Hunting down the God Particle

From Koinonia House

HUNTING DOWN THE GOD PARTICLE

“They call it the God particle: a mysterious sub-atomic fragment that permeates the entire universe and explains how everything is the way it is. Nobody has ever seen the God particle; some say it doesn’t exist but, in the ultimate leap of faith, physicists across the world are preparing to build one of the most ambitious and expensive science experiments the world has ever seen to try to find it.” - David Adam, The Guardian, August 21, 2004

The Large Hadron Collider was started up again this weekend and is expected to reach full speed before the end of the month. This massive atom smasher hidden underground in the Alps along the border of France and Switzerland has a price tag of $10 billion and has the job of shooting atoms through its 16.8-mile circular tunnel at insanely high speeds.  Thus far, the LHC has accelerated proton beams to an astounding energy level of  2.36 teraelectronvolts (TeV).  The highest any previous atom smasher had reached was .98 TeV.  In December the CERN scientists shut down the LHC in order to ready it for even more ambitious experiments.

The massive machine was brought back to life in the wee hours of Sunday morning, and CERN scientists now want the LHC to reach 7.0 TeV in order to create what they consider to be Big Bang conditions.  For the next 18 months to two years the LHC should pound atoms against each other and analyze the results through powerful computers in order to catch a glimpse at the very stuff that makes up the universe.  Physicists hope the collider will enable them to directly observe the Higgs boson, the theoretical glue that holds the entire universe together.  The Higgs boson, often called the God particle, is perhaps the most elusive element in particle physics.

Back in 2008, world renowned physicist Steven Hawking told British TV, ”I think it will be much more exciting if we don’t find the Higgs. That will show something is wrong, and we need to think again. I have a bet of $100 that we won’t find the Higgs.”  Other physicists, though - a significant number - are hopeful about the possibilities and are willing for Hawking to eventually lose his bet. The project involves more than 8,000 scientists from at least 85 countries.

Dark Matter
The Standard Model in particle physics, which is often compared to the Periodic Table of Elements used by chemists, consists of 16 particles that make up all matter in the universe. The problem is that the Standard Model is not complete. In the late 1960’s a physicist by the name of Peter Higgs proposed the existence of a particle that would somehow interact with every other subatomic particle to give them all mass. Since then, scientists have been scrambling to find this particle.

The existence of dark matter was proposed in 1932 by astronomer Jan Oort, who measured the motions of nearby stars in our Milky Way relative to the galactic plane. He found that the mass of the plane must be more than the mass of the material that can be seen. A year later, Fritz Zwicky examined the dynamics of clusters of galaxies and found their movements similarly perplexing. Over the years, many spiral galaxies were observed and found to be swirling too fast to be held together by the gravitational pull of the visible stars. Since the speedy-moving stars have not been flung out through space, some scientists describe dark matter as “the glue that holds the universe together.”

Astronomers cannot detect or measure dark matter directly because it emits no light or radiation - hence the name. Its existence is inferred from the gravitational effect it has on visible matter (such as stars and galaxies). There have been a number of conjectures regarding the nature of dark matter, but all of them have eluded any empirical validation.

Physicists hope CERN’s Large Hadron Collider will shed even more light on dark matter, dark energy, the existence of extra dimensions, and the fundamental nature of matter, energy, space and time.

Without Excuse:
Science, like religion, often requires us to take a leap of faith. Any honest scientist should admit that despite centuries of scientific discovery and technological advances, most of our universe remains a mystery. There are large numbers of areas that, despite careful investigation, we do not fully understand, from the “magic” of photosynthesis to the mysterious particles that make up the fabric of space-time.

Science continues to develop and change as scientists discover new evidence, and it is one of the great joys of being human to explore and discover the marvelous brilliance and detail God used in putting this world together.  But even as scientists analyze the data from the LHC and hope to catch a glimpse of the Higgs boson, we’re certain that the name “God particle” is more accurate than some physicists would choose to admit.  Whether or not dark matter is busy keeping distant stars from shooting further into space, we know that Jesus Christ holds each of us, and we trust him to hold the atoms in our bodies together with as much care as he takes in sustaining the entire universe.  Even if Science changes, we know He does not.

“Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” - Hebrews 11:3

“For by him [Jesus] were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” - Col 1:16-17

Related Links:

• Hadron Collider Resumes, Full Speed Seen in Weeks - Reuters
• Atom Smasher Restarts, Preps for New Work - AP
• World’s Most Powerful Atom Smasher Restarts: CERN - AFP
• Deep below the Alps, Physicists Seek to Fill in the Blanks of Time and Space - The Globe And Mail
• Higgs Boson - Wikipedia Encyclopedia

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“What is Truth?” Part 2: The Ultimate Message

From Koinonia House

Technical > Space-Time > The Ultimate Message

Last month we began our inquiry of ”What Is Truth?” by examining the boundaries of our reality. We touched on some of the bizarre discoveries of quantum physics, including the nature of hyperspaces and the discovery that our physical universe appears to consist of more than the three dimensions we commonly experience.

The Cosmos as a Hyper-Hologram?

There also seems to be evidence to suggest that our world and everything in it consists only of ghostly images, projections from a level of reality so beyond our own that the real reality is literally beyond both space and time.

The main architect of this astonishing idea includes one of the world’s most eminent thinkers: University of London physicist David Bohm, a protégé of Einstein’s and one of the world’s most respected quantum physicists.

Bohm’s work in plasma physics is considered a landmark. While at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, he noticed that in plasmas (gases composed of high density electrons and positive ions) the particles stopped behaving like individuals and started behaving as if they were part of a larger and interconnected whole.

Moving to Princeton University in 1947, there too Bohm continued his work in the behavior of oceans of particles, noting their highly organized overall effects, and their behaving as if they knew what each of the untold trillions of individual particles were doing. Bohm’s sense of the importance of inter-connectedness, as well as years of dissatisfaction with the inability of the standard theories to explain all of the phenomena encountered in quantum physics, left him searching.

While at Princeton, Bohm and Einstein developed a supportive relationship and shared their mutual restlessness regarding the strange implications of current quantum theory.

One of the implications of Bohm’s view has to do with the nature of location. Bohm’s interpretation of quantum physics indicated that at the subquantum level location ceased to exist. All points in space become equal to all other points in space, and it was meaningless to speak of anything as being separate from anything else. Physicists call this property ”nonlocality.”

A Deeper Order of Existence

One of Bohm’s most startling suggestions is that the tangible reality of our everyday lives is really a kind of illusion, like a holographic image. Underlying it is a deeper order of existence, a vast and more primary level of reality that gives birth to all the objects and appearances of our physical world in much the same way that a piece of holographic film gives birth to a hologram. Bohm calls this deeper level of reality the implicate (enfolded) order and he refers to our level of existence the explicate (unfolded) order.

This view is not inconsistent with the Biblical presentation of the physical world being subordinate to the “spiritual” world, which is the superior reality.¹

Many physicists remain skeptical of Bohm’s ideas. Among those who are sympathetic, however, are Roger Penrose of Oxford, the creator of the modern theory of black holes; Bernard d’Espagnat of the University of Paris, one of the leading authorities on the conceptual foundations of quantum theory; and, Cambridge’s Brian Josephson, winner of the 1973 Nobel Prize in physics. Josephson believes that Bohm’s implicate order may someday even lead to the inclusion of God within the framework of science, an idea Josephson supports.²

How Do Holograms Work?

A hologram is a form of lensless photography in which a laser simultaneously illuminates an object and a piece of film. The film records the interference between the light waves hitting it directly and the light waves reflected from the object. It is, in effect, a frequency record rather than a spatial image.

Fourier Transforms

The hologram is one of the most remarkable examples of a Fourier Transform. Holographic principles were first formulated in 1947 by Dennis Gabor (who later won a Nobel Prize for his efforts) as he was trying to improve the electron microscope, then a primitive and imperfect device. His approach was a mathematical one, leaning on a type of calculus invented by an 18th century Frenchman, Jean B. J. Fourier.

Fourier had developed a mathematical way of converting any pattern, no matter how complex, into a language of simple waves. He also showed that these wave forms could be converted back into the original pattern, just as a television set converts those frequencies back into the original images. Engineers frequently exploit Fourier Transforms to change a time series into a frequency series. The use of frequency response curves in the evaluation of audio equipment is a common example.

Modern holographic images are derived from the work of Emmet Leath at the University of Michigan. (I had the pleasure of exploring computer-generated holograms with him in his laboratory in the early ’60s.)

Informational Properties

The hologram exhibits some very profound properties beyond the three-dimensional image. In fact, it is one of the most profound means to distribute information throughout a given media. All of the information it contains is distributed over the entire image surface. One can remove a portion of the hologram without losing the image! Drill a hole in the hologram, and one can still view the entire object by simply moving one’s eye to a more convenient angle (some resolution, or sharpness, will be lost however). Cut the film into pieces, and each piece contains the complete image.³

An engineer who is designing a communication system in anticipation of hostile jamming, or other countermeasures, needs to employ several critical techniques to be effective. In addition to taking advantage of available error detection and correction techniques, he will also attempt to spread his message throughout the available bandwidth. He will avoid clustering his message into areas which would increase his vulnerability to jamming or interference.

It is provocative to notice that the Biblical text evidences these same techniques. Where is the chapter on baptism? Or salvation? Or any specific critical doctrine? Every major theme is spread throughout the 66 books making up the total message. There is no concentration of any critical element in any single location. One can tear out a surprising number of pages and still not lose visibility of the essential message. (Some resolution or clarity would be lost, however.) This design intent of distributing the vital elements throughout the entire message system is even highlighted by Isaiah:

Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: - Isaiah 28:9,10

A Biblical Analogy

When one examines a hologram in natural (uncollimated, noncoherent) light, it has no apparent form nor attractiveness. However, when one examines it with the laser with which it was formulated, a three-dimensional image appears.

