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This occult-based nonsense, where the author has redefined the speed
of light to fit his cults' agenda, is ammusing. He bases his changes
on the measurements of the speed of light that were taken over 300
years ago (!), assuming a median measurement correction (no, really!),
and then assumes a uniform decrease in ~c to fit in with his cults'
requirements.

This is a fine example of the lengths occultists will go to, to make
reality and science fit in with their interpretation of thier bibles.
This is ammusing intellectually, true, but consider, emotionally, the
major investment such individuals put into shear nonsense; they will
go through their entire lives ignorant, convinced that their fantasies
are real. Is that not more to pitty, than ammusing?      --- d.rice
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New Light on an Old Problem
by Alan Montgomery 
 
The majority of scientists and most Christian scholars [sic] have become
convinced that the universe is a great age because of the time 
necessary for light to travel from the furthest galaxies. Starlight 
travels at 186,000 miles a second, or 299,792 km./sec. for those who 
think metric. In one year it travels 6 trillion miles, that is, one 
light-year; in 6000 years it travels 36 thousand trillion miles. 
This is a drop in the bucket compared to the diameter of our own Milky 
Way Galaxy which is 600 thousand trillion miles, or, distant galaxies 
which are thought to be billions of trillions of miles away. Are 
Biblical chronologies out by a million times? If not, how could light 
have travelled such vast distances in only 6000 years? 

Liberal theologians long ago surrendered Genesis as a naive 
intrepretation of our scientifically primitive forefathers. They 
relagated Genesis to myth and allegory, denying [sic] its historicity.
Some conservative Evangelicals have suggested that light was created
at the same time as the stars. This is, the light received from the
stars more than 6000 light-years away was created in-situ rather than
emitted from the star itself. 

Anyone having a scientific training would have difficulty 
accepting either point of view. Firstly, science is not in the 
business of reinterpreting history. Its competence to remold Genesis 
or any other historical document is virtually nil. History cannot be 
reconstructed from scientific enquiry because the events are not 
repeatable or testable. Secondly, the created-light idea has a 
problem. An astronomer peers through his telescope at an exploding 
star hundreds of thousands of light years away. Did the explosion 
actually happen or was the explosion created "in transit" when god 
created light? Can god author lightwaves with information about an 
event which never occurred? This is not the problem of appearance of 
age that comes from creating mature trees, animals and people. These 
may appear old but god has corrected this false appearance by 
revealing their creation. Rather, it is suggested that god created 
the appearance of an exploding star about which he has left us 
ingorant. 

Many conservative Biblical scholars have shunned the "created 
light" and yielded to an older universe by inserting a major time gap 
between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 (usually known as the Gap theory). The 
Gap theory seems attractive at first sight but from a textual point of 
view it receives no support from any prominent Hebrew scholar. 
Further, Dr. Chalmers, the Scottish theologian who promoted the Gap 
theory in the nineteenth century, was responding to intellectual 
pressure from the geologists who claimed that the Earth was far older 
than implied by the Bible. It will be seen that there is little 
difference between Chalmer's approach and the modernist liberal 
response in respect to scientific enroachment on the interpretation of 
Scripture. Since the alteration of the orthodox Biblical 
interpretation has obvious flaws, why not examine the possibility that 
conventional science is causing the difficulty? 

An examination of the data on the speed of light reveals 
information which not only solves Biblical problems but also many 
astronomical difficulties. Let's look at an analogy: 

Suppose we see a car travelling the expressway on Friday afternoon 
of a holiday weekend - speed 5 m.p.h.! Next day, we find the same car 
in a city 500 miles away. According to our observations, that car 
should have taken 100 hours to get to that city. Why has it arrived 
so early? The mistake was to assume a speed of 5 m.p.h. for the 
entire 500 miles. Clearly, once beyond the crowded city limits, the 
traffic picks up speed; our assumption, based upon a limited 
observation, was incorrect. Likewise astronomers assume that the 
speed of light has been constant throughout the entire time. Is it 
possible that 'c' (the usual notation for the speed of light) was 
faster during the past? - Yes, indeed! 

