Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 exptools 1/6/84; site iham1.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!ihnp4!iham1!gjphw From: gjphw@iham1.UUCP Newsgroups: net.origins Subject: Re: A *scientific model* for creation Message-ID: <240@iham1.UUCP> Date: Mon, 22-Oct-84 17:33:36 EDT Article-I.D.: iham1.240 Posted: Mon Oct 22 17:33:36 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 23-Oct-84 02:18:21 EDT References: <1431@qubix.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL Lines: 207 This article is being written to critique specific arguments advanced by L. Bickford (qubix!lab) in a recent series of submissions. I will deal with only certain items or topics rather than the total collection of comments made by Mr. Bickford. A summary follows at the end. At the time of this writing, two other articles by S. Tynor (gitpyr!tynor) and R. Hartley (cvl!rlh) have appeared in reply to the original posting with which I agree. My goal is to amplify the criticism of creationism concerning topics ancillary to evolution. First, there does appear to be ample confusion concerning the specific proposals of creationism. The Institute for Creation Research, headed by H.M. Morris, favors a specific proposal call "special creation" which resembles the Biblical description of Genesis. While Larry B. quotes from Morris extensively, it is not clear if he personally subscribes to the special creation scenario. However, I will also quote from Morris because he is most accessible. Mr. Bickford has said that creationism does not necessarily depend upon the Bible. Unfortunately, the principal author of special creation has been quite specific about the relationship between the Bible and the ISR proposal, for in Morris (*Biblical Cosmology*, pg 33) we can read: ...no geological difficulties, real or imagined, can be allowed to take precedence over the clear statements and necessary inferences of Scripture. Additionally, this attitude also expresses a clear disregard for independent data. As an aside, one of the important points of creationism is a return to catastrophism (especially floods) from uniformitarianism (introduced in the seventeenth century) to describe Earth geology. There is at least one book which reintroduces the term catastrophism into mainstream geology, though the catastrophies (large meteor impacts with the Earth) and the time scales (approxmately every 33 million years) are not quite what the creationists advocate. From the three major requirements for a scientific theory, I, too, agree that *prior observations* refers to the requirement that any theory must correlate the data known before the theory is formulated. It does not refer to a need to explain events beyond the (time) domain of the theory. This interpretation would require that any theory in any discipline deal with all phenomena in the universe (e.g., an acceptable theory for evolution would also entail quantum mechanics). Creationism alone requires a wholesale revamping of science (including my favorite subject - physics). The second criterion for a theory requires that its continued use suggests new relations and stimulate research. The third criterion seeks predictions that can be tested and solutions of practical problems. According to a quotation provided by Mr. Bickford from Morris, creationism includes a statement that the processes that led to the creation of the universe are no longer in operation or, presumably, observable. It seems contradictory for a scientific theory to have, as one of its basic tenants, unobservable phenomena. And, as reinforced by D. Gish (in *Evolution? The Fossils Say No!*, pg 42), We cannot discover by scientific investigation anything about the creative processes used by the Creator. Most creationists appear comfortable entertaining an unempirical hypothesis while labeling it science. Any proposal that incorporates unobservable processes fails the requirements for empirical testability or allowing growth through further research. On the other hand, one of the failings that Mr. Bickford has claimed of evolution is that it lacks any treatment of ultimate origins (for life, the universe, and everything). It does appear that he seeks a theory of evolution that includes quantum field theory among other details. I do not think that any one theory need be so all encompassing to be valuable or scientific. Finally, due to the impression that both evolution and creationism do not satisfy the criteria for a scientific theory, both are labeled models. When I went through graduate school (physics), a model was considered to be more restrictive in domain and applicability than a theory, but both had to satisfy all of the requirements of a theory. In other words, models, usually consisting of mental pictures and an appropriate set of equations, were more specific and less general than theories, which were more abstract and had fewer conditions. Models are special cases of theories, or an application of theories and mathematics to a particular situation or system, and not sufficiently different from theories so that different criteria of acceptability apply. Next, I will deal with specific phenomena that creationists in general, and Mr. Bickford in particular, see as shortcomings of modern geology and, consequently, support for creationism (generating an artificial dichotomy that evolution or creationism are the only possible descriptions of nature). The majority of the doubts about mainstream geology are derived from Morris, the director of the ISR. Once again, in *Biblical Cosmology* (ppg 59-62), Morris lists 23 major geological differences between special creationism and empirical research, then proceeds to reject the geological findings because they conflict with special creation (i.e., the theory is used to validate the data). > Decay of earth's magnetic field In a related submission, Mr. Bickford properly cautions us about extrapolating the presently observed values for continental drift back through the entire lifetime of the Earth. It could have, and probably was, different at different times. Yet, when presented with the currently observed value for the decline in the field strength of the Earth's magnetic field, he accepts a simple extrapolation back through time. Geology textbooks