When one examines the Bible in unaided, natural light, it ”has no form nor comeliness that we should desire it.”⁴ But when we examine it illuminated by the Light that created it, the Spirit of God that put it all together in the first place, we see an image: the image of the One that every detail in it illuminates, the promised Messiah Himself.

From Genesis to Revelation, God’s program for the redemption of mankind is carefully distributed throughout 66 books,⁵ penned by more than 40 different individuals span-ning over a thousand years! And, indeed, this abused collection has survived the jamming and interference of its enemies over many centuries without material damage! (However, if we illuminate the hologram with a laser of a different frequency, it will yield a false or distorted image. So, too, the Scriptures!)

Religious Adversaries

And there are knowledgeable, resourceful adversaries that are very committed to preventing it from achieving its objective. And you are the target of their malicious designs. Lies and deceit are their primary weapons.⁶ And, surprisingly, religion has been the deceptive packaging to prevent man-kind from perceiving the truth of God’s grace and mercy.

Religion is man’s attempt to reconcile himself to God. It began when Adam and Eve attempted to clothe themselves to hide their nakedness.⁷

God’s response was to replace their efforts with coats of skins,⁸ teaching them that they would ultimately be covered by the shedding of innocent blood. The concept of a substitutional sacrifice, which would later be codified in the Levitical system, and climaxed at Golgotha, was introduced before they left the Garden of Eden.

You and I are also the beneficiaries of that love letter, written in blood on a wooden cross that was erected in Judea about 2,000 years ago.

The holographic paradigm thus seems to give us a glimpse not only into the nature of physical reality, but it also leaves its imprint within the Word of God itself. This would appear to be a subtle, but significant, fingerprint of the Author of it all.

It is amazing - and yet not surprising - that the Word of God presents a view of reality that is not at variance with these contemporary insights from the very boundaries of our present understanding of the physical universe, which is but a transient illusion for temporal purposes:

While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. - 2 Corinthians 4:18

These 66 books - penned by over 40 authors over thousands of years - evidence an integrity that has been super-naturally engineered to provide not only a perspective of reality that science is only beginning to catch up to, but high-lights a future that is beyond our imagining! Next month, we’ll explore some of the ”high-tech” statements in the Bible - describing science and technology that had yet to be discovered or invented when the Bible was written.

What Is Truth?

The Ultimate Truth is a Person: the identity of Jesus Christ. And He is the most anti-religious person who has ever walked the Earth! It’s not about religion, it’s about relationship. It is the most important discovery of your life - your eternal destiny depends upon it!

What Is Truth? - DVD - Chuck MisslerJoin Chuck Missler as he examines the boundaries of our reality, explores ways to qualify sources of information, offers advice on testing hypothesis, and reveals the source of Ultimate Truth. Click for more information - DVD

1. 2 Corinthians 4:18.
2. The Reach of the Mind: Nobel Prize Conversations, Saybrook Publishing Co., Dallas TX, 1985, p.91.
3. This is only true for a hologram invisible to the naked eye. Synthetic holographic-like images used in normal light displays do not have these properties.
4. Isaiah 53:2.
5. Seventy, if one recognizes that the Book of Psalms is actually assembled from five books.
6. John 8:44, et al. This began in Eden when the adversary cynically inquired, “Yea, Hath God (really) said…” Genesis 3:1ff.
7. Their “nakedness” may be referring to their loss of their original nature: they may have been clothed with light, walking with God, etc. There may be far more involved than most theologians have ever imagined.
8. Genesis 3:21.

First in a Series: What Is Truth? - Chuck Missler

Quantum Teleporting, Part 2: Our Holographic Universe - Chuck Missler

System Design of the Scriptures?: Our Holographic Bible - Chuck Missler

What Is Truth? - The Case for Biblical Integrity

• How do we know what is really true?
• How do we know that the Bible is true?
• How sure can we be?

We live in a skeptical environment, where even the very existence of truth is questioned. Lately, the Bible - and even the Lord Jesus himself - has been under attack.

Join Chuck Missler as he examines the boundaries of our reality, explores ways to qualify sources of information, offers advice on testing hypothesis, and reveals the source of Ultimate Truth.

How We Got Our Bible - The Origin of the Word of God

• Where did our Bible come from? How good are the texts?
• Why do we believe its origin is supernatural?
• How do we know that it really is the Word of God?
• How accurate are our translations?
• Which version is the best?

Chuck Missler reviews the origin of both the Old and New Testaments in light of recent discoveries and controversies.

Beyond Perception - Particle Physics And The Boundaries of Reality

• Hebrew Cabalists theorized 800 years ago that God established the universe with 10 dimensions.
• Why do scientists now also believe we live in a 10-dimensional universe?
• Has physics finally reached the very boundaries of reality?

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Related Posts:

• In justice much depends upon the witness
• The Truth shall make you free
• Zechariah 8:9-17; Encouraging Prospects Part 2; “Let your hands be strong, ye that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets;” Note, God’s punishing sinners is never a sudden and hasty resolve, but is always the product of thought, and there is a counsel in that part of the will of God; If the sinner turn not, God will not turn! B.C. 517
• John 17:17-19; Christ’s Intercessory Prayer; “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth”: “Complete it, crown it with the perfection of holiness; sanctify them throughout and to the end.” Note, It is the prayer of Christ for all that are His that they may be sanctified; because He cannot for shame own them as His, either here or hereafter, either employ them in His work or present them to His Father, if they be not sanctified; Those that through grace are sanctified have need to be sanctified more and more.

First in Series: What is Truth?

From Koinonia House

Technical > Space-Time > What Is Truth?

This is the classic question that Pilate posed rhetorically …and rather cynically. And the very existence of truth is continuing to be trampled by pompous professors, prostituted politicians, and arrogant attorneys. Now with the blockbuster movie, The Da Vinci Code, promoting blasphemous heresies about the embodiment of Truth itself, we can’t escape this skillfully coordinated attack against those who take truth seriously. Yet, the pursuit of truth is our most critical of endeavors and upon which our eternal destiny rests.

Epistemology is the study of knowledge, its scope and limits. And yet this most basic of studies is rarely dealt with today. How do we really ”know”? How do we determine what is really true, rather than that which is just traditionally accepted? What are our tools for validation?

As we began in the very limited universe of our playpen, our primary reliance on learning techniques was empirical: trial and error. As our universe gradually expanded to include our room, our home, our school, and our community, our primary epistemological tools increasingly relied on external guidance, qualified and validated by means of our internal processing. (See chart, right.) As our universe of interest expands from our community to the world, and ultimately to the cosmos itself, our tools increasingly rely on external guidance rather than trial and error! Qualifying our sources of information becomes increasingly critical. Yet, what tools can we use to qualify our sources of information?

The Boundaries of Our Reality

In inventorying our available epistemological tools, we must first understand the boundaries of our reality. One of the startling discoveries of 20th century science is that our universe is finite. It has limits in regards to both the macrocosm - there is a limit to ”largeness” - and the microcosm - there is a limit to ‘’smallness”! It is astonishing to realize that we actually live within a digital simulation of reality. In the macrocosm, we now know that the universe is finite, having begun at a ‘’singularity,” and will ultimately suffer a thermodynamic ”heat death” when it finally exhausts the available energy.

What is perhaps the most surprising is the discovery that, in the microcosm, everything - length, mass, even time itself - is made up of indivisible units - called ”quanta.” When subatomic particles are ”divided” they lose ”locality.” The property of ”non locality” is one of the deepest mysteries of quantum physics, and it shatters all of our previous notions of ”reality.” A recent issue of Scientific American suggested that what we perceive as physical reality now appears to be a mere shadow of a larger reality.¹

To begin to understand our boundaries, we would need to probe the perceptions of both the macrocosm and the microcosm and apply the tools of hypothesis testing to validate our assumptions. This, too, might prove an exercise in futility were it not for a distinct, and self-validating, message from outside those very boundaries!

While most of us think of our space as three-dimensional, we now know, thanks to Dr. Einstein, that we actually live in four: time itself is a physical property of our ‘’space.” (The Apostle Paul also indicated this four-dimensional reality in his letter to the Ephesians.²)

Scientists currently believe we live in ten dimensions. (Something that Nachmonides, a 13th century Hebrew sage, concluded in his commentary on the Book of Genesis!) It is toward this hyperspace (a space of more than 3-dimensions) that our conceptions of the real ”reality” must reach to have any validity. Fortunately, we have in our possession a verifiable message of hyper-dimensional origin that will be the subject of the next article in this series.

What Is Truth? - DVD - Chuck MisslerJoin Chuck Missler as he examines the boundaries of our reality, explores ways to qualify sources of information, offers advice on testing hypothesis, and reveals the source of Ultimate Truth. Click for more information - DVD

1. ”The Inconstancy of Constants,” Scientific American, June 2005, p. 57-63.
2. Ephesians 3:18.

Quantum Physics: The Boundaries of Reality - Chuck Missler

Beyond Perception - Particle Physics And The Boundaries of Reality

• Hebrew Cabalists theorized 800 years ago that God established the universe with 10 dimensions.
• Why do scientists now also believe we live in a 10-dimensional universe?

