about how radiometric dating worked. If the Bible tells us that the Earth is about 6,000 years old, but radioisotopes give us a timescale of millions of years, then how does radiometric dating work? What’s the key? How can it be so different and be scientific? We were desperate to know.
When the day came that the teacher explained this part of science we were at rapt attention and determined to nail down our understanding of the rationale. It was critically important to us to be able to understand this. Here’s what we remember about the moment, one of our clearest memories of that part of our life.
- Teacher: Radiometric dates go back millions of years because each radioactive isotope has a half-life. The half life of an isotope is how long it takes for half of the material in a sample to decay. Nuclear decay rates are constant, which is how we’re able to calculate these dates.
- Matty: (trying to pin down what looks like a loose end in the rationale, raises hand)
- Teacher: Yes Matty
- Matty: How do we know that the decay rates are constant?
- Teacher: No, it has to be that way.
- Matty: (aware that this doesn’t answer the question, raises hand)
- Teacher: Yes Matty
- Matty: But how do we know that?
- Teacher: (slightly exasperated) It has to be that way.
- Matty: (worried that the scientific rationale that we’re craving has a serious weakness, raises hand)
- Teacher: (getting irritated) What?
- Matty: But HOW do we know that?
- Teacher: (ready to loose it) NO! IT HAS TO BE THAT WAY!
We stopped asking. We realized that, if we wanted the evolutionary origin of humanity to be true, we were going to have to accept that the rationale behind it wasn’t iron-clad. However, with this realization fully processed we went on to willfully accept that believing in the decay constant was a choice. We put it out of our mind.
This is one of the leaps of faith which has been made by everyone who believes in the evolutionary origin of humanity, whether they realize it or not. It’s Principia Mattymatica – Principle VIII.
Matty (Headwind) 