THEORETICALLY SPEAKING

Good data is a good place to start, but the practice of science is about more than gathering data.  As a scientist I am always asking myself – and those I work with – what is the data telling us?  Can we paint a mental picture of what we are studying that will help us in our ongoing work.  Scientific experimentation in every field of study is a work in progress, there is always more to learn.  With a good mental picture that fits the data we have in hand, a theory, we can go about our work more effectively.  We assemble data, formulate a theory, and then test the theory with more experimentation.  Theories are not reality, they are mental constructs that approximate reality based on the data we have in hand.  We use them as long as they fit the data, then modify them, or throw them out entirely and formulate a new theory that more accurately accounts for what we are learning.

Up to about 500 years ago people thought that the sun and the stars revolved around the earth.  At the time this was a good and useful theory – it served mankind well for thousands of years.  Then, in 1514 Copernicus put forth the heliocentric theory.  His revolutionary theory (excuse the pun) was that the sun was the center of the universe, not the earth.  The sun did not revolve around the earth, but the earth revolved around the sun.  New data that he collected about the movements of the planets and the stars simply did not fit existing theory, so he formulated a new theory.  Over the last 500 years the heliocentric theory has been refined and changed as new and better data became available.  It was discovered that the sun is not the center of the universe.  It is just one of millions of stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way, and there are millions of galaxies.  Just recently new data has proven that planets form solar systems around stars besides our sun.  Astronomers expected to find them.  This data fits our mental construct of what we think the universe looks like. We now have solid data proving that other solar systems do exist.  Astronomers, however, did not expect to find water – ice that is – on Mercury.  Sketchy data a few years back indicated that it might be there, but good data now proves that significant quantities of ice are packed in craters shaded from the sun’s heat.  Wow!  That scorched little planet so close to the sun has water – time to rethink our theories about the formation of the solar system.

I love the process of science.  I love gathering data, and I really love data that challenges our theories and forces us to think differently.  Most scientists feel the same way.  So, watch out, your pet theory that seems so iron clad today may be severely amended or even tossed out tomorrow.

THIS OLDE EARTH

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)

This, the first verse of the Bible, answers some questions for me, but leaves others unaddressed.  It states that the universe is not eternal, that it did have a beginning, and that that beginning occurred when God created it.  It implies that God existed before the universe came into being (how else could he create it?).  It also implies that He is not made out of the same “stuff” that the universe is made of.  God can be said to be transcendent, that is separate from and outside of this universe, just like my artist daughter-in-law is separate from and outside of her print art*.

This verse does not tell me, however, how he made the universe or how He made living things.  Let’s start with living things.  As a polymer chemist I do not feel qualified to speak in depth about the “how He made living things” question.  There is, however, mounting evidence from the fields of biology and geology that God used a process that occurred over some period of time.  Evolution used to be a four letter word for me, but why should it be?  Later in Genesis chapter one God commands the earth to bring forth plant life, and then to bring forth living creatures.  Interesting!  He commanded the earth itself to bring forth life.  He spoke life-giving power into nature.  Does it matter how long in days as I count them – or He counts them - that it took for this to be accomplished?  If I were God I would have taken my time at it, and I would have enjoyed the creating process.  Why call forth just a few animal species?  Variety is the spice of creation.  Why not make some really interesting ones like the platypus, the hammer head shark, the ant eater, the wood pecker, and thousands of other beautiful, strange and unique creatures?  I think of God as being happy and full of life – as having really enjoyed the whole process of creating life.

Genesis also does not tell us how or when God created the universe.  The “when” question can be determined with some certainty.  Astronomers have observed that the universe is expanding, and they have measured how fast it is expanding.  Calculations based on the speed with which galaxies are moving and the present size of the universe indicate that there was a big bang over ten billion years ago - when this expansion started.  We have some “atomic clocks” here on earth that can help us to calculate the age of certain specific rock formations.  This data then helps us estimate the age of our earth.  Uranium has a half life of about 4.5 billion years.  Deposits of uranium minerals in the earth’s crust decay in a predictable way, with half of the uranium decaying to form lead and other daughter elements each 4.5 billion years.  So, by measuring the relative amounts of uranium, lead, and other elements remaining in the deposits, we can calculate the age of the deposits.  Uranium ore deposits in South Africa have been determined to be 1.7 billion years old.  Atomic clocks don’t lie.  They are not affected by heat or their environment.  Assumptions do have to be made in doing this kind of dating.  We assume that what are taken to be decay elements like lead, have not moved into or out of the deposit, but the assumptions are reasonable, and the data is compelling.

We have nothing to fear from data – all data that good science provides.  It is what it is.  Sound data provides accurate information about our world.  If reliable dating of uranium deposits indicates that the earth is about five billion years old, then God made the earth five billion years ago.  I am comfortable with good data. 

*See my previous entries, “The Artist” and “More on the Artist”.