Subscribe to the comments for this post

Related Posts:

• In justice much depends upon the witness
• The Truth shall make you free
• Zechariah 8:9-17; Encouraging Prospects Part 2; “Let your hands be strong, ye that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets;” Note, God’s punishing sinners is never a sudden and hasty resolve, but is always the product of thought, and there is a counsel in that part of the will of God; If the sinner turn not, God will not turn! B.C. 517
• John 17:17-19; Christ’s Intercessory Prayer; “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth”: “Complete it, crown it with the perfection of holiness; sanctify them throughout and to the end.” Note, It is the prayer of Christ for all that are His that they may be sanctified; because He cannot for shame own them as His, either here or hereafter, either employ them in His work or present them to His Father, if they be not sanctified; Those that through grace are sanctified have need to be sanctified more and more.

Mystery of Mars: Mars Getting Closer to Earth

From Koinonia House

Technical > Space-Time > Mars Getting Closer To Earth

by Chuck Missler

Mysteries of Mars:

Mars Getting Closer to Earth

The mysterious Red Planet is going to put on a show this month. It has been getting progressively closer to Earth each night and will continue to grow larger and brighter.  By late August it will be about 191 million miles closer, and the reddish point of light will appear six times larger and shine some 85 times brighter than it normally does.

At 5:51 a.m. EDT on August 27, 2003, Mars will be within 34,646,418 miles of Earth, closer than it has been since the days of Hezekiah.  (By some calculations, it will be closer than it has been in 73,000 years, but these are based on some commonly held assumptions that are suspect.  It may have been closer on several occasions in the more recent past, as will be discussed below.)

On August 28, 2003, Mars will be at “opposition,” the moment that the Sun, Earth, and Mars will form a straight line.  Mars comes to opposition every 26 months.  This time, the opposition will be superior to others because Mars will be at perihelion, its closest point to the Sun.  Perihelic oppositions of Mars are rather infrequent, occurring about every 15-17 years. The last opposition, in 2001, involved a separation of more than 41 million miles.  In 1995 the distance between the two planets was nearly double what it will be this month.

Though Mars’ opposition will come on August 28, it will be closest to Earth on August 27.  At the close approach, the Red Planet will be brighter than Jupiter and all the stars in the night sky, outshone only by Venus and the Moon.

Uniformitarianism Fallacy

Most scientists take for granted that the movements of the planets and other objects in our solar system manifest an unchanging uniformity through time.  These movements, however, also manifest minute variations that have, so far, eluded any consistent conjectures.

Furthermore, careful observations of the objects in our solar system indicate that it has been-at least at times-a rather rough neighborhood.  Take a look at the Moon through binoculars and you will see a lot of bruises.  Or examine any of the photographs from our space probes.  You see craters and other evidences of collisions and catastrophes.

There is evidence that the present orbits were not always so.  And some of the changes appear to have occurred during the memory of mankind.

The Mysteries of Mars

Why did so many of the early cultures worship the Planet Mars?  They were terrified of this strange planet.  It was called the “God of War.” Why?  (The term “martial arts” is still in our working vocabulary.) And there are other mysteries that seem to be associated with this strange planet.

The 360-Day Year

All early calendars appear to be based on a 360-day calendar: the Assyrians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Hebrews, Persians, Greeks, Phoenicians, Chinese, Mayans, Hindus, Carthaginians, Etruscans, and Teutons all had calendars based on a 360-day year; typically, twelve 30-day months.

In ancient Chaldea, the calendar was based on a 360-day year. It is from this Babylonian tradition that we have 360 degrees in a circle, 60 minutes to an hour, 60 seconds in each minute, etc.

The Biblical Year Is 360 Days

It is also significant that the Biblical year is also based on a 360-day year reckoning.¹ This critical insight unlocks several incredible prophecies which the reader is urged to discover– in particular, the remarkable “70 Weeks” prophecy of Daniel 9, which is undoubtedly the most amazing passage in the Bible.²

All Calendars Change in 701 B.C.

In 701 B.C., Numa Pompilius, the second King of Rome, reorganized the original calendar of 360 days per year by adding five days per year.  King Hezekiah, Numa’s contemporary, reorganized his Jewish calendar by adding a month each Jewish leap year (on a cycle of seven every 19 years). ³

The Roman year began with March, the month named after Mars. (They later reorganized their calendar in 364 B.C. to begin on January 1st.) Most of the early cultures organized their calendars around either March or October. Why? Why was any change necessary after 701 B.C.? What happened to affect all the calendars after that year?

Mars Interferes?

The recent space age discovery of “orbital resonance”-the tendency of orbits to synchronize on a multiple of one another–has led to a fascinating conjecture that the orbits of the Earth and the Planet Mars were once on resonant orbits of 360 days and 720 days, respectively.  A computer analysis has suggested that this could yield orbital interactions that would include a near pass-by on a multiple of 54 years, and this would occur on either March 25 or October 25. Such near pass-bys would transfer energy, altering the orbits of each. ⁴

In near proximity, such pass-bys would be accompanied by meteors, severe land tides, earthquakes, etc., and this would help explain why all the ancient cultures were so terrified by the Planet Mars⁵ and why calendars tended to reflect either March or October.⁶ A series of such pass-bys could also explain a number of the “catastrophes” of ancient history, including the famous “long day of Joshua” and several other Biblical episodes.⁷

Stability appears to have been attained during the last near pass-by in 701 B.C., resulting in Earth’s and Mars’ present orbits of 365 1/4 days and 687 days, respectively.  Provocative, but where’s the evidence?

Swift to the Rescue

This remarkable conjecture, that Mars made pass-bys near the Earth, would seem to be corroborated by Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) in his famous fantasy known as Gulliver’s Travels.  In his third voyage, Gulliver visits the land of Laputa, where the astronomers brag that they know all about the two moons of Mars.⁸ Their highly detailed description includes the size, the rotation, the revolutions, etc., of each of the two moons.

What makes this particular allusion so provocative is that the two moons of Mars were not discovered by astronomers until 151 years after Swift’s publication of Gulliver’s Travels in 1726.  It was in 1877 that Asaph Hall, using a new telescope at the U.S. Naval Observatory, shocked the astronomical world by discovering the two moons of Mars.

What makes the two moons so difficult to see is that they are only about 8 miles in diameter and have an albedo (reflectivity) of only 3%.  They are the darkest objects in the solar system: they are almost black.  The two moons are also unique in their rotations and one of them is the only object in the solar system that orbits in reverse.⁹ For Swift to have “guessed” these correctly is absurd.

Yet the telescopes of his day were inadequate to have actually seen these objects.  But then how could he have known what the astronomers of his day did not? Swift, in order to embroider his satirical fiction, undoubtedly drew upon ancient records he probably assumed were simply legends, not realizing that they were actually eye witness accounts of ancient sightings when Mars was close enough for the two moons of Mars to be viewed with the naked eye!

Other Implications

The possibility that the Planet Mars interacted with the Planet Earth may have implications beyond simply ancient perturbations of our calendar and the subsequent veneration of October 31 as Halloween. It has been widely noted that the ancient Stonehenge monument in England and the Great Pyramid at Cairo have astronomical implications.¹⁰ The geometric and mathematical mysteries of these fabled monuments have been the subject of much conjecture.  Cairo was founded on August 5, A.D. 969 by conquering Fatimid armies and named, “Al Kahira,” after Mars.  Why?

And there are other enigmas.

The Nebular Hypothesis

Most of us have been taught that the planets of our solar system came out of the sun. It may come as a surprise that there are serious scientific difficulties with this presumption. In fact, a careful analysis of existing evidence suggests some surprising alternative possibilities.

Immanuel Kant, in his General History of Nature and Theory of the Heavens, in 1755 in Germany, theorized that some four billion years ago, the sun had ejected a tail, or a filament, of material that cooled and collected and thus formed the planets.  Kant is generally credited as the originator of what is commonly called the “Nebular Hypothesis,” but the originator was actually Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772).

Swedenborg wrote his treatise on cosmology in 1734, in Latin: Prodromus Philosophiae Retiocinantis de Infinito et Cause Creationis.  Some 21 years before Kant’s publication, Swedenborg proposed that the planets were the result of condensations of a gauze or filament ejected out of the sun.  Swedenborg was a mining engineer with a wide range of interests and also claimed to have psychic powers.  Historians and biographers seem to take him quite seriously and a number of public incidents caused his fellow Swedes of Stockholm to regard him as irrefutable.  He claimed confirmation of his nebular hypothesis from séances with men on Jupiter, Saturn and other places more distant.

(Some 20 years earlier, in 1712, when Swedenborg was 24 years old, he had the opportunity to visit with Edmund Halley at Cambridge, who described to him the various aspects of comets and their tails.  Halley had made a study of the reports of various medieval comets, their orbital trajectories, dates, and descriptions, and, of course, is famous for his predictions regarding the comet that still bears his name.)

The famous mathematician Pierre Simon Laplace (1749-1827) lent his endorsement to Kant’s theory, but without checking the mathematical validations he was capable of providing.  Thus, the nebular hypothesis gained widespread respectability despite serious mathematical flaws.  Subsequent writers have continued to develop variations of this view even though increasing difficulties render it increasingly doubtful.

Enigmas Increase

The sun contains 99.86% of all the mass of the solar system. Yet the sun contains only 1.9% of the angular momentum.  The nine planets contain 98.1%.  There is no plausible explanation that would support a solar origin of the planets.

James Jeans (1877-1946) pointed out that the outer planets are far larger than the inner ones. (Jupiter is 5,750 times as massive as mercury, 2,958 times as massive as Mars, etc.)

Other observations seem to raise even more provocative enigmas concerning our planetary history:

• There are three pairs of rapid-spin rates among our planets: Mars and Earth, Jupiter and Saturn, and Neptune and Uranus, are each within 3% of each other. Why?
• Earth and Mars have virtually identical spin axis tilts (about 23.5°). Why?