tell of being able to detect the reversal of the Earth's magnetic field in igneous rocks, so that both the field strength and polarity of the Earth's magnetic field has changed over time. When the field strength reaches zero, it merely reverses polarity and gains strength in continuation of an aperiodic cycle. > Influx of radiocarbon into the earth system The details of this argument are unclear to me. Radioactive carbon, or carbon-14, is generated through a nuclear reaction in the upper atmosphere between cosmic rays and nitrogen (which is 78% of Earth's air). As long as the Earth has air and cosmic rays impact the air, radioactive carbon will be one of the products. Carbon-14 is only useful for dating once-living objects less than 5E4 years old, so it is unclear how this is related to the supposed age of the Earth and solar system. Some recent discussion has surfaced concerning variability in the cosmic ray intensity with time, but these variations might be periodic (and therefore correctable) and would not affect age estimates by even an order of magnitude (factor of 10). > Efflux of He-4 into the atmosphere The most common isotope of helium, and second most common element in the known universe, has two sources for the Earth. First, helium has the cosmogenic source (e.g., novae, supernovae, and the Big Bang) and the second is a mode of radioactivity called alpha decay. The solar system is presumed to be formed from second generation material (i.e., material ejected from novae or supernovae) to explain the enhanced abundances of heavy chemical elements compared to observed galatic abundances. Virtually all of the cosmogenic helium has escaped the surface and atmosphere of the Earth. However, the alpha particle, emitted during alpha decay (clever naming convention, eh?), is a helium nucleus. It can capture two electrons and form itself into a helium atom without any difficulty. As long as radioactive materials exist in the Earth that emit alpha particles, there will be helium detectable on Earth. The sole commercial source of helium today comes from oil wells where the gas, generated from alpha decay of radioactive material, sits at the top of oil cavities deep underground. Helium seeps slowly through rock and can escape into the atmosphere on its lonesome. > Decay lines of galaxies > Expanding interstellar gas I am unfamiliar with these phenomena, and they are getting beyond the arena of my personal competence, so I will not comment further. My final comments concern radiometric dating techniques. It appears as if creationists in general, and Mr. Bickford in particular, feel that they have some new insight concerning radiometry that geologists and physicists have not considered over the 60+ years that radioactivity has been studied. Geological radiometry does not rely on a single radioactive species but rather employs three major elements (potassium-40, uranium-238, and rubidium-87) and two minor elements (uranium-235 and thorium-232). The best results are obtained from a sample where all three major dating isotopes can be used. Each isotope has its own chemical properties and correction technique to allow for daughter elements present at its formation (potassium is the best for this). It is only after examining thousands of samples from the Earth and meteorites that confidence has been built up in an estimate for the age of the solar system of 4.55E9 years (moon samples have been a recent addition that contribute to the confidence of the age estimate). The invariability of decay rates has been extensively studied, for if there is one thing that physicists like, it's constants of nature. There are specific radioactive decay modes of specific isotopes that do show a dependence upon chemical composition, but the largest variation known is 3.2%. This is far too small to permit the many orders of magnitude difference between 4.55E9 of geology and 7E3 of special creation. The vast majority of radioactive elements, including the standard elements used for radiometry, have not displayed any variability in their decay rates with chemical concentration, pressure, temperature, or time for ordinary matter (solid, liquid, or gas; if interested in radioactive decay in the plasma phase, e.g., the sun, then such radioactivity would be the least of my worries). The insensitivity of radioactive decay rates is one of the items incorporated into nuclear theory (in physics, the class of theories and models that describe the nucleus of atoms are lumped together as nuclear theory). It would be necessary to radically alter nuclear theory in order to accommodate the variability in decay rates that are suggested by creationists. If there is more substance to this variability of decay rates issue than *...since it can be imagined, therefore it must be so*, it has yet to be known in the American Physical Society publications. If Mr. Bickford has specific reasons to suspect the invariability of radioactive decay rates, I would like to know them. One oblique reference has been made to an article concerning this in a creation science journal, but I do not have ready access to such publications. In summary, we must recognize that long standing controversies rarely concern what they purport to concern. If the creationism-evolution controversy were a matter of science, it could readily be resolved. Evolutionists and creationists have argued as if the issues were scientific ones, resolvable by appeal to the data. Since creationism predates evolutionism, and the debate goes on, the cause of the conflict must lie elsewhere. Creationism requires the extensive rewriting of science throughout all disciplines, and exits primarily by criticizing mainstream science even about issues that have been resolved. Creationists have not gotten beyond the level of the popular misconceptions concerning science because science is not their goal. By manipulating these popular misconceptions, creationists seek to win a battle before the public (e.g., certain textbooks used in schools), not before the scientific community. They have a point to make (i.e., the inerrancy of the Bible) and will not be dissuaded by any data. Further argumentation on the broader issues of evolution is fruitless. -- Patrick Wyant AT&T Bell Laboratories (Naperville, IL) *!iham1!gjphw