Over 300 years ago, a Dutch astronomer named Romer employed an 
elegantly simple method to measure 'c'. This depended upon knowing 
the distance from Earth to Jupiter and timing the appearance of 
Jupiter's moons. He concluded that light travelled at a finite speed, 
which was a controversial notion in his day. Since that time more 
sophisticated methods for measuring 'c' have been developed and we now 
have published values from Romer's time to the present day. Using 
today's more accurate data, we can redo Romer's calculation and obtain 
a good value from his time. Including these recalculated values there 
are a total of 52 reasonable accurate results obtained over the past 
300 years. 

Simple statistical tests can tell us if these 52 values represent 
the measurement of a constant value. If 'c' is constant, the 
statistical expectation for 52 measurements is that 26 should have 
random errors giving higher values than the true value while the 
remaining 26 should have lower values. That is, random errors should 
divide the results equally between those higher and those lower than 
the accepted value. Further, for any two consecutively determined 
values there will be either an increase (the second value being higher 
than the first), or, a decrease (the second value being lower than the 
first). That is, there is a 50/50 chance of an increase or a 
decrease. Let us see what the actual results show: 

Between 1650 and 1960 there are 42 values or 41 consecutive pairs 
of determinations. Instead of the expected 20 or 21 decreases and a 
corresponding number of increases, we actually find 29 decreases. But 
this is a chance occurence of only 1 in a 100. Between 1650 and 1940 
there are 17 consecutive pairs of determinations; instead of the 
expected 8 or 9 decreases there are actually 16 - a chance occurrence 
of 1 in a 1000. 

For all 52 values (1), we find not 26 but 40 values higher than the 
textbook value. This occurs by chance 1 time in 20,000. Plainly, 
these results do not fit the asssumption that 'c' is a constant. 
Statistically, we would say the hypothesis "c is a constant" fails at 
the 99.99% confidence level. In addition, the average of the 52 value 
is 299,874 km./sec. this is over 80 km./sec. above the accepted value 
of 299,792 km./sec. This is hightly improbable. The statistical 
evidence is plain, 'c' has not been constant throught time but has 
been decreasing at least until the late 1950's. 
 
This phenomenon was first noticed by astronomers in the late 
1920's and early 1930's, led by Gheury de Bray (2-6). Checks for 
equipment problems and systematic errors discovered nothing which 
could account for the overall trend (7). But the confirming results 
of the 1930's were offset by equipment changes following World War II 
and an apparent stabilizing of the values of 'c'. Combined with the 
failure to produce a theoretical basis for decreasing 'c' and, 
opposition by certain authorities in the scientific community, further 
interest in the relationship between 'c' and time ceased. 

In 1981, Barry Setterfield, a young Australian astronomer, gathered 
and analyzed all the available data on 'c'. To his amazement he 
discovered not only the systematic decrease of 'c' with time, but also 
that the best mathematical relationship to fit the data was a 
trigonometric formula:

                         2 
            ---------------------------
            c(t)=299.792 cosec (0.015)t 
 
          where t=time in years since creation 

[Note that the author bases his formula on an assumption he has
made--- that there was a creation, and that he knows when it had
occured! And he wants people to take him seriously? --- d.rice]
 
This trigonometric formula spanned a mere 6000 years! The speed 
of light has evidently decreased from a value over 500 billion times 
the present speed to its value today in just 6000 years. The total 
distance travelled is in the billions of light years. The discovery 
of this formula has reduced the transit time of light travelling 
across the universe to 6000 years like the car in rush hour in our 
analogy. 

Using Setterfield's formula to calculate the speed of light over 
the unobserved past reduces the overall time so that the origin of the 
Universe is close to 4175 B.C. Since then, a derivation of this 
formula has been found using conventional physics, thus establishing a 
theoretical basis for Setterfield's discovery. The theoretical values 
for Setterfield's curve are within 1% of those produced by his 
empirical analysis! The theoretical origin of the curve is at 4008 
B.C. But there is more. 