  (From angular momentum and orbital calculations, it would seem that these three pairs of planets may have been brought here from elsewhere.)

• Why does Mars have 93% of its craters in one hemisphere and only 7% in the other? It would appear that over 80% occurred within a single half-hour!

There are other mysteries and we certainly must take most of the conjectures in the field of cosmology as simply what they are: conjectures.  But the more we learn, the more we have come to take the Word of God more seriously.  After all, He made them all and ought to know!  But He has left the thrill of discovery to us all if we will but trust Him:

It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out a matter. - Proverbs 25:2

The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.  -Deuteronomy 29:29

We hope that this brief article will provide some conversation for a warm summer evening.

*    *    *

1. Genesis 7:24; 8:3,4, etc. In Revelation, 42 months = 3 1/2 years = 1260 days, etc. We are indebted to Sir Robert Anderson’s classic work, The Coming Prince , (Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1894).
2. This foundational passage is explained in detail in Daniel’s 70 Weeks , a briefing package.
3. The 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 19th years are leap years, where Adar II is added. Arthur Spier, The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar , Feldheim Publishers, Jerusalem, 1986.
4. Detailed in our briefing pack, Signs in the Heavens .
5. 2 Kings 17:16; 21:3-5.
6. Note also Isaiah 24:1, 19, 20.
7. Donald W. Patten, Ronald R. Hatch, and Loren C. Steinhauer, The Long Day of Joshua , Pacific Meridian Publishing Co., Seattle, WA, 1973.  See also our Expositional Commentary on Joshua .
8. Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels , 1726, Part III, Chapter 3.
9. Deimos and Phobos = “Panic” and “fear” in Greek. Phobos is 1/100 width of our moon (8 miles diameter); rotates 7h39m; appears to rise in W: unique in our solar system. Deimos (30h18m) appears almost synchronous: 24h37m.
10. Detailed in Monuments: Sacred or Profane?

The Mysteries of the Planet Mars - Chuck Missler Is there life on the Planet Mars? Are there monuments on Mars? What about the mile-wide Face on Mars? Click for more information - Audio Cassette

Signs in the Heavens - Chuck MisslerWhat we know as the Signs of the Zodiac is known in Hebrew as the Mazzeroth. Click for more information - Audio Cassette

Joshua and The Twelve Tribes in MP3 on CD-ROM - Chuck MisslerThe Book of Joshua seems to be a precursor to the book of Revelation: another Yehoshua, as Commander-in-Chief, will dispossess the Planet Earth of its usurpers. What DOES the name Joshua mean? Click for more information - MP3 on CD-ROM

Daniel’s 70 Weeks - MP3 Download - Chuck MisslerChuck Missler examines some of the most provocative passages in the Bible - the Messianic and end-times prophecies in the book of Daniel. All new updated version! Click for more information - MP3 Download

Monuments - Sacred or Profane? - Chuck MisslerChuck Missler explores the strange and exciting world of ancient monuments, the ‘Face’ on Mars, and what the Bible says about all this. Click for more information - Audio Cassette

The Red Planet: Mars the Mysterious - Lambert Dolphin

Physics and the Bible: Exploding Planets and Ancient Catastrophes - Lambert Dolphin

A Challenge for Today: The Day the Sun Stood Still? - Chuck Missler

The Mysteries Of The Planet Mars - The Red Planet And The God Of War

• Is there life on the Planet Mars?
• Why did the ancient cultures worship this ‘wandering star’?
• How did Jonathan Swift write in Gulliver’s Travels about the two moons of Mars when modern science wouldn’t even discover those two moons for another 151 years?

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• Physics: Photos from the Red Planet: Fascination with Mars

Upheavel in Pysics: History of the Light-Speed Debate

From Koinonia House

Technical > Space-Time > History Of The Light-Speed Debate

[Ed Note: We have been following Barry Setterfield's research on the speed of light since 1993.¹ It is interesting that both evolutionists and creation scientists can be blinded by their own presuppositions...]

When we walk into a dark room, flip a switch and the light is instantly on, it seems that light has no speed but is somehow infinite - instantly there - and that was the majority opinion of scientists and philosophers until September 1676, when Danish astronomer Olaf Roemer announced to the Paris Academie des Sciences that the anomalous behavior of the eclipse times of Jupiter’s inner moon, Io, could be accounted for by a finite speed of light. ² His work and his report split the scientific community in half, involving strong opinions and discussions for the next fifty years. It was Bradley’s independent confirmation of the finite speed of light, published January 1, 1729, which finally ended the opposition.³ The speed of light was finite-incredibly fast, but finite.

The following question was: “Is the speed of light constant?”  Interestingly enough, every time it was measured over the next few hundred years, it seemed to be a little slower than before. This could be explained away, as the first measurements were unbelievably rough compared to the technical accuracy later.  It was not that simple, though.  When the same person did the same test using the same equipment at a later period in time, the speed was slower.  Not much, but slower.

These results kicked off a series of lively debates in the scientific community during the first half of the 20th century. Raymond Birge, highly respected chairman of the physics department at the University of California, Berkeley, had, from 1929 on, established himself as an arbiter of the values of atomic constants.⁴ The speed of light is considered an atomic constant. However Birge’s recommended values for the speed of light decreased steadily until 1940, when an article written by him, entitled “The General Physical Constants, as of August 1940 with details on the velocity of light only,” appeared in Reports on Progress in Physics (Vol. 8, pp.90-100, 1941).  Birge began the article saying: “This paper is being written on request - and at this time on request … a belief in any significant variability of the constants of nature is fatal to the spirit of science, as science is now understood [emphasis his].” These words, from this man, for whatever reason he wrote them, shut down the debate on the speed of light.  Birge had previously recognized, as had others, that if the speed of light was changing, it was quite necessary that some of the other “constants” were also changing. This was evidently not to be allowed, whether it was true or not, and so the values for the various constants were declared and that was that. Almost. In the October 1975 issue of Scientific American (p. 120), C.L. Strong questioned whether the speed of light might change with time “as science has failed to get a consistently accurate value.” It was just a ripple, but the issue had not quite disappeared.

Partly in order to quell any further doubts about the constancy of the speed of light, in October 1983 the speed of light was declared a universal constant of nature, defined as 299,792.458 kilometers per second, which is often rounded off to the measurement we are more familiar with in the West as 186,000 miles per second.

Birge’s paper was published in 1941. Just a year later, Barry Setterfield was born in Australia.  In 1979 he was 37 years old. That year he received a book from a friend, a book on astronomical anomalies. It was a large book, and near the end of it there was a section on the speed of light, questioning its constancy.  Barry was stunned.  Nothing he had read or learned in physics or astronomy had even hinted that there was a question regarding the speed of light.  It was a constant, wasn’t it?  As he read, he learned about the measurements that had been taken years before, and the arguments that had gone on in the scientific literature, and he was fascinated. He figured he could read up on it and wrap up the question in about two weeks; it didn’t quite work out that way.

Within a couple of years, one of the creationist organizations had started publishing some of Barry’s findings. They were still preliminary, but there was so much more to this than he had thought.  In the following years his exploration continued, and he read all the literature he could find.  His work caught the attention of a senior research physicist at Stanford Research Institute International (SRI), who then asked him to submit a paper regarding his research.  It was to be a white paper, or one that was for the purposes of discussion within the Institute.

Barry teamed up with Trevor Norman of Flinders University in Adelaide, and in 1987 Flinders itself published their paper, “Atomic Constants, Light, and Time.”  Their math department had checked it and approved it and it was published with the Stanford Research Institute logo as well.  What happened next was like something out of a badly written novel.  Gerald Aardsma, a man at another creationist organization, got wind of the paper and got a copy of it.  Having his own ax to grind on the subject of physics, he called the heads of both Flinders and SRI and asked them if they knew that Setterfield and Norman were [gasp] creationists!  SRI was undergoing a massive staff change at the time and since the paper had been published by Flinders, they disavowed it and requested their logo be taken off. Flinders University threatened Trevor Norman with his job and informed Barry Setterfield that he was no longer welcome to use any resources there but the library. Aardsma then published a paper criticizing the Norman-Setterfield statistical use of the data.  His paper went out under the auspices of a respected creation institution.

Under attack by both evolutionists and creationists for their work, Norman and Setterfield found themselves writing long articles of defense, which appeared in a number of issues of creation journals.  In the meantime, Lambert Dolphin, the physicist at Stanford who had originally requested the paper, teamed up with professional statistician Alan Montgomery to take the proverbial fine-tooth comb through the Norman-Setterfield paper to check the statistics used.  Their defense of the paper and the statistical use of the data was then published in a scientific journal,⁵ and Montgomery went on to present a public defense at the 1994 International Creation Conference. Neither defense has ever been refuted in any journal or conference. Interestingly enough, later in 1987, after the Norman-Setterfield paper was published, another paper on light speed appeared, written by a Russian, V. S. Troitskii.⁶ Troitskii not only postulated that the speed of light had not been constant, but that light speed had originally been about 10¹⁰ times faster than now.

Since then, a multitude of papers on cosmology and the speed of light have shown up in journals and on the web.  The theories abound as to what is changing, and in relation to what, and what the possible effects are. There is one person who is continuing to work with the data, however. As the storm around the 1987 report settled down, Barry Setterfield got back to work, investigating the data rather than playing around with pure theory.

Meanwhile, halfway around the world from Australia, in Arizona, a respected astronomer named William Tifft was finding something strange going on with the redshift measurements of light from distant galaxies.  It had been presumed that the shift toward the red end of the spectrum of light from these distant galaxies was due to a currently expanding universe, and the measurements should be seen as gradually but smoothly increasing as one went through space.  That wasn’t what Tifft was finding. The measurements weren’t smooth. They jumped from one plateau to another. They were quantized, or came in quantities with distinct breaks in between them.

When Tifft published his findings,⁷ astronomers were incredulous and dismissive. In the early 1990s in Scotland, two other astronomers decided to prove him wrong once and for all. Guthrie and Napier collected their own data and studied it. They ended up deciding Tifft was right.⁸ What was going on? Barry Setterfield read the material and studied the data. The universe could not be expanding if the red shift measurements were quantized. Expansion would not occur in fits and starts. So what did the red shift mean? While most others were simply denying the Tifft findings, Barry took a closer look.  And it all started to make sense.  The data was showing where the truth of the matter was. While many articles continued to be published regarding theoretical cosmologies, with little regard for much of the data available, Barry was more interested in the data.

Yet, his work is not referenced by any of the others. The Stanford paper is just about forgotten, if it was ever known, by the folks in mainstream physics and astronomy. However, not only are the measurements still there, but the red shift data has added much more information, making it possible to calculate the speed of light back to the first moment of creation. So Barry wrote another paper and  submitted it to a standard physics journal in 1999. They did not send it to peer review but returned it immediately, saying it was not a timely subject, was of no current interest, and was not substantial enough. (It was over fifty pages long with about a hundred and fifty references to standard physics papers and texts.) So Barry resubmitted it to an astronomy journal.  They sent it out to peer review and the report came back that the paper was really interesting but that it really belonged in a physics journal. So, in 2000, he sent it off to another physics journal. They refused it because they did not like one of the references Barry used:  a university text on physics. They also disagreed with the model of the atom that Barry used - the standard Bohr model. In August 2001, the paper was updated and submitted to a European peer-reviewed science journal. The editor has expressed interest. We will see what will happen. In the meantime everything continues: Barry Setterfield is giving presentations in different countries, the mainstream physicists and theorists are continuing to publish all manner of theoretical ideas, and the subject of the speed of light has erupted full force back into the scientific literature.

There is a reason that Barry’s work is not being referenced by mainstream scientists - or even looked at by most.  If Barry is right about what the data are indicating, we are living in a very young universe. This inevitable conclusion will never be accepted by standard science. Evolution requires billions of years.

And there is a reason why the major creation organizations are holding his work at an arm’s length as well:  they are sinking great amounts of money into trying to prove that radiometric dating procedures are fatally flawed. According to what Barry is seeing, however, they are not basically flawed at all: there is a very good reason why such old dates keep appearing in the test results. The rate of decay of radioactive elements is directly related to the speed of light. When the speed of light was higher, decay rates were faster, and the long ages would be expected to show up. As the speed of light slowed down, so the radioactive decay rates slowed down.

By assuming today’s rate of decay has been uniform, the earth and universe look extremely old.  Thus, the evolutionists are happy with the time that gives for evolution and the creationists are looking for flaws in the methods used for testing for dates. But if the rates of decay for the different elements have not been the same through time, then that throws both groups off! Here was an “atomic clock” which ran according to atomic processes and, possibly, a different “dynamical” clock, the one we use everyday, which is governed by gravity - the rotation and revolution rates of the earth and moon. Could it be that these two “clocks” were not measuring time the same way? A data analysis suggested this was indeed happening. Tom Van Flandern, with a Ph.D. from Yale in astronomy, specializing in celestial mechanics, and for twenty years (1963-1983) Research Astronomer and Chief of the Celestial Mechanics Branch at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington D.C., released the results of some tests showing that the rate of ticking of the atomic clock was measurably slowing down when compared with the “dynamical clock.”⁹ (Tom Van Flandern was terminated from his work with that institution shortly thereafter, although his work carries a 1984 publication date.)

In recognizing this verified difference between the two different “clocks,” it is important to realize that the entire dating system recognized by geology and science in general, saying that the earth is about 4.5 billion years old, and the universe somewhere around ten billion years older than that, might be thrown into total disarray. The standard science models cannot deal with that.  The standard creation models cannot, at this point, deal with the fact that radiometric dating may be, for the most part, telling the truth on the atomic clock. And, meanwhile, the Hubble spacecraft keeps sending back data which keep slipping into Barry Setterfield’s model as though they actually belonged there.

*  *  *

1. Personal UPDATE, 3/93, pp. 12-16; 3/95 pp. 10-14; 3/98, pp. 13-14; 1/99, pp.13-16.
2. I. B. Cohen, “Roemer and the first determination of the velocity of light (1676),” Isis , Vol. 31, pp.327-379, 1939.
3. J. Bradley, “A letter…”, Philosophical Transactions , Vol.35, No. 406, pp.637-661, December 1728.
4. R. T. Birge, Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 1, January 1929, pp.1-73. See also: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu:
5. A. Montgomery and L. Dolphin, Galilean Electrodynamics , Vol. 4 No. 5, pp. 93ff., 1993.
6. V. S. Troitskii, “Physical Constants and the evolution of the Universe”, Astrophysics and Space Science Vol. 139, 1987, pp 389-411.
7. W. G. Tifft, Astrophysical Journal , 206:38-56, 1976; 211:31-46, 1977; 211:377-391, 1977; 221:449-455, 1978; 221:756-775, 1978; 233:799-808, 1979; 236:70-74, 1980; 257:442-449, 1982; etc.
8. T. Beardsley, Scientific American 267:6 (1992), p. 19;. J. Gribbin, New Scientist 9 July (1994), 17; R. Matthews, Science 271 (1996), 759.
9. T. C. Van Flandern, “Precision Measurements and Fundamental Constants II,” Taylor and Phillips (Eds.), National Bureau of Standards (U.S.) Special Publication 617, 1984, pp. 625-627.

Stretching the Heavens and the Dilation of Time - Chuck MisslerThis includes an exclusive interview with Barry Setterfield whose controversial discoveries concerning the slowing down of the speed of light may yet disrupt the previous dictums of modern physics. Click for more information - Audio Cassette

The Creator Beyond Time and Space Series on CD-ROM - Chuck Missler and Dr. Mark EastmanIncludes: The Creator Beyond Time and Space, The Bible: An Extraterrestrial Message, Immanuel: The Deity of Messiah and The Divine Watchmaker Click for more information - MP3 on CD-ROM

Physics and the Bible: What Is Light? - Lambert Dolphin

Physics and the Bible: Faster Than The Speed of Light - Lambert Dolphin

More Turmoil in Physics: Is Light Slowing Down? - Chuck Missler

Upheavals in Physics: The Speed of Light Exceeded - Chuck Missler

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Dangerous Myths: Astrology

From Koinonia House

Technical > Space-Time > Astrology

It seems astonishing that in our “enlightened” culture, despite our space-age sophistication, many people still believe in astrology!  A Gallup poll concluded that 55% of teenagers believe in astrology; 1220 of the 1750 newspapers include a horoscope column of some kind to serve their readers.  Many simply dismiss this as a harmless form of entertainment, feeding their curiosity. However, in the Old Testament it was a form of divination and a capital crime: practicing astrology was punishable by death!¹

Empirical Results: It Doesn’t Work

• Marital compatibility: Psychologist Bernard Silverman of Michigan State University analyzed birth dates of 2978 couples who were getting married and 478 who were getting divorced. There were no correlations with predicted compatibility.
• Shawn Carlson of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory provided horoscope information and a standard California Personality Inventory for groups of volunteers to 28 professional astrologers (procedure approved in advance) to match each horoscope to one of three profiles submitted.  The random expectation of 34% was achieved.²
• French statistician Michel Gauquelin sent the horoscope for one of the worst mass murderers in French history to 150 people and asked how well it fit them. 94% said they recognized themselves in the description.
• Geoffrey Dean, an Australian researcher, reversed the astrological readings of 22 subjects: 95% identified themselves with the reversed readings.
• Astronomers Culver and Ianna tracked the published predictions of well-known astrologers and astrological organizations for five years. Out of 3000 predictions, only 10% came to pass.

Ten Questions for the Astrologers ³

1)  What is the likelihood that 1/12th of the world’s population is having the same kind of day today?
2)  Why is the moment of birth, not conception, crucial for astrology? [Is that why identical twins always have the same personality?!]
3)  If the mother’s womb can keep out astrological influences until birth, can we do the same with a cubicle of steak?
4)  If astrologers are as good as they claim, why aren’t they richer?  (Ex: stock market, etc. How many foresaw Black Monday, October 1987? None.)
5)  Are all horoscopes done before the discovery of the three outermost planets incorrect (Uranus, 1781; Neptune, 1846; Pluto, 1930)?
6)  Shouldn’t we condemn astrology as a form of bigotry? (i.e., refusing to hire a Leo or date a Virgo, etc.)
7)  Why do different schools of astrology disagree so strongly with each other?  (…precession of the Earth’s axis, how many planets and celestial objects to be included, allocation of personality traits, etc.  No convergence of consensus.)
 If the astrological influence is carried by any known force, why do the planets dominate?  [The obstetrician who delivers the child turns out to have about six times the gravitational pull of Mars and about 2,000 billion times its tidal force (less mass, but a lot closer!)]
9)  If astrological influence is carried by an unknown force, why is it independent of distance? [The importance of Mars in a horoscope is identical whether the planet is on the same side of the sun as the Earth or seven times farther away on the other side, etc.]
10)  If astrological influences don’t depend on distance, why is there no astrology of stars, galaxies, and quasars? [Doesn't the omission of Rigel, the Crab pulsar, and M31 render a horoscope incomplete?]