Plank's number 'h', inertial mass 'm', gyromagnetic ratio 'G' and 
the radioactive decay constants are all related to 'c' i.e. all these 
'constants' must change with time as 'c' changes. A statistical 
analysis of the historically published data (8) confirms that the 
first three are indeed changing with respect to time and in the 
appropriate direction. The published values for the decay constants 
are unfortunately too inaccurate to be analyzed. This type of 
confirmation of the theory is most convincing since these measurements 
are independant of any equipment of systematic errors involved in the 
measurement of 'c'. 

Setterfield's theory also provides a solution to the apparent 
problem creationists have with radiometric dating. Dating techniques 
involving potassuim/argon, uranium/lead and strontium/rubidium have 
been used to calculate the age of rock samples assuming that the rate 
of radioactive decay has been constant. Accepted theoretical physics 
state the 'c' and the radioactive decay rates are directly 
proportional. Thus, when 'c' had twice its present value in the past, 
the radioactive decay rates were also at twice their present value. 
Further, the relationship of the decay rates to time also follows the 
same trigonometric function as 'c' and with the same time-shortening 
result. Radioactive decay calculations under Setterfield's theory 
reduce billions of years to a mear 6000 years This is because the 
decay rates were greater during the unobserved early period. This 
revolutionary new insight has immediately solved at one stroke two 
major problems for the Creationist. 

One more point about this theory. A key characteristic of any 
good scientific theory is that it solves dilemmas and problems that 
its forerunners failed to explain. Setterfield's theory helps to 
explain the lack of solar neutrinos and the large red-shift between 
closely related members of the same galactic cluster. Once the dogma 
of the millions of years is abandoned, other mysteries begin to be 
resolved: the fact that no Supernova Remnants older than 7000 years 
can be found, or the fact that spiral galaxy arms exist when they 
should have completely unwound long ago and not now appear as a 
spiral, is no longer surprising. 

Altogether, the statistical denial of the constantcy of 'c', the 
close correlation of empirical and theoretical data, the corresponding 
correlation of other physical quantities and the resolution of 
problems not solved by the current theory, form a formidible 
combination not easily undone. This would seem to be an impressive 
set of accomplishments for any scientist. Can one simple scientific 
assumption radically alter the dimensions of the age of the universe, 
eradicate the 'Big Bang', sink the Nebular hypothesis, undermine 
geological Uniformitarianism, and destroy Darwinism all at the same 
time? Such a radical scientific revolution from such a simple change 
ought to open wide the eyes of Christians and particularly those of 
our own theological scholars. 

Too often the assertions of scientists have impinged on Biblical 
jurisdiction without appropriate challenge. Entire theologies have 
been devised to accomodate their ideas, generations of Christians 
with no rational defense have been mocked and ridiculed for failing to 
conform and progress toward Christian unity has disintegrated. 
Measured in these terms, the body of Christ has suffered severely at 
their hands and we are all too aware of the denominational divisions. 

The Church could have avoided many of these splits had they not 
tried to compromise over the issue of the age of the cosmos. Now with 
Setterfield's theory available, would it be too simplistic to suggest 
that the Church has within its grasp a tool to reunite? 

Realistically, it should be easier for theologians to accept a 
decreasing value of 'c' value than for the scientist who would be 
faced with a major revolution in thinking. Predictably the scientific 
community will only slowly and partially accept Setterfield's theory. 
Perhaps the theologians, particularly the modernists, should take the 
lead in this instance and who knows, maybe scientists would follow? 

REFERENCES 

1. Taylor,I. 1984. In the Minds of Men. Toronto: TFE Pub.p.434   
2. Gheury, de Bray. 1927. Nature. Vol 120.p.603
3. Gheury, de Bray. 1934. Nature. Vol 133.p.464
4. Birge, R.T. 1934. Nature. Vol.134.p.771
5. Edmonson, S.K. 1934. Nature. Vol.133.p.759
6. Editor's column 1927. Science. Vol.66.p.x (Supplement)
7. Setterfield, B. 1983. The Velocity of Light & the Age of the
   Universe. Australia: CSA Inc. Monograph.
8. Taylor. Ibid.p.435-6

CREATION SCIENCE  No. 4 Summer 1987
Association of Ontario
P.O. Box 821, Station A,
Scarborough, Ontario M1K 5C8
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