A Warning

Danger: don’t play around with things that are expressly prohibited in the Word of God. They are not just manifestations of ignorance, or harmless “entertainments.”  They are occultic and very dangerous. They are “entries” for malevolent influences that are out to destroy the very future you’re inquiring into! God means what He says and says what He means. You have access to far more powerful - and reliable - supernatural resources in the Holy Spirit, which has expressly been given to you if you are, indeed, in Christ. Do your homework.  Your eternity depends on it.

*  *  *

Additional Resources:

• Astronomy versus Astrology , 20-page pamphlet, Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 390 Ashton Ave., San Francisco, CA, 94112.
• Astrology: True or False, by Roger Culver and Philip Ianna, 1988, Prometheus Books, 700 E. Amherst St., Buffalo, NY 14215. One of the best skeptical book on the subject.

1. Deuteronomy 18:9-15.
2. Nature, December 5, 1985.
3. Excerpted from Sky & Telescope, August 1989.

A Halloween Tale: Consulting the Witch at Endor - Chuck Missler

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Quantum Teleporting: Part 2: Our Holographic Universe

From Koinonia House

Technical > Space-Time > Our Holographic Universe

Last month we explored the recent experiments which appear to have succeeded in the “teleportation” of subatomic particles, suggestive of the “Beam-me-up-Scotty” episodes from the popular Star Trek TV series.  These phenomena shatter our traditional conceptions of the material universe and what we perceive as reality.

Dual Nature of Particles

In 1906, J. J. Thomson received the Nobel Prize for proving that electrons are particles. In 1937 he saw his son awarded the Nobel Prize for proving that electrons were waves.  Both father and son were correct. From then on, the evidence for the wave/particle duality has become overwhelming. This chameleon-like ability is common to all subatomic particles - called quanta, they can manifest themselves either as particles or waves. What makes them even more astonishing is that there is compelling evidence that the only time quanta ever manifest as particles are when we are looking at them .

The Danish physicist Niels Bohr pointed out that if subatomic particles only come into existence in the presence of an observer, then it is meaningless to speak of a particle’s properties and characteristics as existing before they are observed.  But if the act of observation actually helped create such properties, what did that imply about the future of science?

Anyone who isn’t shocked by quantum physics has not understood it.

-Niels Bohr

It gets worse.  Some subatomic processes result in the creation of a pair of particles with identical or closely related properties.  Quantum physics predicts that attempts to measure complementary characteristics of the pair - even when traveling in opposite directions - would always be frustrated.  Such strange behavior would imply that they would have to be interconnected in some way so as to be instantaneously in communication with each other.

One physicist who was deeply troubled by Bohr’s assertions was Albert Einstein.  Despite the role Einstein had played in the founding of quantum theory, he was not pleased with the course the fledgling science had taken. In 1935 Einstein and his colleagues Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen published their now-famous paper, “Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?”¹

The problem, according to Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity, is that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light.  The instantaneous communication implied by the view of quantum physics would be tantamount to breaking the time barrier and would open the door to all kinds of unacceptable paradoxes.  Einstein and his colleagues were convinced that no “reasonable definition” of reality would permit such faster-than-light interconnections to exist and therefore Bohr had to be wrong.  Their argument is now known as the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox, or EPR paradox for short.

Bohr remained unperturbed by Einstein’s argument.  Rather than believing that some kind of faster-than-light communication was taking place, he offered another explanation.  If subatomic particles do not exist until they are observed, then one could no longer think of them as independent “things.” Thus Einstein was basing his argument on an error when he viewed twin particles as separate.  They were part of an indivisible system, and it was meaningless to think of them otherwise.  In time, most physicists sided with Bohr and became content that his interpretation was correct.

One factor that contributed to Bohr’s following was that quantum physics had proved so spectacularly successful in predicting phenomena, few physicists were willing to even consider the possibility that it might be faulty in some way.  The entire industries of lasers, microelectronics, and computers have emerged on the reliability of the predictions of quantum physics. The popular CalTech physicist Richard Feynman has summed it up well:

I think it is safe to say that no one understands quantum mechanics… In fact, it is often stated that of all the theories proposed in this century, the silliest is quantum theory.  Some say that the only thing that quantum theory has going for it, in fact, is that it is unquestionably correct.

The Cosmos as a Hyper-Hologram?

There seems to be evidence to suggest that our world and everything in it are only ghostly images, projections from a level of reality so beyond our own that the real reality is literally beyond both space and time. The main architect of this astonishing idea includes one of the world’s most eminent thinkers: University of London physicist David Bohm, a protégé of Einstein’s and one of the world’s most respected quantum physicists.

Bohm’s work in plasma physics in the 1950s is considered a landmark.  Earlier, at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, he noticed that in plasmas (gases composed of high-density electrons and positive ions) the particles stopped behaving like individuals and started behaving as if they were part of a larger and interconnected whole.  Moving to Princeton University in 1947, there too he continued his work in the behavior of oceans of particles, noting their highly organized overall effects and their behavior, as if they knew what each of the untold trillions of individual particles was doing.

One of the implications of Bohm’s view has to do with the nature of location.  Bohm’s interpretation of quantum physics indicated that at the subquantum level location ceased to exist .  All points in space become equal to all other points in space, and it was meaningless to speak of anything as being separate from anything else.  Physicists call this property “nonlocality.”

The web of subatomic particles that compose our physical universe - the very fabric of “reality” itself - possesses what appears to be an undeniable “holographic” property.  Paul Davis of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, observed that since all particles are continually interacting and separating, “the nonlocal aspects of quantum systems is therefore a general property of nature.”²

The Nature of Reality

One of Bohm’s most startling suggestions is that the tangible reality of our everyday lives is really a kind of illusion, like a holographic image.  Underlying it is a deeper order of existence, a vast and more primary level of reality that gives birth to all the objects and appearances of our physical world in much the same way that a piece of holographic film gives birth to a hologram.  Bohm calls this deeper level of reality the implicate (”enfolded”) order and he refers to our level of existence the explicate (unfolded) order.³

This view is not inconsistent with the Biblical presentation of the physical (”explicate”) world as being subordinate to the spiritual (”implicate”) world as the superior reality. ⁴

The holographic paradigm is still a developing concept and riddled with controversies. For decades, science has chosen to ignore evidences that do not fit the standard theories. However, the volume of evidence has now reached the point that denial is no longer a viable option.

The Bible is, of course, unique in that it has always presented a universe of more than three dimensions,⁵ and revealed a Creator that is transcendent over His creation. ⁶ It is the only “holy book” that demonstrates these contemporary insights.

Paul Davis has summarized it provocatively: “It is as if the entire universe was nothing more than a thought in the mind of God.”

*   *   *

This article was excerpted from Chuck’s book, Cosmic Codes - Hidden Messages From the Edge of Eternity, Chapter 23.

Cosmic Codes - Now In Paperback - Chuck MisslerRead the implications of our finite universe and the shocking discoveries of quantum physics at the very boundaries of reality and learn their significance to our origin and personal destinies! Click for more information - Textbook

1. Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen, “Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?” Physical Review, 47 (1935), p.777.
2. Paul Davis, Superforce, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1948, p.48.
3. This is reminiscent of the Red King’s dream in Through the Looking Glass, in which Alice finds herself in deep metaphysical waters when the Tweedle brothers defend the view that all material objects, including ourselves, are only “sorts of things” in the mind of God.
4. 2 Corinthians 4:18.
5. Ephesians 3:18.
6. Eastman, Mark and Missler, Chuck, The Creator Beyond Time and Space, The Word for Today, Costa Mesa CA, 1996.

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System Design of the Scriptures?: Our Holographic Bible - Chuck Missler

Exploring the Mind of Man: The Human Brain - Chuck Missler

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• Our Digital Universe?: Quantum Teleporting: Part 1
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Our Digital Universe?: Quantum Teleporting: Part 1

From Koinonia House

Technical > Space-Time > Quantum Teleporting: Part 1

The entire universe is a cryptogram set by the Almighty.
-  Sir Isaac Newton

Fans of the popular TV science fiction series, Star Trek, are familiar with the “Beam-me-up-Scotty” concept of “teleporting.” In an Austrian laboratory, it appears that scientists have now been able to destroy bits of light in one place and make perfect replicas appear about three feet away. They did this by transferring information about a crucial physical characteristic of the original light bits, or photons. The information was picked up by other photons, which took on that characteristic and thus became replicas of the originals.

While broader applications of these techniques still remain rather distant on the horizon of our new 21st century, the experiment raises some basic questions.  Is our universe itself digital?

Our Macro-Boundary

The startling discovery of 20th century science was that our universe is finite. Scientists now acknowledge that the universe had a beginning. They call the singularity from which it all began the “Big Bang.” While the details among the many variants of these theories remain quite controversial, the fact that there was a definite beginning has gained widespread agreement. ¹ This is, of course, what the Bible has maintained throughout its 66 books.

From thermodynamic considerations, it also appears that all processes in the universe inevitably contribute their losses from their inefficiencies to the ambient temperature, and thus the universe ultimately will attain a uniform temperature in which no work - all of which derives from temperature differences - will occur. Scientists call this final ultimate physical destiny the “heat death.”

Mankind, therefore, finds itself caught in a finite interval between the singularity that began it all and its inevitable termination. The mathematical concept of infinity - in any spatial direction or in terms of time - seems astonishingly absent in the macrocosm, the domain of the astronomers and cosmologists.

Our Micro-Boundary

In the microcosmic domain, there appears to be an even more astonishing boundary to smallness.  If we take a segment of length, we can divide it in half.  We can take one of the remaining halves, and we can divide it in half again.  We naturally assume that this can go on forever.  We assume that no matter how small a length we end up dealing with, we can always - at least conceptually - divide any remainder in half.  It turns out that this is not true.  There is a length, known as the Planck length, 10^-33 centimeters, that is indivisible.

The same thing is true of mass, energy, and even time.  There is a unit of time which cannot be further divided: 10^-43 seconds.  It is in this strange world of subatomic behavior that scientists have encountered the very boundaries of physical reality, as we experience it.  The study of these subatomic components is called quantum mechanics, or quantum physics.

The startling discovery made by the quantum physicists is that if you break matter into smaller and smaller pieces, you eventually reach a point where those pieces - electrons, protons, etc. - no longer possess the traits of objects.  Although they can sometimes behave as if they were a compact little particle, physicists have found that they literally possess no dimension.  They call this non-locality.

Is Our Reality Only Virtual?

Anyone who has seen the science fiction movie, The Thirteenth Floor , has pondered the question of the substance of our reality.   (The plot involves a computer project that created an entire virtual reality - a sort of super “computer game,” replicating Los Angeles in 1937 as a software program within a giant supercomputer.  Participants are able to enter that virtual reality for brief periods and return. A murder mystery ensues, the solution of which requires retrieving clues from within the project’s virtual reality.  A dramatic plot twist involves the discovery that the project participants themselves are only virtual simulations from an even larger reality: Los Angeles in the year 2025!  A stimulating piece of entertainment, but it cleverly raises some provocative questions about our own existence…)

The more we know about quantum physics, the less confidence we can have concerning the nature of our own physical reality.  It seems that it is but a subset of a larger hyperspace we call the spiritual reality.

The Dual Nature of Particles

Another discovery of the physicists is that a subatomic particle, such as an electron, can manifest itself as either a particle or a wave.  If you shoot an electron at a television screen that has been turned off,  a tiny point of light will appear when it strikes the phosphorescent chemicals that coat the glass.  The single point of impact which the electron leaves on the screen clearly reveals the particle-like side of its nature.

But that is not the only form the electron can assume.  It can also dissolve into a blurry cloud of energy and behave as if it were a wave spread out over space.  When an electron manifests itself as a wave, it can do things no particle can.  If it is fired at a barrier in which two slits have been cut, it can go through both slits simultaneously.  When wavelike electrons collide with each other they even create interference patterns.

It is interesting that in 1906, J. J. Thomson received the Nobel Prize for proving that electrons are particles.  In 1937 he saw his son awarded the Nobel Prize for proving that electrons were waves.  Both father and son were correct.  From then on, the evidence for the wave/particle duality has become overwhelming.

This chameleon-like ability is common to all subatomic particles.  Called quanta, they can manifest themselves either as particles or  waves.

Quantum Teleporting

The first actual teleporting experiment has now been reported in the scientific journal, Nature , by Anton Zeilinger and colleagues at the University of Innsbruck in Austria.² (Another research team, based in Rome, has done similar work and submitted its report to another journal.)  The work is the first to demonstrate “quantum teleportation,” a bizarre shifting of physical characteristics between nature’s tiniest particles, no matter how far apart they are.

“Scientists might be able to achieve teleportation between complete atoms within a few years and molecules within a decade or so,” Zeilinger has speculated.

The technique is still a long way away from the Star Trek process of beaming people around, but it raises the question, “Could teleportation be used on people?”  Could scientists extract information from every tiny particle in a person, transfer it to a bunch of particles elsewhere, and then assemble those particles into an exact replica of the person? There’s no theoretical problem with that, several experts have suggested.  But get real: “I think it’s quite clear that anything approximating teleportation of complex living beings, even bacteria, is so far away technologically that it’s not really worth thinking about it,” claimed IBM physicist Charles H. Bennett. He and other physicists had proposed quantum teleportation as early as 1993. “There would just be too much information to assemble and transmit,” he and others have said.

Well, we’ll see.  (Is it just a question of bandwidth?) But there are other applications.

Computer Applications

It is much more likely, experts suggest, that teleportation between tiny particles might facilitate quantum computers.  Such devices would use teleportation to transfer data around, and they could solve certain complex problems much faster than today’s machines. In the recent experiment, scientists transferred the trait of “polarization” between photons.  A light wave has peaks and troughs like an ocean wave, and polarization refers to the directions in which these peaks and troughs point. Photons retain this trait. To transfer the polarization between photons, the researchers used a phenomenon called entanglement. When two photons are entangled, “they have opposite luck,” said IBM’s Bennett.  Whatever happens to one is the opposite of what happens to the other.  In particular, their polarizations are the opposite of each other.  This binary phenomenon could be exploited in an advanced processor design.

A Glimpse of Hyperspace

Current cosmological conjectures assume a universe of more than three spatial dimensions-mathematically called a hyperspace.  Current views envision a universe of ten dimensions: four directly measurable (three spatial dimensions, plus time) and six that can only be determined indirectly. This is precisely what the ancient Hebrew sage, Nachmonides, writing in the 12th century, concluded from his study of Genesis!

The Bible is unique in that it presents a universe of more than three dimensions,³ and reveals a Creator that is transcendent over His creation.⁴ It is the only “holy book” that possesses such contemporary insights.

*  *  *

Much of this article was excerpted from the book, Cosmic Codes: Hidden Messages From the Edge of Eternity, and from our audio and video study, Learn the Bible in 24 Hours. We will continue this exploration of the nature of our “digital” universe in our next article, which will explore Einstein’s skepticism and Niehl Bohr’s provocative alternatives, the discovery of the non-locality of subatomic particles and their implications, as we are confronted by the very boundaries of our physical reality.

1. For a more complete discussion, see The Creator Beyond Time and Space, by Chuck Missler and Mark Eastman, The Word for Today, Costa Mesa CA, 1996.
2. Nature, Dec 10, 1997.
3. Ephesians 3:18.
4. Eastman & Missler, The Creator Beyond Time and Space, The Word for Today, Costa Mesa CA, 1996.

The Creator Beyond Time & Space Audio Series - Chuck Missler and Dr. Mark EastmanIncludes: The Creator Beyond Time and Space, The Bible: An Extraterrestrial Message, Immanuel: The Deity of Messiah and The Divine Watchmaker Click for more information - Audio Cassette

The Creator Beyond Time & Space - Chuck Missler and Dr. Mark EastmanWhat are the implications of the current upheavals in traditional cosmology, astronomy, and physics? Click for more information - Audio Cassette

Learn the Bible in 24 Hours - MP3 on CD-ROM - Special Edition - Chuck MisslerThis comprehensive series of 24 one-hour studies recorded in MP3 format will take you from the beginning of all things in Genesis to the final culmination in the Book of Revelation. Now available on one CD-ROM! Click for more information - MP3 on CD-ROM

The Enigma Deepens: Missing Mass Mystery - Chuck Missler

More Turmoil in Physics: Is Light Slowing Down? - Chuck Missler

Quantum Physics: The Boundaries of Reality - Chuck Missler

Science and the Bible: Cosmos and Creator - Mark Eastman, M.D.

Beyond Perception - Particle Physics And The Boundaries of Reality

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Physics Breakthrough? The End of the Universe

From Koinonia House

Technical > Space-Time > The End Of The Universe

Time magazine recently featured, as its cover article, “How the Universe Will End,” a review of some of the current conjectures of cosmology and astrophysics.

The disturbing thing about the Time feature was the misleading manner in which it implied a consensus among scientists and the impression that these concatenations of conjectures approach the dignity of facts.

In truth, there are currently major upheavals in the field of physics, and there are increasing evidences that are challenging the current presumptions of “20th century science.”

The Second Law of Thermodynamics indicates that the universe will, eventually, “wind down,” and cease to exist in what is commonly called the “Heat Death.”

The Time article simply summarizes some of the astrophysical conjectures on the details.

The Bible also presents what we call the Laws of Entropy, ¹ and the fact that the heavens will eventually come to an end is plainly detailed:²

Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
- 2 Peter 3:12, 13

The Scriptures have much to say about the nature of the universe and space itself: for an in-depth study, see our Briefing Package, Stretching the Heavens, or our audio and video resources, The Creator Series .

Indeed, the great discovery of “20th century science” is that the universe is finite, and it had a beginning. The various alternative views of the events which followed the “singularity” of the Creation are collectively called “The Big Bang.”

One of the most interesting disclosures in the Time feature was the review of what is often called “Dark Matter”: that visible matter (and the energy associated with it) constitutes less than 5% of the matter in the universe! (We have been reporting on this periodically in Personal UPDATE since February 1993.)

It is disturbing to realize that virtually all of our insights and conclusions about the nature of matter has been drawn from a small sample of the larger reality!

The Time article, while illuminating in many respects, fails to indicate the emerging controversies within the field of physics: the non-constancy of the speed of light, the quantization of the red shift, the non-locality of subatomic particles, etc.

But what is provocative is the universal admission that there was a moment of creation - all the speculations focus their attention on the details which followed moments after creation.

Matter vs. Antimatter

For every particle there is an antiparticle; the existence of “antimatter” made up of antiparticles has been the staple of science fiction buffs for decades. It may come as a surprise to many of our readers that antimatter is the focus of serious study on the research frontier of particle physics.

One of the mysteries of creation is why there is any matter around at all. Matter, and its opposite counterpart, antimatter, congealed out of energy during the first moments of creation, acting according to Einstein’s famous equation, E = mc2, which simply says that matter and energy are two different forms of the same stuff.

Matter and antimatter particles, during the early moments of creation, if in equal numbers, should have annihilated each other, melting back into energy. So why is there any matter in the universe at all? It exists because “nature” prefers matter to antimatter by a small margin. The margin is viewed as the reason why the story of creation does not end simply with, “Let there be light.”

In 1967, the Russian physicist Andrei Sakharov, who later became one of his country’s most famous dissidents, proposed a theory that explained the imbalance using a phenomenon called Charge-Parity Violation. ³ To say that CP symmetry is violated is to say that the physical properties of particles and antiparticles are not fully symmetrical. Contrary to previous assumptions, this actual phenomenon was first observed in 1964 when subatomic particles called K-mesons and their anti-Ks transformed into other particles in a slightly asymmetrical fashion.

If the physicist’s theories were correct, the same strange behavior would be found in another, heavier, subatomic particle called the B-meson. Testing that prediction was the main reason for building a $177 million accelerator at Stanford known as the “B factory,” which opened in June 1999.

Beams of electrons and their antimatter counterparts, positrons, are sent whirling around a 2.2 kilometer ring almost at the speed of light. When an electron and a positron collide, they occasionally form a B-meson and its opposite, an anti-B. These particles exist for only trillionths of a second before decaying further, so the experiment had to be “exquisitely sensitive.” By studying the decay patterns left by some 32 million pairs of B-mesons, the team (of over 600 scientists from nine countries) has found the critical asymmetries that physics theory called for. ⁴ The experiment seems to confirm some understandings but raises still more questions. Yet the more we learn, the more we discover that we are in digital simulation: that lengths, masses, energy, and even Time consist of “quanta” of indivisible units that have no “locality.”⁵ The broader reality - the spiritual reality - is what the Bible has been telling us about all along.

The contemporary discoveries of science can be exhilarating if accompanied with a humility and a respect for what we have yet to discover, always maintaining an awareness that the Word of God is supreme and inerrant.

We are the object of Design and that design has a purpose and a destiny that goes far beyond the limits of any laws of thermodynamics or whatever!

Praise His Name!

* * *

Sources:

• K. C. Cole, “Physicists Get A Big Bang Out of Findings,” LA Times, July 7, 2001, p.1.
• Michael D. Lemonick, “How the Universe Will End,” Time, June 25, 2001, cover article.
• Phillip F. Schewe, Ben Stein, and James Riordon, “CP Violation in the Decay of B Mesons,” The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Physics News, No. 547, July 12, 2001.

1. Psalm 102:25, 25; Romans 8:21; et al.
2. Cf. Hebrews 12:26, Haggai 2:6, Isaiah 13:13.
3. CP is the abstract abbreviation for a mathematical operation in which particles undergo a change in charge conjugation (C) and parity (P).  The combined CP operation essentially turns a particle into an antiparticle.
4. The B factories at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, and the Japanese KEK lab, submitted preliminary results in February of this year (Update 525; http://www.aip.org/physnews/update/525-1.html) with very limited data sets.  Now SLAC has reported a more robust measurement of the CP-violating parameter: SLAC press release, 6 July 2001, and paper submitted to Physical Review Letters.
5. The Bell Inequality, confirmed experimentally by Allain Aspect at CERN over a decade ago.  See Stretching the Heavens, or Beyond Perception for a discussion.

Stretching the Heavens and the Dilation of Time - Chuck MisslerThis includes an exclusive interview with Barry Setterfield whose controversial discoveries concerning the slowing down of the speed of light may yet disrupt the previous dictums of modern physics. Click for more information - Audio Cassette

The Creator Beyond Time and Space Series on CD-ROM - Chuck Missler and Dr. Mark EastmanIncludes: The Creator Beyond Time and Space, The Bible: An Extraterrestrial Message, Immanuel: The Deity of Messiah and The Divine Watchmaker Click for more information - MP3 on CD-ROM

The Creator Beyond Time & Space Audio Series - Chuck Missler and Dr. Mark EastmanIncludes: The Creator Beyond Time and Space, The Bible: An Extraterrestrial Message, Immanuel: The Deity of Messiah and The Divine Watchmaker Click for more information - Audio Cassette

Science and the Bible: Cosmos and Creator - Mark Eastman, M.D.

The Controversy Continues: Speed of Light Slowing Down? - Chuck Missler

Quantum Teleporting, Part 2: Our Holographic Universe - Chuck Missler

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Physics Breakthrough? The End of the Universe

From Koinonia House

Technical > Space-Time > The End Of The Universe

Time magazine recently featured, as its cover article, “How the Universe Will End,” a review of some of the current conjectures of cosmology and astrophysics.

The disturbing thing about the Time feature was the misleading manner in which it implied a consensus among scientists and the impression that these concatenations of conjectures approach the dignity of facts.

In truth, there are currently major upheavals in the field of physics, and there are increasing evidences that are challenging the current presumptions of “20th century science.”

The Second Law of Thermodynamics indicates that the universe will, eventually, “wind down,” and cease to exist in what is commonly called the “Heat Death.”

The Time article simply summarizes some of the astrophysical conjectures on the details.

The Bible also presents what we call the Laws of Entropy, ¹ and the fact that the heavens will eventually come to an end is plainly detailed:²

Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
- 2 Peter 3:12, 13

The Scriptures have much to say about the nature of the universe and space itself: for an in-depth study, see our Briefing Package, Stretching the Heavens, or our audio and video resources, The Creator Series .

Indeed, the great discovery of “20th century science” is that the universe is finite, and it had a beginning. The various alternative views of the events which followed the “singularity” of the Creation are collectively called “The Big Bang.”

One of the most interesting disclosures in the Time feature was the review of what is often called “Dark Matter”: that visible matter (and the energy associated with it) constitutes less than 5% of the matter in the universe! (We have been reporting on this periodically in Personal UPDATE since February 1993.)

It is disturbing to realize that virtually all of our insights and conclusions about the nature of matter has been drawn from a small sample of the larger reality!

The Time article, while illuminating in many respects, fails to indicate the emerging controversies within the field of physics: the non-constancy of the speed of light, the quantization of the red shift, the non-locality of subatomic particles, etc.

But what is provocative is the universal admission that there was a moment of creation - all the speculations focus their attention on the details which followed moments after creation.

Matter vs. Antimatter

For every particle there is an antiparticle; the existence of “antimatter” made up of antiparticles has been the staple of science fiction buffs for decades. It may come as a surprise to many of our readers that antimatter is the focus of serious study on the research frontier of particle physics.

One of the mysteries of creation is why there is any matter around at all. Matter, and its opposite counterpart, antimatter, congealed out of energy during the first moments of creation, acting according to Einstein’s famous equation, E = mc2, which simply says that matter and energy are two different forms of the same stuff.

Matter and antimatter particles, during the early moments of creation, if in equal numbers, should have annihilated each other, melting back into energy. So why is there any matter in the universe at all? It exists because “nature” prefers matter to antimatter by a small margin. The margin is viewed as the reason why the story of creation does not end simply with, “Let there be light.”

In 1967, the Russian physicist Andrei Sakharov, who later became one of his country’s most famous dissidents, proposed a theory that explained the imbalance using a phenomenon called Charge-Parity Violation. ³ To say that CP symmetry is violated is to say that the physical properties of particles and antiparticles are not fully symmetrical. Contrary to previous assumptions, this actual phenomenon was first observed in 1964 when subatomic particles called K-mesons and their anti-Ks transformed into other particles in a slightly asymmetrical fashion.

If the physicist’s theories were correct, the same strange behavior would be found in another, heavier, subatomic particle called the B-meson. Testing that prediction was the main reason for building a $177 million accelerator at Stanford known as the “B factory,” which opened in June 1999.

Beams of electrons and their antimatter counterparts, positrons, are sent whirling around a 2.2 kilometer ring almost at the speed of light. When an electron and a positron collide, they occasionally form a B-meson and its opposite, an anti-B. These particles exist for only trillionths of a second before decaying further, so the experiment had to be “exquisitely sensitive.” By studying the decay patterns left by some 32 million pairs of B-mesons, the team (of over 600 scientists from nine countries) has found the critical asymmetries that physics theory called for. ⁴ The experiment seems to confirm some understandings but raises still more questions. Yet the more we learn, the more we discover that we are in digital simulation: that lengths, masses, energy, and even Time consist of “quanta” of indivisible units that have no “locality.”⁵ The broader reality - the spiritual reality - is what the Bible has been telling us about all along.

The contemporary discoveries of science can be exhilarating if accompanied with a humility and a respect for what we have yet to discover, always maintaining an awareness that the Word of God is supreme and inerrant.

We are the object of Design and that design has a purpose and a destiny that goes far beyond the limits of any laws of thermodynamics or whatever!

Praise His Name!

* * *

Sources:

• K. C. Cole, “Physicists Get A Big Bang Out of Findings,” LA Times, July 7, 2001, p.1.
• Michael D. Lemonick, “How the Universe Will End,” Time, June 25, 2001, cover article.
• Phillip F. Schewe, Ben Stein, and James Riordon, “CP Violation in the Decay of B Mesons,” The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Physics News, No. 547, July 12, 2001.

1. Psalm 102:25, 25; Romans 8:21; et al.
2. Cf. Hebrews 12:26, Haggai 2:6, Isaiah 13:13.
3. CP is the abstract abbreviation for a mathematical operation in which particles undergo a change in charge conjugation (C) and parity (P).  The combined CP operation essentially turns a particle into an antiparticle.
4. The B factories at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, and the Japanese KEK lab, submitted preliminary results in February of this year (Update 525; http://www.aip.org/physnews/update/525-1.html) with very limited data sets.  Now SLAC has reported a more robust measurement of the CP-violating parameter: SLAC press release, 6 July 2001, and paper submitted to Physical Review Letters.

Subscribe to the comments for this post

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• Quantum Physics: The Boundaries of Reality
• The Red Planet: Mars the Mysterious
• More Turmoil in Physics: Is Light Slowing Down?